Here is a business plan i have developed. I’m trying to share it here so it hopefully will help someone in the future. I could not upload a .Doc file so im going to have to copy and paste it all.
1.0 Executive Summary
Company Profile Summary
Integrity Maintenance is a Surrey, British Columbia based sole proprietorship that will provide mobile pressure washing for homes and commercial clients in its targeted market. Integrity Maintenance was founded by Josue Barahona. The company’s primary goal is to establish a premier pressure washing, roof cleaning and truck washing service in The City of Surrey and The Metro Vancouver areas. Integrity Maintenance’s versatility and quality workmanship coupled with aggressive and proven marketing strategies will generate high-volume sales and a rapid return on investment.
Market Research Summary
The company plans a phased opening beginning with the outfitting of an enclosed trailer and the training of key personnel. Then, our marketing efforts will be streamlined to target our preferred client base and to capture The Metro Vancouver market. Applications for our services include pressure washing, sand blasting, roof, gutter, awning, concrete, graffiti removal, auto; home/aircraft paint removal, commercial kitchen, industrial plant cleaning and more.
Finance Summary
The purpose of this business plan is to raise $20,000 or more for the development of a full-time pressure washing service and to purchase updated equipment and a business supplies package including materials, stationery, marketing and incidentals.
2.0 Company Profile
Company History
Integrity Maintenance has been a successful part-time business opportunity for two years in Surrey, British Columbia. Josue Barahona invested in a commercial-grade pressure washer and began doing side jobs for friends, family and new customers, cleaning the exteriors of their homes along with driveways, decks, gutters, awnings, roofs and more. This situation has presented an opportunity to take a part-time pressure washing business and make it into a full-scale enterprise. Conditions are especially favorable because he already has invested in most of the equipment he will need in a business that already requires a low entry-level investment.
Location
Integrity Maintenance will be a home based business. Integrity Maintenance will be located at 9935 134 Street, Surrey, BC, V3T 5G8. It will start as home based business and is a lower cost than leasing/buying a commercial office.
Legal Structure
Integrity Maintenance is a sole proprietorship.
It is a lower cost and usually a better option when starting out.
Integrity Maintenance is interested in securing not at this time.
3.0 Market Research
Industry Profile & Outlook
Integrity Maintenance operates primarily in the Service industry.
Although Integrity Maintenance will serve both commercial and residential customers, the company will concentrate its marketing efforts on the residential and trucking sector in order to secure more lucrative and year round work. Integrity Maintenance’s primary service will be to pressure wash asphalt and sides of buildings to remove dirt and paint. The pressure washing services offered by the business will provide both residential and commercial clients with the ability to restore a new look to their home and truck exteriors. The company will earn substantial gross margins from the sale of this service to customers.
Clients call/email/text to the number put forth on the advertising and a time is arranged to give a free estimate. Upon agreement of pricing and work load, a date and time is set-up and work is performed. Payment is collected after work is performed and the client is satisfied.
The building services market is primarily segmented into two categories: residential and commercial. The residential market consists of pressure washing services, window, carpet, window, roof and other services. The commercial cleaning segment primarily focuses on window cleaning, pressure washing, truck and related services. Among the two segments, the commercial segment accounts for a relatively larger share of the building services market. Many government entities and industrial companies make a long-term contract to clean facilities, such trends help in the growth of global building services market. Many companies outsource their building maintenance and cleaning services, in order to reduce the cost .Through outsourcing, the building services industry creates employment.
The services industry is expected to post modest growth in five years to 2015. Demand for commercial cleaning services, this industry’s primary product segment, increased as rising corporate profit led to business expansions, and appreciating real estate values boosted non-residential construction activity. In the coming years, heightened new business growth and a projected rise in the value of non-residential construction will further broaden operators’ potential customer base and cleaning space the business and government customers that demand cleaning services are concentrated in populous areas of the country. More densely populated areas contain more of the buildings operators clean, such as offices, retail complexes, schools and hospitals. As such, Ontario contains more janitorial services firms than any other province, followed by Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
Local Market
Surrey is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, and the fastest growing city in Metro Vancouver. It has a population of over 468,000 (2011 census) and welcoming approximately 800 new residents each month. Surrey’s population is projected to increase by an additional 250,000 people in the next 30 years. By 2041, 1 in 5 Metro Vancouver residents will live in Surrey. The next 27 years will yield change of a similar magnitude: Metro Vancouver’s population will again grow by one million people. By 2041 the number of people in the region will climb from 2.3 to 3.4 million and there will be an additional 600,000 jobs throughout Metro Vancouver. The City of Vancouver will grow by 139,000 people between now and 2041 – that’s the equivalent of the entire population of Coquitlam and Port Moody packing up and moving in. While the Tri-cities and Burnaby are among the fastest growing regions in Metro Vancouver (nearly doubling in size over the next three decades), every municipality’s population will grow by at least 25%. These regional city centres will receive 40% of population growth and 50% of new jobs by 2041; they’ll help drive the economy and will see substantial residential development. (All links to this information are provide at the bottom)
Target Market
• Integrity Maintenance is focused on selling to Consumers (B2C).
• Employed homeowners that make $70,000 or more of household income.
• Building managers looking to have their properties maintained in a contractual manner.
Keys to Success
• Establish relationships with other property maintenance firms within the targeted market.
• Implement a local campaign with Integrity Maintenance’s targeted market via the use of flyers, local newspaper advertisements, and word of mouth.
• Develop an online presence by developing a website and placing Integrity Maintenance’s name and contact information with online directories.
Integrity Maintenance intends on using a number of marketing strategies that will allow easy targeting of home, building and business owners within the target market. These strategies include traditional print advertisements and ads placed on search engines on the internet. We will maintain a sizable amount of print and traditional advertising methods within local markets to promote the pressure washing services that Integrity Maintenance is selling. We will also be using an internet based strategy. This is very important as many people are seeking local services, such as pressure washing services, go to the Internet to conduct their preliminary searches. Josue Barahona will register Integrity Maintenance with online portals so that potential customers can easily reach the business. Integrity Maintenance will also develop its own online website. Finally, Josue Barahona will develop ongoing relationships with building owners and property management firms that continually require pressure washing services for their buildings and properties owned by their clients. The main methods used will be described in-depth below.
4.0 Sales & Marketing
Pricing Strategy
Flat Work Pricing:
8 to 15 cents/Sq. Ft. for flat work (Concrete)
25 to 30 cents/Sq. Ft. for grease and dumpster pads which require hot water;
15 to 30 cents/Sq. Ft. at drive through restaurants especially at the menu and pick up window depending on the severity and the quantity of the chewing gum;
10 to 15 cents/Sq. Ft. for grocery stores depending quantity of the chewing gum and distance between spots (First time cleaning is usually double what a regular monthly cleaning would be.);
25 to 50 cents per running foot for concrete curbs and gutters;
$1.00 per running foot for single story buildings;
$2.00 per running foot for double story buildings;
Clean and Seal Concrete Driveway: 40 Cents to $1.10/Sq. Ft;
New Concrete - Construction Clean-up (cold water rinse with wands with hot water clean-up of oil spots): 6 cents /Sq. Ft., (+$0.03 if a sweeper truck is required)
Bank Drive Thru: $8.00/Lane to $25.00/ Lane on a monthly or quarterly basis;
Parking Lots, Garage Floors: 4 to 20 cents/Sq. Ft. (Average for 10,000/Sq. Ft.) (larger areas–4 to 7 cents/Sq. Ft.);
Parking Spaces:$8.00 to $20.00 per space. Grease spots $4.00 to $6.00 each;
Cedar Shake Roofs: 40 to 90 cents/Sq. Ft. ($600.00 to $1200.00+ per roof.);
Composition Roofs: Average Pitch: 20 to 30 cents/Sq. Ft;
Steep Pitch: 30 to 40 cents/Sq. Ft. (Minimum Charge: $300.00 to $450.00);
Gutters (Residential Homes)
Option #1: $0.50 to $1.00 per linear foot
Option #2: Charge by the house: $100.00 to $360.00+ (Average: $240.00);
House Washing:
Method #1 - 12 cents/Sq. Ft. for single story 16 cents/Sq. Ft. for double story;
Method #2 - $0.50 to $2.00 per linear foot for single story homes (about $1.00 average.) $2.00 per linear foot for double story homes (note: Pricing by the linear foot is a more accurate way of pricing than by the square foot)
Method #3 - $90.00/Hour rate (Note: Access around a double story house has to be taken into consideration. If unusual restrictions or special equipment required, this cost will have to be added to the bid.)
The following were average price ranges for many of the services we offer to both residential and commercial customers. Due to the number of unique variables involved in every project, each job will be quoted on a “per job” basis.
Marketing Strategy
Direct Mail:
One of the most effective marketing techniques, even in this digital age, is direct mail. Email inboxes have spam filters and people searching online have trained themselves not to even look at banners and other advertising on their screens, but mail is almost always opened immediately. On top of that, coupons sent through the mail get redeemed at a much higher rate than online promotions. When you combine direct mail with your other local marketing efforts, your ROI goes through the roof. By hyper focusing on certain neighborhoods, we can quickly become the dominant player and can end up cleaning 20% or more of the homes in that area.
Direct mail will be used in a systematic way to send small to large post cards, door hangers, fliers and other marketing materials to the areas we will be focusing on. We will be contracting out this service to an approved Canada Post Smartmail Marketing (direct mail) Partner. The reason for this is because a more accurate mailing list will get the pieces into the hands of more potential customers. We will save money on printing, mailing and returned mail and be able to gain better business insights from the data. They also have the tools to help clean our mailing list for marketing that hits the target. These direct mail pieces have been proven to work and have already been tested around Canada and the USA. These specific direct mail pieces will be attained by joining the Pressure Washing Resource Association (PWRA) ($349 USD/Year). By joining the PRWA, it will be saving Integrity Maintenance some of the costs of making these marketing pieces as the templates for these are free as long as you are a paying member of the PWRA. The editing of these pieces will be done by Josue Barahona as he already owns the applications needed to edit them.
Most of the expense in this type of marketing will be in printing the material and paying the chosen Canada Post Smartmail Marketing Partner.
Gift Cards:
Integrity Maintenance will be using double side plastic gift cards as a source of increasing sales. Plastic gift cards have been proven to be kept longer than regular business cards because of the “perceived value”. Also returned cards can be re-used many times over thus reducing some of the future cost of re-ordering. Customers shopping with gift cards are less price-sensitive than those spending their “own money.” They often pay full price for products and services rather than rummaging through clearance racks and sticking to the deals.
Online:
Internet marketing will be used to attract more people to the company website, increase customers for the business, and enhance branding of the company and services. Integrity Maintenance already owns a professionally made website. The website needs to have a web address (www.integritymaintenance.ca as an example) and a professional email (xxx@integritymaintenance.ca) and will be using 1&1 Internet for those services.
A strategic SEO campaign will boost our website’s online visibility and generate more business. With a smart strategy, and intelligent execution we will own our keywords on the first page of Google and other search engines, so we can start generating more qualified leads by driving more visitors to our website.
Our ultimate objectives are to:
• Increase profitability.
• Increase search visibility.
• Increase keyword ranking.
Why is SEO so important?
• 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine;
• 70% of the links users click on, are organic;
• 70-80% of users focus on organic results and ignore paid ads.
Traffic sent to the website will be handled by ResponsiBid. ResponsiBid is designed to systematize and centralize our bids and has website integration for leads so potential customer can get instant quotes-- or to begin a quote. ResponsiBid makes it easy to allow customers to take part in the process by installing a customizable “Smart Form” or “Lightbox” onto the website that they can interact with on their own schedule and with no pressure. It’s a feature that will help the company adapt to the new world we live in where people expect an “amazon.com” type of experience. ResponsiBid also allows you to quickly build proposals in the field. ResponsiBid then automates the follow-up and aggregates the data so that we know where we are getting the best leads and customers.
Craigslist:
Is an extremely valuable marketing platform that will be included in our digital marketing campaign. We will plan for an aggressive ad campaign that will target our audience daily for maximum response. The ad body will be informative but brief with only a photo (Diagram 2) and contain a link to our web page for more details and a call-to-action to close deals. Potential buyers who want to get an online estimate can use ResponsiBid’s “smart form” to get a quote. The success Integrity Maintenance had using craigslist, especially in 2015, points to that.
Yard Signs:
We believe that a quality sign will tell our business’s story, and get the customer. And, if built right, it’s an investment that will work for us for many years. Successful marketing with yard signs would be an integral part of the business. We would NOT try to build our brand with the yard signs. We want them to work and to produce tangible value. No yard sign, not even a really nice full-color sign is going to take the place of our website or other professional marketing. But, what it will do is catch people where they are, add instant credibility and establish our qualifications. The really good thing about nice yard signs is that they convey that sense of trust that can be so important in the more expensive neighborhoods that frequently use service contractors on a regular basis.
Newspaper:
Integrity Maintenance will be advertising on the local newspaper in Surrey, BC. In 2014 we advertised in The Leader and averaged about $4000 or more of sales per month on June, July and August. The cost of these services ranged from $415 for a black and white and $615 for a full color ad per monthly basis (2 runs per week). Newspapers were delivered to 5 cities (Surrey, Delta, Langley, Aldergrove and White Rock). The approximate reach was well above 180,000 households in those cities. Exact costs plus loss/profit statements will be shown in the expenses chart.
Other:
Here is a list of other types of marketing that will be explored in the future (list is not exhaustive)
• Real Estate Agencies/Associations
• Real Estate Agents
• Yellow Pages
• Cold Calling
• Signs on Telephone Poles or the Roadside
• Radio Stations
• Local Chamber of Commerce
• Community Charity
• Calendars
• Television
• Marketing Events
• Trade Shows
• Social Networking
• Building Associations
• Better Business Bureau (BBB)
• Billboards
5.0 Operations
Legal Issues
Integrity Maintenance anticipates the following legal issues:
Contract agreements (partnerships, independent contractors, etc.)
In the province of British Columbia, licensing is not required. Some pressure washing services are taxable, and therefore a sales tax number will be required from the province. A Canada Revenue GST number will be obtained for taxes. Some building managers want to get into a contractual agreement for cleaning to be done on set schedule.
Insurance Issues
Integrity Maintenance requires liability insurance.
Integrity Maintenance already has purchased 2,000,000 in liability insurance which is good until March 23, 2017 (paid in full)
(See attachment at the bottom)
Human Resources
Integrity Maintenance will have 0 full time staff.
Integrity Maintenance will have 0 part time staff.
Initially I will have no employees and I will do all the work. As the business grows, I will hire part time, then full time, employees. I will keep my books on the computer using “Quick Books Pro” software. This projection is based on doing my own payroll. Once the business grows, the payroll may be outsourced to a payroll service that will handle all the payroll taxes, workers compensation, and health insurance, or I may have a CPA do the payroll. The “Labor” figure in the projections is for my employees. Because I am the sole proprietor, my salary appears in the “Gross Profit” figure.
6.0 Financials
Income Statement
Integrity Maintenance’s income statement can be found in the attached financial spreadsheet that has been included as a separate document in the Appendix.
Extra Information:
http://www.surrey.ca/6554.aspx
http://www.movinginalivableregion.ca/metro-vancouver-1-million-regional-growth-needs-transportation/
https://eddm2go.com/eddm_tips/direct_mail
http://www.giftcards.com/gcgf/small-business-giftcards
http://www.graphicallyspeaking.ca/search-engine-optimization.aspx
