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Strategic Recommendations Prepared for Alex Johnson February 2019
DOCUMENT CONTACT Name:
Marcus Tarrant
Phone:
1300 133 319
Email:
Marcus.tarrant@businesplanninghq.com
Mail:
165 Cremorne St, Richmond, Victoria, 3121
DISCLAIMER AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY This document is intended only for those persons to whom it is delivered personally by or on behalf of Business Planning HQ. It must not be copied or distributed to other persons without the prior written consent of Business Planning HQ. Business Planning HQ has not carried out any due diligence investigations in connection with the preparation of this document or any associated recommendations. Any recommendations should be accepted only on independent investigation. This report does not take into account the personal or business circumstances of the client. Information in this document (“Confidential Information�) is confidential. The Confidential Information is provided to you solely for the purpose of evaluating recommendations. You must not use the Confidential Information for any other purpose. You must not copy or reproduce the Confidential Information or give it to another person without the prior written approval of Business Planning HQ.
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Contents Document Contact ................................................................................................................ 2 Disclaimer and Intellectual Property ...................................................................................... 2 Document Background .......................................................................................................... 2 Contents ............................................................................................................................... 3 Summary of Recommendations ............................................................................................. 4 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 4 Purpose ............................................................................................................................. 4 Assessment of Current Situation ........................................................................................ 5 3 Different Scenarios for Evaluation ................................................................................... 6 Assessment of Options ...................................................................................................... 7 Recommendation ............................................................................................................. 10
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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS OVERVIEW Alex Johnson is seeking to define a clear direction for the future development of Snowdria. Snowdria has been the result of over 1 year in development at an investment of $100k to date. To date a back end and 2 apps have been developed (currently for iphone only). Several approaches to marketing have been attempted including exhibiting at events and online marketing. Neither approach as produced the desired level of traction for the product. The product is currently free for the vendor (business) to use on clients they source, only paying a percentage of the revenue earned via referrals from the Snowdria network. Alex is seeking to identify a pathway to success for the business.
PURPOSE The purpose of the strategy session was go better understand the growth options of the business to build value over a 5 year period, and decide on a preferred development pathway for the business. The stated objective was to investigate alternate business models for commercialising the investment to date in the development of the Snowdria infrastructure. As the business has moved from the technical phase to the marketing phase it has failed to gain traction. A recommended approach is required to guide the further investment of funds.
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ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT SITUATION Sufficient funds have been invested into testing the current business model and consumer communications to determine that the current approach is not working. What we go right
Website looks great and the ability to search within home screen is brilliant
Technical build
Key Issues:
Weak current value proposition for end users (people booking)
Only provides a channel to those on iphone (currently)
Lack of compelling relevance for booking a personal service from a mobile device
Confused positioning - are we a marketplace (distribution channel) or business management software proposition - our assessment would be that you are selling business management software on a marketplace business model
No payments capability - very very unusual for a marketplace
Lack of funds to support large scale customer acquisition
Current status should be able to provide us with repeat and volume usage statistics for both vendors and end consumers, however the volumes achieved do not provide these investment parameters.
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3 DIFFERENT SCENARIOS FOR EVALUATION 3 Different structures were explored during the consultation. The options are not necessarily mutually exclusive and may be used in conjunction with each other to form a new option. The options are predominantly for the purposes of analysis and discussion to zero in on a business model that would be the best fit for Snowdria. Option 1: Position clearly as a marketplace that will deliver clients in an industry vertical (Eg. Pampering) This model involves positioning to pampering professionals that Snowdria is a channel.
By
signing up to Snowdria they will obtain new bookings that they otherwise would not have done. The booking functionality becomes a nice to have feature rather than the core proposition. Snowdria will act as a channel, or media for bookings. It will collect "Advertising fees" and/or commissions from marketplace vendors.
The vendors will understand that much of their
payment will go to drive marketing activity to bring new customers. At the consumer end additional incentives will be offered to drive a stronger value proposition for the end consumer.
Option 2: Focus on Selling and Creating white Label Apps for Small Businesses to take bookings before leveraging those clients to create a marketplace. Re-label and brand the consumer booking app for each client, thereby selling a "customised app to each new vendor. The vendor would pay an up-front fee for the development and an ongoing fee for use of the app. The app would be published under the brand of the client rather than Snowdria. Option 3: Create a comparison site for services We enter the vendors into the site that agree to pay us a commission on sales. We then enter their services in a format that enables side by side comparison by end consumers. We then mass market our comparison site for a specific vertical (Eg. Beauty) to bring in shoppers, thereby enabling bookings. Under this approach we would not necessarily need to enable payments but it may be beneficial to improve tracking.
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ASSESSMENT OF OPTIONS 3 Different structures were explored during the consultation. In the valuation assessment below: Low = less than $0.5m Medium = $0.6m to $5m High = More than $5m Option 1: Position clearly as a marketplace that will deliver clients in an industry vertical (Eg. Pampering) Low
Medium
High
Capital Requirements
X
Level of Market Risk
X
Level of Technical Risk
X
Expected valuation after 5 years
X
Assessment in detail Strengths
Ownership of both the vendor and the end customer
Ability to charge either commission or up-front payment or subscription
Very high potential value if successful due to ownership of the customer
Weaknesses
No track record in building a marketplace
Attempts to date based on a largely free model have been unsuccessful
Opens firms that are not used to published price competition up to direct price competition in their local area
Expensive to do as need to build both sides of the network at once. Allow $200 per vendor and $50 per end client to recruit initially. - not viable in the longer term unless viral referrals take over from paid acquisition (Requires very strong proposition)
Need to enable payments
In order to execute properly on this model in Australia we would recommend raising $1m or more. Any fund raising below this level will not enable you to achieve the required penetration. This means that to obtain an investor and retain more than 50% of the company, you would need a current valuation of $2m which will be difficult to justify. Perhaps you could consider doing Melbourne only but would still suggest raising $250k.
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Option 2: Focus on Selling and Creating white Label Apps for Small Businesses to take bookings before leveraging those clients to create a marketplace. Low Capital Requirements
Medium
High
X
Level of Market Risk
X
Level of Technical Risk
X
Expected valuation after 5 years
X
Analysis Strengths
Fast return on investment in sales due to up-front payment for purchase of an app by the client
Client contacts can potentially be leveraged to create the marketplace (with some crafty contract wording)
Position as a services business that clients are familiar with buying from
Weaknesses
Slow approach to the growth of a marketplace (as each client pays their way)
May not fully leverage capabilities in current product build
Full time business development person required to approach potential clients and sell apps
This approach would be what I would recommend if you were seeking to minimise ongoing expenditure. This approach is likely to be the fastest pathway to cash flow break even, and enabling you to obtain some return on the technology, without the need to seek external finance. Businesses are used to buying services and this is something that they can understand and purchase. Anecdotal evidence from other clients in the health and beauty space indicates that many would prefer their own app than using others.
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Option 3: Create a comparison site for services Low
Medium
Capital Requirements
X
Level of Market Risk
X
Level of Technical Risk
High
X
Expected valuation after 5 years
X
There are some set criteria for creating a successful comparison site.
The site must be
marketed to the masses (eg. Iselect, Energy Watch Etc), which for Australia would mean a budget of at least $500k to spend on end customer acquisition. Typically comparison sites will have access to either very high margins, or training commissions on products that are regularly purchased in industries with a high degree of churn. Some re-configuration of the results display would be required to enable this approach.
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RECOMMENDATION The recommendation really depends on the appetite for risk, and raising further capital.
The go big or go bust approach would dictate option 1
The safe and cautious approach would dictated option 2
and for something in-between option 3.
There was much discussion that was had in the consultation which is difficult to incorporate into such a brief document format as our strategic recommendations report. The details and implications of your preferred option will be fleshed out in the business planning session and an execution approach to this will be developed.
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