Business Plan

Case: Liujun Consulting Service

Jun Liu

Bachelor’s thesis
November 2011
Degree Programme in International
Business
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
Tampere University of Applied Sciences
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_____________________________________________________________________

Author: Jun Liu

Degree Programmer: International Business
Title: Business Plan. Case: Liujun Consulting Service
Month and Year 11/2011
Supervisor: Shaidul Kazi

______________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this thesis was to explain in detail the Business Plan of Liujun Consult-
ing Service. The company was a small start-up company that sells language service and
consulting service to Tampere Immigrant Advice Center, which was one of department
in Tampere City.

This thesis gave information about the backgrounds of Liujun Consulting Service and
how to run the business. The objective of this thesis was to have an analysis of internal
market in Tampere City and Finnish nation, and also how to efficiently help immigrants
who live in Tampere or Pirkanmaa region.

This thesis provides in-depth analysis of the budget and marketing for Liujun Consult-
ing Service. Immigrant service is a new business idea. This thesis also gave ideas on
what to take into consideration when starting immigrant service.

______________________________________________________________________
Key words
Business plan, consulting service, Immigrant Advice Center
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Table of Contents

ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... 2

1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Background information..................................................................................... 5

1.2 Business Purpose ................................................................................................ 5

1.3 Research problems .................................................................................................. 6

1.4 Research methodology ............................................................................................ 7

1.5 Limitations and structure of the research ................................................................ 9

1.6 Reliability of the study ............................................................................................ 9

2. Business Plan in Theory .............................................................................................. 10

2.1 The purpose of the business plan .......................................................................... 10

2.2. What Is a Business Plan? ..................................................................................... 11

2.3 Benefits of a business plan .................................................................................... 12

2.4 Business Plan Complete Outline ........................................................................... 13

2.5 Market and marketing ........................................................................................... 16

2.5.1 What is the market? ........................................................................................ 16

2.5.2 The marketing mix .......................................................................................... 16

2.5.3What is a marketing strategy? .......................................................................... 16

2.6 How to start a successful consulting business? ..................................................... 16

2.6.1 What it take to be a consultant? ...................................................................... 17

2.6.2 What you need to start .................................................................................... 17

2.6.3 Marketing your consulting business ............................................................... 17

3. Business Plan in Practice ............................................................................................ 19

3.1 Executive summary ............................................................................................. 19

3.2 Business Purpose................................................................................................... 19

3.2.1 Mission............................................................................................................ 19
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3.2.2 Vision .............................................................................................................. 19

3.2.3 Objectives ....................................................................................................... 20

3.3 Forecasting demand for the service....................................................................... 20

3.4 Company Service .................................................................................................. 22

3.5 Marketing Analysis ............................................................................................... 22

3.5.1 Target Market ..................................................................................................... 22

3.5.2 Competitor Analysis .......................................................................................... 22

3.5.3 SWOT ................................................................................................................ 23

3.6 Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................ 24

3.6.1 Target Markets and Positioning ......................................................................... 24

3.6.2 Product Strategies............................................................................................... 24

3.6.3 Pricing Strategies ............................................................................................... 24

3.6.4 Service Strategies and Action Plan .................................................................... 27

3.7 Financial analysis .................................................................................................. 35

3.7.1 Startup Expenses ............................................................................................. 35

3.7.2 Startup expenses summary statement ............................................................. 36

3.7.3 Sales and volume plan .................................................................................... 37

3.7.4 Income Statement ........................................................................................... 38

3.7.5 Balance Sheet .................................................................................................. 39

3.8 Operations and Personnel ...................................................................................... 40

4. Reference: ................................................................................................................... 41

5. Appendix ..................................................................................................................... 42
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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background information

Immigrant Advice Centre is one of the departments of Tampere City, the address is
Tuomiokirkonkatu 12, Tampere. Immigrant Advice Centre began from May of 2007,
there are 8 employees work as an advisor in 2011. The main products of Immigrant Ad-
vice Centre are different languages service for the foreigners and help to take care of
their issues; the main customers are immigrants from different countries. Immigrant
Advice Centre offers 17 languages in 2011, for example Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi, Chi-
nese, Arabia, Kurdish, Persia, English, Russia, Estonia, Bulgaria, French, Spain, Soma-
li, Thai and Finnish.

Tampere City outsourced the service. The advisors who worked in Tampere City need-
ed to find out a company for working, Tampere City bought the service from the com-
pany. I worked as a Chinese advisor in Tampere City, and the same time I study Interna-
tional Business BBA program in Tampere university of Applied Science. In my opinion
it was a good chance for me to set up a company and learn how to run a company in
Finland. Liujun Consulting Service was set up to sell the services to Tampere City, the
same employees who work for Immigrate Advice Centre. The location is still in
Tuomiokirkonkatu 12, Tampere, 33100.

1.2 Business Purpose

The purpose of Liujun Consulting service is to comply and enforce the ideas of Tampe-
re City and help immigrants to easily and smoothly integrate into the Finnish society.

Tampere City offers all different kinds of service for the people who lives in Tampere.
Most of immigrants have problems to get the service from the Tampere City because of
the language problems and also because of lack of the knowledge how to use the service
 6

of Tampere City. Liujun Consulting service will provide language services and know-
how service in order to combine the service between Tampere City and immigrant.

1.3 Research problems

Liujun Consulting service is language service and an information service provider for
immigrants on immigration issues and practicalities of integrating into the Finnish soci-
ety. Tampere Immigrant Advice Center guides , gives advice to the immigrant, also
they provides services like translation in multiple languages, information on how to go
about their daily life, like reserving time with doctor, filling Kela or other forms, ex-
plaining the official decisions that immigrant get from the nation or Tampere City,
searching apartment, applying visa and many other things. Liujun Consulting service
will strict follow the requirement what Tampere Immigrant Advice Center asks.

When immigrants move to Finland, how to get to start is very important. Different peo-
ple have different backgrounds of their countries and different cultures; these are differ-
ent from the Finnish society system and Finnish culture. Immigrant Advice Center is a
right place to help immigrant to get this information and get to know how Finnish socie-
ty system runs. Immigrants will have a lot of needs in the beginning of living in Fin-
land, for example, they need to have a place to live, they need to a apartment or a house,
they need to know how to find out a job, they need to see a doctor when they are sick,
they need to know where is the kindergarten or school for their children, they need to
know what the official document means, they need to know how to apply their visa ,
they need to know how to fill the Kela for other forms , they need to know where to
learn Finnish language and so on. Immigrant Advice Center will help them to solve
these questions.

Later when immigrant lives longer in Finland, they will face some deep problems, for
example culture problems, family problems, unemployment problems. In somehow im-
migrants only can see the problems, talk about the problem and fell the problems, but
they don’t know how to solve these problems. In this case Immigrant Advice Center
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will guide, give advice to immigrants to get further help from the service of Tampere
City or nation.

Therefore, how to be efficient to the customers when they need help is one of the main
research problems in this final thesis.

1.4 Research methodology

The research methodology was done by collecting primary data and secondary data.
Immigrant Advice Center collected customer’s primary data without customer’s name
and security’s number, but it was not allowed to show the primary data and the results.
The method for gathering primary data is a preliminary personal interview survey for
potential customers. The method for secondary data is to collect information from the
internet, magazine and books.

Observing (personal and mechanical

means)

Primary data collection Experimenting (laboratory and fieldwork)

(Survey conducted by email, telephone,

personal, by computer)
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Internal sources (sales reports, operating rec-

ords, e.g. accounts, customer databank)

Secondary data collection

External sources (government and industry di-

rectories, periodicals and reports, media and
newspaper reports, other firm’s publicity mate-
rial and promotional activities in print)

Figure 1 Data collection methods (Gate, 2005)

Available information is called secondary data, while that derived from a new research
study is called primary data.

Generally speaking there are two main groups of market researchers, those who use the
methods of quantitative research and those who conduct qualitative research. There are
others who use both types, so the distinctions between the two groups can be blurred,
and rightly so. There are merits in both approaches and they should be seen to be mutu-
ally supportive rather than exclusive.

However, quantitative research has been criticized for ‘scraping the surface of people’s
attitudes and feelings’. The complexity of the human soul is lost through the counting of
numbers. The advantage of qualitative research is that it guards against ‘the sin of omis-
sion’, that is, the failure to research a topic in greater detail through probing and under-
standing of respondents’ attitudes, motivation and behavior. Qualitative research at-
tempts to go deeper, beyond history facts, and surface comments, in order to get to the
real underlying causes of behavior.

In our case, many factors and influences affect people in their everyday lives so that
qualitative research to seek out and to understand the complexities surrounding the un-
 9

derlying causes of behavior can sometimes be more appropriate than quantitative re-
search methods.

1.5 Limitations and structure of the research

This thesis has three parts, the first part consists of introduction, business purpose, re-
search problems, research methodology; the second part is business plan in theory, the
third part is business plan in practice. The third part consists of executive summary,
mission, vision, marketing analysis, SWOT analysis, marketing strategy, financial anal-
ysis and conclusions.

As every research, also this thesis has its limitations. I worked in Tampere Immigrant
Advice Center, because Tampere City outsourced the service, but Tampere City would
like to have the same employees. Liujun Consulting Service was set up in order to sell
the service to Tampere City. It was a quite small company. Liujun Consulting Service
needs an easy and simple business plan to see how to run the business and how to sell
the service to Tampere City. So there are quite many limits regarding to risk manage-
ment information.

1.6 Reliability of the study

I have been worked in Tampere Immigrant Center for two years since it needed Chinese
advisor. Reliability is based by working experience and knowledge.

Tampere City provides equal services and opportunities of participation to all municipal
residents. A municipal resident in the process of integration needs intensive guiding and
counseling to organize her or his life in the new environment.

Starting point of integration needs health services from the districts, social services and
benefits from the districts, education services for the children and youth, Finnish learn-
ing in high school for adults, work and training services provided by the labor office and
so on.
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2. Business Plan in Theory

2.1 The purpose of the business plan

A well –written business plan will provide a pathway to profit for any new or existing
business. Your business plan will also provide the documentation that a lender or inves-
tor requires if you find it necessary to seek outside funding sources for your business.
(Pinson, 2004)

The most important reason for writing a business plan is to develop a guide that you
will follow throughout the lifetime of your business (Pinson, 2004).
• It helps you think long term-about the big picture, not just about starting a
business but staying in business.
• It assists in keeping you motivated.

A business plan is a requirement if you are planning to seek financing.

• If you are seeking capital, the business plan details how the desired invest-
ment or loan will further the company’s goal and increase its profits.
• Every investor wants to know how his or her investment will improve the
overall net worth of the company and help him to achieve his desired return
on investment. (Pinson, 2004)

A business plan help you become a better decision maker.

• It will help you anticipate problems.
• Gathering information for your plan will increase your knowledge of the
industry thereby assisting you in making more informed decisions.
• Your plan provides an organized way to conduct your investigation.

A business plan is a selling tool.

• Use the Business Plan to sell your business opportunity to potential inves-
tors, employees and suppliers. (Writing an Effective Business Plan)
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A business plan is implementation plan.

• Use the Business Plan as a guide to keep you focused and making progress
during the business start up phase

2.2. What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is the written document that details the proposed venture. It must de-
scribe current status, expected needs, and projected results of the new business. Every
aspect of the venture needs to be covered: the project, marketing, research and devel-
opment, manufacturing, management, critical risks, financing, and milestones or a time-
table. A description of all of these facets of the proposed venture is necessary to demon-
strate a clear picture of what the venture is, where it is projected to go, and how the en-
trepreneur proposes it will get there. The business plan is the entrepreneur’s roadmap
for a successful enterprise. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 289)

In some professional areas the business plan is referred to as a venture plan, a loan pro-
posal, or an investment prospectus. Whatever the name, the business plan is the mini-
mum document required by any financial source. The business plan allows the entrepre-
neur entrance into the investment process. Although it should be used as a working doc-
ument once the venture is established, the major thrust of the business plan is to encap-
sulate the strategic development of the project in a comprehensive document for outside
investors to read and understand. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 289)

The business plan describes to investors and financial sources all of the events that may
affect the proposed venture. Details are needed for various projected actions of the ven-
ture, with associated revenues and costs outlined. It is vital to explicitly state the as-
sumptions on which the plan is based. For example, increases/decreases in the market or
upswings/downswings in the economy during the start-up period of the new venture
should be stated. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 289)

The emphasis of the business plan always should be the final implementation of the
venture. In other words, it’s not just the writing of an effective plan that is important but
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also the translation of that plan into a successful enterprise. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001,
289)

2.3 Benefits of a business plan

The entire business planning process forces the entrepreneur to analyze all aspects of
the venture and to prepare an effective strategy to deal with the uncertainties that arise.
Thus a business plan may help an entrepreneur avoid a project doomed to failure. As
one researcher states, “If your proposed venture is marginal at best, the business plan
will show you why and may help you avoid paying the high tuition of business failure.
It is far cheaper not to begin an ill-fated business than to learn by experience what your
business plan could have taught you at a cost of several hours of concentrated work.”
(Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 289)

Thus the business plan stands as the entrepreneur’s description and prediction for his or
her venture, and it must be defended by the entrepreneur --- simply put, it is the entre-
preneur’s responsibility. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

Other benefits are derived from a business plan for both the entrepreneur and the finan-
cial sources that read it and evaluate the venture. Specifically for the entrepreneur, the
following benefits are gained: (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

• The time, effort, research, and discipline needed to put together a formal
business plan force the entrepreneur to view the venture critically and
objectively. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

• The competitive, economic, and financial analyses included in the busi-

ness plan subject the entrepreneur to close scrutiny of his or her assump-
tions about the venture’s success. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

• Since all aspects of the business venture must be addressed in the plan, the
entrepreneur develops and examines operating strategies and expected
results for outside evaluators. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)
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• The business plan quantifies objectives, providing measurable benchmarks

for comparing forecasts with actual results. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001,
290)

• The completed business plan provides the entrepreneur with a communi-

cation tool for outside financial sources as well as an operational tool for
guiding the venture toward success. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

The financial sources that read the plan derive the following benefits from the business
plan:

• The business plan provides for financial sources the details of the mar-
ket potential and plans for securing a share of that market. (Kuratko &
Hodgetts 2001, 290)

• Through prospective financial statements, the business plan illustrates

the venture’s ability to service debt or provide an adequate return on
equity. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

• The plan identifies critical risks and crucial events with a discussion of
contingency plans that provide opportunity for the venture’s success.
(Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

• By providing a comprehensive overview of the entire operation, the

business plan gives financial sources a clear, concise document that
contains the necessary information for a thorough business and finan-
cial evaluation. (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 290)

2.4 Business Plan Complete Outline

Business plan complete outline can be as follows: (Kuratko & Hodgetts 2001, 304)

Section I: Executive Summary

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Section II: Business Description

A. General description of the business
B. Industry background
C. Corporate fit
D. Goal and potential of the business and milestones (if any)
E. Uniqueness of product or service

Section III: Marketing

A. Research and analysis
1. Target market (customers) identified
2. Market size and trends
3. Competition
4. Estimated market share
B. Marketing plan
1. Market strategy – sales and distribution
2. Pricing
3. Advertising and promotions

Section IV: Location

A. Identify location
1. Advantages
2. Zoning
3. Taxes
B. Proximity to supplies
C. Access to transportation

Section V: Management
A. Management team- key personnel
B. Legal structure-stock agreements, employment agreements,
ownership
C. Board of directors, advisors, consultants

Section VI: Financial

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A. Financial forecast
1. Profit and loss
2. Cash flow
3. Break-even analysis
4. Cost controls
5. Budgeting plans

Section VII: Critical Risks

A. Potential problems
B. Obstacles and risks
C. Alternative courses of action

Section VIII: Harvest Strategy

A. Transfer of asset
B. Continuity of business strategy
C. Identify successor

Section IX: Milestone Schedule

A. Timing and objectives
B. Deadlines and milestones
C. Relationship of events

Section X: Appendix or Bibliography

Business plan outline also can be like this:

1. Cover Sheet
2. Table of Contents
3. Executive Summary
4. The Organizational Plan
5. The Marketing Plan
6. Financial Document
7. Supporting Documents
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2.5 Market and marketing

2.5.1 What is the market?

A market is a group of potential customers for a particular product who are willing and
able to spend money or exchange other resources to obtain the product. (Zikmund,
2001, 9)

2.5.2 The marketing mix

The marketing mix can be placed in four basic categories: product place, promotion and
price. These are commonly referred to as the four Ps of marketing. (Zikmund, 2001, 9)

2.5.3What is a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy consists of a plan identifying what basic goals and objectives will
be pursued and how they will be achieved in the time available. A strategy entails com-
mitment to certain courses of action and allocation of the resources necessary to achieve
the identified goals. (Zikmund, 2001, 31)

2.6 How to start a successful consulting business?

One of the best businesses is to sell your expertise as a consultant. In fact, consulting in
one of the hottest trends in the market today, as more and more people appreciate the
independence and flexibility it brings and the ranges of potential income that this busi-
ness can generate. (http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol83/consulting.htm)
 17

2.6.1 What it take to be a consultant?

To succeed in the consulting business, you must be an expert at recognizing problems

and shaping solutions to those problems. It is important that you have excellent time
management skills to enable you to submit your deliverables on time, handle various
clients simultaneously, and work on expanding your cadre of clients. You must also
have exemplary networking skills to help generate word-of –mouth for your consulting
business.

2.6.2 What you need to start

• Choose your legal structure. It is best to formalize your business structure right
from the start, both for legal and tax considerations. The three most common
forms of business are sole proprietorship, partnership and corporations. Sole
proprietorship is the easiest business form to set-up.

• Prepare your business plan. Like any other business, it is important that you pre-
pare your own business plan. Even though you will not present the plan to po-
tential investors, the business plan can help you think through your strategies for
keeping the business afloat and profitable, marketing and getting your expertise
known to your customers, organizing your business, and generating and manag-
ing your finances.

• Create your home office. The design of your office will depend on various fac-
tors (a) the kind of consulting field you are in; (b) the equipment and supplies
that you need; and (c)whether you expect to entertain and meet with clients at
home.

2.6.3 Marketing your consulting business

• Networking. Start with the people you already know- your former colleagues
and bosses, your friends and existing industry contacts.
 18

• Referrals. A pleased and satisfied client can be a very effective marketing tool
for your consulting business. Once you have completed your projects with cli-
ents, and they are extremely satisfied with your performance, make sure that you
ask for referrals and recommendations! They will only be too pleased to help
spread the word about how great you are and the quality of your work. Strong
word of mouth from a fellow business owner is so much more effective than any
kind of advertising in the world.

• Cold Calling. It would be great if clients knock on your door all the time. That is
not always the case. There will be times when you have to go out there to look
for them. You may dread the idea of cold calling; but selling is an integral part
of operating a business.

• Books, Articles and Newsletters. Getting published can greatly help in establish-
ing a reputation for excellence in your field.

• Advertising. You can pick up some customers, regardless of the area of your
specialization, by advertising in your area’s most popular newspaper or trade
and specialized business publications.

• Direct Mail advertising. Direct mail solicitation can be done through postcard,
sales letter mailings or brochures. You must appeal to the needs and wants of
your target audience: why should they hire you and how will your services bene-
fit them?

Starting a consulting business involves more than expertise in your field: it takes
business savvy, loads of financial smarts, excellent people and communication
skills, and marketing know-how to succeed. Most of all, you need to gather your
courage and start the business. You will find consulting to be a very rewarding
and personally fulfilling career.
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3. Business Plan in Practice

3.1 Executive summary

Immigrant Advice Centre is one of the departments of Tampere City, the address is
Tuomiokirkonkatu 12, Tampere, 33100. Immigrant Advice Centre began from May of
2008, there are 7 employees work as advisor in 2009. The main products of Immigrant
Advice Centre are different languages service for foreigner; the main customers are
immigrants from different countries. Immigrant Advice Centre offers 17 languages in
2009, for example Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi, Chinese, Arabia, Kurdish, Persia, English,
Russia, Estonia, Bulgaria, French, Spain, Somali and Finnish.

Tampere City will outsource the service. Liujun Consulting Service was set up to sell
the services to Tampere City, the same employees who work for Immigrate Advice
Centre. The location is still in Tuomiokirkonkatu 12, Tampere, 33100.

3.2 Business Purpose

3.2.1 Mission

The mission of Immigrant Advice Centre is to help the immigrant to easily and smooth-
ly integrate into the Finnish society.

3.2.2 Vision

Offer basic service to immigrants in order to integrate into the society.

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3.2.3 Objectives

Reception of immigrants in the early stage

Case Management (Translation services)
Mental Health Work
Improvement of employee and workplace knowledge in working with immigrant ser-
vices and clients

3.3 Forecasting demand for the service

3.3.1 Scenario

The idea of scenarios is to figure out different futures and try to think about their effect
on business. Seven possible variables were gathered that might be happened in near
future (2 years) and two of most effects was chosen. These were the amount of immi-
grants (decline-increase) and financial situation of economy (good situation- crisis).

According the scenario, good economical and growth in amount of immigrants were
chosen for the future. And the company thinks in the future it will come true. We want
to use the marketing strategy to achieve the goal, for example offering more languages,
selling our service to the company who needs, selling the service to the other cities that
need.

V1 Attitudes towards immigrants

The company think that in the future economical situation will be good and the amount
of immigrants will grow, the attitudes towards immigrants will be better. Because good
economical situation eliminates conflict, people wish the environment to be more inter-
national, local people accept immigrants and they are happy to learn and see new thing,
immigrant also will be integrate into local life little by little, immigrants comes from
different country different culture also will understand the others' habits and culture.
 21

But one the other hand, if the growth in amount of immigrants is so fast and reach a
limit, even good economical situation can't eliminate many problems.

V2 Tuition fee

During good economical situation, people will have money to pay tuition fee, but most
of people may don't have money to pay or don't want to spend huge money on studying,
so in the future the amount of immigrants will decline.

V3 Separation from the city and outsourcing

Growth in amount of immigrants does not be effected by separation from the city and
outsourcing, but it might be affected by good economical situation, the better economi-
cal situation and the less separation from the city and outsourcing. In next two years,
economical situation will not turn better as people expect, so saving the cost and keep-
ing quality is important, separation from the city and outsourcing is trend.

V4 Awareness

Awareness will increase little by little with the growth in amount of immigrants in-
crease, awareness also will increase with economical situation turning better, because
people have more other needs.

V5 Financial crisis

Financial crisis already happened and still continue, the amount of immigrants will not
grow because immigrants can't find out job and the cost of living is quite high.

V6 Language offering

In the future growth in amount of immigrants will increase, more different languages
will offer, but because of financial crisis, language offering hours will reduce.
 22

3.4 Company Service

Liujun Consulting service is an information service provider for immigrants on immi-

gration issues and practicalities of integrating into the Finnish society, immigrant Ad-
vice center guide , give advice to the immigrant, also they provide services like transla-
tion in multiple languages, information on how to go about their daily life, like reserv-
ing time with doctor, filling Kela or other forms, explaining the official decisions that
immigrant get from the nation or Tampere City, searching apartment, applying visa and
many other things.

3.5 Marketing Analysis

3.5.1 Target Market

The market is currently limited to immigrants in Pirkanmaa regions, the main

customers are in Tampere City region. Currently, this service is offered free of
charge for immigrants and it is financed by EU and Tampere City.

We have established four main target groups as our customers; immigrants com-
ing to work in Tampere, students, immigrants already living in Tampere and ref-
ugees. Liujun Consulting Service plans to sell the services to the City of Tam-
pere as well to companies and organizations who need these kinds of services.

3.5.2 Competitor Analysis

Our currently perceived competitor is Pirkanmaa Tulkkikeskus, who offers the

same service as we offer, in addition to many other services we cannot offer at
this time, but the competitive edge we have over them is that our service is abso-
lutely free for the customers and does not need to reserve time.
 23

Pirkanmaa Tulkkikeskus offers service for the private and public sector (offering
service to Kela, social, police and companies). In some senses Pirkanmaa
Tulkkikeskus is a translator machine, they are responsible for the correct lan-
guage translating, and they don’t need to responsible for the things. Tampere
Immigrant Advice Center is not only responsible for the correct language trans-
lating, but also needs to be responsible for the benefit of the customer.

3.5.3 SWOT

Strength Opportunity

The service is total free. • Possible to sell the service to other cit-
Get language service at once. ies
Offers practical solutions to everyday • Possible to sell the service to the com-
problems. panies
Helps immigrants to integrate the Finn- • Possible to sell the service to pri-
ish society. vate person
Be responsible for the benefit of the
customers.

Weakness
Threats

o Small target market(Tampere region)

o our service is not legal binding, so our
clients can abuse our services  Our service can become insignificant if
o Controlled and owned by the city of the amount of immigrants decline
Tampere drastically within the Tampere region.
o Limited amount of language offering
o Dependent on Tampere city for finance  Could be perceived as a duplication of
effort considering the activities of
Prikanmaa
 24

3.6 Marketing Strategy

3.6.1 Target Markets and Positioning

The target markets consists immigrants coming and living in Tampere and Pirkanmaa
region, the another is the Finnish nationals re-entering the country or Finish national
with foreign spouses who need the guidance and knowledge about the immigration is-
sues.

3.6.2 Product Strategies

The current service offers translation services, information providing on immigration

issues and guidance relating to immigration issues all in multiple languages. A client
enters into the office and the content of the service is determined according to the needs
of the customer. Our service is relatively new still and developing. This creates an op-
portunity to follow customer needs, which makes the service more sensitive towards the
needs of customers. When the key service concept develops along with the needs of
customers, the service choice criteria is constantly moving. There are still opportunities
for development and expansion according to the actual demand of the market. Branding
is not a goal for our project because of the strong emphasis of the practicality.

3.6.3 Pricing Strategies

Since we are a part of Tampere city services, it is possible for us to provide our services
without charging our customers. Operating as a part of Tampere city gives us an internal
support asset; our service is absolutely free of charge. This gives us the cost advantage
against our competitors and is one of the factors we are going to highlight when market-
ing our services.
 25

Pricing considerations

______________________________________________________________________
Ceiling

Economic va-
lue

Desired
Competitor price
positioning
levels
Pricing
considera-
tions
Corporate
Elasticity of
objectives
demand

Production
costs

Floor
______________________________________________________________________

Figure 2 Pricing considerations (Graham 2008)

Setting prices can be one of the most difficult decisions in marketing. Price too high and
customers may not buy, price too low and the company may not achieve the profit lev-
els in order to continue the business. A number of factors need to be taken into account
when setting price levels.
 26

• Production costs. Pricing method is to set price at cost plus a percentage

mark-up (e.g. cost plus 20 per cent). Provided the product sells in suffi-
cient quantities at this price, this strategy ensures a given level of profit-
ability.

• Economic value to the customer. The value of the product to the cus-
tomer over its lifetime gives a ceiling above which prices would be unac-
ceptable to customers.

• Competitor price levels. It is important to consider the price set by com-

petitors. Where two or more product offerings are similar on other char-
acteristics, price can become the final determinant of choice.

• Desired competitive positioning. The price charged can be a powerful

signal to the market of the quality and reliability of the product. Too low
a price may suggest poor quality rather than good value for money.

• Corporate objectives. Are the objectives to grow the market rapidly

(which might argue for a relatively low price), to harvest (which might
argue for prices at the high end), or to maximize profit (which would in-
dicate marginal cost pricing)?

• Price elasticity of demand. A further consideration in setting prices is the

extent to which demand will vary at different price levels.

Since Liujun Consulting Service is a part of Tampere city services, it is possible to pro-
vide the services without charging the customers. Operating as a part of Tampere city
gives us an internal support asset; our service is absolutely free of charge. This gives us
the cost advantage against our competitors and is one of the factors we are going to
highlight when marketing our services.

In our case, it is wise to set price according competitor price levels. It is better to a little
lower than competitors’ price.
 27

3.6.4 Service Strategies and Action Plan

Because we are a part of Tampere city services, so we follow what Tampere city asks to
do. Tampere city has its own promotional strategies, supply chain strategies and action
plan about Immigrant Advice Center. We will just co-operate with them and help.

On the other hand, we need have our own promotional strategies & supply chain strate-
gies and action plan. The main idea is that know better what kinds of service the nation
and Tampere City offer to the citizen, in somehow it means understand more internal
marketing, action plan in our case it means know how to offer good customer service so
that the immigrants and Tamper City will both satisfied.

Internal Environment

The mission of Immigrant Advice Center is to help the immigrant. The objectives are to
guide, advice and translate for the immigrant for free. Growth strategies include four
areas: immigrants in early-stage reception, case management, mental health work and
improving employee and workplace knowledge in working with immigrant services and
clients.
Much new thinking and practice in strategic marketing is concerned with managing re-
lationships: with the customer, and with partners in strategic alliances. However, a fur-
ther aspect of relationship management and relationship marketing is the relationship
with the employees and managers, upon whose skills, commitment and performance the
success of a marketing strategy unavoidable relies. This is the internal market inside the
company.

The scope of internal marketing:

Internal marketing focuses on the development and delivery of high standards of service
quality and customers satisfaction; it is concerned mainly with development of internal
communications programs to provide employees with information and to win their sup-
port. Internal marketing which is used as a systematic approach to managing the adop-
 28

tion of innovations within an organization. It is concerned with providing products and

services to users inside the organization. Internal marketing in our case focused on
development and delivery of high standards of service quality and customer satisfaction
to immigrant by communications with different departments or different company in
order to solve the problems of the immigrant.

All the departments of Tampere City supports Immigrant Advice Center, in the same
time Immigrant Advice Center supports the another departments of Tampere City. Im-
migrant Advice Center helps immigrants to get service from the another departments
that deals with things, for example social service issues, health center issues, apartment
issues, justice issues, Finnish language issues, working issues, visa issues. Meanwhile
Immigrant Advice Center also has strong connection with Kela, police station and TE-
office.

Internal and external marketing programs:

Marketing strategy

Internal marketing External marketing

Programmer Programmer

Figure 3 Marketing Strategy

A structure for an internal marketing program is shown in the Figure 3. The basic pro-
posal is that the easiest way to make practical progress with this type of internal market-
ing, and to establish what it may achieve, is to use exactly the same structures that we
use for planning external marketing. This suggests that we should think in terms of inte-
grating the elements needed for an internal marketing mix or program, based on our
 29

analysis of the opportunities and threats in the internal marketplace represented by the
company with which we are working.

Here are the basic terms of internal marketing program:

The product: The product to be 'sold ' is that value, attitudes and behaviors which are
needed to make the marketing plan work effectively. These hidden dimensions of the
product may range from increased budgets and different resource allocations, to
changed control systems and criteria used to evaluate performance, to changed ways of
handling customers at the point of sale.

The price: The price element of the internal marketing mix is not our cost; it is con-
cerned with what we are asking our internal customers to 'pay' when they buy in to the
product and the marketing plan.

Communications: The most tangible aspect of the internal marketing program is the
communications medium and the messages used to inform and to persuade, and to work
on the attitudes of the key personnel in the internal marketplace.

Distribution: The distribution channels element of the mix is concerned with the physi-
cal and socio-technical venues at which we have to deliver our product and its commu-
nications: meetings, committees, training sessions for managers and occasions, and so
on.

Internal marketing

Internal marketing is a means of involving staff at all levels in effective marketing pro-
grammers by enabling them to understand their role within the marketing process.
(http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation)

Internal marketing programs consist of training and staff development, effective internal
communications and integration schemes, designed to enhance knowledge and under-
 30

standing of the overall marketing orientation within the organization.

(http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation)

Definition of internal marketing

Internal marketing is an ongoing process that occurs strictly within a company or organ-
ization whereby the functional process is to aligns, motivates and empowers employees
at all management levels to consistently deliver a satisfying customer experience.
(http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation)

Internal marketing is the key to achieve:

• Commitment to the goal of guaranteeing the best possible treatment of custom-

ers.
• Participating actively in achieving the organization’s goals
• Creating a potential for long-term success

The Role of internal marketing

• Management of change: Internal marketing may be used to place, and gain ac-
ceptance of new systems such as the introduction of information technology and
new working practices, and other changes.
• Building corporate image: Internal marketing’s role is to create awareness and
appreciation of the company’s aims and strengths – as all employees are poten-
tial company ambassadors.

Essentials of successful internal marketing programmers

The four most important areas within the organization’s internal environment which are
essential for an internal marketing programmer are motivation, co-ordination, infor-
mation and education. Information gathering to assess are employee knowledge, atti-
 31

tudes and behavior. Management actions are selection, training, motivation and direc-
tion. (http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation)

Benefits of internal marketing:

• Internal marketing encourages the internal market (employees) to perform better.

• Internal marketing empowers employees and gives them accountability and re-
sponsibility.
Internal marketing creates common understanding of the business organization.
(http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation)

• Internal marketing encourages employees to offer superb service to clients by

appreciating their valuable contribution to the success of the business.
• Internal marketing improves customers’ retention and individual employee de-
velopment.
• Internal marketing integrates business culture, structure, human resources man-
agement, vision and strategy with the employees’ professional and social needs.
• Internal marketing creates good coordination and cooperation among depart-
ments of the business.

Key concepts of internal marketing include:

• Internal marketing functioning as a continual internal ‘up skilling’ process.

• Alignment of the organization’s purpose with employee behavior.
• Motivation, reframing and empowerment of employee attitude.
• Inside-out management approach.
• Retaining a positive customer experience throughout the business objective.
(http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation)
 32

In our case, in the past Tampere City hired immigrants who could speak good Finnish,
lived in Tampere at least 5 years, had enough education and working experience and so
on to work in Immigrant Advice Center. The employee advisors' attitudes and behaviors
as well as the competence are very important for employer Tampere City in order to
achieve the mission. 17 languages and 7 advisors were offered in the past. According to
the pricing, Tampere City offers the service free for the immigrant who needs help, but
in order to reduce the cost Tampere City offers a few hours per week for each language,
in this case Tampere City saves cost to pay the salary of the advisors. Tampere City
ALMA project team members organize many promotion events for immigrant in order
to let immigrant know more about the service of the Tampere City as well as give the
information to the immigrant. For the supply chain, Tampere City gives training to the
advisor very often, service network is perfect and easy to reach, advisors’ joining the
meetings and seminars is compulsory.

Free offering 17 different languages and the service to help the immigrants for solving
their problem make us unique. Because the service is free that is one reason that makes
us unique. Immigrant Advice Center hired good employees to work there who could
performance the customer satisfaction, organized good service network for searching
information, as well as organized different events for immigrants in order to solve the
problems of the immigrant, in order to increase the harmony in the society, in order to
reduce the cost of different departments in Tampere City and different departments in
the nations, such as Kela, TE-office, Tax office and police station. All of these are the
added value through its offerings in the past.

Service strategy

The main focus in service competition is the continuous management of the services of
moments of truth in service processes, as well as adequate support from managers and
supporting functions and from investments in technology, operations and administrative
systems.
 33

Giving promises: Traditional External Marketing

Customers ‘experiences of service encounters do not take place in a vacuum. Immi-

grants visit us with certain expectations, which are partly created by the service provider
itself. By our external marketing process, involving traditional marketing efforts, we
give promises, which should correspond with the personal needs, values and wishes of
the target group of customers.

Enabling promises: Internal marketing

Employees’ abilities and motivation to meet the expectations of customers are backed
up by internal marketing efforts. Internal marketing is a must for creating the prerequi-
site conditions for keeping promises. We should know as much as we can about the law,
the rules, the service which is offered by Finnish government and Tampere City.

Keep promises: Interactive marketing

Customers and employees meet and interact; it determines whether customers’ experi-
ence meets their expectations. Fulfilling promises between us and customers is one ma-
jor aspect of the interactive marketing process. The customer contact employees are
most often the key to success. Interactive marketing and keeping promises is almost
entirely the responsibility of operations and other functions.

Interactive marketing relies on the information superhighway as the link between cus-
tomer and marketer. It gives the potential customer a greater degree of freedom and
choice than has ever been possible and seeks to create the ultimate form of partnership
between product seller and product buyer. (Ryan, 2001, 10)
 34

Service recovery: Managing quality when service failures occur

The real test of the customer orientation of a service provider takes place when a service
failure has occurred. Ideally, quality should be high all the time and failures should not
occur in the service processes. However, employees make mistakes, systems break
down, customers in the service process may cause problems for other customers, or a
customer may not know how to participate in the process or may change his mind re-
garding some aspect of the service during the process. As a consequence, the planned
service process will not lead to a good result for the customer. The intended level of
quality is not achieved. It is important to realize that such a failure does not always re-
sult from mistakes made by the service firm; the customer or customers can also cause
service failures. (Grönroos, 2000, 112)

However, regardless of the whether the firm, the customer, or something else is to
blame; every problematic situation for a customer is an opportunity for the service pro-
vider to demonstrate its commitment to service. (Grönroos, 2000, 113)

Hence, regardless of the reason for a failure, the service provider has to take care of the
situation and is responsible for solving the problem in a way that satisfies the customer.
Unless this is done, the customer will feel that he received poor quality and the risk of
losing that customer grows. Or if complaining customers feel that their complaint is not
handled quickly enough and with enough attention and empathy, the quality of the
whole relationship will deteriorate. If there is a quality problem in the service process,
the service has to be performed very carefully and accurately the second time.
(Grönroos, 2000, 113)

Research shows that service providers are often offered a second chance to create a pos-
itive quality perception by customers even though a service process has broken down.
The way a firm manages service recovery forms a platform for strengthened or weak-
ened customer relationships. A well-managed recovery has a positive impact on the
development of a trusting relationship between a firm and its customer and it also may
deepen the customer’s commitment towards the service provider. (Grönoos, 2000, 113)
 35

3.7 Financial analysis

3.7.1 Startup Expenses

 36

3.7.2 Startup expenses summary statement

 37

3.7.3 Sales and volume plan

 38

3.7.4 Income Statement

 39

3.7.5 Balance Sheet

 40

3.8 Operations and Personnel

Tampere Immigrant Advice Center is an information service provider for immigrants

on immigration issues and practicalities of integrating into the Finnish society; the
center provides services like translations in multiple languages, information on how
to go about daily life, for example, banking, filling Kela /social forms, taxations,
social and health services, etc... Tampere Immigrant Advice Center will outsource
the service. Liujun Consulting Service will sell the same service to Tampere Immi-
grant Advice Center.

I will operate Liujun Consulting Service and offer the service to the Tampere Immi-
grant Advice Center, Tampere Immigrant Advice Center will offer the office, com-
puter and phone and information and something else related to the service. The
address is Tuomiokirkonkatu 12, 33100, Tampere. Liujun Consulting Service offers
the language service and co-operate with Immigrant Advice Center and Tampere
City to handle the different kinds of issues.

Each month we will have a meeting with Immigrant Advice Center, discuss with the
matter of the job, every two month we will have a training concerning the matter of
the job in Immigrant Advice Center.

In the future we try to offer the service to the other cities if they need, also we try
to offer the service to the company that need immigrant service.
 41

4. Reference:

1. Business Plan Help & Small Business Articles

http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan
Retrieved 15.08.2011
2. www.entrepreneurship.com/tools/pdf/businessPlanWorkbook.pdf
Retrieved 15.08.2011
3. Pinson, L.2004. Anatomy of a Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide to
Building a Business and Securing Your Company’s Future. Sixth edition.
Dearborn Trade Publishing, A Kaplan Professional Company.
4. How to start a successful consulting business.
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol83/consulting.htm Retrieved 17.11.2011.
5. www.tampere.fi Retrieved 08.07.2011
6. Graham, H., Nigel F.P. & Brigitte, N. 2008. Marketing Strategy and Com-
petitive Positioning. Fourth edition. Prentice Hall.
7. Wright, L. & Crimp, M. 2000. The Marketing Research Process. Fifth edi-
tion. Prentice Hall.
8. Grönroos, C. 2001. Service Management and Marketing: A customer rela-
tionship management approach. Second edition. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
9. http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/plan/ Retrieved 31.08.2011.
10. http://www.slideshare.net/engineer_Sood/internal-marketing-presentation
Retrieved 4.12.2011
11. www.academicpositions.fi Retrieved 11.11.2011.
12. Ryan, C. 2001. High - performance Interactive marketing. Communication,
Inc.
13. Kuratko, D. & Hodgetts, R.2001.Entrepreneurship a contemporary approach.
Fifth edition. Harcourt College Publishers
14. Tampere City Integration Programme 2010-2020. Tampere flows: Responsi-
ble City of Functional Integration.
 42

5. Appendix
43
44
45