FOCUS Consultancy Business Plan

FOCUS CONSULTANCY BUSINESS PLAN
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FOCUS Consultancy Business Plan
Executive Summary
FOCUS Consultancy is an ambitious full-service consulting business that seeks to provide growth opportunities to small scale enterprises by offering solutions such as proven competitive strategies and great sales plans. As the head and manager of the company, I plan to grow the business by about 50 percent annually. The key stakeholders in this business include two professional and experienced consultants, five new consultant graduates, one administer, an accountant, and a lawyer. The target clients include business with base revenue of $500,000.
Introduction
This document presents a business model for FOCUS Consultancy, a start-up management consulting company. Although the firm will operate as an independent business, its management looks forward to collaborating with tactical and strategic partners purposely to support the business in its weak areas. In this respect, FOCUS will ensure efficiency in the delivery of its services to small business clients. The company will focus on providing value-added consulting services to small businesses across all functional areas including project management, capacity building, human resource management, and organizational change management. FOCUS’s mission is to facilitate the growth of small enterprises by serving their technical and logistical needs. The long-term vision of the company is to build a business college that will impart managers with critical knowledge and skills of developing and growing their enterprises. The goals and objectives of FOCUS are based on survival, quality, and growth. Within the next three years, the firm aims at recruiting 100 consultants with an average of 30 every year. Additionally, the company will expand its operation to involve expertise in four critical business areas – finance, marketing computer systems, management, and accounting – in the course of three years. An increase in revenue of about $500,000 will be expected within the same timeline.
Market
The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a 7.1% growth of the management consulting market which reached 5 billion dollars in 2017 (Consultancy.org, 2018). During the past decade, the professional services sector has grown by 30 percent becoming the country’s fourth-largest source of employment (Consultancy.uk, 2018). TecHR (2019) stated that there is a prospect for the market to grow further in the next five years. According to Consultancy.uk (2017), Australian businesses are increasingly engaging consulting companies to enhance the competency of their systems. However, in the recent past, there has been a shortage of consultant professionals with sufficient experience to meet the demands of the growing number of clients (IBISWorld, 2019). This has made it difficult for new consultancy companies to make a successful entry into the market. Digitization of a critical driving force that influences not only consulting firms operating in the Australian market but also globally. Gunasekara (2011, p.118) noted that digitization has introduced a shift in the way firms deliver their services to customers. For consultants to expand their ecosystems to incorporate lower-cost solutions to clients, they are required to partner, acquire, or merge with technology firms (Wright & Kitay, 2004, p.274). This has proved challenging for newcomers that strive to remain independent as they navigate through the opportunities in the market.
The Australian consultant market can be partitioned into six segments. They include technology, financial advisory, human resources, operations, and strategy (Consultancy.eu., 2018). Technology consulting aims at enhancing organizations’ IT-infrastructure, financial advisory targets corporate financial services, and HR consulting provides services related to human capital (Fincham & Clark, 2002, p.6). The target customers for consultants include all small and established businesses. FOCUS will primarily target small enterprises located in New South Wales where the company will be situated.
Operations and technology
The current digital technology will enable FOCUS to function centrally and serve the needs of small businesses in New South Wales. The company will subcontract the operations of its technologies including web design, web development, SEO services, and internet marketing to WebFx. The most critical challenge facing the consultants in the modern market is keeping up with fast technological advancements (Consultancy.eu, 2019; Werth et al., 2016, p.64). Heavy investment is required to facilitate the internet of things, automation of services, and artificial intelligence. Consulting firms are increasingly moving away from traditional consulting operations to digital models (Kumar et al., 2000, p.26). This will be challenging for FOCUS as it struggles to gain a competitive advantage within a limited budget.
Since the company will not engage in actual selling and manufacturing of products, there will be little demand for services from outside. This means that services will be sourced in-house. However, the firm will hire an accountant who will deal with tax return issues on a quarterly basis. The budget incorporates other requirements to start the business including the assets and human resource. Some of the resources that will be purchased from stores include office furniture, computers, and fax machine. One compartment of a building located along Abigail Lane 2042 will be rented for a whole year. Two consultant professionals and an administrative assistant will form part of the human resource teams. An accountant and a lawyer will be hired for consultation. The lawyer will play a critical part in guiding the business in issues regarding contract terms and adherence to important laws such as Independent Contractors Act and the Fair Work Act (Wright & Kitay, 2004, p.272)
Human Resources
The advisory board will consist of me and the two identified consultants. The consultants have expertise in the consulting profession having worked for known consultancy firms for over five years. I bring on board the skills of management and a special interest in consulting. Besides studying Business Management and Marketing at my undergraduate level, I have worked in two consultancy firms in the country. I am the sole proprietor of FOCUS and will be helped with the two consultants in varied areas of management. My primary role will be managerial as I will be overseeing the operations and guide my subordinates. The ownership structure of FOCUS incorporates I, as the CEO, advisory board with the two professional consultants, and the subordinates consisting of administration staff and newly graduated consultants. For a start, the firm will employ five graduates majoring in consultancy. The company will liaise with the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) to identify the new graduates registered by the association. Interested persons will be subjected to face-to-face interviews with a recruitment panel that will be composed of the manager and one member of the advisory board. The remuneration of the employees in the consultancy department will be based on commission. The two professional consultants will offer training sessions to the new consultants to improve their skills. According to Jerome (2013, p.41), employee training is considered as one of the effective means of achieving self-actualization needs, a motivation element highlighted in Maslow’s needs theory.
Finance
For projects ranging between 300 and 500 dollars, the company expects to make a net of 5 percent commission. Only 20 percent of all projects are expected to fall below 300 dollars. The firm looks forward to serving about 200 businesses within the first year. With approximately 200 projects in the first year, FOCUS projects operating on about 160 projects ranging from 300 to 500 dollars. The start-up capital for the business is $15,290 and the equipment/capital costs is $4,960 (see Appendix B). The profit and loss statements for the first 3 years are indicated in Appendix C. The owner plans to source the finances from the family members and banks. While the proprietor of the business is ensured of obtaining half of the start-up amount from the family, he is not sure about the reliability of the bank for a loan. In this regard, the owner intends to his home assets including a double-cab truck to supplement the family funds in case the bank fails to issue a loan.
References
Consultancy.eu. 2018. Management consulting market of Asia Pacific now worth $50 billion. Retrieved from /news/1884/management-consulting-market-of-asia-pacific-now-worth-50-billion
Consultancy.eu. 2019. How technology is disrupting the consulting industry. Retrieved from /news/2879/how-technology-is-disrupting-the-consulting-industry
Consultancy.org. 2018. Australia’s management consulting market set
Consultancy.uk. 2017. Australian management consulting market grows to $4.6 billion. Retrieved from /news/14107/australian-management-consulting-market-grows-to-46-billion
Consultancy.uk. 2018. Australia’s management consulting industry tips the $5 billion mark. Retrieved from /news/19478/australias-management-consulting-industry-tips-the-5-billion-mark
Fincham, R. and Clark, T., 2002. Preface: Management consultancy: Issues, perspectives, and agendas. International Studies of Management & Organization, pp.3-18.
Gunasekara, C., 2011. Independent contracting in low skilled, low paid work in Australia. International Journal of Employment Studies, 19(1), p.50.
IBISWorld. 2019. Management Consulting – Australia Market Research Report. Retrieved from /industry-trends/market-research-reports/professional-scientific-technical-services/management-consulting.html
Jerome, N., 2013. Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and implications on organizational culture, human resource a...