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Executive Summary
TechMedia is an advertising agency serving mid-to-high-income clients with email marketing, video marketing, social media marketing, and tech-driven event promotion. Our clients are industry leaders who want more than a following count or a print ad — they want campaigns built on algorithms, machine-learning targeting, and audience data. Social media is our primary focus, since 81% of businesses now use it for promotion, and it is the most cost-effective channel we run. We project $2,318,760 in revenue this financial year, driven by that cost efficiency, our prior investment in ad technology, and a client list that has grown steadily since TechMedia's early years in the social media marketing space. TechMedia is now known across multiple industries as a high-tech agency with a broad client base. Our own marketing runs on the same playbook we sell: hyper-targeted Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X, and Google ad campaigns aimed at high-grossing companies. A following of 324,209 on Instagram brings in new mid-to-long-term clients on an almost monthly basis, and every campaign we run for clients is held to the same data-driven, engagement-first standard. Our team spans research and development, finance, human resources, and AI engineering, and that range is a big part of why campaigns we design keep hitting their targets. We are raising $420,000 in exchange for 9% equity.
Company Overview
TechMedia is the brainchild of Ian Saville and Hillary Connor, who have a 32% and 68% share respectively. The company was founded in 2009 and is currently registered as an LLC. We are located in what is widely considered the USA's most technologically advanced city; Seattle, Washington. This is befitting considering our advertising agency’s affinity to technology. Our business prides itself on offering tailored advertising services that attract and retain customers while positioning them as innovative thought leaders in their respective industries. Ironically, the strategies we design use technology to give our clients more of a human touch. For instance, we designed an award-winning campaign for an environmental organization where our design team created a digital dolphin across all social media platforms that slowly died over the space of 6 weeks as a result of pollution. We're inspired by driving change (and profits) by using the vast possibilities that codes and algorithms present. We're an agency that has built itself a distinctly unique position in the market. Our staff and management team have been recruited from some of the very best institutions in the world, such as Harvard and Oxford University. However, with their competencies also comes a passion for converting customers for our clients as well as building their influence. Our focus on digital media has allowed us to become specialists. We’re essentially the go-to firm for big-budget businesses that are looking to create online experiences to drive engagement and increase their market share. 6/10 of our clients don't have superior products but are able to generate significant sales due to the ingenuity of the marketing messages we've created for them and what it does for their brand. TechMedia currently owns assets worth $484,000, which indicates a growth in assets of 2.82% from the previous financial year.
Market & Customer Analysis
We’ve done our due diligence in studying the market. This is one part of our business that we revisit constantly. In this fast-paced industry, it's easy for clients to deem you as irrelevant. This may be a result of failing to charge market-related prices, operating in the wrong location(s), or even offering advertising services that nobody wants. Think about the +40% decrease in newspaper advertising. We conduct our market analysis with the use of various tools such as industry-related census reports, focus groups, analytics, and surveys. We also send representatives to attend events such as Advertising Week Europe, DigiMarCon, AdWorld, and the Adobe Summit. Attending these events has helped us identify dozens of gaps in the market, which have translated to hundreds of thousands in revenue, and we've also made invaluable relationships that we believe will benefit us for decades to come. The digital advertising market is huge and looks as if it's only going to get bigger. That is both a blessing and a curse. We prefer to look at the cup half-full. The market is vibrant and given our clear understanding of who our target customers are as well as the trends set to take place, we’re in pole position to retain and build upon our market share. Needless to say, we have millions of competitors globally. We've also conducted a general SWOT analysis of our competitors. Just in case they have a trick, or an ad, up their sleeves. One thing is for certain, our biggest weakness is that we spend significantly more on creating ads than at least 60% of our competitors. However, we have dozens of companies knocking on our doors who just can't afford us.
Sales Plan
Our sales strategy is multifaceted, to say the least. We've focused on building a sizable social media following across all major platforms, which essentially acts as our business card. When potential clients see our social media content, it gives them an idea of what we could do for them. This is the key sales strategy that we've focused on since the very start, ‘Practice what you preach.’
Also, our sales manager lives by what is popularly known as the 6 C’s of Sales, which has worked exceptionally well since he put it at the heart of our sales plan 8 years ago: confidence, contact, customization, credibility, collaboration, and communication. We ensure that we tick each C in every sales-related task we embark on.
One such example of how we use ‘contact’ is by keeping in touch with ex-clients and informing them about new promotions or sharing information from their industry that may interest them. Whereas our credibility is etched in our impressive portfolio of clients.
Our fully-fledged sales team also works tirelessly to build relationships with businesses in our target market: middle to high-income, seeking to become an authority online, etc. Although we’re extremely proud of our Silicon Valley-esque approach to advertising, we still feel that cold-calling is an art that will never die. Getting on the phone or sending an email to a total stranger and telling them what value proposition you have in store for them has contributed 34% of our sales in the last financial year. Although cold calling only has a 2.1% success rate, it has still proven to be an effective sales strategy.
Another strategy that we implement to drive sales is by offering an annual bidding war for a one-month campaign. This sales strategy is specifically for the smaller businesses that don't have a significant budget. Since we came up with this sales strategy 2 years ago we've amassed $71,000. Not too shabby for two months of work and some small business empowerment.
Our calculations suggest that a sale costs us $19,103 on average. This comes down to our social media marketing, wages, rent, and other overheads. We aim for a gross margin of at least 59% per sale.
Our sales target for the next financial year is $2,571,940. This would indicate 10.9% growth YoY.
Marketing Plan
Our marketing plan, much like our sales plan, is built heavily around our digital presence. We have hundreds of thousands of people who see our social media content on a weekly basis. There are various advantages to employing a strong digital marketing strategy to increase engagement. For one, integrated analytic tools enable us to gain insights into the ages, locations, and interests of our followers. It's also incredibly affordable. This allows us to tailor our marketing messages to the relevant individuals for next to nothing. Our marketing manager has built relationships with various online publications that cover media-related news. Whenever we roll out an interesting ad campaign, it tends to end up on a third-party platform, which helps us put our brand in front of more eyeballs. We don't invest in traditional marketing. It's expensive and doesn't reflect our advertising agency's digital culture. There have been instances where magazines, newspapers, and TV shows invite us for interviews - but it's almost never paid for. We only see this as proof that we're running an advertising agency that has a degree of allure. Our latest marketing audit suggests that the business’s marketing spend contributes +34% to our bottom line. We find this especially impressive since we only budgeted for $47,152 in that same period. This means we made just over 16x our marketing budget! We’re also passionate about helping tech-savvy solopreneurs and advertising agencies that have ambitions to reach our level of success. We started a TechMedia blog which is packed with industry insights and strategies to run successful digital campaigns and grow a business. More selfishly though, it has helped our SEO substantially, so we have better chances of potential clients coming across us on Google because we rank higher. Our readership is growing as we put out more quality content, so we may just invest in running a digital magazine in the future. This will also enable us to create more jobs here in Seattle. The stand-out articles in this digital magazine will also be sent out to our email subscribers, which currently sit at 2,104. Our marketing tactics are clearly defined and understood by the relevant individuals. Nonetheless, we retain the view that we must constantly be evolving for our advertising business to continue meeting its KPIs. We’ve employed a see-saw approach to our marketing: as revenue decreases we become more aggressive with our marketing spend. With conversion rates up 174%, we trust that you see the sheer potential in this investment opportunity.
Operating Plan
Personnel Role Task Timeline Stacy Yorke R&D/Creative Director
- Campaign for L’Oreal
- Campaign for Big Boy
27th of June & 31st of August respectively Tom Perkins Finance Financial projections for the next calendar year 4th December Roland Golde Accounts Manager
- Closing three accounts by the end of the fourth quarter
- Developing strategies to close more client inquiries
3rd of June & 21st of June respectively Baxter McQueen Head of Digital/Marketing Manager
- Increasing our social media following by 1.2%
- Increasing our email list by 2.2%
6th August Grace Burke Human Resources Hire a photographer and part-time graphics designer 8th of September Hillary Connor Operations Manager/Founder Oversees the smooth running of the business from a complete leadership perspective by working hand-in-hand with all other executive team members Ongoing Ian Saville Business Development/Founder Finding new clients and maintaining relationships with existing ones Ongoing
Management Team
Our management team is highly collaborative and works together to achieve high levels of success.
Our founders, Hillary Connor and Ian Saville, work on the operational and business development parts of our business. They ensure that the business is growing and that all individuals are working optimally.
Grace Burke is our human resources manager. Her role is to recruit staff to fulfill various positions in our organization. She also oversees their training and resolves all staff disputes and grievances. Grace has a qualification from the California Institute of Technology.
Baxter McQueen is our marketing manager. He doubles up as a digital media manager as well, given the nature of our advertising firm. He manages our social media and ensures that we stay ahead in the digital space. He also ensures that our marketing messages are clear and consistent.
Tom Perkins is responsible for ensuring that our business’s finances are in order. This includes the compiling of cash flow statements, budgets, and financial forecasts. He studied at Stanford University.
Roland Golde manages our client accounts and ensures that they run smoothly. He ensures that the client stays happy and that we deliver on our campaign promises. He holds a communications qualification from UC Berkeley.
Stacy Yorke is the brains behind the business. She ensures that we're constantly innovating and keeping our ideas fresh and creative. Her office has hundreds of concepts and ideas on the walls, windows, and ceiling. She goes undisturbed for most of the week. Her eccentricities have earned her recognition in the coveted MUSE Awards.
Financial Plan
Projected Profit or Loss Statement (in USD):
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | $2,318,760 | $2,571,940 | $2,903,180 |
| Direct Cost of Sales | $259,700 | $283,600 | $316,400 |
| Production Payroll | $588,000 | $690,000 | $784,000 |
| Other Cost of Sales | $63,400 | $69,800 | $77,900 |
| Total Cost of Sales | $911,100 | $1,043,400 | $1,178,300 |
| Gross Margin | $1,407,660 | $1,528,540 | $1,724,880 |
| Gross Margin % | 60.7% | 59.4% | 59.4% |
| Operating Expenses | |||
| Sales and Marketing Expenses | |||
| Sales and Marketing Payroll | $210,000 | $219,500 | $229,800 |
| Advertising/Promotion | $61,200 | $66,400 | $72,900 |
| Travel | $22,600 | $24,100 | $26,300 |
| Other Sales and Marketing Expenses | $10,300 | $11,200 | $12,400 |
| Total Sales and Marketing Expenses | $304,100 | $321,200 | $341,400 |
| General and Administrative Expenses | |||
| General and Administrative Payroll | $502,000 | $524,600 | $548,200 |
| Depreciation | $96,500 | $57,000 | $69,750 |
| Dues and Subscriptions | $8,700 | $9,100 | $9,600 |
| Professional Fees | $33,200 | $29,800 | $31,400 |
| Rent | $159,600 | $164,400 | $169,300 |
| Software Purchases | $52,400 | $61,700 | $69,200 |
| Insurance | $27,900 | $29,600 | $31,700 |
| Telephone and Internet Access | $11,600 | $12,200 | $12,900 |
| Utilities | $15,100 | $15,700 | $16,400 |
| Miscellaneous | $18,400 | $19,300 | $20,500 |
| Payroll Taxes | $110,500 | $121,899 | $132,770 |
| Total General and Administrative Expenses | $1,035,900 | $1,045,299 | $1,111,720 |
| Other Expenses | |||
| Consultants | $96,000 | $48,000 | $36,000 |
| Total Other Expenses | $96,000 | $48,000 | $36,000 |
| Total Operating Expenses | $1,436,000 | $1,414,499 | $1,489,120 |
| Profit Before Interest and Taxes | ($28,340) | $114,041 | $235,760 |
| EBITDA | $68,160 | $171,041 | $305,510 |
| Taxes Incurred | $0 | $17,997 | $49,510 |
| Net Profit | ($28,340) | $96,044 | $186,250 |
| Net Profit/Sales | (1.2%) | 3.7% | 6.4% |
Projected Cash Flow Statement (in USD):
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash Received | |||
| Cash from Operations | |||
| Cash Sales | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Cash from Receivables | $2,313,321 | $2,539,027 | $2,860,119 |
| Subtotal Cash from Operations | $2,313,321 | $2,539,027 | $2,860,119 |
| Additional Cash Received | |||
| New Investment Received | $420,000 | $0 | $0 |
| Subtotal Cash Received | $2,733,321 | $2,539,027 | $2,860,119 |
| Expenditures | |||
| Expenditures from Operations | |||
| Cash Spending | $1,410,500 | $1,555,999 | $1,694,770 |
| Bill Payments | $825,491 | $862,465 | $947,190 |
| Subtotal Spent on Operations | $2,235,991 | $2,418,464 | $2,641,960 |
| Additional Cash Spent | |||
| Purchase Long-term Assets | $186,000 | $42,000 | $51,000 |
| Dividends | $0 | $0 | $120,000 |
| Subtotal Cash Spent | $2,421,991 | $2,460,464 | $2,812,960 |
| Net Cash Flow | $311,330 | $78,563 | $47,159 |
| Cash Balance | $449,330 | $527,893 | $575,052 |
Projected Balance Sheet (in USD):
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assets | |||
| Current Assets | |||
| Cash | $449,330 | $527,893 | $575,052 |
| Accounts Receivable | $301,439 | $334,352 | $377,413 |
| Total Current Assets | $750,769 | $862,245 | $952,465 |
| Long-term Assets | |||
| Long-term Assets | $426,000 | $468,000 | $519,000 |
| Accumulated Depreciation | ($286,500) | ($343,500) | ($413,250) |
| Total Long-term Assets | $139,500 | $124,500 | $105,750 |
| Total Assets | $890,269 | $986,745 | $1,058,215 |
| Liabilities and Capital | |||
| Current Liabilities | |||
| Accounts Payable | $75,609 | $76,041 | $81,261 |
| Subtotal Current Liabilities | $75,609 | $76,041 | $81,261 |
| Total Liabilities | $75,609 | $76,041 | $81,261 |
| Paid-in Capital | $580,000 | $580,000 | $580,000 |
| Retained Earnings | $263,000 | $234,660 | $210,704 |
| Earnings | ($28,340) | $96,044 | $186,250 |
| Total Capital | $814,660 | $910,704 | $976,954 |
| Total Liabilities and Capital | $890,269 | $986,745 | $1,058,215 |
| Net Worth | $814,660 | $910,704 | $976,954 |
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