Executive Summary
TechMedia is an advertising agency that provides fully-blown marketing and promotional services for middle-high income clients. Our services include email marketing, video marketing, social media marketing, and tech-driven events.
TechMedia caters to ambitious clients who are leaders in their respective industries. We’ve positioned ourselves as an advertising agency that transcends the meaning of marketing with the use of novel technological advancements. Our clients aren't just looking for a run-of-the-mill agency that will grow their following or put an ad in a paper. But one that is capable of helping them win the hearts and minds of their target customers using algorithms, artificial intelligence, and hard data.
We prioritize the social media side of our business offering, given its ongoing growth and market opportunity. At least 81% of businesses use social media for promotional purposes.
We project that a revenue of $864,021 will be achieved in this financial year. This is down to the cost-effectiveness of social media, our previous technological investments, and our robust list of clients. TechMedia was founded by Ian Saville and Hillary Connor in 2007, which was essentially the dawn of the digital era.
It took a significant amount of time for us to position ourselves in the social media marketing space, but it has certainly paid off. These days, TechMedia is widely considered as a high-tech agency with a vast clientele in multiple industries.
We put our money where our mouth is when it comes to our marketing activities. It's imperative that we show our clients what we can do for them by the way we promote ourselves. Hyper-targeted Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X, and Google ads that are targeted toward high-grossing companies.
Our following of 324,209 on Instagram alone is testament to what we're capable of, which lands us new middle to long-term clients on an almost monthly basis.
We're committed to creating marketing messages that are innovative, engaging, and data-driven.
Our ultimate mission is to bring new meaning to the definition of advertising. With the use of technological tools, we've been able to bring something new to the table in this very competitive industry.
Our talented and experienced team has been a major contributor to TechMedia’s success. From research and development and finance; to human resources and AI engineering - we’ve got it all.
Our ultimate vision is to become renowned pioneers in the advertising industry by continuing to design systems that guarantee the success of ad campaigns for our clients.
We are the advertising agency of tomorrow.
We would like you to be a part of this. Our CFO and his executive team have calculated that an investment of $3,7 million will result in an ROI of at least 7% year-on-year. We are currently dilutive funding, as such a 9% equity has been made available should you choose to invest in our forward-thinking venture.
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 not only attract and retain customers but position 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 $3,461,722, which indicates a growth in assets of 2,82% from the previous financial year.
3/ Market and Customer Analysis
Advertising business market and customer analysis
This section is all about identifying key opportunities in the market that can elevate the quality of your business plan and business at large. Gaining an understanding of the market trends and landscape will allow you to make far more informed business decisions. For example, the geographical requirements that will increase your chances of success. A comprehensive customer analysis will enable you to gain a clear understanding of your customers' interests, buying behaviors, and income brackets. You should be able to draft a complete profile of your ideal customers once you've written your customer analysis. This will allow you to meet their needs far more effectively.
Market & Customer Analysis
We’ve done our due diligence when it comes to 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 not only helped us identify dozens of gaps in the market, which have translated to hundreds and thousands in revenue, but we've also made invaluable relationships that we believe will benefit us for decades to come. The digital advertising market is worth almost $1 billion, which indicates a CAGR of at least 4,2%%. The 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 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 profit margin of at least 52% per sale, which more than ensures our profitability.
Our sales target for the next financial year is $1,314,061. This would indicate 3,3% growth YoY.
Marketing Plan
Our marketing plan, much like our sales plan, is built heavily around our digital presence. We have hundreds and thousands of people who see our social media content on a weekly basis. There are various advantages to employing a robust 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 currently at 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 Burkley University.
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 a qualification in the covered MUSE awards.
Financial Plan
To effectively manage an advertising business, it is crucial to develop a comprehensive financial plan that outlines the organization's revenue streams, expenses, and projected profits. An example of an advertising business financial plan would include detailed advertising business revenue projections, which outline the expected income from various sources such as client contracts, ad placements, and promotional campaigns. A thorough advertising business cost analysis would also be included, identifying expenses related to staffing, equipment, software, and marketing efforts. Furthermore, the financial plan would outline the advertising business funding sources, such as investment capital, loans, or partnerships. The plan would also incorporate advertising business profit margins, indicating the percentage of revenue retained after deducting costs. Lastly, the financial plan would include an advertising business return on investment (ROI) analysis, providing insights into the profitability and efficiency of the business operations. Projected Profit or Loss Statement
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Sales $90,000 $170,000 $300,000 Direct Cost of Sales $20,500 $30,000 $82,000 Production Payroll $0 $0 $0 Other $0 $0 $0 Total Cost of Sales $20,500 $30,000 $82,000 Gross Margin $69,500 $140,000 $218,000 Gross Margin % 77% 82% 73% Operating Expenses
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Sales and Marketing Payroll $20,000 $40,000 $40,000 Advertising/Promotion $800 $1,000 $1,000 Travel $0 $0 $0 Miscellaneous $500 $500 $500 Total Sales and Marketing Expenses $21,300 $41,500 $41,500 General and Administrative Expenses
General and Administrative Payroll $20,000 $40,250 $100,250 Sales and Marketing and Other Expenses $0 $0 $0 Depreciation $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 Dues and Subscriptions $200 $200 $200 Professional Fees $300 $300 $300 Rent $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 Software Purchases $0 $15,000 $0 Insurance $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 Telephone and Internet Access $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 Utilities $400 $400 $400 Miscellaneous $0 $0 $0 Payroll Taxes $500 $1,200 $3,000 Other General and Administrative Expenses $0 $0 $0 Total General and Administrative Expenses $28,400 $64,350 $111,150 Other Expenses:
Other Payroll $0 $0 $0 Consultants $0 $0 $0 Contract/Consultants $0 $0 $0 Total Other Expenses $0 $0 $0 Total Operating Expenses $28,400 $64,350 $111,150 Profit Before Interest and Taxes $19,800 $102,840 $225,410 EBITDA $19,800 $103,860 $226,430 Interest Expense $800 $3,632 $2,957 Taxes Incurred $0 $24,802 $56,540 Net Profit $19,000 $34,150 $65,350 Net Profit/Sales 21% 20% 22%
Projected Cash Flow Statement Cash Received Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Cash from Operations
Cash Sales $90,000 $170,000 $300,000 Cash from Receivables $0 $0 $0 Subtotal Cash from Operations $90,000 $170,000 $300,00 Additional Cash Received
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received $0 $0 $0 New Current Borrowing $20,000 $0 $0 New Other Liabilities (interest-free) $0 $0 $0 New Long-term Liabilities $0 $0 $0 Sales of Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0 Sales of Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0 New Investment Received $0 $0 $0 Subtotal Cash Received $110,000 $170,000 $300,000 Expenditures
Expenditures from Operations
Subtotal Spent on Operations $48,900 $94,350 $111,150 Additional Cash Spent
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Paid Out $800 $0 $0 Principal Repayment of Current Borrowing $10,000 $10,000 $0 Other Liabilities Principal Repayment $0 $0 $0 Long-term Liabilities Principal Repayment $0 $0 $0 Purchase Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0 Purchase Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0 Dividends $0 $0 $0 Subtotal Cash Spent $59,700 $104,350 $193,150 Net Cash Flow $50,300 $65,650 $106,850 Cash Balance $19,000 $34,150 $65,350 Projected Balance Sheet Assets Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Current Assets
Cash $90,000 $170,000 $300,000 Accounts Receivable $0 $0 $0 Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0 Total Current Assets $90,000 $170,000 $300,000 Long-term Assets $10,000 $9,000 $8,000 Accumulated Depreciation $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 Total Long-term Assets ($1,000) ($1,000) ($1,000) Total Assets $100,000 $179,000 $308,00 Liabilities and Capital
Current Liabilities
Accounts Payable $0 $0 $0 Current Borrowing $20,000 $10,000 $0 Other Current Liabilities $0 $0 $0 Subtotal Current Liabilities $20,000 $10,000 $0 Long-term Liabilities $0 $0 $0 Total Liabilities $20,000 $10,000 $0 Paid-in Capital $30,000 $30,000 $30,000 Retained Earnings ($20,000) ($30,000) $41,000 Earnings ($12,000) $44,000 $160,000 Total Capital ($2,000) $44,000 $231,000 Total Liabilities and Capital $18,000 $54,000 $231,000 Net Worth $80,000 $169,00 $308,000
Wrapping up the Advertising Business Plan In conclusion, a well-crafted advertising business plan is crucial for the success of any advertising venture. It provides a strategic roadmap for targeting customers, analyzing the market, and managing operations efficiently. By leveraging creative and analytical approaches, businesses can develop effective advertising campaigns that resonate with their target audience and drive revenue growth. Additionally, a strong management team and a sound financial plan are essential for sustaining long-term success in this competitive industry. With the right plan in place, advertising businesses can thrive and achieve their goals.