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Introduction
Enhancing the range and scope of services provided by an organization can help it to attract new customers and generate more revenues. However, when undertaking new projects, it is critical for the management to understand their long-term outcomes and possible considerations. The proposed project is to open a new wellness center at Saint Louis Medical Center (SLMC). The purpose of the present assignment is to evaluate the feasibility of a business plan for the project and to outline the project’s strengths, weaknesses, and critical considerations.
Steps to Develop a Business Plan
A business plan is one of the key components that a project needs in order to be successful. The first step in creating a business plan is defining the business’ mission and vision (Anderson, n.d.). In the present case, it is also critical to ensure that the project aligns with SLMC’s vision and mission. Next, the business plan has to identify the target market of the business and describe the products, services, and prices (Anderson, n.d.). Determining the unique selling point at this stage will also help the business to be competitive. Examples of unique selling points for a wellness center include personalized services, excellent maintenance of the facility, or personal training sessions included with each membership. The fifth step in developing a business plan is to describe the company’s structure and its legal needs, such as permits and licenses (Anderson, n.d.). This will help to ensure that the business has a sufficient organizational foundation while also reminding the owners or the management to obtain and renew legal documents as needed.
The next step in developing a business plan is to draw financial statements, including a balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow statement (Anderson, n.d.). For a new business, financial information will mostly consist of projections, which could then be compared to actual figures in order to adjust future financial planning. At this stage, the management should also perform an evaluation of variance analyses in order to estimate expenses. If the business is applying for financing, it is also critical to provide each principal’s personal financial statement and tax returns (Anderson, n.d). Lastly, the business plan should include miscellaneous information about marketing materials, key employees, and suppliers, as well as an executive summary (Anderson, n.d.). These parts of a business plan help to define the company’s position and goals.
Alignment with Organizational Mission and Vision
The proposed project contributes to the organization’s mission and vision by expanding its scope of services provided to customers. The SLMC’s mission is to provide access to high-quality health care that would help customers to attain a higher quality of life. The addition of a wellness center to the organization would help to promote the well-being of its customers by fulfilling their needs for physical activity and relaxation. A wellness center could also help customers to foster self-care behaviors, which would increase the continuity of care and enhance their quality of life in the long term. Moreover, the organization’s mission stipulates dedication to excellence and safety, as well as a supportive and caring environment. Creating a wellness center with state-of-the-art facilities and professional staff will help to advance the company’s mission.
SLMC’s vision is to be a national leader for excellence and innovation in healthcare. As few of medical centers in the area have wellness facilities, opening a wellness center will help the organization to achieve a leading position in the market, thus fulfilling its vision. Additionally, a significant part of the company’s vision is providing personalized services to meet the customers’ physical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual needs. A wellness center would also contribute to this goal by enhancing the range of services provided by SLMC.
Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the key strengths of the proposed project is that it would contribute to the company’s goals. As shown above, the project would help the organization to provide for the needs of customers while also delivering high-quality health care. In addition, opening a wellness center would be a profitable enterprise in the long term. While the medical center is mostly used by people who have health problems, a wellness center could cater to the needs of a wider population. For instance, healthy people could visit a wellness center to exercise or get spa treatments.
The project also has two main weaknesses. Firstly, wellness centers face competition from similar local facilities, including fitness and spa centers. The high degree of competition might affect the project’s profitability and create a need for additional marketing, thus increasing business expenses. Secondly, in order to deliver excellent quality to customers, the wellness center will require a substantial initial investment to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and design the facility.
Throughput Considerations
The two main considerations for the management in relation to the project are staffing and budget. To provide personalized services and achieve high customer satisfaction, it is critical for the business to avoid understaffing and hire highly professional staff. Furthermore, the variance between the forecasted budget and the actual budget might be high due to unforeseen expenses, such as maintenance and cleaning. Thus, it would be critical for the management to consult with a financial specialist and perform budget variance analyses prior to undertaking the project.
Marketing Strategies
Creating a marketing strategy is also critical to outlining a business plan. According to Chan (2018), companies should tailor their marketing strategy to the target market in order to reach more potential customers. In the present case, the target market includes people from the local community, as well as the existing customers of SLMC. The first appropriate marketing strategy is encouraging existing customers to spread awareness of the new facility to their friends and family members (Aldred, 2017). This strategy could use tools such as referral bonuses and short-term trials. Another useful strategy is developing promotional offers for the local community. For instance, deal-of-the-day promotions offering moderate discounts on memberships for a short period of time could be a useful tool for promoting the new facility (Eisenbeiss, Wilken, Skiera, & Cornelissen, 2015). These promotional offers can be advertised in SLMC, as well as in local shops, hotels, and restaurants. The proposed marketing strategies will be useful in generating awareness of the wellness center and attracting new customers.
Conclusion
All in all, creating a successful business plan is a complicated process that requires a significant amount of work. The proposed project aligns with SLMC’s mission and vision and will help the company to improve its financial performance in the future. However, the two critical weaknesses of the project are the high rate of competition and the need for a substantial investment. The management must also consider the project’s staffing needs and its budget to avoid unforeseen expenditures. An effective marketing strategy should aim to attract local residents to use the services offered by the new facility. Promotional offers, trial periods, and word-of-mouth advertising could be useful in achieving this goal.
References
Aldred, T. (2017). How to market your SME to the local community. The Telegraph. Web.
Anderson, J. (n.d.). How to create a business plan step by step.
Chan, J. (2018). No strategy, no customers: How to build a profitable marketing strategy. Foundr.
Eisenbeiss, M., Wilken, R., Skiera, B., & Cornelissen, M. (2015). What makes deal-of-the-day promotions really effective? The interplay of discount and time constraint with product type. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32(4), 387-397.
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