30 SECOND PITCHGentleman...

• You’ve all purchased greeting cards for that special person and have muddled through dozens of cards looking for the perfect one, you know, the one which best describes your feelings which you sometimes have a hard time articulating.

• More often than not the card you purchase is a compromise, a card that fits the occasion, but does not fully express your feelings, have the right tone or set the right mood.

• If your tired of wasting time, energy and money shopping for compromise cards, than we have a service for you.

• Let us create the perfect cards for your special person. Our experienced staff of female writers and graphic artists can assist you with all those special occasions.

Cupid’s Arrowby

Marnise Tucker & Geneva Cornelius

12th grade

Age 17

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BUSINESS PROFILE• Cupid’s Arrow creates and personalizes romantic greeting cards for men. The

business was conceived to help men become more romantic.

• This market niche is poorly served because: 1) retail cards are not geared to the many stages of relationships, 2) men don’t like to shop for cards and wait until the last minute when selection is thin and 3) men need more help expressing their feelings.

• Major card companies have developed web-based customization offerings geared towards woman. With in the web applications the customer creates his/her own version of a card template. This defeats the purpose men purchase cards; as they don’t the bother and want someone else to take a stab at expressing their feelings.

• Men will find it appealing and cost effective to shop for the perfect card on-line rather than making the trip and taking their chances with a retailer.

Type of Business

• On-line retailer

Legal Structure

• 50/50 Partnership

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PRODUCT / SERVICE DESCRIPTIONDifferentiating Features

• Occasion specific “emotion-queries” which quickly and painlessly capture the information required to create an individualized and appropriate card

• Repeat avoidance, which checks previous cards to avoid style and passage duplication

• Password protected reminder and generic mail packaging for discretion and surprise

• Special occasion notification and prompts for action

Individual Qualifications

• 6 yrs of creative writing and poetry workshops

• “What we know we know, what we don’t know, we ask.”

• We currently work with our target market

• Took an Entrepreneurship class and earned 3 college credits

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CUSTOMER PROFILE• Our customers are guys between the ages of 14 and 17, who are English speaking and

reside in the U.S.

• The U.S. Census estimates put this population segment to be 8.7 million by 2010

• Forrester, Inc. estimates this group to have annual personal income of $20 billion

• Price Water’s Coopers research notes that 50% of U.S. teens are on-line and use the internet to research purchase decisions, but only 1/3 make credit card purchases

• These are ordinary high school kids whose card purchasing behavior is sporadic, they’re relationships are measured in months, so purchases fall within small windows

Reasons Teens go on-line Gender Weightings

E-mail 44% Equally weighted by gender 50/50 M/F

Information Research 19% Equally weighted by gender 50/50 M/F

Games 10% Heavily weighted by gender 90/10 M/F

Chat Rooms 10% Equally weighted by gender 50/50 M/F

Downloads 6% Equally weighted by gender 50/50 M/F

Other 11% n/a

Competition Price QualityGreatest Strength

Greatest Weakness

MaLady’s Poetry

myladyspoetry.com

$18-$27 good Good use of poetry

Not geared to a male audience

Hallmark & Others

hallmark.com

$5 fair Large variety Mass produced, not from me to you

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COMPETITIVE POSITION

Customer Value Proposition:

• Drive to retail outlet (estimate 1 hour)

• Purchase of card

• Cost of poor quality and taste

• Cost of last minute flowers

Retail:

$12.00

$4.00

risky

$25.00

Cupid:

$0

$20.00

guaranteed

$0

Total cost per special purchase occasion: $16 to $40 $20

Low RiskHigh Risk

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MARKETING• Price: $20 per card is representative of

actual costs incurred shopping national retail and is competitive with major U.S. custom poetry on-line retailer

• Place: On-line is an inexpensive medium to target a large teenage male audience (on-line now displaces TV)

• Product: Product creates significant time savings with the appearance of a great deal of time, effort and thought

• Promotion: Link product to on-line venues already actively used and surfed by guys ages 14-17

U.S Male Pop. Age 14-17 8.7 M

50% on-line 4.4 M

1/3rd credit-card users 1.4M

25% in M/F relationships 0.36M

10% chance for occasion 36,000

10% sales hit rate 3,600

Sanity check:

3,600 represents 0.04% of this population or

about 414 per million

Market Discussion:

Phase Method Description Cost

Awareness Links to current on-line venues

e-mail: yahoo, g-male, hotmail, aol, etc.social sites: myspace, facebook, high 5, etc.monitoring site m/s through out the year

FREE

Purchase Pop-ups Pop-ups will tied to major relationship holidays (v-day, mother’s day, etc.)

Varies by season & occasion

Retention Superb customer personalization options

High quality cards, discrete e-mail date and event notification and repeat card avoidance engine

Cards are an on-going cost, special features are included in cost to build and manage web-site

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MARKETING PLAN

Definition of One Unit One card shipped U.S. postal to customer

Cost of Sales Per Unit

Direct Labor Time (in hours) Direct Labor Cost Per Unit

$10.00 1 $10.00

Total Direct Labor Per Unit $10.00

Material Description Cost/Total Quantity Cost Per Unit ($)

Accrued (verse & art) / card 8-hours/ at ≈ 25 turns $3.33

Paper stock (card/envelope) 100 units for $4.00 $0.04

Printing (ink & printer) 100 units for $10.00 $0.10

Non-descript packaging 100 units $2.00 $0.02

Total Material Cost Per Unit $ 3.49

Variable Costs Per Unit (postage) $ 0.42

Cost of Sales Per Unit $ 13.91

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COST OF MATERIALS/DIRECT LABOR

Definition of One Unit: One card shipped U.S. postal to customer

Selling Price per Unit $20.00

Direct Labor Per Unit $10.00

Materials Per Unit $3.49

Total COGS Per Unit $13.49

Variable Costs Per Unit $0.42

Total Cost of Sales $13.91

Gross Profit Per Unit $6.09

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ECONOMICS OF 1 UNIT

Business Schedule for a Typical Week

Entrepreneurship 20 hrs

School Hours 40 hrs

Sleep 60 hrs

Free-Time Hours 48 hrs

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TIME MANAGEMENT PLAN

Business will require 80 hrs./wk minimum, so in addition to partners, 2 part time employees (at 20/hrs per week) will be needed.

Business Schedule for a Typical Week

Entrepreneurship 20 hrs

School Hours 40 hrs

Sleep 60 hrs

Free-Time Hours 48 hrs

Type of Fixed Cost Monthly Cost

Entrepreneurial Stipend $0

Utilities (electric & internet) $25

advertising $0

Insurance (home owners policy ≈ $600/year) $10

Interest (no loans) $0

Rent (live at home) $50

Depreciation (computer/software/printer 5/yr.) $25

Total Monthly Fixed Costs $110

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AVERAGE MONTHLY FIXED COSTS

Month Units Sold

January 200

February 1,000

March 200

April 200

May 700

June 200

July 100

August 100

September 200

October 200

November 200

December 300

Total = 3,600

Monthly

Break-Even Units86 units/ mo

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Sales Assumption• Market Size: 360,000 eligible guys

between the ages of 14-17 who are dating

• Full Capacity: Valentine’s season

• Seasonality: High sales with female specific holidays and rest of year in accordance with birthdays, summers are slow due to lower interaction

MONTHLY SALES PROJECTIONS

Selling Price Per Unit $20.00

# of Units Sold 3,600

Total Sales $72,000.00

Total COGS (includes all salaries) $48,564.00

Other Variable Costs $1,512.00

Total Variable Costs $50,076.00

Gross Profit $21,924.00

Yearly Fixed Costs $1,320.00

Other Costs/Unforeseen $1,000.00

Total Fixed Costs $2,320.00

Profit before Taxes $19,604.00

Less Estimated Taxes @25% $4,901.00

Net Profit $14,703.00

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PROJECTIONED YEARLY INCOME

• We’re helping men speak to women

• Promoting couples, relationships, and positive human interaction through poetry

• Promoting recycling by using 100% recyclable paper

• Employing creative individuals

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SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PLAN

• Business- Provide revenue throughout

high school and college

- Grow into a national brand inclusive of men of all ages

- Sell one day for a large profit

• Educational - Complete high school and gain

admissions into under graduate

colleges of choice

- Earn an MBA in Marketing and a

PhD in clinical psychology

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BUSINESS & EDUCATIONAL GOALS

So…You Just Got Shot

by

Thank you for your consideration of

GeM’s

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