About the e-business

The chosen e-business would include the development of personalized recipes for different types of fast meals and snacks, which will be accessible online. Bachelors (both males and females), newly married couples, people with busy lives, and people venturing into cooking would be the main buyers (beginners in cooking). Any menus will be followed by a video demonstrating the moves. To get started, you’ll need a laptop, a camera (webcam), an internet connection (modem or some other fast internet connection), and a website. Food-related websites and search engines, such as foodnetwork.com and healthyliving.com, will promote the resources available. Customers will be required to sign in to the website after providing their email address as a requirement for signing up (It is at the stage of sign up that they create their user names and passwords).

The signing up will ensure that each customer gets a customized service. Online payment services such as PayPal and Skrill will be used as the only mode of payment for the services. The customers will be provided with a preview of the menu and upon receipt of their payment a full version of the menu will be provided. Given that the business is online majority of the customers will be received through internet marketing and referrals. The reason for provision of a preview is to convert the potential customers into real customers. Another method of carrying out online marketing is through mailing of customer who would have sign up for newsletter of the business. To ensure that the customers earn the trust of the services offered a refund system will be set up. This system will ensure that customers who are not satisfied get their money back.

The business will be customer based meaning customers will be able to request for a video recording or an audio for the actual procedure at an additional cost. This will ensure that all potential range of customers are catered for. Finally, online users are sensitive on their personal information and for that reason the sign-up process will only include email address and not any other data. This will ensure that potential customers are not locked out due to long insecurity. The site will also be basic and user friendly while at the same time detailed enough.

Startup Cost

The start-up cost for the business is as follows;

The cost section is divided into fixed and variable estimates

Fixed cost (US dollars) are;

A Laptop =$ 45000.This will get an efficient and reliable laptop will be used for three to five years

User Interface, security and Architecture programming = $500,000 per year.

Web hosting charges = $700 per month

Internet connection = $ 4000 per month

The variable costs will be cost of contacting customers through phone and online transactional fees.

The e-commerce company considered is google Inc. The following data was extracted from the “balance sheet” as of 31.03.15, (values are in million US dollars):

Current Assets = $ 80,313

Total Assets = $ 133,400

Current Liability =$ 14,336

Total liability =$ 24,952

Owners’ equity = $ 108,448

Based on the general equation of balance sheet (from accounting principles);

Total Assets = Total Liabilities + Total Equity

$ 133, 400 = $ 24, 952 +$ 108, 448

Clearly the balance sheet balances at $ 133, 400

References

Chaffey, D. (2007). E-business and E-commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. Pearson Education.

Da Costa, E. (2016). Global e-commerce strategies for small businesses. Mit Press.

Hajli, M. N. (2014). The role of social support on relationship quality and social commerce. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 87, 17-27.