Capstone_Media Plan
Order Description
Read the sample paper (p27-p39) and ppt slides (slide21-60). All the ideas are provided and you should include all the media plan that I mentioned in the both of the slides and paper. Please rephrase all the sentences and words of the sample paper. Your paper should include the following parts:
– Marketing Plan, Media Plan and Creative execution
– Brand Positioning
– Campaign Strategy & Objectives
– Product, Price, Promotion, Distribution
– Customer Acquisition Plan
– CRM & Lifetime Value
– Media Plans & Budget
– Creative execution
– Measurement & Analytics

give titles and subtitles of each part when you are writing. Alomost all the ideas are included in the slides and paper. Thanks. You can use as many references as you need.
Capstone Course
Business Plan
Student: Jin Li (Nick)
Date: Aug 12, 2015
Capstone Course Business Plan ii
Table of Contents
Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
Business Idea …………………………………………………………………………………… 2
Point of Differentiation ………………………………………………………………… 2
Mission …………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Business Model …………………………………………………………………………… 4
Services ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Service Development …………………………………………………………………… 6
Operating Model ………………………………………………………………………… 7
Pricing ………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
Administrative Structure ………………………………………………………………….. 10
Location & Legal Formation. ………………………………………………………. 10
Management Team ……………………………………………………………………. 11
Organization Chart. …………………………………………………………………… 14
Marketing ……………………………………………………………………………………… 15
Marketing Objectives (SMART). ………………………………………………….. 15
PEST Analysis ………………………………………………………………………….. 16
Competition …………………………………………………………………………….. 18
Five Forces Analysis ………………………………………………………………….. 20
SWOT Analysis ………………………………………………………………………… 22
Target Audience ……………………………………………………………………….. 23
Persona …………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Media Plan ………………………………………………………………………………. 27
Financials ……………………………………………………………………………………… 40
Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………………. 42
Capstone Course Business Plan 1
Executive Summary
In 2014, there were approximately 890,000 international students who were holding
F1 Visa studying in U.S. As the number of international students has been increasing in
recent years, Chinese students become harder and harder to differentiate themselves among
applicants from all over the world.
When Chinese students decide to study overseas, the most common way is to hire an
agency to edit all of the application required document, such as short essay, personal
statement and resume. However, the problem is that students don’t usually know who are
editing the required document for them. Even if students know the editors, they may start
wondering whether the editors are qualified or not. Students want to be more involved
during the application process, and they want to have editors who they can trust. Therefore,
Mentor Solution is mainly to solve the current problem by providing an online peer-to-peer
platform.
Mentor Solution recruits thousands of mentors from top schools in U.S. and builds
personal profiles on the platform. Through the platform, students can find their mentors
based on their desired schools, ideal majors, background, and affordable rates.
Capstone Course Business Plan 2
Business Idea
Points of Differentiation
•! Provide more choices to students through the platform
Traditionally, agencies give students no choice to choose any of their editors. After
signing contacts, students will usually be contacted by someone within the agency.
Students are very passive during the time of preparation. Today, Mentor Solution
recruits thousands of mentors from top schools in U.S. and builds personal profiles
for each of them. Students who have different preferences can find their desired
mentors through the platform. Obviously, students have much more choices than
before.
•! Let students have more knowledge before they get into the academic program
Because Mentor Solution has mentors from different top schools in U.S., students
may find mentors from programs that they are applying for. Therefore, it is definitely
a great opportunity for students because they can ask more specific questions about
the program. Even better, mentors understand the qualifications and preferences that
the program required; hence, students will definitely benefit a lot by using Mentor
Solution.
•! Price of the services is decided by students and their mentors
Price is negotiable. Especially when mentors who are new to the platform can offer
better price in order to attract more students. Using Mentor Solution is more flexible
and convenient. Students may be surprised by the great quality of services and the
Capstone Course Business Plan 3
unbelievable price.
•! Mentors and students can rate each other after services are provided
Traditionally, after the services are ended, students and editors won’t have a chance
to rate each other, which is a huge waste because customer’s feedback is valuable
resource to evaluate employer performance. Since Mentor Solution offers a chance
for mentors and students to rate each other, students can also choose mentors by
looking at their reviews.
Mission
Mentor Solution provides an online platform for Chinese students to find their best
mentors in order to help them get the offer. In the long-term future, Mentor Solution
will expand to reach even more students in different countries.
Getting the offer is always the ultimate mission of our business.
Capstone Course Business Plan 4
Business Model
•! Mentor Solution only charges students for certain amount of service fee
o! Each time $10 service fee
o! Monthly $35 service fee
Every student who wants to use service on Mentor Solution needs to sign up as a
member. Every time when students use a service, Mentor Solution charges students
$10. For example, if student A uses service X and Y, A needs to pay $20 totally for
service fee. If students think that they will use more than 4 different services, they
may subscribe a monthly plan, which costs them $35 totally. With the monthly plan,
students don’t need to pay extra fee.
•! Mentors will receive the exact amount of money as they set up on Mentor
Solution
Mentor Solution doesn’t charge mentors any user fee. Instead, mentors will receive
the exact amount of money as they set up for each of their providing service. For
instance, if mentor B sets his/her price of resume editing is $100, after the service is
complete, he/she will receive $100 completely.
Capstone Course Business Plan 5
•! The management team will send out an estimated price range to mentors
Before mentors begin providing services on Mentor Solution, they will receive
estimated price ranges for different services so that they can set an appropriate price.
Capstone Course Business Plan 6
Services
Service Development
•! Essay Editing have your mentor to polish your personal statement and short essay
Essay such as personal statement is a key part of every academic program
application. Different schools have different requirement on writing a relevant essay.
In the past, editors from some agencies modify students’ essays into general ones,
which can be used to apply for different programs, sometimes even different majors.
Because the essays are too general, schools cannot value whether the students are
suitable candidates or not. Therefore, mentors from Mentor Solution are mainly
focused on polishing students’ essays and specifying them for the target programs.
•! Resume Editing: have your mentor to simplify and strengthen your resume
If saying personal statement is a little summary of student’s story, resume is the face
of candidates. Due to the large number of applications each year, admission officers
only have a few seconds to go through student’s resume. Mentors from top schools
understand more about what is important to have on resume.
•! Major Consultation: consult with your mentor for more information about the
major and program
Capstone Course Business Plan 7
Students may ask mentors specific questions about courses, classmates or even
professors. Mentors may give advice such as how to prepare for courses, what is the
career path after the program, what certification is better to have.
•! Mock Interview: prepare you perfectly before your interview
Due to the increasing number of international students, some schools start having
video interview in order to test student’s English language proficiency. Mentors who
have been through the video interview may give incoming students some tips for
tackling the language problem.
Operating Model
•! Make an appointment
Students submit requests to mentors through Mentor Solution. Please keep in mind
that if mentors are super busy, they may switch to unavailable status. If mentors are
available, students may select a time to make an appointment with mentors.
•! Schedule a time
Capstone Course Business Plan 8
Mentors either accept or decline students’ request and schedule a time for
consultation. After scheduling a time, students need to process a payment. The price
is including the consultation fee based on what mentors set on the platform and $10
if students didn’t sign up for the monthly plan. At this point, the money does not
directly go to mentor’s account, but to Mentor Solution. Mentor Solution will hold
the money until the service ends.
•! Get mentored
After the confirmation of the payment, mentors will either have a call for
consultation or edit students’ materials according to requests.
•! Pay the fee
Mentors will get paid once the consultation is finished. They will receive the exact
same amount of money as they set up on Mentor Solution.
•! Evaluation on both sides
Students and mentors will give each other feedback on consultation services. The
rating system will help other students and mentors understand each others better
before starting services.
Pricing
Below is pricing recommendation for each services on Mentor Solution. They
start from $0 because we recommend mentors to offer free trial in order to
attract more students’ attention. There is a “+” sign behind because we allow
some star mentors charge more due to the better services they offer.
Capstone Course Business Plan 9
•! Essay Editing: $0 – $100+
•! Resume Editing: $0 – $100+
•! Major Consultation: $0 – $50+
•! Mock Interview: $0 – $50+
Capstone Course Business Plan 10
Administrative Structure
Location & Legal Formation
•! Location: Guangzhou, China
The management team chooses Guangzhou as Mentor Solution’s headquarter
because local government offers a lot of benefits for students who come back from
oversea studying to startup their business. Benefits are including tax return or tax
deduction, application and registration simplification and maximum $160,000 for
starting business.
•! Legal Formation: Limited Liability Company (LLC)
The management team chooses LLC because there are more tax deductions available
after forming an LLC. The IRS does not consider an LLC to be a distinct separate
entity for tax purposes. This means that, at least initially, the IRS will not tax the
LLC directly. Instead, members of the LLC get to determine how they want to be
taxed. (https://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/why-start-an-llc-limited-liabilitycompany-
advantages-and-disadvantages.rl)
There are several options:
o! Single member LLC: This structure is taxed like a sole proprietorship.
o! Partners in an LLC: Members elect to be treated like a traditional partnership
for tax purposes.
o! LLC filing as a corporation: The members of the organization may also
choose to file as if they were corporation.
Capstone Course Business Plan 11
Management Team
Abby is the Chief Financial Officer at Mentor Solution. She was working for
investment banking division at Deutsche Bank. She obviously has a lot of
connections with institutional clients. Therefore, she is taking charge of the financial
department at Mentor Solution. Her job is not simply as an accountant. On one hand,
she is actively looking for investors and she needs to manage investor relationships.
On the other hand, she needs to consider when and where to invest money in order
to help grow the company.
Capstone Course Business Plan 12
Rocky is the Chief Technological Officer at Mentor Solution. He has a great deal of
experience working for technological companies. He is extremely good at database
building, setting up internal server and website building. He utilizes different
programming languages to help companies solve different technical issue. His team
at Mentor Solution is mainly focused on website building, giving technical back up
and maintaining the server.
Capstone Course Business Plan 13
Nick is the Chief Marketing Officer at Mentor Solution. He graduated from NYU
Integrated Marketing Program. He had marketing experiences from both agency side
and company side. He gets certified by Google and Facebook. He is good at SEO,
SEM and marketing data analytics. His team is mainly focused on creating
marketing campaigns and doing paid ad in order to attract Chinese students to use
Mentor Solution. He also needs to cooperate with CTO to design the official website.
Capstone Course Business Plan 14
Organization Chart
Chairman &
CEO
CFO
Finance
Investor Relations
Corporate
Development
CTO
Technical Team
Production Team
Developer &
Customer
Support
CMO
Service Portfolio
Management &
Market Research
Corporate
Marketing
Marketing
Communication
Capstone Course Business Plan 15
Marketing
Marketing Objectives (SMART)
•! Increase Platform Traffic by 20%
Platform traffic is extremely important to Mentor Solution. More traffic somehow
means more students are interested in our platform. Increasing platform traffic by
20% is achievable. Our marketing team will be active on social media platforms and
related forums. We may hire school ambassadors to promote Mentor Solution. We
will keep tracking our ad’s click through rate and website traffic by using Google
Adwords and Google Analytics.
•! Increase Service Usage by 5%
No matter how many students visiting Mentor Solution, if they don’t use our
services, we won’t survive for a long time. Therefore, we need to keep tracking the
Capstone Course Business Plan 16
conversion rate. The management team will also suggest mentors to offer
promotional price at the first 6 months to attract more students.
•! Increase Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is usually difficult to assess. However, Mentor Solution has a
rating system, which helps the management team to assess how customers feel after
using service.
PEST Analysis
•! Politics
There are academic rules and regulations affecting the university application process.
Therefore, we strictly see plagiarism as a huge problem at Mentor Solution. We
won’t allow any mentor write any essay or resume for any student.
Capstone Course Business Plan 17
•! Economics
The GDP in China was worth $10,360.10 billion in the end of 2014.
(http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/gdp)
From macro economic perspective, the increasing GDP represents that more and
more Chinese families can afford the huge spend on studying overseas.
•! Social
More and more Chinese students come to study in U.S. From 20,000 in 2003 to
273,439 in 2014, the number of Chinese students who hold F1 visa in the U.S. has
been largely expanded. (http://goo.gl/vO1484) (http://goo.gl/1FaUID)
•! Technological
Online business platforms are getting more and more mature. Chinese people are
feeling more comfortable doing business through online platform. Alibaba’s Taobao
is the best example showing online business platform is mature in China.
Capstone Course Business Plan 18
Competition
•! Mentor Solution
Mentor Solution is now the only one offering online services. The other competitors
are still doing business offline. We have thousands of mentors for students to choose.
We rank our mentors on the home page based on the rating score. However, Mentor
Solution doesn’t offer exam training for SAT, TOEFL, IELTS, GMAT or GRE. We
focused on preparing the application materials.
•! New Oriental
New Oriental offers limited number of mentors for students. The company started
from exam training such as College English Test (CET) in 1993. It doesn’t provide
online consulting service and it doesn’t have rating system to any specific editors at
New Oriental.
Capstone Course Business Plan 19
•! Boost
Boost was found in 2001 mainly focused on GMAT and TOEFL preparation. The
company doesn’t provide editor selection because they believe every one at Boost is
over qualified. Boost provides online exam training for the convenience of students
who have to be at work on weekdays.
•! EIC Education
Education International Cooperation (EIC) was found in 2000. It is one of the most
famous agencies in China. Because the company has many locations, it doesn’t
provide online services right now. It has on site exam training.
•! Global IELTS Education
In 1997, Global IELTS Education started business from training IELTS test. In 2000,
the company expanded its business to help students prepare school application
materials.
Capstone Course Business Plan 20
Five Forces Analysis
•! Threat of New Entrants
The threat of new entrants is medium because the barriers of entering education
industry are relatively low.
•! Bargaining Power of Buyers
The bargaining power of students is medium-low because students have relatively
Capstone Course Business Plan 21
low negotiation power to set a price.
•! Threat of Substitute Products or Services
The threat of substitute services is medium-low. Even if students can directly find
someone at the same program providing the same service, there won’t be many of
them.
•! Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The bargaining power of mentors is medium-high because they are the core of
Mentor Solution. In order to keep them providing services through the platform, the
business model should be designed to give them incentive. Therefore, Mentor
Solution doesn’t charge mentors any fee.
•! Rivalry Among Existing Competitors
The Rivalry among existing competitors is medium-high because there are too many
competitors. Even though they don’t offer the same service, they still have solid
market share and strong brand.
Capstone Course Business Plan 22
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
(1) Mentors from top schools
&universities.
(2) Mentors set price
(3) Mentors promote Mentor
Solution
(4) Rating system for both
mentors and students
Weaknesses
(1) Limited mentees at first
(2) Need a lot of time to
convince thousands of mentors
Opportunities
(1) More and more Chinese
students come to study in U.S.
(2) Students want to take more
control during application
process
Threats
(1) Too many competitors
offering essay and resume editing
services
(2) Barriers to enter are relatively
low
Capstone Course Business Plan 23
Target Audience
•! Chinese students who are willing to study in U.S.
•! High school students who are applying for undergraduate programs
•! Undergraduate students who are applying for graduate programs
http://goo.gl/vO1484
Capstone Course Business Plan 24
The number of international students enrolled at U.S. institutions has increased for
the eighth year in a row, with China being the main driver of growth. Chinese
students now make up 31 percent of all international students in the U.S., with more
than double the number of students than India. (http://goo.gl/1FaUID)
Capstone Course Business Plan 25
Persona
Tony Wang
•! 17 years old
•! A high school student in Guangzhou, China
•! He is applying for undergraduate programs in U.S.
•! High School GPA 3.9 / 4.0
•! SAT score 1460 / 1600
•! TOEFL score 110 / 120
•! NYU Stern Accounting Program
Capstone Course Business Plan 26
Jason Tang
•! 22 years old
•! A college student in Wenzhou, China
•! He is applying for graduate programs in U.S.
•! Undergrad GPA 3.5 / 4.0
•! GMAT score 650 / 800
•! TOEFL score 99 / 120
•! Colombia University M.S. Statistics Program
Capstone Course Business Plan 27
Media Plan
At the beginning, the management team decided to only focus on digital marketing
because the result is easier to assess. Also, we believe digital marketing can help us
utilize our marketing budget in a more effective way by targeting the right customers.
There are five key parts that the marketing team is focusing on. Using SEO strategy
to build a better website in order to have a higher organic search result. Using SEM
strategy to bid on the right keywords and letting the ads drive more visitors. Social
Media is a plus after have a great website and services. Email marketing is also a
smart way to attract new users. Online advertising such as affiliate ads is also an
important source of driving new visitors.
Capstone Course Business Plan 28
Website(s)
•! Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately
describe your content.
•! Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that
your site actually includes those words within it.
•! Check for broken links and correct HTML.
•! Google Webmaster Tools is a great guide line for building a more Google
friendly website.
Capstone Course Business Plan 29
Search Engine Marketing
Google Adwords is an awesome tool to drive new visitors through the ads. After
finishing the optimization of the website, the marketing team can start
implementing SEM. Below are two sample ads with call to action sentences.
Capstone Course Business Plan 30
Below are tools that the marketing team frequently used to generate keywords. They
are Keyword Tool, Ubersuggest and Word Stream.
After the marketing team inserts the tracking code to the website, we can begin
tracking visitors. When we collect enough data, we can start modify the content
based on the result of AB testing.
Capstone Course Business Plan 31
Social Media Marketing
•! Facebook Page – Set up a Facebook page to showcase the platform. Using
Facebook Advertising to promote it. We will post relevant content in order to keep
our target up to date.
•! The marketing team will post relevant content such as tips for applying for schools
to attract visitors landing on our website. However, we won’t post too often just to
avoid annoying our followers. Therefore, we decide to post on a weekly basis.
•! The marketing team may sometimes offer some discount codes on Facebook,
which motivates visitors to use services on Mentor Solution.
Capstone Course Business Plan 32
•! LinkedIn Page is important because it is a door to invite mentors besides our
official website.
•! Having an official LinkedIn Page gives students and mentors creditable feeling
when they are still in a consideration process.
•! Posts on Mentor Solution’s website will be shared to the LinkedIn page.
•! Students may see our posts or profiles when they do networking on LinkedIn with
our mentors.
•! We won’t force our mentors to share our posts. But it is more than welcome to
share for the platform.
Capstone Course Business Plan 33
•! Weibo is one of the most popular social media platforms in China. At the end of
2014, there were 170 Million active users on Weibo.
(http://money.163.com/15/0312/09/AKGESRAE00253B0H.html)
•! Setting up a Weibo page is necessary to showcase our platform. The marketing
team will use paid ads on Weibo in order to reach even more potential users.
•! The marketing team will post relevant content such as tips for applying for schools
to attract visitors landing on our website. However, we won’t post too often just to
avoid annoying our followers. Therefore, we decide to post on a weekly basis.
•! The marketing team may sometimes offer some discount codes on Facebook,
which motivates visitors to use services on Mentor Solution.
Capstone Course Business Plan 34
•! WeChat is the most popular social media platform in China. At the end of 2014,
there were 438 Million active users on WeChat.
(http://media.people.com.cn/n/2014/0815/c40606-25470311.html)
•! Setting up a WeChat account is mainly to push the latest news about Mentor
Solution to subscribers. In addition, the marketing team will host webinar once a
week inviting mentors to talk about different topics.
•! The marketing team will post relevant content such as tips for applying for schools
to attract visitors landing on our website. However, we won’t post too often just to
avoid annoying our followers.
•! Below is a timeline showing how the marketing team uses WeChat to reach
students.
Capstone Course Business Plan 35
Capstone Course Business Plan 36
Email Marketing
•! Step 1. Get mentee database:
o! Rent email list from forum
o! Email them about Mentor Solution
•! Step 2. Outline a basic school applying cycle
•! Step 3. Match content to the school applying cycle
•! Step 4. Create emails for each step of the school applying cycle
•! Step 5. Help mentee convert to use our service
•! Step 6. Tracking
Capstone Course Business Plan 37
Online Advertising
•! Affiliate ads are helpful to direct visitors to Mentor Solution.
•! The marketing team will find out some key influencers and try to partner with
them by putting ads on their blogs.
•! Below is an example influencer’s blog. The influencer is agreed to put our ads right
upper corner of his page.
•! Below are two example forums. The owners of these two forums agree to put our
ads on their pages.
Capstone Course Business Plan 38
Capstone Course Business Plan 39
•! Mentor Solution doesn’t want to miss any opportunity; hence, Even though New
Oriental is one of our competitors, we still try to convince them to insert our ads.
Below is an example of putting our ads on one of our competitor’s websites.
Capstone Course Business Plan 40
Financials
Profit and Loss Projection (3 Years)
Capstone Course Business Plan 41
Balance Sheet
Capstone Course Business Plan 42
Appendix
SEM Budget

Capstone_Media Plan
Order Description
Read the sample paper (p27-p39) and ppt slides (slide21-60). All the ideas are provided and you should include all the media plan that I mentioned in the both of the slides and paper. Please rephrase all the sentences and words of the sample paper. Your paper should include the following parts:
– Marketing Plan, Media Plan and Creative execution
– Brand Positioning
– Campaign Strategy & Objectives
– Product, Price, Promotion, Distribution
– Customer Acquisition Plan
– CRM & Lifetime Value
– Media Plans & Budget
– Creative execution
– Measurement & Analytics

give titles and subtitles of each part when you are writing. Alomost all the ideas are included in the slides and paper. Thanks. You can use as many references as you need.
Capstone Course
Business Plan
Student: Jin Li (Nick)
Date: Aug 12, 2015
Capstone Course Business Plan ii
Table of Contents
Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
Business Idea …………………………………………………………………………………… 2
Point of Differentiation ………………………………………………………………… 2
Mission …………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Business Model …………………………………………………………………………… 4
Services ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Service Development …………………………………………………………………… 6
Operating Model ………………………………………………………………………… 7
Pricing ………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
Administrative Structure ………………………………………………………………….. 10
Location & Legal Formation. ………………………………………………………. 10
Management Team ……………………………………………………………………. 11
Organization Chart. …………………………………………………………………… 14
Marketing ……………………………………………………………………………………… 15
Marketing Objectives (SMART). ………………………………………………….. 15
PEST Analysis ………………………………………………………………………….. 16
Competition …………………………………………………………………………….. 18
Five Forces Analysis ………………………………………………………………….. 20
SWOT Analysis ………………………………………………………………………… 22
Target Audience ……………………………………………………………………….. 23
Persona …………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Media Plan ………………………………………………………………………………. 27
Financials ……………………………………………………………………………………… 40
Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………………. 42
Capstone Course Business Plan 1
Executive Summary
In 2014, there were approximately 890,000 international students who were holding
F1 Visa studying in U.S. As the number of international students has been increasing in
recent years, Chinese students become harder and harder to differentiate themselves among
applicants from all over the world.
When Chinese students decide to study overseas, the most common way is to hire an
agency to edit all of the application required document, such as short essay, personal
statement and resume. However, the problem is that students don’t usually know who are
editing the required document for them. Even if students know the editors, they may start
wondering whether the editors are qualified or not. Students want to be more involved
during the application process, and they want to have editors who they can trust. Therefore,
Mentor Solution is mainly to solve the current problem by providing an online peer-to-peer
platform.
Mentor Solution recruits thousands of mentors from top schools in U.S. and builds
personal profiles on the platform. Through the platform, students can find their mentors
based on their desired schools, ideal majors, background, and affordable rates.
Capstone Course Business Plan 2
Business Idea
Points of Differentiation
•! Provide more choices to students through the platform
Traditionally, agencies give students no choice to choose any of their editors. After
signing contacts, students will usually be contacted by someone within the agency.
Students are very passive during the time of preparation. Today, Mentor Solution
recruits thousands of mentors from top schools in U.S. and builds personal profiles
for each of them. Students who have different preferences can find their desired
mentors through the platform. Obviously, students have much more choices than
before.
•! Let students have more knowledge before they get into the academic program
Because Mentor Solution has mentors from different top schools in U.S., students
may find mentors from programs that they are applying for. Therefore, it is definitely
a great opportunity for students because they can ask more specific questions about
the program. Even better, mentors understand the qualifications and preferences that
the program required; hence, students will definitely benefit a lot by using Mentor
Solution.
•! Price of the services is decided by students and their mentors
Price is negotiable. Especially when mentors who are new to the platform can offer
better price in order to attract more students. Using Mentor Solution is more flexible
and convenient. Students may be surprised by the great quality of services and the
Capstone Course Business Plan 3
unbelievable price.
•! Mentors and students can rate each other after services are provided
Traditionally, after the services are ended, students and editors won’t have a chance
to rate each other, which is a huge waste because customer’s feedback is valuable
resource to evaluate employer performance. Since Mentor Solution offers a chance
for mentors and students to rate each other, students can also choose mentors by
looking at their reviews.
Mission
Mentor Solution provides an online platform for Chinese students to find their best
mentors in order to help them get the offer. In the long-term future, Mentor Solution
will expand to reach even more students in different countries.
Getting the offer is always the ultimate mission of our business.
Capstone Course Business Plan 4
Business Model
•! Mentor Solution only charges students for certain amount of service fee
o! Each time $10 service fee
o! Monthly $35 service fee
Every student who wants to use service on Mentor Solution needs to sign up as a
member. Every time when students use a service, Mentor Solution charges students
$10. For example, if student A uses service X and Y, A needs to pay $20 totally for
service fee. If students think that they will use more than 4 different services, they
may subscribe a monthly plan, which costs them $35 totally. With the monthly plan,
students don’t need to pay extra fee.
•! Mentors will receive the exact amount of money as they set up on Mentor
Solution
Mentor Solution doesn’t charge mentors any user fee. Instead, mentors will receive
the exact amount of money as they set up for each of their providing service. For
instance, if mentor B sets his/her price of resume editing is $100, after the service is
complete, he/she will receive $100 completely.
Capstone Course Business Plan 5
•! The management team will send out an estimated price range to mentors
Before mentors begin providing services on Mentor Solution, they will receive
estimated price ranges for different services so that they can set an appropriate price.
Capstone Course Business Plan 6
Services
Service Development
•! Essay Editing have your mentor to polish your personal statement and short essay
Essay such as personal statement is a key part of every academic program
application. Different schools have different requirement on writing a relevant essay.
In the past, editors from some agencies modify students’ essays into general ones,
which can be used to apply for different programs, sometimes even different majors.
Because the essays are too general, schools cannot value whether the students are
suitable candidates or not. Therefore, mentors from Mentor Solution are mainly
focused on polishing students’ essays and specifying them for the target programs.
•! Resume Editing: have your mentor to simplify and strengthen your resume
If saying personal statement is a little summary of student’s story, resume is the face
of candidates. Due to the large number of applications each year, admission officers
only have a few seconds to go through student’s resume. Mentors from top schools
understand more about what is important to have on resume.
•! Major Consultation: consult with your mentor for more information about the
major and program
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Students may ask mentors specific questions about courses, classmates or even
professors. Mentors may give advice such as how to prepare for courses, what is the
career path after the program, what certification is better to have.
•! Mock Interview: prepare you perfectly before your interview
Due to the increasing number of international students, some schools start having
video interview in order to test student’s English language proficiency. Mentors who
have been through the video interview may give incoming students some tips for
tackling the language problem.
Operating Model
•! Make an appointment
Students submit requests to mentors through Mentor Solution. Please keep in mind
that if mentors are super busy, they may switch to unavailable status. If mentors are
available, students may select a time to make an appointment with mentors.
•! Schedule a time
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Mentors either accept or decline students’ request and schedule a time for
consultation. After scheduling a time, students need to process a payment. The price
is including the consultation fee based on what mentors set on the platform and $10
if students didn’t sign up for the monthly plan. At this point, the money does not
directly go to mentor’s account, but to Mentor Solution. Mentor Solution will hold
the money until the service ends.
•! Get mentored
After the confirmation of the payment, mentors will either have a call for
consultation or edit students’ materials according to requests.
•! Pay the fee
Mentors will get paid once the consultation is finished. They will receive the exact
same amount of money as they set up on Mentor Solution.
•! Evaluation on both sides
Students and mentors will give each other feedback on consultation services. The
rating system will help other students and mentors understand each others better
before starting services.
Pricing
Below is pricing recommendation for each services on Mentor Solution. They
start from $0 because we recommend mentors to offer free trial in order to
attract more students’ attention. There is a “+” sign behind because we allow
some star mentors charge more due to the better services they offer.
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•! Essay Editing: $0 – $100+
•! Resume Editing: $0 – $100+
•! Major Consultation: $0 – $50+
•! Mock Interview: $0 – $50+
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Administrative Structure
Location & Legal Formation
•! Location: Guangzhou, China
The management team chooses Guangzhou as Mentor Solution’s headquarter
because local government offers a lot of benefits for students who come back from
oversea studying to startup their business. Benefits are including tax return or tax
deduction, application and registration simplification and maximum $160,000 for
starting business.
•! Legal Formation: Limited Liability Company (LLC)
The management team chooses LLC because there are more tax deductions available
after forming an LLC. The IRS does not consider an LLC to be a distinct separate
entity for tax purposes. This means that, at least initially, the IRS will not tax the
LLC directly. Instead, members of the LLC get to determine how they want to be
taxed. (https://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/why-start-an-llc-limited-liabilitycompany-
advantages-and-disadvantages.rl)
There are several options:
o! Single member LLC: This structure is taxed like a sole proprietorship.
o! Partners in an LLC: Members elect to be treated like a traditional partnership
for tax purposes.
o! LLC filing as a corporation: The members of the organization may also
choose to file as if they were corporation.
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Management Team
Abby is the Chief Financial Officer at Mentor Solution. She was working for
investment banking division at Deutsche Bank. She obviously has a lot of
connections with institutional clients. Therefore, she is taking charge of the financial
department at Mentor Solution. Her job is not simply as an accountant. On one hand,
she is actively looking for investors and she needs to manage investor relationships.
On the other hand, she needs to consider when and where to invest money in order
to help grow the company.
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Rocky is the Chief Technological Officer at Mentor Solution. He has a great deal of
experience working for technological companies. He is extremely good at database
building, setting up internal server and website building. He utilizes different
programming languages to help companies solve different technical issue. His team
at Mentor Solution is mainly focused on website building, giving technical back up
and maintaining the server.
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Nick is the Chief Marketing Officer at Mentor Solution. He graduated from NYU
Integrated Marketing Program. He had marketing experiences from both agency side
and company side. He gets certified by Google and Facebook. He is good at SEO,
SEM and marketing data analytics. His team is mainly focused on creating
marketing campaigns and doing paid ad in order to attract Chinese students to use
Mentor Solution. He also needs to cooperate with CTO to design the official website.
Capstone Course Business Plan 14
Organization Chart
Chairman &
CEO
CFO
Finance
Investor Relations
Corporate
Development
CTO
Technical Team
Production Team
Developer &
Customer
Support
CMO
Service Portfolio
Management &
Market Research
Corporate
Marketing
Marketing
Communication
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Marketing
Marketing Objectives (SMART)
•! Increase Platform Traffic by 20%
Platform traffic is extremely important to Mentor Solution. More traffic somehow
means more students are interested in our platform. Increasing platform traffic by
20% is achievable. Our marketing team will be active on social media platforms and
related forums. We may hire school ambassadors to promote Mentor Solution. We
will keep tracking our ad’s click through rate and website traffic by using Google
Adwords and Google Analytics.
•! Increase Service Usage by 5%
No matter how many students visiting Mentor Solution, if they don’t use our
services, we won’t survive for a long time. Therefore, we need to keep tracking the
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conversion rate. The management team will also suggest mentors to offer
promotional price at the first 6 months to attract more students.
•! Increase Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is usually difficult to assess. However, Mentor Solution has a
rating system, which helps the management team to assess how customers feel after
using service.
PEST Analysis
•! Politics
There are academic rules and regulations affecting the university application process.
Therefore, we strictly see plagiarism as a huge problem at Mentor Solution. We
won’t allow any mentor write any essay or resume for any student.
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•! Economics
The GDP in China was worth $10,360.10 billion in the end of 2014.
(http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/gdp)
From macro economic perspective, the increasing GDP represents that more and
more Chinese families can afford the huge spend on studying overseas.
•! Social
More and more Chinese students come to study in U.S. From 20,000 in 2003 to
273,439 in 2014, the number of Chinese students who hold F1 visa in the U.S. has
been largely expanded. (http://goo.gl/vO1484) (http://goo.gl/1FaUID)
•! Technological
Online business platforms are getting more and more mature. Chinese people are
feeling more comfortable doing business through online platform. Alibaba’s Taobao
is the best example showing online business platform is mature in China.
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Competition
•! Mentor Solution
Mentor Solution is now the only one offering online services. The other competitors
are still doing business offline. We have thousands of mentors for students to choose.
We rank our mentors on the home page based on the rating score. However, Mentor
Solution doesn’t offer exam training for SAT, TOEFL, IELTS, GMAT or GRE. We
focused on preparing the application materials.
•! New Oriental
New Oriental offers limited number of mentors for students. The company started
from exam training such as College English Test (CET) in 1993. It doesn’t provide
online consulting service and it doesn’t have rating system to any specific editors at
New Oriental.
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•! Boost
Boost was found in 2001 mainly focused on GMAT and TOEFL preparation. The
company doesn’t provide editor selection because they believe every one at Boost is
over qualified. Boost provides online exam training for the convenience of students
who have to be at work on weekdays.
•! EIC Education
Education International Cooperation (EIC) was found in 2000. It is one of the most
famous agencies in China. Because the company has many locations, it doesn’t
provide online services right now. It has on site exam training.
•! Global IELTS Education
In 1997, Global IELTS Education started business from training IELTS test. In 2000,
the company expanded its business to help students prepare school application
materials.
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Five Forces Analysis
•! Threat of New Entrants
The threat of new entrants is medium because the barriers of entering education
industry are relatively low.
•! Bargaining Power of Buyers
The bargaining power of students is medium-low because students have relatively
Capstone Course Business Plan 21
low negotiation power to set a price.
•! Threat of Substitute Products or Services
The threat of substitute services is medium-low. Even if students can directly find
someone at the same program providing the same service, there won’t be many of
them.
•! Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The bargaining power of mentors is medium-high because they are the core of
Mentor Solution. In order to keep them providing services through the platform, the
business model should be designed to give them incentive. Therefore, Mentor
Solution doesn’t charge mentors any fee.
•! Rivalry Among Existing Competitors
The Rivalry among existing competitors is medium-high because there are too many
competitors. Even though they don’t offer the same service, they still have solid
market share and strong brand.
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths
(1) Mentors from top schools
&universities.
(2) Mentors set price
(3) Mentors promote Mentor
Solution
(4) Rating system for both
mentors and students
Weaknesses
(1) Limited mentees at first
(2) Need a lot of time to
convince thousands of mentors
Opportunities
(1) More and more Chinese
students come to study in U.S.
(2) Students want to take more
control during application
process
Threats
(1) Too many competitors
offering essay and resume editing
services
(2) Barriers to enter are relatively
low
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Target Audience
•! Chinese students who are willing to study in U.S.
•! High school students who are applying for undergraduate programs
•! Undergraduate students who are applying for graduate programs
http://goo.gl/vO1484
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The number of international students enrolled at U.S. institutions has increased for
the eighth year in a row, with China being the main driver of growth. Chinese
students now make up 31 percent of all international students in the U.S., with more
than double the number of students than India. (http://goo.gl/1FaUID)
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Persona
Tony Wang
•! 17 years old
•! A high school student in Guangzhou, China
•! He is applying for undergraduate programs in U.S.
•! High School GPA 3.9 / 4.0
•! SAT score 1460 / 1600
•! TOEFL score 110 / 120
•! NYU Stern Accounting Program
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Jason Tang
•! 22 years old
•! A college student in Wenzhou, China
•! He is applying for graduate programs in U.S.
•! Undergrad GPA 3.5 / 4.0
•! GMAT score 650 / 800
•! TOEFL score 99 / 120
•! Colombia University M.S. Statistics Program
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Media Plan
At the beginning, the management team decided to only focus on digital marketing
because the result is easier to assess. Also, we believe digital marketing can help us
utilize our marketing budget in a more effective way by targeting the right customers.
There are five key parts that the marketing team is focusing on. Using SEO strategy
to build a better website in order to have a higher organic search result. Using SEM
strategy to bid on the right keywords and letting the ads drive more visitors. Social
Media is a plus after have a great website and services. Email marketing is also a
smart way to attract new users. Online advertising such as affiliate ads is also an
important source of driving new visitors.
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Website(s)
•! Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately
describe your content.
•! Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that
your site actually includes those words within it.
•! Check for broken links and correct HTML.
•! Google Webmaster Tools is a great guide line for building a more Google
friendly website.
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Search Engine Marketing
Google Adwords is an awesome tool to drive new visitors through the ads. After
finishing the optimization of the website, the marketing team can start
implementing SEM. Below are two sample ads with call to action sentences.
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Below are tools that the marketing team frequently used to generate keywords. They
are Keyword Tool, Ubersuggest and Word Stream.
After the marketing team inserts the tracking code to the website, we can begin
tracking visitors. When we collect enough data, we can start modify the content
based on the result of AB testing.
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Social Media Marketing
•! Facebook Page – Set up a Facebook page to showcase the platform. Using
Facebook Advertising to promote it. We will post relevant content in order to keep
our target up to date.
•! The marketing team will post relevant content such as tips for applying for schools
to attract visitors landing on our website. However, we won’t post too often just to
avoid annoying our followers. Therefore, we decide to post on a weekly basis.
•! The marketing team may sometimes offer some discount codes on Facebook,
which motivates visitors to use services on Mentor Solution.
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•! LinkedIn Page is important because it is a door to invite mentors besides our
official website.
•! Having an official LinkedIn Page gives students and mentors creditable feeling
when they are still in a consideration process.
•! Posts on Mentor Solution’s website will be shared to the LinkedIn page.
•! Students may see our posts or profiles when they do networking on LinkedIn with
our mentors.
•! We won’t force our mentors to share our posts. But it is more than welcome to
share for the platform.
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•! Weibo is one of the most popular social media platforms in China. At the end of
2014, there were 170 Million active users on Weibo.
(http://money.163.com/15/0312/09/AKGESRAE00253B0H.html)
•! Setting up a Weibo page is necessary to showcase our platform. The marketing
team will use paid ads on Weibo in order to reach even more potential users.
•! The marketing team will post relevant content such as tips for applying for schools
to attract visitors landing on our website. However, we won’t post too often just to
avoid annoying our followers. Therefore, we decide to post on a weekly basis.
•! The marketing team may sometimes offer some discount codes on Facebook,
which motivates visitors to use services on Mentor Solution.
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•! WeChat is the most popular social media platform in China. At the end of 2014,
there were 438 Million active users on WeChat.
(http://media.people.com.cn/n/2014/0815/c40606-25470311.html)
•! Setting up a WeChat account is mainly to push the latest news about Mentor
Solution to subscribers. In addition, the marketing team will host webinar once a
week inviting mentors to talk about different topics.
•! The marketing team will post relevant content such as tips for applying for schools
to attract visitors landing on our website. However, we won’t post too often just to
avoid annoying our followers.
•! Below is a timeline showing how the marketing team uses WeChat to reach
students.
Capstone Course Business Plan 35
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Email Marketing
•! Step 1. Get mentee database:
o! Rent email list from forum
o! Email them about Mentor Solution
•! Step 2. Outline a basic school applying cycle
•! Step 3. Match content to the school applying cycle
•! Step 4. Create emails for each step of the school applying cycle
•! Step 5. Help mentee convert to use our service
•! Step 6. Tracking
Capstone Course Business Plan 37
Online Advertising
•! Affiliate ads are helpful to direct visitors to Mentor Solution.
•! The marketing team will find out some key influencers and try to partner with
them by putting ads on their blogs.
•! Below is an example influencer’s blog. The influencer is agreed to put our ads right
upper corner of his page.
•! Below are two example forums. The owners of these two forums agree to put our
ads on their pages.
Capstone Course Business Plan 38
Capstone Course Business Plan 39
•! Mentor Solution doesn’t want to miss any opportunity; hence, Even though New
Oriental is one of our competitors, we still try to convince them to insert our ads.
Below is an example of putting our ads on one of our competitor’s websites.
Capstone Course Business Plan 40
Financials
Profit and Loss Projection (3 Years)
Capstone Course Business Plan 41
Balance Sheet
Capstone Course Business Plan 42
Appendix
SEM Budget