Business Operations

The prosperity of our economy is primarily due to the growth and success of businesses.  A business is a commercial or industrial enterprise that is designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers and other businesses.  Creating and starting a business is a very difficult and time-consuming affair, which has many planning and research phases. Each phase has a different role in starting a business and each phase is crucial to the businesses survival.  One of the phases is organizing the business operations.  This phase has three components, which include, organizational structure, proposed location, and proposed pricing structure.

            The first component of the business operations phase is organizational structure.  Organizational structure involves the people that will make I-Educator a thriving business from top to bottom.  To complete this aspect I will first off need a CEO, who will manage and be in charge of all departments, all major descisions, and will be in charge of setting a strategy and vision for the company.  I feel that I would make a good CEO because as a leader, I have many great qualities that allow me to excel and achieve anything. I am a diligent, determined, industrious, and focused leader. I know that anything that comes my way will get done with 100% effort, on time and to the best of my ability. I have also had many experiences that have opened my eyes to the world of business, communications, and leadership.  After finding the CEO, I will need to then organize the company into different divisions and departments that will start and then maintain my business. The divisions will be website design and function, education, and hiring. Each division will have a head manager who will report only to me.  The first division, website design and function will obviously control the design, layout, function, and look of my website.  Aside from the head manager, I will need a couple of computer technicians and website designers.  The next division, education, will be more complicated. Aside from the head manager, this division will have a lot of mini departments, each for a different subject.  In each department there will be a head and then a couple of teachers who can gather information on their subject and then upload it onto their respective tab of the website. As well, this division consists of the teachers who will act as the online tutors. The last division, hiring, is responsible for finding the personel that I will need to run my business.  They will need to check backgrounds and interview each potential teacher before the higher them.  This division will again have a head manager as well as a couple of highering technicians.  I also will need an office where everyone can have their space to do what they need to do, while being watched by the managers and me.

            The second component of the business operations phase is proposed location.  This component is very simply, where the business will be located. I-Educator is a business and tool that can be used my any person anywhere in the world.  However, we cannot just open up and be a world-wide business. For this reason we are going to start small.  I want to open up, at first, just to Long Island. I then, as I-Educator gains some support and prominence, want to open up to New York, then the East Coast, and then gradually spread to the West Coast. Lastly, I want to open up to the world.

            The third component of the business operations phase is proposed pricing structure.  To access I-Educator you will need an account and a password.  I will first offer a 14-day free trial, where these future clients can use every aspect of my business in order to get familiar and get a feel for my software.  Then, if they want to continue, they will have to enter a credit card number and buy the software which will be $49.99 for six months. This package will include access to the subject tabs, the video chats with tutors, and the online whiteboard. As a way to gain more support and public knowledge I will give principals free access to my website. This will give them a chance to get familiar with my site and then show it to colleagues and spread its name and benefits.

Product Description

The prosperity of our economy is primarily due to the growth and success of businesses.  A business is a commercial or industrial enterprise that is designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers and other businesses. Creating and starting a business is a very difficult and time-consuming affair, which has many planning and research phases. Each phase has a different role in starting a business and each phase is crucial to the businesses survival. One of the phases involves researching and accessing the Internet.  Accessing the Internet is one of the most important parts in establishing an online business. You cannot have an online business unless you access the Internet and establish a website. 

Creating an online business has many aspects.  There are many parts to creating an efficient and working online business.  These aspects are picking a type of ISP, what company and speeds will you pay for, how will you create the website, what features will the site have, and how will you protect the site.  Each of these aspects has a vital role in creating an e-commerce website, and without any one of the aspects the website would fail.  First off, an ISP is an Internet Service Provider.  There are many companies that connect to international networks and provide consumer with access to the Internet, in addition to other services.  Some of these companies are Verizon, Cablevision, and DSL.  There are many different types of ISP’s, including dial up, a cable modem, ISDN, DSL, Satellite, and Fiber Optics. Each type of ISP has different features and some are faster then the others.  When picking an Internet Service Provider you must consider the delivery method, delivery track record, the services offered, and fee structure.  It is very hard for an ordinary person to start and make a website that will fit all of their specifications.  To do this more easily, you can hire a computer programmer. A computer programmer is someone who specializes in creating websites and working with the Internet, and is someone who will create the perfect website for money.  Before you create the website you must decide what features you want on your website. These features are on the website to assist the customer in navigating through the website to find what they want. These features are used to help the customer. The last aspect of creating the website involves protecting the website. A website is a very vulnerable asset to a company. If a website does not have any security, a Hacker or Cracker can break into the website and do what they want. This is a problem because the intruder can steal information, install viruses, or shut down the website.  To protect this, a website much have security features.

My business, like any other e-commerce business at its beginning, must begin to plan out my website. This includes researching and finding out how I want my website to be run, what features my website will have, how fast my website will be, how much the website will cost, and how I can protect my website and customers.  First off, my business is an online tutoring company that uses webcams.  My business is going to revolutionize the tutoring world because students are going to feel as if they have a teacher in the room with them, while actually a teacher will be at home and a student will be at home as well. In my business, I am going to be assigning a certified teacher as a tutor to someone who needs a tutor.  My tutors will access and interact with the students using webcams and a form of chat, in order to communicate with the student.  As you can see, my business is hugely based upon the success and speed of my website and the Internet.  The first aspect of creating my website is choosing the type of ISP.  The type of ISP that I will use is Fiber Optics.  Fiber Optics are cables made of pure glass that is drawn into a very thin fiber to form a core. An optical network then transmits the digital data that has been converted to light.  Fiber Optics is the fastest access option to the Internet.  I have chosen to use Fiber Optics because they are very quick, easy, efficient, and the top Internet Providing Companies use Fiber Optics.  One such company that uses Fiber Optics is Fios. Fios is branch of Verizon Wireless, and is one of the top Internet Providing Companies around.  After much research and factoring in delivery method, delivery track record, services offered, and fee structure, I have decided to use Verizon Fios as my company that is an ISP.  I chose Fios because it offers extremely high speed Internet, is wireless, and is able to connect to people all over the country.  This is exactly what my business needs because it is spread all across the country, is extremely fast, and extremely reliable.  Although Fios is expensive at $144 per month, it is the best fit for my company. Now that I have the type of ISP and company that I will use settled, it is time to figure out how to create the website.  I know that I am not capable of starting my own efficient website, so I am going to hire a computer programmer.  Although it is very expensive I am going to hire a computer programmer from Stony Brook University. I know, from research that there are students and professors at Stony Brook University who would be happy to get paid to create my website.  When I find my programmer, I am also going to have to tell him what features I want my site to have.  I need my website to be easily accessed, easily navigated, easily understood, very fast, and very safe.  All of these conditions are necessary because my website is going to be the headquarters to my business. It is where customers are going to research and learn about my business, pay for services, ask questions, and apply and ask for a tutor.  These are the essentials or necessities of my website.  To reach all of those aspects I am going to have tabs on the side of the site that will apply to each of those aspects. For example, on the home screen there will be a tab labeled “About the site,” as well as other tabs saying, “Purchase a plan,” or “Types of Plans.”  That is just some of the parts on the home screen when you are not logged in.  Once you establish an account and login, you can choose to go to the student site or the parent site. On the student site, there will be tabs to ask a question, to find a tutor, and there will be a tab where you can access different study guides and website.  In this tab there will be different hyperlinks that can take you to your necessary destination. Each hyperlink will lead to a different study website, where the student can research and study on their own.  On the parent site, you can follow your child, buy a new plan, and you will receive a detailed and personal description on your child from the tutor who he works with.  Each paragraph by the tutor will arrive within 24 hours after the session.  My website will be very complicated with many tabs (which access information), hyperlinks (which access other websites), and animation (to create a fun atmosphere for the student and adult).  The last aspect of my website is the security.  Security is a very crucial part to my business because customers are going to be paying via online transactions using credit cards, accessing the website often, and using tutors which will go through the website.  There are many levels of security in my website and business. For instance I must protect the students from harmful tutors, I must protect the customers or parents by ensuring the safety of their credit card information and numbers, and I must protect myself from viruses, crackers, hackers, fraud, and any other danger to my site.  Since all of the information and data will be flowing through my website I must make it a point to have high security.  I must first protect students from harmful instructors and tutors. You never know what the person is like, and especially for my business, where I am going to be working with strangers, I must ensure that my tutors are not creepy, pedophiles or involved in anything illegal.  I will do background checks on all employees and monitor random video chats to make sure everything is going well. Next I must protect the customers or parents credit card information. To do this, I will have all credit card information come to my website in code where it will be deciphered by credit card companies who will only send me the information. I will not see or deal with the actual information. I will only get confirmation that the transaction was received and was successful. This will protect my customers from having their identity stolen. The last part of security is protecting myself.  I must protect my website from viruses, hackers, crackers, and online fraud. Viruses are small computer programs that are designed to make copies of themselves over and over until the congestion causes the website to slow down and shut down.  Hackers are people who take over a site to have fun, but don’t actually steal anything. These people will shut down the site for hours. Crackers are people who will take over a website and harm the site. They will destroy the site.  Online Fraud is when people use fake identities and other people’s credit cards to buy items. This is a problem because it is not the real person and the money may not really be there to pay. Also I do not know whom I am working with. I will protect myself from all of this by not opening unknown emails, using firewalls and protective agents and tools.  Also I will make it so that I only know the password to my website, and I will make it very difficult to operate the site and take over the site. Last I will eliminate online fraud by not accepting orders from people outside the US, and I will make sure I get approval from the credit card company before I grant membership to my site.  The security of my customers and myself is very important to me.  My site will be very detailed, creative, efficient, and successful. This in-turn will allow my business to thrive.

Target Marketing

The prosperity of our economy is primarily due to the growth and success of businesses.  A business is a commercial or industrial enterprise that is designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers and other businesses.  Creating and starting a business is a very difficult and time-consuming affair, which has many planning and research phases. Each phase has a different role in starting a business and each phase is crucial to the businesses survival.  One of the phases involves researching and establishing a target market.  Establishing a target market is one of the first tasks that must be completed in order to establish a business.  A target market is the people that will most likely invest in the company, buy the product, and take an interest in the company’s present and future.  The target market consists of the customers that are going to use your product and are the people who the company is going to aim its marketing efforts and merchandise at. Businesses usually find the target market before the product is even created so that they can create the product to fit the profile and wants of the customer.  Knowing and finding the target market to your business is very crucial because the majority of advertising and marketing is going to be done in order to meet the interests of the target market. This is because around 80% of all sales are going to be done by around 20% of the customers; and this 20% is the target market.  The target market is the customers or people that the product will directly effect and help. It is the people who will find use in the product everyday and who will benefit greatly from the product.  Finding this 20% is a crucial step to starting a business. 

To find the target market you must breakdown the ideal customer into different characteristics.  You do this because you want to find out where and to whom your product will appeal to the most. This is called market segmentation.  Market segmentation has many parts, each of which must be taken into consideration when trying to find your target market.  The different parts of market segmentation are demographics, geographics, psychographics, product usage, and internet accessibility.  Each of these characteristics make up a part of the target market or ideal customer that will be most interested in the product.  The first variable in market segmentation is demographics.  Demographics is information like age, income, gender, and ethnicity.  Demographics is the background on the customer.  Demographics are very important because you have to know information like age and gender when marketing so that you can meet their interests.  The second variable in market segmentation is geographics.  Geographics is the location of the customer.  This is important because you can use the location of the customer to know where to set up businesses, stores, factories, and even where to market items so that you are efficient with your marketing expenses and transportation/ shipping costs.  The third variable is psychographics.  Psychographics involves the interests and hobbies of the customer.  This is important for a business to know because now the business can use tools and techniques to meet the interests of the customer so that they enjoy the product and enjoy the advertising; and therefore buy the product.  The fourth variable in market segmentation is product usage.  Product usage is how the customer behaves, how the customer uses the product, and how efficient will the product be. This is important to know and understand so that the business can create the product to work how the customer wants it to, and so that the customer enjoys it.  The last variable in market segmentation is Internet Availability.  Internet availability is exactly what it sounds like, it is if your customer will have access to the internet.  This is only a factor if the business is an e-commerce business.  Even still, most countries and areas have internet, especially in the United States.  This is important because a customer must have access to the internet if the business wants to sell its product to them.  Market segmentation is a way to find the target market, to find the information of the target market.

My business, like any other business at its beginning, must find its target market or customer profile using market segmentation. First off, my business is an online tutoring company that uses webcams. My business is going to revolutionize the tutoring world because students are going to feel as if they have a teacher in the room with them, while actually a teacher will be at home and a student will be at home.  In my business I am going to be assigning a certified teacher as a tutor to someone who needs a tutor.  Also my tutors are going to use webcams and chat to communicate with the client. For my business to take off and be successful I must find my target market using market segmentation.  The first step of market segmentation is demographics.  The demographics of my business are very widespread and vast because my business can pretty much spread to anyone in school and can help students anywhere in the world.  If I had to put a number to it, I would say that my business is based towards students in school from the ages of 10 to around 24.  This is around 6^th grade to the end of undergraduate school.  My business can help and affect anyone in these ages because I will have teachers who can aid students in any class they are taking.  In some circumstances, if an adult goes back to school around 50 years old, my business can even help these people. The next variable is geographic.  The geographic of my business ties into internet availability.  This is because my product can be used by anyone who has an internet connection.  It does not matter where the student is located because in our country and in our world all schools pretty much teach the same subjects and in the same way.  In my business, a kid from England can learn math from a teacher in Los Angeles, California.  The next variable in determining my customer profile using market segmentation is psychographics.  Psychographics are the interests of my customer.  Again, for my business this is not as crucial because I am not selling a product, I am selling a feature or process.  For the most part, if students are looking for online tutors they are very worried about their grades. I can market my business to talk about how using my business will improve grades dramatically and will increase enjoyment in school and learning.  This will most likely catch the attention of students who are worried about school and who want to do better.  The last variable in market segmentation is product usage.  The product usage of my business or feature is that my clients may want to use the business anytime, and may need a lot of time with a teacher. I must make my product, feature, or website accessible to students anytime they want and for how long ever they want, so that they are happy.  My target market or ideal customer is someone who is in school, around the ages of 10 to 24, very concerned with their grades, lives anywhere with a computer, can pay a small fee, and wants to learn. 

Self Analysis

One of the key components to any business is the management and the way that the business is run.  As to the management, I would be the CEO and as of right now the head and director of everything.  As a leader, I have many great qualities that allow me to excel and achieve anything. I am a diligent, determined, industrious, and focused leader. I know that anything that comes my way will get done with 100% effort, on time and to the best of my ability. I have also had many experiences that have opened my eyes to the world of business, communications, and leadership.

My prodigious communication skills, strong foundation in leadership and organization, ability to multitask efficiently and open-minded approach to problem solving set me apart from my peers and allow me to “think outside the box.” My experiences at Brentwood Family Dental and at Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s Long Island Regional Office have exposed me to the inner workings of an advanced, organized, and high tech office, as well as the many diverse problems they face. At Brentwood Family Dental, where I worked during July and August of 2007 and 2008, I was simultaneously responsible for communicating with patients via telephone and in-person, organizing charts and appointments, and inputting patient information into a database.  As an intern for Senator Gillibrand, where I have worked since October of 2010, I focused on corresponding with constituents, tracking local news, organizing and maintaining local lists and directories, assisting staff with preparations for Senator Gillibrand’s visits to Long Island, and overcoming any problem or task that I was faced with.

            As a student at Smithtown East High School I have been faced with obscene amounts of work and many distractions. As a result, I have evolved a strong analytic aptitude and greatly enhanced my research and writing proficiency.  Similarly, as an intern, I have developed a strong foundation in organization, diligence, and problem solving. I am a very goal oriented student and once I get involved with a project, I am determined to give it my utmost attention and work diligently until it is successfully completed. Traveling through over thirty countries has provided me with an appreciation of the diverse viewpoints of people from different cultural, religious, political and educational experiences. My legal, business, mathematics and engineering education coupled with my extensive world travels has allowed me to formulate solutions to problems from varied viewpoints and devise unique and effective outcomes.

            There are also some characteristics that will limit my success as a business owner. The main limitation that I have is my age and time.  For instance, because I am young and still in high school, venture capitalists, businesses, and people may not take me seriously. Even with all of my credentials and experiences, some may view me as “immature and inexperienced.” Another limitation that I may face is my amount of time and commitment that I can use on the business. I am going through a very tough year with schoolwork, SAT, ACT, college applications, soccer, summer research, and internships. With all of these other commitments and priorities it may be hard to find time to spare on creating the business. However, even with these limitations, I feel that I can overcome the adversity and create a successful business.