Healthy Food Portal

Market niches do not need to be new business ideas. They can be prevailing business ideas that are not operating as expected. The potential to increase productivity in the industry can serve as a market niche. After intensively researching for healthy nutrition recipes from the internet market, the present business is not meeting the needs of the customers as expected. The businesses are more concerned about profits such that they forget about customer satisfaction. The quality of food provided is also poor and unhealthy. Therefore, establishing a reliable health food portal business is a viable business idea, provided it will prioritize customer satisfaction, quality, and health. I have worked in the food business for ten years. Therefore, if I join the market, I will greatly improve human health through healthy nutrition. To ensure the success of my business, I have focused on competitive analysis, market research and analysis, market plan, financial plan and cash flow.

Competitive and Marketing research Analysis

The competitive analysis aimed to identify my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses within the industry. It analyzed strategic context to know the viable opportunities and threats. After the analysis, I came to the following conclusion:

• The market was operating poorly, and therefore there was a high risk of a new player entering the market. Limited barriers and a low level of initial investment attracted many investors.
• The market niche was promising to develop since the health food recipe market was less saturated with competitors. To be competitive, the new ventures needed to have a property that would give additional advantages to the customers.
• The client portfolio had medium risks. Portal functionality was important for the customers as long as it was well-implemented.

To reduce the influence of these results, it was recommendable to:

• Ensure the product is unique. The health eating portal will combine several sites, thus increasing its indispensability and functionality for the customers. The portal will also have new functionality, such as reworking a regular recipe into a healthy one to move it away from the other products that can replace it.

• Focus on the audience for who the service is important. This was to ensure the new service increased customer awareness and loyalty. Target customers are expected to respond and react quickly to the product. The reaction and responses will boost the portal’s popularity and traffic and increase profits by attracting more advertising customers.
• Combine several schedules for advertising campaigns to increase the number of visits on the portal.
• Regular monitoring of the competitor’s proposals to learn customer needs in time, the advantages of other businesses, and bring new functionality to the business.
• Establish a strong long-term relationship with the customers through effective communication, fix bugs, maintain good feedback, and provide quality products.

Market Plan

As stated earlier, the health nutrition market has viable business ideas and market niches. It is a promising market that is highly growing. Every year, more investors and companies are attracted in investing while more people are becoming concerned about the quality and health of the food they eat. Considering my business, it is new in the market. It has zero previous services and developed products. Therefore, the business is entering the market with new products, which do not know the product or the business. I used Porter’s model to ensure suitable and reliable market strategies (Porter, 1980). After the analysis carried out using Porter’s model, I concluded the market strategies for the health food portal:

• To maintain fair prices for the products. All prices should be within the market average to ensure customers do not go to my competitors due to high prices or the business does not operate at a loss due to low prices.
• Increase the uniqueness of the services and products sold by increasing the innovative properties of the portal.
• Focusing on the target audience the most. Concentrating on the most interested and loyal customers.
• Increasing the level of recognition and loyalty from the due by providing high-quality services and ensuring the customers’ needs and preferences are met to the core.
• Establish a good image for the business. A good image will increase return clients and increase referrals. Customers always choose where their money’s value is valued and prioritized (Ansoff, 2007).
• Ensuring regular advertisement campaigns to increase the popularity of the business and increase sales.
• Establish a good long-term relationship with the customers by ensuring quality services, quality products, good and timely feedback, and effective communication.

After taking into account the competitive strategy, considering the competitive environment and the market specifics, I chose to concentrate on the market needs. Market strategies are not fully implemented in the current market. Therefore, the customers search for a product that I different from other products in the market and solve their problems. Therefore, I thought providing a unique product and focusing on the needs of the markets would satisfy the customers and serve as my competition strategy.

Financial Plan and Cash Flow

Forecasting incomes and expenses give a financial plan. It determines the business’s net profit, considering all expenses and incomes (Drake, 2018). While designing the financial plan of my business, I assumed that the average visits would increase from 0 to 400,000. I calculated the sales amount based on the estimated number, including additional, repeat, and direct sales. When calculating the income, I considered that only fifty percent would be received from a part of the sales since the portal cooperates with other companies like nutritionists. For the advertisement revenue, I assumed that the advertisers would increase from 0 to 5, with the number increasing during the holidays.

After analyzing the forecast, I concluded that the business would be in profits six months since its initiation. The profitability of the business was calculated as shown below.

P = NP/R*100%

Where: P is the profitability

NP is the net profit

R is the revenue

Therefore,

The first-year profitability will be -0.07

Second-year will be 0.45

Third-year will be 0.56

The negative sign in the first year shows that the company will have negative profitability since it has to recover the initial cost incurred in the first years of operation. Profitability increases in the second and the subsequent years.

The payments and cash receipts will provide information on the availability or deficit of funds. They will determine the need for capital and the development of a financial strategy for the business. According to my plan, I will take care of the available funds in the first two quarters of the first year in advance. To finance the initial costs and the development of the entire project in the first quarter of the first year, I will borrow $ 40,000 (A commercial loan for two years at 12% interest per year).

The success of a business I determined by how dedicated the owner is to meet the customers’ needs. With my knowledge, the health food portal is a viable market niche that is profitable if executed well. It is a growing market with minimal competition. Using the above-explained strategies and business plan, I will provide solutions to customers who need quality healthy food.

References

Ansoff, H. I. (2007). Strategic management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Drake, D. (2018). Business planning : closely held enterprises. West Academic Publishing.

Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive strategy : techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press.