Wisely Spend: Business Challenge Plan Project - UGB 260

This document outlines the business plan for "Wisely Spend," a business idea targeting university students at the University of Sunderland, London. The core concept revolves around a smartphone app facilitating the rental of textbooks, scanners, printers, lecture notes, and other essential university materials among students. The business aims to capitalize on the shared economy trend, addressing the financial burden of educational resources by providing an affordable solution for students. The plan includes a competitor analysis, highlighting the niche market advantage and selling points like a user-friendly interface and university-specific focus. The business requires an initial investment of 110,000 GBP, with a significant portion allocated for app development and marketing. The plan concludes by emphasizing the potential for customer loyalty and expansion beyond the University of Sunderland, based on the success of making campus life more affordable. The project includes references to support the business plan and its concept.

UGB 260 - Business Challenge
Plan Project
Wisely Spend
Group number
Group members:

Introduction to Wisely Spend
 Wisely Spend is a business idea that has been motivated
by the current rise of the shared economy trends.
 “Wisely Spend” business idea involves the university
students renting text books and other crucial university
materials such as scanners, printers, lecture notes, and
shredders from each other using a simple smartphone app.
 The initial target customers of the business will be the
students of University of Sunderland, London.
 The business will go by the slogan “Making campus life
affordable”.

Concept plan
 According to the reports from Times Higher
Education (2019) and the Telegraph UK (2019),
an average college/ university student spends
around 60 GBP per month on purchasing text
books and other university materials.
 Wisely Spend is based on the concept of
making the campus life for the higher
education students easier and more affordable.
 Using a simple mobile phone app, the students
who have particular text books, lecture sheets,
as well as scanners, printers etc sitting idle,
can rent these educational materials to the
fellow students or juniors who need them right
away.

Competitors
 The business will operate within the scopes (for the
students)/ networks of University of Sunderland, London.
 The niche market selection makes it less concerned of any
larger existing competitor.
 The business will have the first movers advantage in the
market, and thus, creating a better stance against any
new market entrants.
 The business will, however, has to compete against
market substitutes such as WeBuyBooks, Hive, World of
Books etc.
 Apps and websites selling low cost eBooks would be a
strong competitor to the business, but Wisely Spend will
have a competitive advantage given its niche focus and
the availability of physical books instead of eBooks.
 Wisely Spend will control the renting fees so that a
competitively low renting fees are available, while the
renters can gain moderately as well.

Selling point/ location of the business
 User friendly interface and university focus will be the
key selling points for Wisely Spend.
 The app will be designed for easy navigation, information
check and two-tap order confirmation.
 University focus will allow the students of the University
of Sunderland to borrow any books, magazines, journals,
and lecture notes that they need for their specific
courses.
 The business will operate within the scopes/ networks of
University of Sunderland, which will make the
transactions easier and faster at both ends.

Budget/ forecast profit
 The initial budget for launching the business is
110,000 GBP.
 The entrepreneurs would be capable of investing 55%
of the estimated amount from their own and will need
the rest amount from external investors or fund
borrowers.
 The business will develop an advanced and user
friendly app with relevant features as well as ad
revenue generating capabilities.
 The initial budget for developing the mobile app is
100,000 GBP.
 In addition, 4,000 GBP will be spent on marketing and
promoting the app.

Conclusion
 Shared economy has been proven profitable in
the higher education sector as well.
 A simple business plan with the commitment to
make campus life more affordable has the
potentials to gain significant customer loyalty
in the long run.
 If successful, then the business can expand its
network beyond the scopes of University of
Sunderland and extend shared economy
practices in other universities as well.
 A university focused approach will make it
more demandable among the specific
university students.

REFERNCES
 Roper, V., 2019. Exploring the use of blogs and social media in legal
education, its opportunities and challenges.
 Hoheb, A. and Hale, J., 2019. Model-Based Enterprise Capabilities Matrix.
 Le Giang Tuong, V., 2019. Impactful Learning Through Business Case
Competition.
 Rantala, J., 2019. IIoT Guidelines for the Case Company in Global Food
Manufacturing Business.

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