Business Development Firm

BUSINESS PLAN       NKR CONSULTING

8444 Temas Park Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601

This plan raised over $500,000 in "seed money" for NKR Consulting. The firm operates as a vertically integrated branding, marketing, and business development solutions provider. Its primary services include media planning, media buying, creative services, and web design. NKR focuses on serving early-stage Internet and technology companies, traditional economy businesses seeking to expand their presence onto the Internet, and Internet "orphans"—Internet companies that have been abandoned by investors.

• business overview
• objectives & strategy
• company & service overview
• current clients
• business strategy
• management
• projected profit & loss

BUSINESS OVERVIEW

NKR Consulting, Inc., is a privately held North Carolina corporation, which was formed in April of 2000 as an LLC and subsequently converted to a C Corporation. We have offices at 8444 Temas Park Road, Raleigh, North Carolina. We are considering opening offices in Orlando, Florida, and in Austin, Texas, to attract and service clients.

NKR Consulting (NKR) currently operates as a vertically integrated branding, marketing, and business development solutions provider. We provide business planning, strategy, and branding execution for our clients, including media planning, media buying, creative services, and web design. Clients may benefit from the complete suite of services or choose the offerings that best fit their needs. The business concentrates on providing these services to early-stage Internet and technology companies, traditional economy businesses seeking to expand their presence onto the Internet, and Internet "orphans"—those Internet companies that have been abandoned by investors.

The company's services are becoming increasingly valuable, and it continues to attract clients with its ability to provide innovative outsource solutions through its unique combination of business disciplines and strength of vendor/alliance relationships.

Early on, management identified a significant opportunity to provide innovative branding solutions. To achieve this goal, we have dedicated resources toward the identification of highly complementary technologies and vendors that will constitute the basis for our migration from our current "analog" branding services practice to a knowledge-powered, web-enabled "digital" solution for marketing-related services. Through these efforts we have identified these targets, focused our efforts, and gained very favorable agreements that we believe will deliver the technology mechanism for the business to evolve into a global provider of web-enabled marketing solutions.

Upon funding, the company will initiate the integration of Internet-enabled marketing solutions that will power our current "analog" services with an innovative "digital" format that utilizes knowledge management technology in a new way. Although knowledge management has been used in the IT industry and within the management consulting world, it has never been deployed in a marketing or branding arena. Within our current business, applications of the system are limitless. We will use the system for the re-purposing of market research, industry analysis, audio and video presentations, and text, financial data, legal documentation— anything related to the storage, retrieval, and archiving of intellectual and creative assets.

The time, cost, and risk of integrating these systems is significantly mitigated by a plan that incorporates OEM license agreements from complementary technology providers. These superior technologies, currently in existence, would significantly benefit from OEM relationships aggregated under an NKR-branded, web-enabled, open technology platform. The branded platform will operate globally utilizing a revolutionary Palladium Info Management (PIM) system.

The PIM system technology was originally developed by a Japanese technology firm and later readied for market by a major international computer firm. The company has a unique opportunity to leverage a valuable and extensive menu of MJ Computers technologies through a very favorable license entered into by the PIM developer, IdeaDigit Inc. (IDI) of San Francisco. The basis of the license provides global, unlimited use of the MJ technology to IDI—a unique agreement by MJ regarding its product licenses. The PIM system will provide a web-enabled technology overlay to all of the marketing and branding related technologies combined under the OEM license program.

OBJECTIVES & STRATEGY

Over the first several months of operations, management has analyzed current market conditions and forecast trends in its core segment. The company now requires further investment to fund both its current analog business model of providing end-to-end branding solutions in addition to development of the proposed digital platform. To accomplish our goals, we have outlined a three-phase plan for growth:

• In our current Phase I business, we will increase human and technical resources to increase capacity for client service, expand the current "analog" business offerings, and continue to explore complementary alliances, technologies, and financial partners.
• In Phase II, we will "digitize" our analog practice to enable the management of tacit knowledge within the creative services (advertising, branding, marketing, and design) market. Unprecedented in our industry, the implementation of knowledge management technology in the creative services should make NKR unique in appeal. We will expand our capacity for services on a global basis through technology provided by our OEM partners. Our agreement with IDI should enable us to effectively deploy our digital services strategy and provide the systems, personnel, and capacity for successful implementation of the Phase III plan.
• Our Phase III initiatives involve expanding this digital offering to build branded, sophisticated marketing solutions required to promote an Internet Virtual Incubation Network (IVIN) to incubators on a global basis. IVIN would be formed as a joint venture among existing incubators seeking knowledge management solutions and which understand the powerful benefits of forming a global knowledge exchange alliance. IVIN will leverage the core knowledge base of incubators to accelerate the development and increase value of their early-stage investments. Phase III of this plan presents the IVIN project as a new business model that more appropriately addresses the needs for business acceleration and delivers an exchange mechanism to enable the monetization of tacit knowledge.

COMPANY & SERVICE OVERVIEW

Current Strategic Relationships

Management has identified a compelling opportunity to facilitate the construction and administration of the Internet-enabled technology solution discussed in this plan. IDI (developer of an Internet-enabled advanced "Knowledge Management" system) has agreed in principal with NKR to enter into a global, exclusive (to certain defined vertical markets) technology license with NKR to provide its technology as the overlay system to facilitate the formation of OEM relationships with marketing and business development technology providers.

We have also elevated our traditional client/provider relationship with Copper Knowledge (Copper), now a subsidiary of FITQ Corporation, to that of a strategic alliance. As a result, NKR provides clients superior graphic and website design in addition to programming and maintenance at a lower cost. In exchange, NKR benefits from client referrals and engagements from Copper. We consider the fostering of additional strategic relationships to be a significant step toward the fulfillment of our digital platform and advancement toward providing a total end-to-end branding solution to the marketplace with greater profitability.

In addition to the two formal alliances discussed above, we have strategic relationships with the following companies. These relationships will enable us to expand our analog services and to expand internationally.

Analog Branding Services

Our plan identifies a new opportunity—moving the current "analog" branding business to a "digital" version through the licensing of complementary web-enabled marketing technologies under favorable OEM license agreements. NKR currently provides the analog model of its services through its core business competencies, which include planning, marketing, advertising, media buying, etc., as described below. We are in the process of growing our team of specialists to expand our core competencies.

NKR plans to become a premier provider of vertically integrated marketing and business development services for Internet and technology-related businesses. As we acknowledge the continuing demand for these analog services, we are assembling the technology structure to transition to the digital, knowledge-powered practice.

Current "Analog" Services Offered

• Brand strategy: brand positioning, brand migration, brand revitalization, alliance architecture
• Communications: sales collateral, promotional items, public relations, advertising, point-of-sale systems, direct mail, training material
• Brand development: brand assessment, competitive analysis
• Identity: logo development, brand naming
• Electronic: web applications, presentations
• Business plans: review, writing

New Offering: Rich Media

We have developed an innovative rich media streaming ad concept that presents a unique opportunity to offer spot commercial advertising as is normally associated with the television and billboard industries. Our Rich Media concept envisions two eight-second spots that run on each page of our client's site as three vignette stills, or "webboards."

The Rich Media concept combines the best aspects of a web-based advertising banner campaign, a billboard campaign, and a television/cable spot media buy. The spots run when a user clicks on one of the webboards representing the advertised product. The client's name, product, and/or message are viewed on a webboard that remains on the web page in six-minute increments. These lifestyle ads, coupons for discounts on products, and often loyalty points that may be redeemed for cash or prizes encourage the user/viewer to take action to acquire the products used in the spots, building consumer loyalty.

Our research shows that our ad concept is unique, and that while being a strong differentiator for our client, it affords both revenue opportunities and a point of differentiation. Producing these rich media segments affords us exceptionally high margins.

CURRENT CLIENTS

UniversityDigs.com (UD)

UD is a portal that provides solutions to off-campus collegiate housing needs. The portal will offer turnkey housing solutions that appeal to its target market. NKR has provided the initial planning, financial modeling, marketing strategy, media strategy, and a new method of rich media advertising.

ElderStats product

ElderStats is an Internet-delivered application that facilitates the tracing and sharing of personal and healthcare-related information combined with a valuable tacit knowledge base and "life buoys"—instant access to relevant and contextual information about eldercare management. RETT, the developer of ElderStats, specializes in the eldercare market, and plans to market this knowledge management tool in 10 specific vertical markets with little existing competition. NKR structured the business plan, financial modeling, and competitive analysis, in addition to marketing strategy.

Obsidian Portal International

Obsidian Portal International (OPI) is an early-stage developer of worldwide logistics systems for business-to-business applications. OPI's principals constituted a part of the core management team for a Fortune 50 firm's enterprise. NKR was selected as the exclusive brand strategy and marketing alliance architect, and will direct the commercial launch of OPI's worldwide logistics application.

L-5 Productions

L-5 Productions is a global Internet entertainment software publisher for the personal computer, video game consoles and next-generation interactive entertainment platforms, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones. L-5's principals are the original developers and producers of one of the video game industry's most successful franchises, Blast Cuts. NKR, in addition to a new corporate identity, has provided a market entry and branding strategy for the company's innovative episodic game format that delivers games in segments via the Internet in "game capsules."

EarthMeldFinancial.com (EMF)

EMF is a rapidly expanding international financial portal providing online financial news, investment tools, and transaction services. Based in Australia, EMF is leveraging its highly trafficked websites and Internet portals, direct access share trading companies, and other brokerage and clearing firms to create an international network of online transaction businesses dealing in worldwide stocks, foreign currency exchange, and other financial services such as insurance.

NKR has been retained to drive the development and strategic branding initiative of a unique web-investment site that leverages EMF's distribution assets in the United States and Australia. NKR has directed the branding strategy, including corporate identity, site design and technology implementation.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Integral to our business strategy are three key components:

1. Superior client service

As a part of our goal to provide our clients with superior services, we will continually develop additional support services when requested to ensure our position as their provider of choice. By delivering high-quality service, the company should benefit from long-term client engagements and repeat business. We believe we will continue to gain new clients with greater ease as our reputation for quality service becomes widely known.

2. Geographic Reach

While headquartered in North Carolina, management is considering opening an executive suite satellite office in Las Vegas, Nevada, to procure and service existing clients in the Western United States and, ultimately, to oversee the construction of the Global Incubator Network, as described. Additional office presence in Nevada and California for the company will be considered as the client base grows. Website and graphic design services, programming, and illustration services for all of its clients will be provided in Nevada, unless another web development firm is identified in another part of the country.

3. Technology/Internet Infrastructure

The NKR website has been developed and serves well as an account administration tool and sales development resource. Prospective clients have researched and contacted the company through the website, and the site has provided a common platform for client contact, account management, and file sharing. Management believes that a continued collaboration with Copper will greatly enhance the operability and economy of further WNKR site development and promotion. Copper will make available to us two tools they have developed: a wireless enabled management resource system named Copper Blue; and a proprietary e-mail promotion system, Copper News. Copper News will allow us to disperse our lists in a "forward-able" format, enabling us to track the forwarded distribution and build our audience and client base. This technology combination will add a significant dimension to the NKR platform and dramatically increase the efficiencies and economies of using the Internet to manage growth, coordinate internal staff activity, and provide a common platform as we begin moving toward the digital practice.

Phase II: Shift to "Digital" Creative Services

As discussed above, while providing innovative, albeit analog, solutions for emerging brands, we have identified a marketing-related technology that should enable us to build an NKR-branded, knowledge-powered and web-enabled platform for creative services.

Our proposed solution provides the framework for an Internet-enabled marketing community that delivers superior marketing solutions to a global market through "digital" management of creative services. A knowledge management system created by our OEM partner, IDI, provides the foundation for a worldwide networked branding and marketing resource that is central to the NKR business model. The NKR-branded system will deliver an exchange mechanism that will enable the re-purposing of prior work within the creative services (advertising, branding, marketing, and design) market. Knowledge-based services and content can be contributed, accessed, lawfully re-purposed and paid for through the system. The system and exchange that we are building also allows for the monetization of tacit knowledge, providing significantly greater revenue opportunities than in a purely "analog" branding model.

Knowledge Management: Revolutionizing Creative Services

IdeaDigit Inc. (IDI) is a technology company that has developed a powerful software application, LodorPIM™. LodorPIM™ is a revolutionary content capturing and classification tool that allows users to capture, catalog, and retrieve relevant information by operating within the users' context. LodorPIM™ revolutionizes the way intellectual capital is captured and how knowledge is managed and exchanged.

Built upon Coyote V, an object-oriented intelligent infrastructure produced by MJ Computers, this PIM system is an information classification and cataloging tool. The system allows users to index information wherever it resides (intranet, extranet, Internet, or local hard drive) and in whatever format it may exist (text, graphics, audio, video, or multiple media). Once indexed with the Lodor PIM™ tool, users can recall stored assets by using multiple dynamic search methodologies and locate materials of high relevance from multiple disciplines, languages, and knowledge storage systems.

NKR Consulting PIM Technology Application

Although Knowledge Management has been used in the IT industry and within the Management Consulting world to capture best practices, it has never, to our knowledge, been deployed in a marketing or branding arena. Within our current business, applications of the system are limitless: we will use the system for the re-purposing of market research, industry analysis, audio and video presentations, and text, financial data, legal documentation—anything related to the storage, retrieval, and archiving of intellectual and creative assets.

The IDI Knowledge Management and Business Processes System, combined with worldwide marketing, branding, and advertising support relationships, partnerships and alliances, will provide the basis from which NKR Consulting will position itself as an end-to-end solutions provider, entering the market with digital creative services.

Examples of Use: Digital Creative Services

We believe that most vertical markets are inefficient in their creative processes because they rely on tacit knowledge for both business management and for growth. This is certainly the case in the creative industries such as advertising and marketing/branding, where creative processes aren't shared. Other businesses within the community are viewed as competition, and productive collaboration is rarely encouraged. We propose to initiate and drive the shift towards the digitizing, and the subsequent monetizing of ideas within many vertical markets.

Through the delivery of our analog creative services, we will support a strategy involving the powering of our business offerings by IDI's system described above. The knowledge management system should enable us to provide creative services that will reduce our time to market and will add value (by saving time, money, and energy, etc.) to both our clients and to their offerings.

As a virtual creative incubator, rather than providing desks, phone systems, and a water cooler, we will become the vertically integrated supplier of:

• Vertically integrated web-based technology for marketing solutions
• Common platform to access knowledge and creative input, both in-house and in-network
• A branded community for creative services commerce
• Branding services that include planning, creative media buying, and ad serving

By deploying our digital strategy, we will be able to create a core set of strategic alliances in each of our markets. Our clients will be able to use the system internally and will also have the option to join our community, having access to all other client knowledge. We then plan to create a subscriber-only global exchange specifically serving the branding, marketing, advertising, and design industries. By developing the operating systems upon a global knowledge exchange platform, we hope to become the de facto global resource for branding solutions.

To demonstrate the expanded service offering Phase II will provide, we have provided a table that offers a quick view of the current analog practice combined with the digital solutions described below. As NKR migrates from the analog practice to that of digital, we will continue to offer analog services to those clients seeking traditional solutions in combination with digitally enhanced capability.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Business Processes
Enterprise Portals
Nugents

RICH MEDIA ADVERTISING
Production
Ad Scheduling and Traffic

E-MAIL SOLUTIONS
List Brokerage
Opt-in e-mail marketing
Opt-in List Management

DIRECT MARKETING SOLUTIONS
Electronic File Cards
Automated List Manager
Turn-key Reporting
Instant Financial Analysis

MEDIA PURCHASING SOLUTIONS
Electronic File Cards
Schedule Manager
Inventory Management
Traffic Management
Turn-key Reporting and Instant Financial Analysis

ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Electronic
Paper, Video, Audio
Storage/Retrieval

PATENT and TRADEMARK SEARCH
Web-enabled
Federal PTO Direct
Automated Form Completion

URL/DOMAIN SOLUTIONS
Brokerage Appraisals
Auto-negotiated and Auctions
Registration Management and Bulk Registration
Automated Form Completion

BRAND STRATEGY
Brand Positioning
Brand Migration
Brand Revitalization
Alliance Architecture

BRAND DEVELOPMENT
Brand Assessment

IDENTITY
Logo Development
Brand Naming

ELECTRONIC
Web Applications
Presentations

BUSINESS PLANS
Review
Writing

COMMUNICATIONS
Sales Collateral
Promotional Items
Public Relations
Advertising
Point-of-Sale Systems
Direct Mail Training Material

MANAGEMENT

Kurt F. Xavier

Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Throughout his 16-year career as a marketing, branding, and business development professional, Kurt has consulted Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, and nascent companies alike, compiling a significant track record of success in the process.

Most recently he has completed strategic initiatives for LOPA International, HUT Learning, and FITQ. As a director and the president of NKR Consulting, Kurt led numerous teams to deliver successful business strategies for both public and private enterprises in broad vertical markets including: transportation and logistics, healthcare, real estate, wireless networking, software development, and bottled beverages.

Kurt distinguished his career as an innovator and change agent when charged with concept, branding, and business development responsibilities for strategic initiatives within Mount Richmont Inc., an international owner and franchiser of gasoline and convenience stores. Prior to joining Mount Richmont, he served as vice president of creative strategies and a member of the executive committee for Tuscany Partners (TP), Florida's then second-largest marketing and communications firm. Prior to joining TP, he served as director of new business at JET Management. Notable clients during his career have included some of the largest players in the above-mentioned industries.

Kurt has served as a featured speaker and honored panelist for many of the most prestigious marketing and research institutes in the world. Moreover, he has been profiled in numerous business and industry publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Nation's Restaurant News, Progressive Grocer, and Convenience Store News. Kurt received his marketing and creative education (B.S.) degrees from Notre Dame University as well as from the University of Virginia. He has served on over a dozen nationally based charitable boards serving the healthcare and social needs of underprivileged children and their families.

Jeremy Irons

Vice President Sales

Jeremy Irons has more than 10 years of sales and sales management experience in the hightech industry. Most recently, he served as the head of the Canadian operations of Notts Communications. While at Notts he created valuable partnerships and strategic distribution channels for all of Notts' products and services throughout Canada. Jeremy secured relationships with Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Unisys, KPMG and many other high-profile industry giants. Prior to Notts, he managed the Canadian group at ePinnacleDot, selling to mostly the top 250 Canadian industrial companies. Prior to that he was sales manager at IBM where he introduced state-of-the-art computer systems used by the Canadian government, and developed and managed the entire check-processing solution targeting the financial community in Brazil.

In addition to his sales background, Jeremy possesses valuable technical experience having developed engineering software for CAD/CAM applications and AI analysis. He received his Computer Science B.S. degree from the top educational institution in Quebec, the Technology Institute of Quebec. Over the years Jeremy has developed a multicultural background with a comprehensive knowledge of the business cultures in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil.

Kim Fritz

Vice President Operations

Kim Fritz is an accomplished executive officer with expertise in implementing Information Technology infrastructures that improve business with positive impacts on the bottom line. She has extensive experience developing successful IT strategies and business plans and a demonstrated ability to analyze business requirements and create effective technical solutions.

Kim was the founder and CEO of Hercules Communications Networks, a manufacturer and designer of wireless broadband products. Prior to Hercules, she was the chief technologist for Logic Maneuvers. Kim served as president and chief executive officer of Borne Technologies, Inc., a CTI (computer telephony integration) based systems integration company that was sold to a publicly traded company. Borne created and developed a global systems architecture that allowed users to access their e-mail text-to-speech via any touch-tone or cellular telephone. The company also developed an international data network that had an emphasis in telemedicine, which was accessible via telephone. Prior to founding Hercules she founded Diamond Information Systems. The company provided consulting services in information technology and financial information systems including, LAN/WAN systems design, and the design and construction of Mammoth Computers. The company was sold in 1994.

Kim attended Ohio State University and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. She is a member of a half dozen prestigious communications and engineering groups, including the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Nick Masters

Chief Technical Officer

Nick Masters is an experienced and accomplished Internet and network architect possessing more than 12 years of experience in Internet protocols, internetworking infrastructure, business development cycles, and marketing program implementation. As the managing partner for a successful web hosting organization, he has been instrumental in building a core business from the ground up. Nick has demonstrated an outstanding proficiency in managing large project teams and creating incremental revenue sources to build an infrastructure for sustained growth within an organization.

As a manager of multiple projects with compressed timelines and large budgets to facilitate company growth in accordance with its strategic business plan, Nick had previously served Kore View Systems after leaving Copper Networks, Inc., as a key network manager. He has also successfully served other networking technology and business efficiency developers such as NetLook System, eBunk Corporation, Inc., and Raton Research, Inc.

Nick has detailed knowledge of all systems and issues that impact network operations including security, Internet routing infrastructure (backbone), virtual private networking, ecommerce, and integration of multiple vendor relationships to provide seamless data continuity and maximize customer uptime.

Nick is an active member of the web hosting community and continues to provide counsel and support to nonprofit organizations and entrepreneurs wishing to build a presence on the World Wide Web.

Brian Forbes

Interactive Media Strategist

Brian Forbes can be seen every weeknight demonstrating innovative products on a local Chicago TV station and is the new technology writer for the Chicago Tribune. He also writes regularly for national magazines about home design, construction, and trends. He has also reported/produced for various other television entities, both publicly and privately financed.

This past year Brian hosted/produced/wrote award-winning children's videos. In addition, he is an instructor and speaker for media training workshops, does voiceover work, and produces video news releases and corporate videos.

For 10 years Brian was a full-time television news reporter. Brian has been honored with numerous Emmy Awards for his news series work and has received national awards from various other national news, healthcare, and family organizations

Brian began his undergraduate education at the University of Kentucky and received his Doctorate in Dentistry from Northwestern University in Chicago. He holds a master's in Public Health from Washington University.

Projected Profit and Loss