Courier Service
Courier Service
CORPORATE COURIER
8910 Greenleaf Blvd.
Williamsburg, Virginia 23081
Gerald Rekve
Matthew Park will be opening a courier service with a difference. The goals of the service will focus on catering to professional clients like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and large corporations. During the start-up we will hire twenty contract drivers. These drivers will then help start up and grow the business. Because this is a start-up courier service, we will need to win new clients. These clients can only be won with either word of mouth or by sales using our drivers to be our sales people. The drivers we will hire are older semi–retired or retired people who still want to be a part of the work force and make a few dollars while enjoying the being out with people every day.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mission
Our mission is to provide our clients with great service at competitive prices, while employing retired individuals who still want to contribute to the work force.
Management Summary
Our company will be a corporation that is owned by one person. Matthew Park's background is as a newspaper publisher. This background is quite different than the courier business, yet has many of the same qualities. The courier business is all about management of packages and publishing is all about manage- ment of packs of information. This will give Matthew a solid foundation for which to grow his business.
MARKET ANALYSIS
Our target market includes professional businesses like doctors, lawyers, accountants and so on; these clients demand the highest in service because, in most cases, they are sending information that is highly confidential.
Examples include sensitive medical information and legal notices, both of which must legally be kept confidential. Knowing this, we are certain that these sectors will adopt our company and be willing to pay extra to use our services.
Who are the customers? As indicated above, the main client base we will focus all our efforts on will be:
- Doctors
- Lawyers
- Accountants
- Engineers
- Medical labs
- Dental labs
- Medical offices
- Dentals offices
- X–ray offices
- Medical professional services
- Courts
- Police ticket delivery
- Architects offices
- Bank offices
- Realtors offices
- Real estate agents and their clients
Because we are a courier service, we will deliver any item up to a maximum of 60 pounds, in accordance with the local government's regulations on one person maximum lifting limits.
While the courier service is not new, our specialized market is unique and is willing to pay a higher price for the higher level of service we will provide to our clients. Further, this level of service will garner a high percent of the market. We aim to secure 15 percent of the market in the first year of business, an amount that is achievable and will provide significant income for our employees.
We will operate our main courier terminal in Williamsburg, Virginia. Our hours of operation will be from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm every day of the week. We will be set up as a sole ownership corporation and will employ 10 contract drivers. Each driver will meet a high level of security clearances.
Competition
All potential competitors are segmented into different areas of courier services, doing everything from truck loads of freight to envelope delivery. There are only two that will be offering the exact same services as ours—offering high–level package privacy and security demanded by doctors and lawyers for various reports and documents that require the highest level of discretion and protection.
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
We will be able to operate our business using start up funds of $50,000. Of this total, there will be a loan request for $20,000 and the remaining $30,000 is being provided by the owner.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
The biggest barrier to entry for us is to gain acceptance by our key clients. Having said this, our research indicates that potential clients will indeed use our services. We will provide service on a daily basis from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm every day of the week. Our company will provide courier service to our clients. We will offer pre–scheduled services as well as on–time or on–demand services. We will deliver and carry any item up to 60 pounds and delivery it either in a short schedule or normal delivery service.
All of our deliveries will be recorded by a new online delivery tracking service. Once a client's delivery destination signs for an item, the client will get an email indicating the package was delivered and all the important information will be included in the email, including who signed for it, the time it was delivered, etc.
MARKETING & SALES
Sales Strategy
Sales strategy will be managed by the owner. All of our drivers will act as our sales agents, keeping costs down and making sure we target all the markets we want to target. A sales bonus program will be offered to our drivers—for each new client they sign up, the driver will get 2 percent of every dollar that client spends with our service after the first 12 months the client has been with our company. This includes all businesses even though the driver may not personally make the deliveries. This is will be an incredible bonus and will keep our drivers motivated to stay with us for a long time.
Advertising
We intend to promote our business using various methods as outlined below.
- Word of mouth
- Alliances
- Customer service
- Telemarketing
- Advertising
- Direct mail
- Magazines
- Newspapers
- Phone book
- Signage
- Website
- Public relations
- Demonstrations/booths
- Flyers
- Newsletters
- Press releases
- Promotional products
- Sponsored events
Pricing Strategy
Because of the high level of privacy and protection for our service, we are going to be charging a higher fee than some of our competitors. This goes along with the need for our client's top secret service and on time delivery. Our prices are set higher than our competition because we are not a normal courier service.
Our Pricing
Below is a detailed breakdown of our prices, based on mileage and desired turn-around time. As noted, these may be higher than potential competitors, but they cannot compete with our level of privacy and customer service. Our customers will be willing to pay more for our services because of this.
| Mileage | Quick (4.5 Hours) | Quicker (2.5 Hours) | Quickest (1.5 Hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–5 | $30.00 | $35.00 | $40.00 |
| 6–10 | $35.00 | $40.00 | $45.00 |
| 11–15 | $40.00 | $45.00 | $50.00 |
| 16–20 | $45.00 | $50.00 | $55.00 |
| 21–25 | $50.00 | $55.00 | $60.00 |
| 26–30 | $55.00 | $60.00 | $65.00 |
| 31–35 | $60.00 | $65.00 | $70.00 |
| 36–40 | $65.00 | $70.00 | $75.00 |
| 41–45 | $70.00 | $75.00 | $80.00 |
| 46–50 | $75.00 | $80.00 | $85.00 |