Picasa Templates

Picasa Templates Business Plan "Picasa Templates will provide simplest online photo gallery solution for individuals." Bill Erickson, Executive Director Erickson Acquisitions Phone: 281.797.1276 Email: bill@billerickson.net Picasa Templates Table of Contents Executive Summary Type of Business Company Summary Introduction General Summary of Services Source of Income Division of Profits Future Growth Analysis of the Business Situation Industry Analysis Competition Planned Operation of the Business Organizational Structure Contractors Proposed Pricing Strategy Proposed Promotional Program Planned Financing Expenses/Investments Conclusion 3 5 7 8 10 11 2 Executive Summary Type of Business Picasa Templates provides a full online solution for customers wanting to easily share their photos with friends and family. We will offer templates for exporting the galleries from Picasa (both standard and custom-designed templates), hosting for the galleries, a subdomain on which the galleries can be viewed, and an easy to use content management system through which the users can add/edit/delete galleries, change themes, and more. Company Summary Since the advent of computers, almost everything, including photography, has been taken to the digital medium. At the end of 2002, approximately 23 million households – nearly 20 percent – owned digital cameras. Digital cameras are easy to use, upgrade, and make prints from. Computers have also become digital camera-friendly. Most digital cameras come with software to edit and store images, or one can use software specifically for editing (Photoshop) and photo management (Picasa). The only thing lacking is an easy way to share photos with friends through a website. Right now, if one wanted to set up an online gallery of photos to share with friends and family, she would need to either learn how to design and develop a Website (unrealistic for the largest demographic of digital camera owners: generally women and families with young children), or have someone set it up for her (either a paid professional, or for free by “the computer kid who lives down the street”). Picasa Templates plans to satisfy this niche. Picasa is the best photo management program, and the best way to provide an easy online photo gallery solution to a target market not very tech savvy is to provide an addition to Picasa's great software. We are focused on providing the most easy-to-use solution possible. What the iPod did for digital music, we plan to do for online photo galleries. The key to success is two-fold. First, we must develop the simplest solution possible -- since our target market lacks the technical skill to develop their own Website -- through a content management system 3 which will allow them to: 1. Easily add, edit and delete galleries. A custom developed ftp program built into the CMS will allow us to ensure customers have no problem uploading their new galleries. 2. Change themes easily without re-uploading all galleries. Since we store all the templates on our servers (the customers only export an xml file from Picasa), at any time the customer can change the gallery’s design and select a new one. 3. Edit homepage. The homepage will list all the available galleries and feature a title, description, and photo. Through the CMS the customer can change all of these, including setting the photo to “random” so a different photo from the available galleries is displayed each time. 4. Add Extras. Since everything is local, any updates we make to our templates and CMS will be immediately available to customers. Some extras we are considering are the ability to add Google Adsense ads to galleries and comments. Second, we much reach our target audience. We hope to form some sort of partnership with Picasa in which our service is advertised with their product. We will also pursue marketing efforts with digital camera distributors and photo printers. Using our experience with Picasa and in the web development industry, we are sure this venture will be successful; the only question is how successful. In this proposal we will describe our plan for success in detail. 4 Introduction General Picasa Templates is a wholly owned subsidiary of Erickson Media Group, which is a partnership of Bill Erickson and Adam Pflug, each owning 50% of the company. We are located at 115 Meadowspring Circle, Suite 201, The Woodlands, TX, and our telephone number is 281.797.1276. Picasa Templates can be accessed at www.picasatemplates.com , while Erickson Media Group’s website is www.billerickson.net/emg . Summary of Services Picasa Templates will provide a solution for customers to easily share photo galleries with others. The basis of our business is our Content Management System, which takes all the hard work out of maintaining a gallery website. The CMS would handle all things from adding new galleries to changing designs. It would also provide access to our knowledge base which would contain tutorials and frequently asked questions. Alternatively, customers can opt to simply receive the template and provide their own domain and hosting (called the template-only solution). This is designed for customers who already have a website and would like to add a gallery (or replace their current gallery with an easier to use one). If the customer can’t find a template he likes or would like one to match his current website, we can custom design one. Source of Income The full service solution, which includes template, hosting, domain, and CMS, will have an initial fee for the template plus a monthly recurrent payment to cover hosting and the CMS. When we provide a customer with the template-only solution, we will receive just an initial fee (most likely larger than the full service solution’s initial fee). Custom template designs will be priced on a case-by-case basis, but there will be a price break if the template will be added to our database (customer doesn’t mind if others are allowed to use it). Division of Profits For at least the first few months, all income will be reinvested into the business. Once we have built up enough cash reserves and have a 5 steady stream of income each month, monthly distributions will be determined by Erickson Media Group and dispersed according to partner’s current ownership in Erickson Media Group (currently, both partners have equal equity). Future Growth Once Picasa Templates is fully established and we are ready to grow, we will locate different target markets and develop a similar website for that industry. Picasa Templates currently targets the computer user who is not very tech-savvy, most likely parents wishing to share family photos with family and friends. Possible expansion could be in the web comic industry, providing illustrators with an easy way to maintain a comic website. While we will most likely use the same resources (CMS, template design…), the solution will be customized for that market, identifying their specific needs. Instead of diluting Picasa Templates brand by targeting multiple markets, we will simply apply the same basic concept to multiple markets and industries. We will also continue to add to Picasa Templates with extras. Some planned additions include:  Google Adsense ads. Customers will be able to add their own ads to their galleries to cover the expenses and possibly generate a profit. Customers would have their own Adsense account; we would simply provide the color combinations and an easy way to add it to the template.  Add Comments. Customers will have the choice to enable comments on their photos by others.  Print This Photo. We will partner with a photo developing business to provide an easy printing solution. 6 Analysis of Business Situation Industry Analysis Digital cameras and digital photos have gained mainstream acceptance, and now are preferred by most over their analog counterparts. Even those with traditional cameras are now requesting the “Photo CD” when they have their pictures printed so that they can have a digital backup. The most common way to share photos online with others is through email, although this can be quite limiting. Most email clients have a maximum filesize that limits the quality and number of pictures shared, and most email clients lack the ability to easily browse photos (no thumbnails to determine if you want to look at photo, images usually don’t fit to screen when large…). Others use free webhosts such as geocities or tripod to host gallery pages, but these are usually too difficult for the average user to set up and maintain. If an easy and attractive alternative were to be found, it would most likely be embraced. People are willing to spend money to make sharing photos easier. Picasa, undoubtedly the easiest to use (windows-based) photo management software available, will definitely increase in popularity due to its recent acquisition by Google. Picasa Templates is the perfect extension to this tool and will help redefine the industry of online photo sharing. Competition Our direct competitors would be websites like AlbumPost.com, Pixagogo.com, and Photobird.com because they offer paid photo galleries to customers. However, our competitive advantage is the use of both Picasa and our CMS to make photo galleries even easier to develop. We are targeting the niche market of less tech-savvy computer users who want to share photos with friends and family, and they would most likely not come across these websites; that’s why we will depend on offline marketing methods and word of mouth to acquire new customers. 7 Planned Operation of Business Organizational Structure Picasa Templates will operate as a partnership between Bill Erickson and Adam Pflug. All major decisions will be decided by both, while smaller decisions will fall unto whoever is responsible for that type of decision. Bill Erickson is responsible for design, marketing and finances. Adam Pflug is responsible for development, usability testing, and managing our technical assets (server, CMS…). If it is necessary to bring in contractors to help with template creation, it will be divided into two separate phases: Design and Development. Bill Erickson will act as project manager for the designers who will design the templates and provide both a jpg and the source file (png, psd…). Adam Pflug will act as project managers for the coders who develop the templates from the designs into working templates. Picasa Templates will be actively managed by both partners, who will remain in constant contact with each other through emails and phone calls. If one partner no longer wishes to continue working on Picasa Templates, the other can buy his equity stake at a price to be determined then. Contractors If and when it becomes necessary for us to bring in outside help in developing templates, contractors will be paid a percentage of each template sale (not a percentage of the ongoing monthly fee). The exact percentages and amounts have yet to be determined. Additionally, contractors will not gain or lose any money when a customer switches templates; a contractors’ earnings are dependent upon the first design the customer picks. Proposed Pricing Strategy Keep in mind these prices are not set in stone and will likely change after we do market research; they merely reflect the pricing strategies of each option relative to the others. • Template-Only Solution: For those desiring just a template that they can use with Picasa to create a gallery on their own domain, we would charge a one-time fee of $30. They would be provided with all the necessary files and documentation to set it up on their own website. 8  Full-Service Solution: The full service solution would include access to our database of templates (and the ability to easily change templates at any time for no cost), hosting for the gallery, a subdomain on which to view it, and an easy-to-use CMS that will do everything the customer needs to maintain the gallery. The initial fee will be $15, plus a monthly fee for hosting, domain, and CMS. The monthly fee will be dependant upon which hosting plan they choose. o Normal - $6.95/month o Advanced - $11.95/month o Supreme - $19.95/month So the average customer’s cost will be $15 + $6.95/month. The terms of each hosting package has yet to be determined. Custom Template Design: If the customer can’t find a design he likes or would like one to go with his current site’s design, we can design a custom template for him. This can be applied to both the template-only and full-service solutions, replacing the initial fee with the cost of developing the custom template. The price of the custom template would be $95 for it to remain unique or $65 if the customer opts to have it added to our database of available templates.  Proposed Promotional Program We will focus on both online and offline marketing.  Online: Hopefully we will receive some sort of partnership with Picasa where we are featured on their website. If not, even being mentioned in their blog would prove to be a valuable promotional tool. The best possible scenario (however unlikely) would be some sort of inclusion in the next version of Picasa. For example, when a user chooses a template for exporting, there would be a button that would say “Purchase more templates at picasa templates.com.” Aside from a Picasa partnership, we will focus on word-of-mouth (through Picasa Templates links in the galleries we sell) and possibly a Google Adwords campaign.  Offline: We will pursue strategic alliances with digital camera distributors and photo printers to provide marketing materials to our target market, most likely in the form of a flyer or possibly a CD with Picasa, a custom Picasa template and information on Picasa Templates. 9 Planned Financing Expenses/Investment Picasa Templates will require little monetary investment by its partners. Through our web development experience, we will be able to develop our website, CMS and templates in-house. The server we use is also used to host Aesthetic Studios clients; therefore, its monthly cost is covered. Once that server becomes full we will be making enough money monthly from hosting to easily afford an upgrade or a new server. The only real expenses will be for marketing. Erickson Media Group will allocate a certain amount of our current cash in bank to be used for marketing. Within the first few months of operation, we will recover our marketing costs. Erickson Media Group’s other assets (Aesthetic Studios, iPod in Car…) will generate enough income to cover Picasa Templates’ marketing expenses, so the partners will not need to contribute any personal capital to this project. If a shortage of cash should happen, both partners will contribute an equal amount to the cash in bank. 10 Conclusion After presenting you with our plan, I hope you desire to be a part of the success of Picasa Templates. Our future success is built upon the following:  Growing consumer market looking to share photos easily with friends and family  Picasa’s ease of use and its increased popularity due to its recent acquisition by Google  Our ability to develop attractive templates and an easyto-use Content Management System  The low capital investment needed to launch this business  A recurrent monthly income stream with minimal work required to maintain it These facts alone justify the huge success available for Picasa Templates. Join us in a partnership which would benefit both businesses: Picasa would benefit through increased value of its product (Picasa Templates as an extension to Picasa provides users with a more powerful product), and Picasa Templates benefits from increased business. Additionally, this partnership would form no burden on Picasa or its parent company Google because they would have no financial connections with our company. If Google would prefer not to engage in some form of partnership, at least grant us the right to use both the Picasa name and logo in our website and marketing materials. If you have any questions or need any additional information, I would be happy to discuss this with you over the phone or via email. My contact information is on the cover of this business plan. I am available over the phone after 3pm Mon-Fri or anytime on the weekends. Thank you for your time and providing us with such a great product from which to work. Bill Erickson Erickson Media Group 11