Business Plan for Commercial Building Resiliency

Book excerpt: The commercial building resiliency project is about a marketing research and writing a business plan for a program that ensures commercial buildings are sustainable from different aspects such as physical, environmental, and social. Our client was a non-profit organization that has been sponsored by other large non-profits. Due to confidentiality, this paper does not name nor directly describe the company. The goal of the company is to advocate its mission and goals. Our team conducted a SWOT analysis to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the company. The analysis determined the competitive advantages of the firm and expressed the values that the firm could offer. The scope of the firm's activities did not fit under any The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes; therefore, the team decided to research three industries, listed under NAICS codes and aggregate the relative information. The studied industries were Environmental Consulting in the US (54162), Scientific & Economic, Consulting in the US (54169), and Eco & Green Certification, Providers in the US (OD5501). Our team conducted PEST and Porter analysis to understand the external environments of the firm. Within PEST analysis, we studied the trends in politics, economy, society, and technology and determined the effects of each on the industry. The team considered the regulations at Federal, State, and local level. We then sought predictions for the industry in case of a recession and found social changes are only indirectly important since the program and industry are more focused on business to business (B2B) market. Our most crucial task was to determine if there is a market for the subject program. Since many of the potential clients would be large corporations, the team analyzed if individuals (corporate employees) would also be interested in learning and gaining certifications from the program. Although the firm has been active for a few years, the structure of the firm is and will be revolving as the firm grows. Along with a financial analysis, we provided suggestions for the growth of the human resources of the company in the near future. We conducted a financial analysis to determine the funds required to ramp up the program up to the sustainability level. We projected revenues along with the cost of business and created a spreadsheet, similar to a traditional discount cash flow model. The deficit budget became equal to the amount that the firm should raise through sponsorships and grants. We presented our finding along with recommendations for the near future of the company and years to come. We predicted the time for the firm to be self-sustainable and provided guidelines to up to that point.