Executive Summary

Succeeding Steps Incorporated (SSI) is a student organization created to address the educational
divide within many school districts across the country. Operating as a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC),
SSI gained $100,000.00 in startup funds from angel investors in and around our local area. Located at 4401
West Cypress St, Tampa, Florida, SSI has a distinct mission statement that encompasses the idea of
providing a clear pathway towards success for students of all backgrounds looking to reach new heights.
Our company essentially serves as a bridge between individuals and resources for college and career
success. SSI provides relevant educational guides from a variety of disciplines as well as a method of
communication with local tutors through our website at a more affordable price. Whether your future
involves college, military service, or trade school, SSI serves to guide you in the most efficient way possible.
It all begins in our service-minded attitude and background regarding educational preparation.

SSI has six different departments that operate distinct, yet essential aspects of our organization. Our
Marketing and Sales department focuses on promoting, managing, and reinforcing our products and
services with other firms throughout the Virtual Enterprises International Tradeshow events. The
Information Technology department works precisely and efficiently to create and maintain our user-friendly
website where individuals can browse our products and services available for purchase. Our Human

CEO
Resources department focuses on employee
satisfaction, relations, and methods to improve
CFO CMO COO CAO the overall workplace. Our small, yet important
Finance department serves as the backbone of the
VP of VP of VP of HR
VP of Sales VP of IT
Finance Finance Marketing Manager company as they focus on maintaining an
accurate account of financial transactions through
2 Directors 2 Directors 2 Directors 2 Directors
Microsoft Excel and Intuit QuickBooks. Finally,
2
Associates
2
Associates
2
Associates
2
Associates
our executive department consists of a 5 person
C-Suite that includes the positions of Chief
Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Operations Officer (COO), Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Chief
Financial Officer (CFO), and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). By placing employees into departments that
fit their respective strengths, SSI operates in an efficient manner that is consistently reinforced through our
service-minded attitude.

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 Succeeding Steps Incorporated found an issue between high school students and the resources that
they used. According to the American School Counselor Association, there is an average of 430 students
tied to one counselor. SSI is designed to help these counselors by giving students the resources they need in
order to succeed. The company collectively came up with the idea of making resourceful guides for several
subjects, and also providing tutoring sessions. In order to test this idea out, a few of our employees went
out to the student body of Jefferson High School to conduct the tutoring sessions. Using the feedback from
the student body, we tailored the guides to what they felt like they needed the most help with.

Another issue that SSI wanted to solve was the fact that some resources that are available to
students are not affordable. Because of this, SSI set reasonable prices for the guides and tutoring services in
order to make them available for more students. Students should take advantage of our products and
services in order to know what to do to be successful in the future. These resources will help high school
students, especially graduating seniors, get their life together so they know what to do after high school,
and what opportunities are out there for them.

Through the first year of SSI, we had some important short-term goals that needed to be met each
month. Starting in September, we first had to create our idea and attain funding to actually start the
business. We attained two angel investors of $50,000 each that allowed our business to run smoothly in the
beginning without much sales. Going into October, we were getting an elevator pitch prepared along with
the business registration. Without these, our company would not be where it is today. In November and
December, we had our first two tradeshows that needed to be planned out. We projected $100,000 in sales
in the November trade show and $150,000 in December. In total, we surpassed these goals no problem.

In the future, each department has a plan and goal to submit documents, including marketing,
finance, and human resources. While each department focuses on their plan, sales and information
technology will work to improve our website and get it market ready based on critiques that we have
received during our 2 months of sales. In
February and April, we have tradeshows to plan
for and participate in. Our sales team will have to
Trade Shows, Complete business
Business
create sales goals for the company, and we will Registration and
regional and plan along with
international, annual report by
Initial Funding
work hard to surpass these goals once again. Our surpassing the goals the month of May

long-term goal is to submit the Annual Report in

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May of 2021, so we must make sure to work hard and push each other to run this business the best that it
can possibly be run.

At Succeeding Steps, we understand that there will be many risks to our company that could slow
us down from reaching our goals or meeting any of our projections. There are many risks that we could
directly control and others that will be our responsibility which is why we prepared for any circumstances.
1.) Clearly given the current state of the economy, there is a significant economic risk. The economy is
always changing and sometimes the changes could be positive, which will lead to a boom to the business, or
it could be negative which will lead to reduced sales. 2.) Another risk we are aware of is Security and
Fraud. Since the start of the global pandemic, online shopping has significantly increased. At the same time,
there has been a 250% increase in fraud attempts since the beginning of the pandemic according
to IDnow. To make sure we don’t have this problem and maintain customer trust we will focus on fraud
detection tools with employee and customer education on how to detect any potential issues. 3.) We are
aware of the plethora of competition that we have, but if we ignore it and miss out on what other businesses
are offering, that could possibly affect our company. We could potentially be our own risk with being
complacent and being happy with our success instead of looking for ways to make continual improvements.
We need to make sure we continually revisit our performance, refine our strategy, and maintain a strong
interactive relationship with our customers. SSI will make sure to take initiative with each of these risks and
make sure they don’t interfere with our goals and mission to help our customers to reach new heights!

Succeeding Steps Incorporated (SSI) is focused on making sure the future of the ones desiring to
learn is planned and ready. SSI focuses on the students that are looking for any type of guidance in setting up
for college, SAT/ACT assessments, and financial decisions. Students aged between 16-26 is who we mainly
target to ensure they receive the help they need. Students of this age range in school often seek help from
others and sometimes they may not find it, but SSI is where they can find our products and services for
help.
The future is dependent on the success of students whose desire is to learn. Ages 16-26, also known
as Generation Z, are in the transition of becoming an adult and needing to create a plan. Rather than trying
to do it all on their own, SSI comes in to lend some help. Now more than ever, the counselor to student
ratio is extremely low, coming in at a 1 to 430 ratio. One person trying to cover 430 students is challenging
for anyone. Succeeding Steps Inc. will continue to improve their ways to help Generation Z and others
reach new heights.

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 Our secondary target market is mature adults with an estimated income of around $49,000. This
demographic with age 27 and older can seek to finish any further education with assistance from SSI.
Through direct marketing such as in person advertisements, promotional emails, and an outstanding
website, we will be able to appeal to this market and become more profitable. The market focus will be 16
to 26 years old’s but also targeting those going back to college provides SSI with a boost towards reaching
our break-even point.
Overall, Succeeding Steps Inc. (LLC) has been running very smoothly and hitting goals financially.
With it only being first quarter, the goals are little under what we would set them at by the end of this year
and we aimed for a total of $250,000 in our first two months of sales. We surpassed our goal by 15% and
totaled an amount of $287,956. These numbers are outstanding for a startup business. Between the revenue
and the angel investors at the beginning, SSI has been able to meet all expenses for the first quarter and turn
a profit.

The future will bring an increase in promotion and reputation in the community in order to reach a
break-even point. With products ranging in price from $25 up to $4,500, the average price per sale comes
out to approximately $470.00, with the average cost of goods per sale at approximately $150.53. With an
annual fixed expense at $780,000, we would have to sell approximately 2500 units at this average cost to
start making profits.

28% of all sales come from

Updated Break Even Analysis
our 200-book bundle, and 16%
$1,600,000.00
comes from the sale of our college
$1,400,000.00
application guides. With the $1,200,000.00
average cost of goods and average $1,000,000.00
selling price per sale being adjusted $800,000.00
$600,000.00
accordingly, the break-even point
$400,000.00
has been lowered to about 740 $200,000.00
units sold. This is a much more $0.00
manageable task which means that 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

as a company, SSI will continue to Revenue Variable Cost Fixed Cost Total Cost

advertise the bundles more than anything since they give us the highest profit rate and the clearest path to
break even.