Disciplined Entrepreneurship

Mr. Jamal El Hout

Tackling the Commodity that can’t be

replaced – TIME

Prepared by :
Rita Ghie
Sara Eskandar
Sara Assi
Talal Ali Mohamad
Nour Oueini
Mostafa Nokari
 Business Description
The proposed ‘By Boat’ project entails providing three sea shuttles or boats (capacity of 30 people each)
that would transport people along the Lebanese coast. The main station is designed to be located in
Beirut area, at the St. Georges Resort. The other stations will be located at the following areas: from North
to South respectively; Tripoli, Chekka, Batroun, Jbeil, Jounieh, Jieh,Rmeileh, Saida and Sour

• Two boats will be provided to transport people from Beirut towards the South and the North
directions. The third boat will depart to either direction depending on the highest demanded
destination or will be kept on as a stand-by for possible emergencies (i.e., other boats failure
or unexpected excess demand especially on weekends).
 Process

Segmentation Locals Using the Coast

Companies Using the Coast

Personas Parents transporting their children through cost

Employees using coast route to go to work

Needs The main need is to optimize time efficiency

Goverment to save cost and pollution

Design Boats prepared to be efficient and comfortable

Challenging cost to suit the mass

Logistics are there on different points to have maximum

Delivery reach
Parking lots available for customer

Research done to give best services with benefits to

Action community
Risks identified to ensure nothing hinders project
 Target Customers
Employees going to their work through cost

Companies mainly FMCG using logistics through coast

for delivery

Tourists using coast through their Journey In Lebanon

Students going to Universities through Coast

Parents taking their children to school via Coast

Families going on Holidays to destinations using coast

 Personas

Below is a list of major personas (not all) that we consider as our target customers.

Most Reputable
Parents need to Many FMCG
universities are in
drop their children companies can
Beirut , student
on daily basis to benefit from time
from other cities
school , they suffer efficiency by
go every day back
from traffic and optimizing time
and forth through
stress delivery
coast
 Identifying the Needs

• The people would enjoy a ride in the sea and at the same time would get to reach their
destination without being stuck in the heavy traffic. Also, the service provides an innovative idea
to encourage touristic siting on the Lebanese cost. People will get to see Palm Island, Jounieh bay,
Batroun and Jbeil ancient ports, and Saida and Sour sites in a pleasant way.
Research and analysis
• A market study has been developed for the proposed venture to identify the target group to be
targeted (demographic characteristics) and to assess the features of the service to be provided
(quality, price, warranty, etc.).
• In order to accomplish an appropriate market analysis, a self-administered questionnaire has been
developed and a sample of 100 people was interviewed. A copy of this questionnaire is provided
with this business plan (see Appendix). The results of the market analysis are presented in this
section.

Questionnaire analysis
• The sample size was limited to 100 people due to restricted resources. Although not being
representative of the whole Lebanese consumers, the interviewed sample was chosen to be
proportional gender wise.
•
• Referring to Table, it can be noticed that 32% of the interviewees are single (57%) with an age
range of 15-25. The majority of the sample belongs to the working population (62%) however, a
relatively high proportion of the interviewees (32%) are still students at high schools and
universities.
88% of the interviewees were willing to go by boat to a beach resort or a touristic site located on
the Lebanese coast and showed excitement when hearing about the idea, especially those of
younger age.
Concerning the fee that they were willing to pay if such transportation was provided, much
suggestions were proposed. The young people, with an age range between 15 and 25, were willing
to pay a maximum amount of 15,000 LL. However, older people were willing to pay around 20,000
LL. The maximum amount that people were willing to pay for such a transportation mean was
25,000 LL since otherwise it wouldn’t be cost-effective.
 Most of the people were willing to dedicate 2 hours by boat to reach Tripoli (50%) or Sour
(52%) .The latter information was helpful for trips scheduling as it will be seen in the next sections.

Percentage (%)

15-25 32

26-35 28

Age 36-45 25

46-55 10

>55 5

Male 45
Gender
Female 55

Single 57
Marital status
Married 43

Student 38
Occupation
Others 62

School 28
Educational level
University 72
 Fulfillment Mechanism
Location analysis
• The best location of the start-up of the ByBoat company was chosen to be Beirut for several
reasons:
• It has a large population with a majority of medium and high class of people, which is happens to
be the service’s target group.
• All resorts in Beirut vicinity are either polluted or very expensive. People tend to go to places in
Rmeileh, Jieh, Jounieh, Chekka and Tripoli.
 • People from the North would most likely stay in the north and the same apply to the South.
Nevertheless, a lot of them would like to change and head for the other part of the country.
• Beirut is the middle way between the North and the South, therefore, it is the most efficient way
to start up this business. Future plans could be to expand the service and provide additional boats
for every station however, as a start-up; the service will be limited to the latter mentioned
Facility Needs
• After several scenarios discussed and agreed upon, the optimum solution for the minimum start
budget would be to have three boats operating along the shore:
• One will be dedicated towards Tyr passing by Jieh, Rmeil, and Sour.
• The second will be dedicated for Tripoli, passing by Jounieh, Jbeil, Chekka.
• The third boat will follow the demand and will be used also for emergencies. No two boats will
have the same route at the same time.
• The other facilities needed include the already existing boat station at the St.Georges Resort.
Future plans would be to build more stations along the Lebanese shore however at this stage, the
only used station will be that latter mentioned.
Management
• The Legal and business structure of the By Boat will be done according to the Local Lebanese Laws
and in accordance with the International Laws concerning Sea-shore. The General partnership will
be composed of eight investors. The operation and management of the company will be done by
all investors, in addition to qualified personnel for the optimal operation.

Shareholders

Board of directors

CEO

General Manager
Manager Lawyer
Sales & Finance

Accountant Banker

Captain (1) Captain (2) Captain (3) Mechanics

 Sailor (1) Sailor (2) Sailor (3)

The President of the Board and the CEO of the company would oversee monitoring all activities occurring,
hiring qualified personnel, supervision of the operations and sales, implementing major policies and rules
with the help of the company's Lawyer. The head of a full-time manager will be responsible of making
instant decisions and replace the CEO in case of his absence.
Having three boats to fulfill the company's needs, it is in the best interest to recruit a boat-manager who
has the knowledge to repair and to maintain the boat frequently. This boat manager would also be the
boat captain due to limited budget and boat space. The captain would be highly qualified to manage the
boat and the crew, as he/she will be responsible for everything that is occurring on the boat. The
estimated salary for the Captain would be around 1300 $/month. A regular boat driver with the
knowledge of the mechanics of the boat would cost the company around 600 $/month, but offshore
transportation needs highly qualified personnel. As for the crew, the boats needs one sailor to help the
captain, with a slight knowledge on how to drive the boat in case of emergencies, as well as cleaning and
maintaining the boat in good condition. The sailor's fee would be about 250 $ /month including all
materials and equipment such as cleaning foams, towels, etc.
Moreover, one highly skilled mechanics will be recruited for the daily maintenance of all three boats. It
will cost the company about 600 $/ month.
One assistant manager will also oversee marketing and finance, and will be responsible for the marketing
and sales program, as well as the financial operations. In addition, the job description will include the
follow up of the docking stations' relation and management. The salary of the assistant manager will be
about 1500 $ /month
shareholders and members of the Board of Directors role will be administrative since they will be
providing the funding for the ByBoat project.

Critical – Risks
• This is a new business venture with no operating history and involving a high degree of risk, as any
start-up business will meet. This section identifies potential risks or problems that might be faced
during the different stages of the business plan development or execution and provides some
alternative course of action for each anticipated risk.

Delays
• Delays are highly expected in the different stages of the venture development, especially when it
comes to financial budgeting, legal issues and permit issuing. The time required to raise the
 necessary capital, establish the boat stations, acquire the venture operating rights, license and
sailing permits could conceivably be longer than anticipated. Delays should be accounted for in
the milestone scheduling of the business plan. Moreover, the company lawyer should be highly
qualified and efficient in finishing on time the legal issues related to the venture.
Equipment
• Many problems will be associated with the boats’ maintenance and operational procedures.
Failure in the boats’ operation and other mechanical problems are highly anticipated.
• However, a stand-by boat will be provided in case of emergencies, i.e., boat failure. Also, a
mechanics will be always present on board to fix any incurred damage. In case of the boat’s failure
during the trip, the stand-by boat will be provided to transport people to their destination. The
coastal police force will be contacted in case of high emergency.

Managements experience
The chosen Board of Directors or CEO might not be highly qualified in running the business since they
don’t possess the necessary knowledge nor the high expertise in the field. However, numerous
consultations with various experts were conducted and additional qualified personnel and staff will be
recruited in a more advanced stage of the plan to ensure successful management of the venture.

Public acceptance (Customer Base)

• All indications show a very positive response to the By Boat concept, but this could change since
most of the new businesses in Lebanon face people’s disinterest after a relatively short period of
operation. The business will boom at first but will soon start to vanish especially when other new
services get established. However, the marketing manager will always ensure constant attraction
to the service by providing new and innovative ideas in addition to tempting offers so that the
service remains constantly appealing to consume

Competition

• There is a possibility that other services and tourist attractions will be established as soon as the
business starts operating, as it is the case of many services provided in Lebanon. The By Boat
management team however will keep providing new and attractive ideas and promotional offers
to keep it successfully operating.
FINANCE
• The financial segment of a business plan must demonstrate the potential viability of undertaking.
This section includes the financial statements and cost-related issues of the By Boat venture.
A marketing study concerning the brand of the boat to be chosen was done and the following results
were obtained.
Sales Forecast
• It is assumed that the cost of the trip for every person is ten dollars.
• Each of the three boats will transport 30 persons a day and will travel about 220km per day.
• Sales per day =3 (boats) x 30 (persons) x $10 / person = $ 900 /day.
• The trip will start on the 15 May and will end at the end of September.
• Parking for the boat = $400 /linear meter/ year.
• License (‫ رخصة مالحة‬-‫ = )ميكانيك‬900,000 lb.
• Advertisement campaign per year = $12000.
• Fuel Cost = 40 Lit/hour x 4.5 hours/day x $0.7 /lit = $126 /day.
• Salaries: Sailor ($200), Boat driver ($600) and Ticketing ($250). Total: 1050$ /boat/month
• Insurance /boat = 5% x 50000 = $2500 /year
• Depreciation /year = 8% x 50000 = $4000 /year
• Lifetime of the project = 5 years.
• Salvage value = $30000
• After taking the experts opinions of, it was decided to choose to buy three used boats with
medium quality and price.
• The three boats will cost $150,000
• Add to them $25,000 for starting the project
• Total funding cost = $175,000
• Three persons will provide the funding of the project. (Sir if you want you are welcomed). $58,333
is needed by each person. One way of the funding sources could be provided by Banks with
interests between (14% – 16%).

Monthly Projected Income Statement, from year 1 to year 5 (

Per boat)
Cost &
Revenue April May June July August Sept Oct Nov/Dec
Purchasing -
Boats 175,000.00              
2790
Revenue   14400 27000 27900 27000 0    

Advertising   -2400 -2400 -2400 -2400 -2400    

Salaries   -3150 -3150 -3150 -3150 -3150    

Rent   -720 -720 -720 -720 -720    

Insurance   -1500 -1500 -1500 -1500 -1500    

License   -390 -390 -390 -390 -390    

Depreciation   -2400 -2400 -2400 -2400 -2400    

Repair   -600 -600 -600 -600 -600    

Maintenance   -750 -750 -750 -750 -750    

Fuel   -1890 -3780 -3906 -3780 -3906    

1208
Gross profit   600 11310 12084 11310 4  47388  

Year 1 Total 47388 $

Salvage

Gross profit Value Total

-
Year 1 -127612 0 127612
Year 2 47388 0 47388
Year 3 47388 0 47388
Year 4 47388 0 47388
Year 5 47388 90000 137388
Total = 151940
Net Present Value
NPV = 142,359 $
Internal Rate of return
IRR = 33%
The rate of return is 33 % which is a profiting project in only 5 months of
the year.
The project is feasible and worth taking the risk taken in our
opinion is small.