BUSI 338 Week 8 New Venture Project Final Project Report Example

Final Project Report: Hill City Mobile Bike Works, Ready to Launch

Slide 1: Hill City Mobile Bike Works: Final Project Report

• Bicycle repair that comes to the rider
• Lynchburg, Virginia; single-member LLC
• New Venture Project, Final Report

Speaker notes: Over the past seven modules, this project has taken a simple idea, repairing bicycles from a van at riders' homes and workplaces, through its legal setup, its operations and its first hire. This final report brings those pieces together, shows what changed along the way, and presents the business as it would actually launch next spring, with its numbers, its risks and the conditions under which I would change course.

Slide 2: The Problem and the Customer

• Riders delay repairs because getting to a shop is a chore
• 14 of 20 surveyed riders had waited a month or more
• Customers: commuters, recreational riders, families, campuses

Speaker notes: The business exists because a broken bicycle often sits unused. In my survey of twenty riders, most had put off a repair for a month or longer, and most said they would pay a little more for a visit. The customers fall into four groups: commuters who need their bike working every day, weekend riders, families with several bikes, and college students on campuses with many bicycles and few shops nearby.

Slide 3: The Competitive Position

• Four area storefront shops, no full-time mobile service
• Advantage: convenience and transparent pricing
• Limit: small parts stock; solved by special orders

Speaker notes: The area's four storefront shops have deeper stock and sell new bicycles, which the van will never match. The venture competes on two things they find hard to offer: coming to the rider and posting flat prices with written quotes. Its weakness, limited shelf space, was addressed in Phase 2 with a stock list built from the soft-launch job log and a system for ordering unusual parts during the first visit.

Slide 4: What Changed Along the Way

• Mechanic pay raised to $22 an hour to lead the local market
• Winter cash reserve of $8,000 added
• Payment collected at each repair, not invoiced monthly
• Special-order process added after seven second trips

Speaker notes: The plan in Module/Week 1 was a first guess, and the phases changed it. The wage comparison in Phase 3 showed that a skilled part-time mechanic would cost more than I assumed. The cash budget in Forum 4 revealed a winter gap that the annual profit figure hid. The soft-launch job log showed that unusual parts were costing whole trips. Each change makes the business slightly less profitable on paper and much more likely to survive.

Slide 5: Revised First-Year Profit and Loss

• Revenue: $152,000 (down from $160,000)
• Gross profit: $134,000
• Operating expenses: $66,800
• Operating income before owner's pay and taxes: about $67,000

Speaker notes: The soft launch showed fewer tune-ups per partner visit than I planned, so first-year tune-ups are revised from 1,200 to about 1,110, lowering revenue to roughly $152,000. Parts sales and the 40 percent parts margin held up. Expenses rise slightly with the mechanic's higher wage and a larger insurance deposit, but fall where hours are lower than first budgeted. Operating income of about $67,000 is lower than the first projection, but it now rests on observed numbers rather than hopes.

Slide 6: Legal, Operations and People in One View

• Legal: LLC, city license, state sales tax, insurance
• Operations: ABC stock list, weekly orders, five-step check
• People: one part-time mechanic, hourly pay, no commission

Speaker notes: The three phases fit together. The ethics code from Phase 1, written quotes and no upselling, is supported by Phase 3's decision to pay the mechanic hourly with no commission on parts, and by Phase 2's checklist, which makes every repair verifiable. The legal setup protects the owner while the business is small. Each decision was tested against competitors and against what riders said they wanted.

Slide 7: Three-Year Outlook

• Year 1: one van, about $152,000 revenue
• Year 2: add a winter service contract with a college
• Year 3: second van only if Year 2 tune-ups exceed 1,500

Speaker notes: Growth is planned in steps that each depend on evidence. In year two, the business will seek a winter maintenance contract with a college bike-share or fleet, which would ease the seasonal gap. A second van and a full-time mechanic come only if year-two volume clears a stated threshold. Each step in the outlook has a number that must be reached before the next one begins.

Slide 8: How Often New Businesses Survive

• About 1 in 5 new establishments close within a year
• Roughly half remain open after five years
• Survival is likely, not guaranteed

Speaker notes: Business Employment Dynamics figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024) show about one in five new private establishments closing within a year and about half still open at five years. Those figures apply to all industries and sizes, so they are only a baseline. They argue for the cash reserve and the stepwise growth plan: the business is built to survive a bad first year rather than to grow as fast as possible.

Slide 9: Closing Is Not the Same as Failing

• Many closed firms were successful when they closed
• Owners close to retire, sell or move on
• Exit conditions set in advance

Speaker notes: Looking at federal records of new employer firms, Headd (2003) reported that roughly one in three owners of closed businesses called the business a success when it shut. That finding matters for planning. If the business cannot reach its year-two threshold, selling the van and equipment to a storefront shop wanting a mobile arm is an honorable exit, not a failure. Writing the exit condition down now means the choice, if it comes, will be made calmly rather than in a crisis.

Slide 10: Main Risks and Responses

• Injury or illness of the owner: disability coverage, mechanic cross-trained
• Van breakdown: roadside plan, rental arrangement
• A shop starts its own mobile service: partner contracts and reviews

Speaker notes: Byrd and Megginson (2018) present insurance as only one way to handle risk; an owner can also avoid a risk, reduce it or accept it knowingly. The largest risk in a two-person business is the owner being unable to work, so the plan includes disability insurance and a mechanic trained to run repair days alone. A breakdown would stop the business entirely, which the roadside plan and a rental arrangement address. If a storefront shop launches its own mobile service, the venture's defense is its partner contracts and its reviews, which a newcomer would need years to match.

Slide 11: Faith and the Plan

• Plans made carefully, held humbly
• Honest quotes, fair pay, careful work
• Scripture: we plan the course, the Lord directs the steps (Proverbs 16:9)

Speaker notes: This project has been an exercise in planning, and Scripture both encourages and limits it. Proverbs teaches that a person plans a course while the Lord directs the steps (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 16:9). I take that to mean the plan should be careful and also held loosely, revised as the evidence comes in. The commitments that will not change are the ones from the phases: honest quotes, fair and timely pay and careful work on every bicycle.

Slide 12: References

Speaker notes: The final report cites the textbook, a peer-reviewed study of business closure, federal survival statistics and Scripture; the reference list follows.

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Business employment dynamics: Establishment age and survival data. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/bdm/bdmage.htm

Byrd, M. J., & Megginson, L. C. (2018). Small business management: An entrepreneur's guidebook (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Headd, B. (2003). Redefining business success: Distinguishing between closure and failure. Small Business Economics, 21(1), 51-61. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024433630958