Brendan McKenna, Adam Almohtadi
Media Business and Entrepreneurship
Scrap-A-Mation Business Plan
Executive Summary
Scrap-A-Mation is our unique take on combining art, animation, and the media world with our
love of storytelling. With a background in marketing and business, as well as creativity and expression,
we decided to start Scrap-A-Mation with the goal of connecting people through being people.
Scrap-A-Mation started as a simple idea: to digitally animate scrapbooks. While we started at
this basic premise, our business has a wide range of growth planned; we will soon add an arsenal of
design and storytelling ideas to promote company growth in the future.
While the scrapbook for generations has been a static medium, we decided to take it one step
further. Through the unique process of animation, we take your precious memories and make them
come to life in the digital age.
We realized that the public lacks a very specific need: the memories of a photograph are only in
two dimensions. Through our process of animating custom graphics and designs for your loved ones, we
take those flat images and make them explode off the page. Memories that were once still shots of life
are now blossoming with creativity and lasting memory.
Our target market is both specific and wide: the moments of your life and the memories
surrounding it. While many can offer a scrapbook that is still or with simple fades, we bring life to our
creations and life to your past as well as your future with your loved ones.
Company Description
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Nature of Business
o The nature of this business is a free-lance or retail company which creates animated
illustrations and videos for milestones, celebrations, and memory-keeping.
Products and Services
o Our business centers on providing the talent and manpower to create animated
illustrations. We strive to use consumer pictures and video in combination with custom
animation and effects to create an experience tailored to the customer in a more
customized, professional format than a basic consumer-level PowerPoint or other
product.
Marketplace Needs for your Products or Services
o From a child who wrote a story at school and their parents want to turn it into reality for
them to have as a gift, all the way to a 90 year old man who wants to turn his life into a
short animation for his grandchildren to be able to see when he passes, the marketplace
is full of stories that wish to be told with little to no capability of creating said content.
Through our business, we bring their dream to reality as we work with them to create
an experience that truly represents “them”, which the marketplace is always craving.
Target Audience
o This business will touch upon a wide range of people, as it applies to nearly anyone who
wishes to have their stories told in some shape or form. Since this applies to any age,
gender, race, or creed, it will bring in a larger clientele than other forms of business.
Competitive Advantages
o Not too much competition in the field. Little to no other businesses focus on the angle
of product that we provide.
o Wide target audience.
o Flexible work that grants many different experiences to employees.
Industry Description and Outlook
In the field of post-production and graphic design, creative influence and artistic implementations push
employees to create satisfying and well-designed products to advertise, entice, convince, or inspire.
The industries are generally in the maturity stage of the life cycle, with graphic design growing slowly each
year at 7% annually, while video post-production grows at a staggeringly small 3%. Competition is tight, and the
future looks a bit grim.
While post-production and graphic design remains an integral part of the mass media experience, the
increase of in-house teams for major movie studios has lessened the need for private corporations and their
teamwork with filmmakers.
Within this industry, major customer groups include private commission, movie studio employment,
employment by large for-profit organizations, and generally any group wishing to advertise or have something
created.
Target Market
Our business will focus its efforts upon the target market of middle class families who wish to record an
important moment of their lives. By focusing on the middle class, this provides an avenue for our product that is
neither too cheap to continue functioning nor too expensive for the average person. Our business is not for casual
animations or announcements, but more for the celebration of important moments in the lives of people, and
thusly we focus upon those that are going through such moments, which we will market towards. We will place
heavy preference upon the public over large production companies or industries in both TV and print.
Distinguishing Characteristics of Market/Audience
As our business focuses on providing an interesting view on the lives of our customers, it is important to
be aware of the demographics and location of the target market. Since our business centers on big life events, the
average consumer would be either the parents or grandparents of children; this includes birthday parties, holidays,
weddings, or even winning the little league championship. As such, we will target older family members who will
be there for the children / young adults’ life events.
As a scrapbooking animation business, seasonal and cyclical purchasing trends are an important note, as
well. As holidays are often very important moments for our consumers to share memories that were made
throughout the year, particularly on Christmas and New Year’s, we must be aware that activity during this time will
be much higher than the averages during other points of the year. In the fall season, graduation preparations begin
to take place for high school students, which is also an important demographic to focus upon that centers on the
season.
Size of Primary Target Market
Scrapbooking is an activity which takes place in a very large portion of the community. According to the
Crafts and Hobby Association of America, approximately 29% of U.S. homes participate in scrapbooking. While this
hints that almost one third of the United States may be interested, there is also opportunity for growth due to the
2/3 population that will look for other sources for scrapbooking as they will not do so themselves. Of this
percentage, roughly 7.5 million are young married couples with children, which is our target audience. This further
emphasizes the importance of a focus on young families. On average, the usual amount of money that American
families pay for a scrapbooking service is 10-15 dollars per page, up to 30 pages in general. To focus upon this, we
structured our prices to accommodate this.
Market Share
Pricing Structure
Our products will be offered on a tiered system, which will upgrade with each additional feature added
into it. While the bottom-tier product is a basic scrapbook project in a digital format, the inclusion of custom
transitions will up the general price per page, and any inclusion of animation will raise the price further. Since
animatics are much easier to produce than full-fledged animation, this will be much cheaper than a full animation
price. Any animation will never exceed one minute in length.
Service Name
Digital Scrapbook
Description
How much?
A digital scrapbook provided for
$15 a page, up to 50 pages, $20
the consumer with basic
for each additional page.
transitions and no custom
animation. The bottom tier.
Digital Scrapbook Animated
Transitions
A digital scrapbook with custommade transitions between still
$20 a page, up to 50 pages, $25
for each additional page
images. A step above plain
digital scrapbooks, but not our
most advanced product.
Digital Scrapbook with Animatic
Featurette
A digital scrapbook with
$20 a page, up to 50 pages, $25
previous custom transitions and
for each additional page, $150
a small “animatic”, a more rigid,
for the animatic, animatic
less effort-requiring animation
length 1 minute.
style.
Digital Scrapbook with fully
animated segment
A digital scrapbook with custom
$20 a page, up to 50 pages, $25
transitions and a short, fully
for each additional page, $350
animated segment within. Our
top of the line product.
for one minute of full
animation.
Competitive Analysis
While the market share of our particular industry comprises multiple fields and professions, it is the fact
that our business is so diverse that works to our advantage. With a focus upon video, animation, graphic design,
and other areas of media, we have the potential to focus on any one of these areas for growth within our business.
In terms of strengths and weaknesses, our business holds a unique stance in comparison to competition in
the fact that we are a more specialized field that is often untouched upon. No other company seems to offer the
exact product that we provide. This allows possible consumers to come to us more readily, as their specific
situation will be less easily found than others in larger businesses. A second strength is the custom, to-your-
situation style we have in our animations and products. While many companies rely on tried and true strategies,
ours strives to provide a product that is uniquely the consumer’s. Through this, we provide a level of customization
unseen in larger companies, as well as more “generalized” production houses.
However, the strengths of our business can just as readily become a weakness. The more specialized
nature of our business means that we may be less likely to be utilized if the particular product we are offering truly
has no traction or appeal to consumers.
The natural barrier to enter the market is the money to afford both the professional employees along
with the monthly payments for the software used. As the Adobe Creative Suite is central in the production of our
products, we must be capable of working on many projects at once to make up for the monthly payments. We
battle not only keeping a profit, but the capability of keeping our tools, as well.
An obvious barrier to the market would be the ease of use for the consumer in making their own
scrapbook slideshows or PowerPoint presentations. Many families are just as readily capable of making the
product we may advertise to offer on their own. It’s important, therefore, to make obvious the strengths of the
individuality and professionalism our company exudes over the cut and paste look of a PowerPoint project.
Regulatory Restrictions
Our business focuses heavily upon custom animations and copyright-free custom work for scrapbooking
in a digital world. With this comes several restrictions; this includes the fact that no famous or well-known
characters or figures may be included. This requires additional money to acquire the rights to the characters, which
cannot be a factor, as we are attempting to save as much in terms of funds as possible.
No animation styles may be imitated which is well known, which includes styles such as South Park, Family
Guy, or other blatantly copied works.
While we do not animate specific storylines or plots, this business must be made aware of the fact that
animated sections cannot follow already published and well-known storylines.
Organizational Structure
Ownership
Names and Profiles of Management/Employees
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Marketing Director
o Responsible for handling the business, advertising, and organizing of the
marketing aspects of the company.
o In charge of the accountant and secretary staff in keeping organization and
overall company stability.
Creative Director
o In charge of the creative aspect of the business, the Creative Director is
responsible for the attainment of the creative goals of each individual project
placed upon him.
o In charge of the direction of the graphic design team and video editing team,
assuring that the goals of the company’s offerings to clients are met.
Secretary Staff
o Responsible for assistance in the business’ stability and management, including
setting meeting dates, making calls to clients, and transferring messages.
o While the management of the secretary staff is left to the Marketing Director,
the secretaries are responsible for the spectrum of the company, including the
creative team members.
o Will initially have two on staff.
Accountant
o Works with the Marketing Director to assure that financial needs are met and a
general profit is gained from the actions of the company.
o Keeps tabs on the overall budget of each project and makes sure specific
financial goals are met.
Graphic Design Team
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In charge of the artistic vision of each project under the Creative Director, the
graphic design team creates the visuals present in each project it is given,
including still images and animation.
Video Editing Team
o Instructed with the role of wrapping up each project in a pretty bow in
conjunction with the graphic design team, the video editing team creates the
video with the content provided by the client, and implements visuals created
by the graphic designers.
Form of Ownership
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General Partnership
Owners:
o Adam Almohtadi (Marketing Director)
o Brendan McKenna (Creative Director)
Percentage of Ownership: 50/50
Involvement with Company: Full involvement from both owners, regarding all aspects of
business. Marketing Director and Creative Director in joint CEO relationship with the
ability to advise and instruct the other’s direction, while not directly capable of
influencing the teams under the other CEO’s command.
BRENDAN MCKENNA
24705 Woodland Circle, Lee’s Summit, MO 64086 | C: (816) 718-0905 |
bmckennadesigns@gmail.com
brendanmckenna.weebly.com
Career Focus
With a dedicated personality and an urge to be the best at what I create, I cover a wide array
of productions from graphic design to video editing. Let me help you!
Summary of Skills
• Experience in Adobe products, including:
1. Adobe Flash
2. Adobe InDesign
3. Adobe Illustrator
4. Adobe Photoshop
5. Adobe After Effects
6. Adobe Premiere
7. Adobe Dreamweavers
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Extensive graphic design and art
experience.
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Editing experience with Final Cut Pro.
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Voice-over experience, including several
commercials and NPR radio.
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Web design experience in HTML and
CSS.
Education
Bachelor of Science, Interactive Digital Media
Northwest Missouri State University - Maryville, MO - 2015 - 3.85 GPA
Experience
Bearcat Lanes, LLC - Maryville, Missouri
Fall 2014
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Created various logo designs to re-brand the
company, including signs, murals, and general
advertising.
•
Assisted in design of merchandise and
memorabilia.
B.D. Owens Library - Maryville, Missouri
Fall 2014
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page
•
naviga
Produced video content for the library’s Youtube
advertising the location.
Designed a video game centered around the
tion and understanding of the library.
Awards
Practica Experience - Maryville, Missouri
•
Television Practicum - (Spring 2013 - Present) Produced a weekly 2 - 10 minute video game themed
entertainment pack. Hosted game-themed television
program “Respawn TV”.
•
Newspaper Practicum - (Spring 2012) - Produced
weekly movie reviews for the college newspaper.
•
Online Magazine Practicum - (Spring 2014) Graphic
designer for various stories within the
magazine.
90 Degree West - St. Louis, Missouri
Summer 2013
• Shadowed the production of several projects
involving After Effects, Maya, and Photoshop.
• Media Department Award for Best Entertainment Package - (Spring 2013)
• Media department award for Best Editing - (Spring 2013)
• Media Department Award for Best Host - (Fall 2014)
References
Mass Media References
Jacquie Lamer
Justin Ross
Mass Media Instructor, Northwest Missouri State University
Head of Development - Main Line Pictures
800 University Drive
7920 West Sunset Boulevard # 250
Maryville, MO 64468-6001
Los Angeles, CA 90046 Office: (660) 562-1618
Office: (323) 454-3440 jplamer@nwmissouri.edu
Mobile: (323) 979-7222
Character References
Steve Hisey (Long-time family friend)
Installation Supervisor
10910 W 87th St
Lenexa, KS 66214-1603
Office: (913) 341-3434
Mobile: (913) 488-3244
Description of Product/Service
Our services that we are providing to our customers are a personalized digitally animated
scrapbooks and personal digitally animated story books. Our service gives our customers a chance to
branch out from their traditional scrapbooking and allow them to obtain a animated or characterized
version of their scrapbook from our design artists. This would work by having our clients send in already
completed scrapbooks or a series of photos to us. We would then have our designers recreate the phots in
an animated fashion designated by the client.
Our story books would work along the same premise by having our clients send in stories created
by them or their child, and then creating a digitally animated version of their story for them to have. This
is different from all of our competitor's services because we create a custom, individualized, animated
version of real life photos for our clients.
Our product will focus upon a tiered system for payment and quality; while the overall price of
the scrapbook is per page, the amount per page depends heavily on whether there will be custom created
transitions or not between each one, which will be a higher price. Additionally, the inclusion of an
animation within will have a set price that is outside the page pricing and amount of pages. This
animation will be priced either high or low depending on the quality of the animation within. For a full
look into the pricing of our products, take a look into the “Pricing Structure” section of this document.
Details about your Products/Services Life Cycle
Currently, we are in our introduction phase of our life cycle because we are beginning our service
and trying to spread our company name to potential clients. We feel that since our work is customized
based on client and requests that our original idea will last for long time. Our business will occasionally
shift from growth to decline, and back, depending on consumer interest in digital formats opposed to
physical formats
Intellectual Property
As our service offers custom work with no use on any pre-created content (aside from the
programs themselves, as well as consumer photographs) it would be a safe bet that we do not have to
deal too heavily in copyright issues. The only copyrighting issue we’d have to prepare for is preestablished characters re-created in our own custom style. This would include characters such as
superheroes, sports mascots, and other well-known icons that would relate to the consumers’
experiences. Additionally, we must be prepared to pay for the copyrights for fonts and music which may
be requested for the project.
Non-disclosure agreements would be mandatory for employees as we deal in the personal,
private lives of our consumers; their photographs as well as memories are being given to us for use in
our projects, and we must be extra sure that these items are not used for any reason beyond the project
that we have been paid to create.
In terms of non-compete agreements, however, these would not be necessary. Our field of
business is so specialized that we have very little competition in the field, and it’d be silly to restrict the
talent of those involved to not allow them to use their talents in fields outside of the digital
scrapbooking field.
Research and Development
As our target market works within the area of static photographs and images, it’s important that
we have a decent grasp on the concept of basic animation such as simple transitions with additional
small animations. However, as our budget increases, it’d be an excellent idea to move towards offering a
more animated experience altogether for those that wish to have such services.
Placing an emphasis of research and development into full animated segments, as well as fully
animated projects, will allow us to offer more services to more people and expand our market as our
business expands. This will require a larger workforce with more team members; however, this will open
up our target audience to more than just those that wish to have custom scrapbooks with tiny
animations. Our business would be much more alluring if we had the technology and staff to offer more
pricy, fully-animated featurettes.
Overall Marketing Strategy
Market Penetration Strategy
To penetrate the current market we plan on marketing both online and in stores that sell arts
and crafts or focus on picture and video services. We feel that since our business appeals to both those
who create scrapbooks and stories using technology and standard crafting techniques that it is essential
to advertise in both types of locations to reach as many people as possible.
Growth Strategy
We plan on using a vertical strategy in which variables such as video length, and amount of
custom animation will increase the price of the product. This will allow us to create scrapbooking
experiences that could be entirely photos, animation, or a mix of the two depending on the client. This
will also allow us to expand on our original product and offer more options to clients as our company
grows.
Channels of Distribution Strategy
We will not have any specified channels of distribution other than ourselves because we are
already a digital business and the delivery of our services requires no other production to reach our
clients.
Communication Strategy
On top of general advertising online and in local businesses, we could also provide in store
promotions where we can display our services to potential clients and show them how the process
works. We could also have displays set up at stores along with flyers and posters to inform our target
market on our services.
Overall Sales Strategy
Since our service is less door-to-door and more based upon when the client feels willing to
participate and cooperate, it’d be less effective to spend money on door to door salespeople. Due to
this, we will not hire any sales force and instead dedicate the funds that would’ve gone towards that
over to the marketing side, to further push our presence in the marketplace.
Current Funding Requirement
SOFTWARE/TALENT/SPACE
QUANTITY (if applicable)
FUNDS REQUIRED (per)
Marketing Director
1
$60,000
Creative Director
1
$60,000
Secretary Staff
2
$30,000 per year
TOTAL: $60,000
Accountant
1
$40,000
Graphic Designers
3
$44,150 per year ($21.22 hr)
TOTAL: $132,450
Video Editors
3
$46,280 per year ($22.25 hr)
Total: $138,840
Rent for space
1
Adobe Creative Cloud
6
$2,500 per month
$49.99 per mo (per user)
TOTAL: $299.94 per month
Advertising
N/A
~$1000 (online display ads)
~$5000 (magazine print ads)
Computers
6
~$1000 per unit
TOTAL: ~$6000
Work Spaces (furniture, etc)
6 Desks, 6 Chairs
Chair: $244 per unit
Desk: $163 per unit
TOTAL: $2442
General Utilities
Flex spending
TOTAL
Electric, Water, etc.
$15,000 per year
General operations / benefits
$15,000 per year
Total amount required
$570,000 for first year
To fund our business for one year, we would require around $570,000 for utilities, payment for
employees, equipment, rental space, advertising, and other expenses. We would seek equity financing,
as since we essentially work off of a non-constant flow of work, we cannot be assured that we could pay
back a debt loan within the proper amount of time. We would try our best to avoid an equity financer
that would wish to have partial control over the company, though we may have to settle for those
conditions.
Since our business relies much more heavily on technology and computers than physical
equipment, our prices are more elastic than many other mediums. For what we plan to do, software is
key, while location can be as varied as the size of our team needs to be.
Rental space: Lafayette Square, St. Louis, 1,800 sf; http://www.dnrealty.com/3609juniata.html
Future Funding Requirements
Future funding requirements over the next five years would be relatively constant to what the
first year would require, minus the initial payment we made for equipment and furniture. The only
changing aspect would be if we added more designers or editors to the team, in which case there may
be a multiplication of the amount of money paid to employees; additionally, possible pay increases due
to hard work or promotion will be possible. Our location is quite large and capable of holding more
people than we currently have, so relocating to a new business locale will be very unlikely.
How we Intend to use the Funds
Any funds we acquire through this request would go towards working capital; this is due to the
fact that we wish to keep any money borrowed to start the business to a minimum. By adding other
aspects such as debt retirement and acquisitions, we open ourselves to being more and more unlikely to
pay the financer back in full, which would not reflect well on us. Any capital gained would be pushed
towards our business’ functionality and profitability.