Action
Plans
Personnel
KCT plans to keep wages and salary
expenses low, at least initially. To
achieve this objective, KCT will hire just two employees, Benson and John.
Benson will work part-time and function as a training and office assistant. They will be assisted, during busy periods,
by a part-time trainer, John who is an independent contractor. John will
function as an additional computer trainer for evening classes and
weekends. Based on the schedule Benson
has prepared, John will generally not be needed during the business’ “slow”
periods during the summer and winter holidays.
John also has received extensive
training that will allow her to review and evaluate new software and network
products. While working at KCT, he earned a certificate as a Microsoft
Certified Systems Engineer. As a result
he has developed expertise in planning, implementing, maintaining, and
supporting information systems including, Microsoft Windows NT, BackOffice and
various other server software. In
addition, he has earned training certificates from the Institute for Technology
Training in Microsoft Word, Windows, Excel, PowerPoint and Windows.
KCT and John have agreed on the
following compensation arrangement. John
will receive Tsh 30,000 for every three-hour “beginners” class he teaches. This payment will increase to Tsh 40,000 for
advanced three-hour classes. During the
busy months, when John teaches two three-hour classes and two advanced classes
every week, he will receive Tsh 100,000 per week.
The training and office assistant,
Benson, has five years of experience working as an office manager for a large
computer training firm as well as extensive training in most common software
packages. This training will provide a
benefit to the KCT when the instructors need some extra help with larger
classes. KCT has offered Benson Tsh
10,000 per hour for general office duties and Tsh 15,000 for any time spent in
training classes assisting the instructors.
G3 estimates that, in an average week, Benson will perform 10 hours of
general office duties and six hours of training assistance. Accordingly, her weekly wages should average
about Tsh 150,000.
Tuition collection
KCT will require that a non-refundable
deposit be sent when a student registers for classes. Full payment will be required at the time a
student shows up for class. Payments for
classes may be made with cash, credit cards, or personal checks. KCT will offer deferred monthly billing to
those corporate clients with 20 or more employees. Since the revenue generated from this client
segment is expected to be small, and the risk of nonpayment is small, the
accounts receivable and bad debt expense should be no more than 3 percent of
all net monthly sales.
Expenses
After salaries, the cost of computers
and the cost of obtaining a training facility will be the largest expenses that
KCT will face.
Computer equipment: Following an exhaustive analysis of the
financial and other implications of buying, renting, or leasing, KCT has
decided to lease its computers and printer.
A factor that played a large part in that decision was the likelihood
that any purchased equipment will become obsolete in a relatively short period
of time. KCT must have available
computers that are at least equal in sophistication to those used by its
customers. The substantial initial cash
outlay required to purchase 15 computers also played a part in the decision to
lease or rent.
KCT obtained estimates from a number of
computer hardware distributors for the purchase of 15 500 MHz Pentium III
computers with 64 MB of RAM, 10 gigabyte hard drives, and all necessary
software. The most competitive price
that KCT found was Tsh 600,000 per machine and Tsh 300,000 for the
printer. The total purchase price would
be Tsh 1,000,000 including sales tax.
Based on estimates obtained from several
leading computer rental firms in Moshi, KCT can expect to pay approximately Tsh
200,000 a week to rent the same computers.
KCT anticipates that it will offer two classes of no more than 15
students each per week. Accordingly, the
monthly cost of renting these machines, including one laser printer, will be
Tsh 900,000.
Finally, in order to lease 15 similar
computers and a laser printer, the best price quoted by a local distributor was
Tsh 12,500,000, which includes all maintenance of the machines. The lease would run for 36 months with
interest at an 11 percent annual rate.
The total of the 36 monthly payments would be Tsh 10,800,000. The lease payment of Tsh 300,000 per month is
more than Tsh 200,000 less than the monthly rental alternative.
Training facility: KCT considered several options regarding the
type of service to offer to its clients.
First, KCT could avoid the expense of paying rent on a training facility
and restrict its training efforts solely to a client’s home or place of
business. In the alternative, KCT could
rent a training facility and conduct training sessions at this facility in
addition to offering training at the client’s premises. Because G3 does not wish to tie up funds on a
long-term basis, the purchase of a training facility was not considered a
reasonable option.
The first option, while reducing costs,
is not a viable one for KCT. The company
hopes to generate most of its income through large classroom training sessions. This is more advantageous because it involves
almost the same amount of work for the trainer to teach a group as it does to
teach an individual. However, a group
setting generates a much larger amount of training revenues at one time. For example, even if KCT doubled its single
application tuition from Tsh 100,000 to Tsh 200,000 to provide on-site
training, it would still generate less revenue than the Tsh 24,000,000 that KCT
would make training 10 students at Tsh 800,000 per student for the same time.
However, in order to accommodate clients and establish good will, KCT will, on
occasion, offer on-site training at a premium price when requested to do so by
customers.
KCT has negotiated a favorable lease
with the property management firm that manages the strip center in which the
training facility will be located. The
firm has offered KCT a three-year lease with a three-year renewal option. The monthly rent is Tsh 300,000 for the first
year, Tsh 350,000 the second year and Tsh 400,000 for the third year. During the three-year renewal period, rent
will increase by 5 percent per year.
This rental amount includes water, waste removal, and all maintenance
costs.
Financial
Projections
Based on a survey of 100 computer training
firms in KCMC, Old moshi, Majengo, and Pasua, it was determined that a computer
training facility with one full-time and at least two part-time staff members
can be expected to train 30 new students every week. Of this number, it is expected that 25
percent will be repeat customers. That
means that KCT can expect to generate 120 new students and consult with 30
previous students every month.
Research shows that the number of
students participating in training courses January through March will increase
by 10 percent to 25 percent. During the
spring and summer months of May through August, the number of students drops
off by approximately 20 percent.
Computer training firms can expect a 20
percent to 30 percent increase in the number of students during the fall months
of September through November. As with
other non-retail businesses though, December sessions usually drop by 25
percent. One way that KCT will try to
counter the “holiday slump” is by offering training gift certificates to be
given as holiday presents. KCT would provide gift wrapping and delivery to any
location within the Moshi municipal area.
This sales promotion is expected to offset the December decrease by 10
percent.
In the second year of operations, KCT
plans on offering a class in developing and maintaining an Internet home
page. The class will also focus on how
small businesses can profitably use the Internet to market their products. G3 is currently heavily involved with
developing Internet home pages at his current job with KICHEKO. He feels that the cost of Internet connect
time can be passed on to students as part of their registration fee. Thus, KCT will incur little additional
expense by offering this new course and still generate an additional 20 percent
in revenues every month.
Based on discussions with a number of
vendors that provide software to computer training firms, a computer training business just starting up
can expect at least a 15 percent to 20 percent monthly increase in student
enrollment in year two over year one.
Accordingly, KCT is planning for a 15 percent increase in student
enrollment in year two. For a detailed analysis of the actual monthly gross
income for the first two years of operation, review the profit and loss
statements provided in the financial projection section.
Social
work is a profession concerned with helping individuals, families, groups and
communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. It aims to
help people develop their skills and their ability to use their own resources
and those of the community to resolve problems. Social work is concerned with
individual and personal problems but also with broader social issues such as
poverty, unemployment and domestic violence.
Community
work can mean a range of things:
·
Being involved in local or neighborhood
groups or associations
·
Being a volunteer or unpaid worker
·
Being involved in a non-profit,
not-for-profit, or charitable organization or association
·
Doing public interest or public benefit
work
·
Doing work for a “cause” or a “calling”.
Community Work as Social Work
Method
Community
Work also is a branch of social work in the United States that focuses on
larger social systems and social change, and is tied to the historical roots of
United States social work.
The field of community practice social work
encompasses community organizing, social planning, human service management,
community development, policy analysis, policy advocacy, evaluation, mediation,
electronic advocacy and other larger systems interventions.
In
the UK the term is often used for Health visitors.
Community
work has considerable overlap with many other applied social sciences, such as
urban planning, economic development, public affairs, rural sociology and
nonprofit management.
Community
workers as Social workers typically have a Bachelors degree or Masters Degree in
Social Work (MSW). There are several MSW programs in the United States that
offer Community Practice Concentrations, while many other MSW programs offer
specializations in one or several types of community practice, such as social
services administration or policy analysis.
The
professional group of community practitioners in the USA is the Association for
Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), which publishes the
leading journal in the field, The Journal of Community Practice.
In
spite of all that a Community Worker must be a holder of Bachelor or Masters
Degree of Social work, community work involves work done by community based,
non-profit or not-for-profit associations, whether they are incorporated or
unincorporated.
It
is important to note that both employed staff and unpaid volunteers do
community work.
Community
work occurs across a range of services including information and advice,
counseling, advocacy and support — targeting an equally diverse range of people
and areas of interest.
As
in Social worker, Community workers help communities function. Some work
directly with individuals, conducting needs assessments and making referrals to
resources in the community. Others assess needs on a larger scale. They may
plan and administer programs.
