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AFROMATOINS, LLC

THE MARKET PLACE


PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
UNAUTHORIZED USE OR SHARING CAN RESULT IN ASSESSED PENALTIES AND FEES
Prepared for: General
Prepared by: Noble Negus El
January 8, 2016
Proposal number: 1

AFROMATIONS 5716 FOLSOM BLVD #232 SACRAMENTO, CA 95819


www.afromations.com

T 9165243581

info@afromations.com

AFROMATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................page 2
Objective
Company Information
Products/Services
Daily Operations

MARKET ANALYSIS...............................................................................................page 5
MARKETING AND SALES.................................................................................page 6
COSTSpage 7
Start Up & Monthly Cost
The breakdown

MONETIZING .page 9
Products/Services

DAILY OPPERATIONS..........................................................................................page 10
INTERNAL STRUCTURE
APPENDIX.....................................................................................................................page 113
Profit Projections

COPY NOT INCLUDED IN THIS COPY

Financial Statement
Year One Profit/Loss Projection
Year Two Profit/Loss Projection
Market Analysis article
Financial Projections

CONTACT INFORMATION
Business Plan

AFROMATIONS

Executive Summary
Objective
What is being sold to whom?
From extensive field research, the African-American communitys voice beckons for these
services because they are nonexistent. AFROMATIONS is a company that provides African-American business owners an opportunity to increase the circulation of currency within this community by centralizing a market place on a line. AFROMATIONS sells web
stores to business owners by yearly contractual subscriptions. Business owners will create
their own web-store by uploading their products and setting the price on
www.afromations.com under their chosen domain name. The store web pages can be
generated through templates or custom designs. The website will itemize each product/service into categories for easy customer shopping. This benefits businesses because
now customers will be able to locate African-American businesses, services, and goods at
home or while traveling by searching on the AFROMATIONS website. Additionally, this service will also include advertisement to increase website traffic and a program that will help
businesses with their 1099 tax filing form. Entrepreneurs have verbally committed to purchase because of these needed services. AFROMATIONS is seeking partnerships, investors, advertisement, employees, and business. Dustin, Brooke and volunteers have donated their time, energy, and services to get AFROMATIONS where it is today. AFROMATIONS will continue to present its services to business owners and customers of various
facets. Even though African-American businesses are the targeted demographics, AFROMATIONS does not discriminate against anyone wanting to purchase a website to display their products/services, and everyone is held to the same code of conduct.

Company Information
Who is the owner?
AFROMATIONS is a new business; however, this idea by owner and founder Dustin
S. Hunter started when he was writing various reviews for Sac Cultural Hub Magazine. It became painstakingly obvious that the Black community had no system to
identify their businesses. He was also familiar with the statistic that a dollar does not
circulate more than one time within the black community. This led to his observance of other ethnic communities are able to network and circulate currency
more efficiently and effectively.
Business Plan

AFROMATIONS

Dustin Hunter has been in education for the past 15 years. Two of these years he
was a Assistant Principal that ran a high school after school program. Fiscally responsible for over one million dollars to run the program and for staffing, he successfully addressed the needs of the students while maintaining a budget. Dustin
aware the importance of hiring staff and team building in order to complete team
goals. He quickly responded to the demands of the community and improved the
program through feedback by using a Decision Making Framework model allowed
him to measure time base goals and reflect upon areas of improvement. His ability
to be highly successful running the school like a business stems from his training in
his masters degree in education administration. Additionally, Dustin has numerous
years at sells and retail while supporting himself through college.
Dustin Hunter has been active in multiple African American various interest groups:
Sac-Cultural Hub as a writer, help organizing Junteenth festivals, Sankofa African
Market, 100 Black Men of Sacramento, Alpha Academy, St. Pauls Baptist Church,
and other numerous groups and actives. His close connection with the community
will be coupled with his success in sells. With his pleasant demeanor, business will
want to purchase a subscription, Dustin will be able to effectively communicate the
benefits and rewards that AFROMATIONS providesand they will sign on.

Products and Services


Why will people buy?
Businesses will want to purchase a web store at afromations.com because it is
cheaper than starting a website at GoDaddy.com and they will save money because amazon.com charges ~ 12% more for each purchase. They can upload their
whole store on afromations.com and receive a domain name to direct their customers. Primarily, the socioeconomic and sociopolitical issues of the targeted audience are aware of the need to increase commerce participation within their community. The opportunity for grants and scholarships supports communal goals.
Most importantly, there is not a centralized market place for their unique cultural
products/services. The directory is a bonus feature that allows the community to
locate their businesses in their hometown or while traveling. These features and
benefits will attract many businesses and customers.

Business Plan

AFROMATIONS

Daily Operations
Whos doing what now and when the business grows?
Dustin will handle all the backend of the website of AFROMATIONS. This will include answering customers questions about the website services and features a
profit in this web service is potential. Business membership processing will be ongoing. As the business and customer attention grows, customer service representatives will receive this responsibility. Another operation will be to regularly meet with
his department chairs for oversight.
The technical aspect of the website will be managed by Dustin and a team of experts contracted to ensure the website does not crash. The website developers include technical service beyond the provided training to Dustin and staff upon the
websites completion.
Other than Dustin and staff, commission based sales representatives will be hired
to increase the number of subscriptions. The sales team will use a form of telecommunication strategies to contact and make appointments with businesses.
SBP provides business/individuals contact information, including their email addresses. Sales representatives will be able to email the marketing tools prior/during/after contact.
Dustin will continue to research in various forms to capture the market and respond
to customer trends. This will includes analyzing customer surveys, follow up calls,
FaceBook, blogs, regularly meeting with LLC chairs. [see table below]

Business Plan

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MARKET ANALYSIS
Daily Operations
It is a well-known fact that African-Americans will have 1.1 trillion in collective buying
power by 2015 and $1.3 trillion by 2017 according to Nielsen Company. He continues to
state that 43 million consumers are aggressive consumers of media that shop frequently.
They make more shopping trips, nine times more likely to purchase more ethnic and beauty and grooming products, and spend twice as much time at personal hosted websites
than any other group. For further study, see article attached to APPENIX.
Currently there is no market for this within the African-American community that provides a
labeling identification system or a comprehensive e-commerce platform. Many Black
business owners and customers in various study groups and forums have declared that
this is a need. The initial focus group are the entrepreneurs and small businesses that lack
the advertising and network.
E-commerce is a growing trend according to major marketing news journals and magazines. There are many customers that want to purchase Black products online; however,
they have expressed their discouragement because they have to Google search for products in an un organized fashion. They also expressed the irritation of having to jump from
one site to another for the same item. They often are not aware of the various website/local African-American owned businesses nor where to locate various unique products. The lack of advertisement for many businesses is also another consumer and retailer
issue.
The distinguishing need of the business owners is a comprehensive marketplace/website
that can fully display their business to their targeted audience. This service will include an
online store with categories for sales (per store and globally), financial business management operations, advertisement, and networking opportunities. Importantly, sales data will
be collected for business owners use if financial services are purchased.
There are limited directories for Black owned businesses, but not a comprehensive ecommerce website. This is unprecedented by the African-American community.
Weebly, Amazon, Etsy.com, and other website generators and marketplaces do not provide our services and our transaction rates are most competitive at $0.20 per item upload and 6% of each transaction. Competition cost more for less.

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MARKETING & SALES


AFROMATIONS will target local businesses at various African American venues to be potential customers. The goal is to build the Sacramento community market before venturing
into other cities; however, teams will be working to connect communities in other cities
and states. Sacramento Black Pages (SBP) has compiled all of these businesses for
easy reference and will be used to make future contact with potential clients. Advertisement will be through traditional and technological media mediums. The following specific
companies or categories will be targeted for subscriptions and or advertisement to afromations.com:
* Black Camber of Commerce

* Sacramento Observer news paper

* Sac-Cultural Hub Magazine

* Sacramento Bee

* INDIVIDUALIZE networking community

* Medical doctors contact but no web-

* Kevin Johnson

site listed in (SBP)

* Sankofa African Market place

* Various Legal Serve providers

* Sacramento Black Pages

* Moorish American Resource Center

* Pangea

* Black Chamber of Commerce

* William Cap Group

* Mortgage Companies

* AB Workshops, Employment

* Nail Salons ex. Nails by Ms. B

* The Observer (news paper)

* Notaries

* ADF Pluming

* Performing artists

* African American 5 A day Campaign

* Photographers

* African American Mental Health Providers

* Psychology

* African American Womens Health Lega-

* Real Estate

cy

* Publishers

* Asammoah Heating & Air Conditioning

* Tax Services

* Hamptons Karate

* Schools Margret Fortune Schools

* T-Shirt Promos

* Restaurants

* Dr. Booker T. Colman education & pro-

* 97.5 KDEE community radio station

motion
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AFROMATIONS

COSTS
Start Up and Monthly Cost
MONTLY TO YEARLY COST

INITIAL INVESTMENT
ITEM

COST

ITEM

MONTHLY

YEARLY

website

$20,000

website

$1,200

$14,400

rent

$500

rent

$500

$6,000

utilities

$100

utilities

$75

$900

phone

$100

phone

$100

$1,200

office equipment

$5,000

office equipment

$100

$1,200

office supplies

$500

office supplies

$400

$4,800

tables & chairs

$2,000

LOAN PYMT

$1,000

$12,000

cleaning supplies

$75

cleaning supplies

$50

$600

insurance

$400

insurance

$200

$2,400

lawer

$500

lawyer

$200

$2,400

tax advisor

$200

account. advisor

$200

$2,400

mics.

$200

advertising

$2,500

$30,000

INITIAL START UP

~$25,000

TOTALS

$6,525

~$80,000

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MONETIZING
Products & Services
YEAR 1 PROJECTION
PRODUCT

YEAR 4 PROJECTION

PRICE

SALES

INCOME

PRODUCT

PRICE

SALES

INCOME

Website contracts & renewals

$100

10,000

$1,000,00
0

Website contracts

$100

1,000

$100,000

Logo Sales

$300

25

$7,500

Logo Sales

$300

200

$60,000

Referral Fee

5.000%

$1,000,00
0

$50,000

Referral Fee

5.0%

$100,000,00
0

$5,000,00
0

Closing Fee

$1.50

50,000

$75,000

Closing Fee

$1.50

1,000,00
0

$1,500,00
0

Featured Store

$200

20

$4,000

Featured Store

$200

100

$20,000

$6,000

Grants Scholarships DONATIONS

Grants Scholarships DONATIONS


Blog Entries

$50

14

TOTAL INCOME

$700

$243,200

Blog Entries

$10,000

$50

TOTAL INCOME

100

$5,000

$7,595,00
0

The Break Down


Businesses sign up to a yearly subscription to the website for $100 or
$150 for two years
Businesses subscription yearly renewal $100 or $150 for two years
Businesses can pay $200 to be a featured store on the home page for one
month
Businesses can purchase ($300 per year) AFROMATIONS logo that they
may place on their services/products for identification purposes only
Each purchase will incur a Referral Fee of 3% by the buyer
Each purchase will incur a Transaction Fee of 3% paid by the buyer
Closing Fee of the greater 2% or $1.50 paid by seller
Businesses can submit their blog of their business for $50
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AFROMATIONS

Afromations will deduce a percentage of the total sale as a referral fee, price of
the product, shipping costs, special packaging, closing fee, and taxes. Special
wrapping or gift-wrapping is only offered by the seller. Shipping fees are based
on the U rates and are calculated as such.

Item price (buyer pay)

Shipping charges (buyer pay)

Gift wrap/Special packaging (buyer pay)

Referral fee 3% + $0.20 per item upload (subject to product


classification, Seller pay)

Closing fee greater of 3% (seller pay)


= Total deposited to
seller

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AFROMATIONS

DAILY OPERATIONS
Who is doing what?
Godaddy.com will host site 2016-2017
UPS shipping (N/A)
Google analytics for sales assessment
(Ali potential Tech Lead) Socialfix.com regular maintenance/updates edit
website content
Owner will deposit/credit money into customer bank accounts
Rich Guinan (Santos Associates) taxes/accounting
Neheus, Sport, Ali will:
manage customer service calls and emails
write product/store blogs
(Imhotep Morales) manage website content including Facebook, Integra and Twitter
sales/network marketing
monitor banking account
advertisement

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AFROMATIONS

ORGANIZATION & MANAGEMENT


OWNER

Dustin Hunter

100% owner, founder, developer, investor, and marketer

The owner will be present in meetings and continue the


vision of the company.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Board of Directors is considered as the peak of the role
owners corporate hierarchy. The members of this group are
elected by the stockholders of the corporation on a single share,
single vote basis (MUST INVEST TO BECOME BOARD OF DIRECTORES). The number of members present in this particular
group varies, depending upon the size of the business organization and the business holdings. The director is generally elected by the shareholders/parties of interest. In our case, the
employees may elect them. The major roles and responsibilities of the Board of Directors are as follows:

Participating in the meeting of the Board of Directors of the company.

Ensuring that the requirements of the stockholders are properly met.

Approving various corporate transactions such as contracts and agreements, corporate policies etc.

Hiring the C-level executives.

Issuing additional shares of the company.

Facilitating new deals and alliances with the customers and the business partners.

Managing the roles related to the development of financial statements and also the related to the governance issues.

C-LEVEL EXECUTIVES
The C-level executives are second in line in the role owners corporate hierarchy. These officers oversee the regular business operations, depending upon the section to which they belong.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/President: This is the top C-level executive and is responsible for properly implementing the various business operations. The officer reports directly to the Board of Directors.
a.

The main mission of the CEO is to meet the financial results expected by the stakeholders. The CEO undertakes both strategic roles and operational roles.

b.

Identification of the right market for the company.

c.

Ensuring the effective utilization of the resources within the company.

d.

Optimization of various processes within the organization.

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AFROMATIONS

e.

Heading the executive committee and arranging meetings at regular intervals of time to discuss the various
business issues.

Chief Operating Officers (COO): The COO manages the day to day operations of the business and reports to the
CEO.
a.

Take all the necessary actions to meet the specific requirements of the shareholders, employees, customers
and the communities.

b.

Operations and customer service

c.

Finance and administration

d.

Human Resources

e.

Legal operations

Chief Financial Officer (CFO): The CFO manages the financial matters related to the organization. The focus on developing and implementing strategies based on the reports of the financial analysis. The CFO is one of the important components of AFROMATIONS corporate hierarchy. The main objective of the CFO is to provide adequate financial resources for the proper development of the company. S/he manages the various departments
of the organization such as accounting, tax, investor relations, control and financial planning.

Chief Technology Officer: The CTO reports directly to the CEO, regarding the status of the technical operations within the company. The CTO mainly focuses on the technology issues of the organization.

MANAGEMENT
The management includes various officials like the vice presidents, directors, managers and officers etc. These professionals are assigned different sections of the organization, to deal with.

EMPLOYEES
The employees form the last level of role owners corporate hierarchy. The employees follow the direction of their bosses
or team leader of the management, who in turn are directed by the C-level executives.

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AFROMATIONS

FUNDING REQUEST
Projectional Need
Initial funding requirement is $55,000.
Next five years (national) funding requirement $100,000
The funding received will be invested in the initial company start up and
operation.
Potentially, we may take on future investors. Not likely, but it will be
considered whether AFROMATIONS will go public and provide stock
options. For now we will stay a LLC until the interest of the company
changes.
All in all, this business should be granted a loan because this is a good idea and businesses will sign up with AFROMATIONS: 1) website will cost less than GoDaddy.com and other
web site developersincluding typical vendor booth fees, 2) the price for advertisement of
domain name will be included, 3) the demand for the need of product, 4) the business
management tools provided by the site: operations support and tax assistance, 5) mainstream a market place for unique products, 6) the need to identify for commerce African
American professionals and their businesses, and 7) the earning potential is great for a
high rate of return. Dustin Hunter will manage customer concerns while the website developing company will manage the functionality/technological/maintenance aspects of the
website. Eventually, employees will be hired to do product reviews, sales, and advertisement.

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AFROMATIONS

APENDEX
[A]
African Americans Have $1.1 Trillion in Buying Power, Are We Putting Our Money to Good
Use?
by Britni Danielle
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/02/african-americans-1-1-trillion-dollars-buying-power-putting-good-use/

According to a recent study by the Nielsen Company, African Americans will have $1.1 trillion
in collective buying power by 2015 (increasing to about $1.3 trillion by 2017), making us more
relevant than ever as a consumer bloc.
Nielsen takes us inside the numbers: Currently 43 million strong, African-American consumers
have unique behaviors from the total market. For example, theyre more aggressive consumers of
media and they shop more frequently. Blacks watch more television (37%), make more shopping
trips (eight), purchase more ethnic beauty and grooming products (nine times more), read more
financial magazines (28%) and spend more than twice the time at personal hosted websites than
any other group.
African-Americans make an average of 156 shopping trips per year, compared with 146 for the
total market. Favoring smaller retail outlets, blacks shop more frequently at drug stores, convenience stores, and dollar stores. Beauty supply stores are also popular within the black community, as they typically carry an abundance of ethnic hair and beauty aids reside that cater specifically to the unique needs of African-American hair textures. Overall, health and beauty supply
stores have an average household penetration rate of 46 percent among African-Americans, and
the average black household spends an average of $94 in this store channel each year, providing
a significant opportunity to connect with black shoppers.
While the numbers indicate that Black folks are an important part of the buyng public, companies spend just three-percent (3%) of their advertising budgets marketing to African Africans
consumers. Cheryl Pearson McNeil, a Vice President at Nielsen, warn they are missing out.
The black population is young, hip and highly influential. We are growing 64 percent faster
than the general market, she explains.
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AFROMATIONS

However, Noel King, a reporter for NPRs Marketplace, cautions companies against trying to
reach Black consumers without knowing our needs.
If you want to market to those groups, then you should know what particular group buys your
stuff, says King. Blacks tend to spend more on electronics, utilities, groceries, footwear. They
spend a lot less on new cars, alcohol, entertainment, health care, and pensions.
Despite our collective buying power, little of our money stays in Black communities or is spent
on Black-owned businesses.
The NAACP reports:
Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days and white communities 17 days. How long does a dollar circulate in the black
community? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at 1.1 Trillion; and yet only 2 cents of
every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black owned businesses.
Though it may seem like African Americans are frittering away our economic power, Dr. Jared
Ball of Morgan Sate University argues the phrase buying power does not paint an accurate picture of Black folks financial outlook.
This phrase, buying power, is used as a glossy euphemism for Black poverty for being the
fault of Black spending habits, as opposed to a pre-determined need in our economic model, he
explained to Marketplace Money. A lot of people pick up this phrase and hear these large numbers, and assume Black America is stronger than Black America actually is.
Although African Americans make up 13-percent of the U.S. population, just seven-percent (7%)
of small business are owned by Blacks. Access to capital, clientele, and other resources hinder
many Black folks from starting business, despite our long history of entrepreneurship.
Organizations like the Empowerment Experiment, the Black Owned Business Network, and Recycling Black Dollars are hoping to encourage African Americans to patronize Black businesses,
but there is still more work to do.
Do you patronize Black businesses? How can we wield our buying power responsibly?

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AFROMATIONS

Contact Information
For further questions and/or concerns please contact owner Dustin Hunter
5716 FOLSOM BOULEVARD #232
SACRAMENTO, CA 95819
T (916) 524-3581
T (800) 9-AFRO-47
Email: admin@afromations.com
afromations.com

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