Business Planned Activities

The current performance period runs from late October through early December 2010. There are a number of expectations that will need to be met in order to facilitate the creation of an ongoing business entity. Weekly expectations include; 1) the distribution and return of at least 50 surveys that will assist in determining the need and desire for a new travel agency, 2) a completed cost analysis, 3) compilation of start-up expenses, 4) research on competition and amenities. The expectations are ongoing concerns based on what it will take to create and maintain a travel agency based on tours to Jamaica.

A timeline has been established (see Table 1) and following the timeline should provide for more than enough time to complete each task. There may be some variance in the schedule depending on the availability of information online. If it is discovered that the information is not available, that may preclude the researcher to resort to other avenues of obtaining information. Such avenues could mean trips to public libraries, government or business offices in order to collect the necessary data.

Weekly Expectations

Chores that are expected to be addressed during the first week include the initial distribution of the customer surveys. It is projected that approximately 80% of the initiated contacts will result in completed surveys. If that percentage holds true, a total of 65 surveys will need to be distributed in order to achieve a total of 50 returns. With approximately 5 weeks to distribute the survey a goal of 13 per week (or approximately 2 per day) is feasible. The second chore is to go online and research the competition. That has been accomplished and there is no...

There is a two-week time frame to complete this task, already approximately one-half is completed, which leaves the researcher with plenty of time to complete the work. The fourth chore is to access the Small Business Administration (SBA) in order to determine what help is available in creating and developing a small business.
Actual

The current project focus is the distribution and completion of the client surveys. The surveys are being distributed to potential clients with the hope of compiling enough data to determine whether the enterprise has a chance at success. The search on Jamaica is ongoing and several websites have provided useful information.

The uniqueness of the proposed travel agency would be that group packages, mountain trips and coffee explorations would all be offered. The viability of these offerings is in the research stage.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides a website that has been very useful and the startup information necessary has been obtained from that website. Other information, including the availability of various types of small business loans has been accessed on that site as well, and has provided future funding options for the business. A number of surveys have been completed and returned and the researcher is in the process of analyzing and compiling the data therein. The current project focus is the distribution and completion of the client surveys. The surveys are being distributed to potential clients with the hope of compiling enough data to determine whether the enterprise has a…