Imagine that you are the founder of a company that will produce efficient, quiet, and sleek wind-power turbines that both businesses and home-owners can use to harness the power of the wind to produce electricity. Although wind power is clean and increasingly cost effective, it is largely confined to large wind farms in rural areas. The primary obstacle to building wind farms elsewhere is the‘not-in-my-backyard' sentiment. This sentiment arises from the large scale of most wind-powered devices, the noise and shadows that are created, and the height of traditional wind farms, which normally exceed local zoning regulations.
Your company's mission is to make wind power available to businesses and home-owners by avoiding these complications. Your company has invented and is selling a low-cost, attractive, plug-and-produce wind-power appliance that can fit within the aesthetic schemes of many business and residential environments. The appliance, called the Neighbourhood WindStar, does not look like a traditional windmill or wind generator. It is 8 meters tall and 1 meter wide. The device is priced at£3,800. In many areas, the cost can be partially defrayed by rebates from the local power company and the government.
You have bootstrapped the operation to this point and have sold 176 Neighbourhood WindStars within a 50-mile radius of where the company is headquartered. You are now ready to expand throughout the United Kingdom. Your assignment is to develop a financial plan for the expansion.
You need to raise£500,000 to hire a direct sales force, expand your manufacturing facility, and implement a marketing campaign.