Company Creation and Business Plan: JogaValencia

Abstract

The variety of options available on the market to play football has been the same for the last 30 years (federated leagues, amateur leagues or one-off tournaments), and is becoming outdated and obsolete. People have less and less time available in their busy schedules, and the need to commit to playing on a medium to long term football team has become an impediment that pulls back those who only want to play football on a one-off, sporadic basis. The immediacy of things has become a prerequisite, hence the need to offer a new and innovative product that gives the customer the opportunity to play when, where and with who they want almost instantly. Based on this idea, as a young self-employed entrepreneur, I have created Joga, a company that, through a mobile application, offers friendly football game on a daily basis at different times and locations around the city. All you have to do is download the app (available on the App Store and Google Play), search for the game that best suits your availability and sign up to play. Our company puts the people in contact that want to play football but don’t have people to play with or access to a field. We manage the entire organization of the games so that all the customers have to do is select a game through the app, put on their cleats and play on the field and the chosen time. This is where the value of our product lies, in the ability to organize and connect people with the common interest of playing football. The location chosen to start the business is in the city of Valencia, as it is the third most populous city in Spain, in an exceptional geographical location and with a privileged climate for sports. It is a city with a long football tradition, where our product has never been offered and where direct competition is very low. It also is a very popular place to visit among tourists with its rich cultural history. It is endowed with a good network of infrastructures and has 8 universities, being the 3rd national city of preference for international students. Joga is in charge of renting the fields, providing the necessary equipment (balls and pennies) and directing the games through our organizers, so the client only has to worry about playing and scoring goals. Each player registers through the application, paying a price of €6 per game. In each game there are a total of 16 players, 15 of which are paying customers since the organizers (volunteers) play for free in compensation for their work. Our profit margin per game is €16.25. The key to our business lies in the number of games we can organize on a monthly basis. The aim of the company at the end of the first year of activity is to organize 150 games on a monthly basis, a figure that gives economic profitability to the company, generating an income of €11,157.

In order to create this business, an initial financing of €20,000 is required through a bank micro loan from La Caixa Foundation for young entrepreneurs. With this funding, two essential investments will be made for the viability of the project: the first investment valued at €9,300 will be used to contract the services of a freelance programmer for the creation of the multi-platform mobile application, and a second variable investment in marketing and advertising, with the goal to attract a minimum of 600 users in the first 3 months of business, and to end the year with 1,600 users.

Marketing and communication expenses will be constant and will cover much of the company’s costs along with football field rentals. Working with a new and unknown product makes marketing and advertising vital to create business growth. The company’s marketing strategy is based on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the dissemination of interactive content through all social networks, visual advertising in sports venues and direct marketing. A large promotional campaign is planned for the first month of activity which consists in the organization of two major football tournaments in the city of Valencia to promote the product and make the application known to a clear potential audience.