Creating An Online Job Portal For International Students In Australia

Marketing Strategy

Discuss about the new business idea that develops an online portal which brings together job seekers and employers.

Entrepreneurship refers to creating a new business venture and the ones who commence this idea of crafting a new business are called entrepreneurs (Kirzner, 2015). Entrepreneurs play a massive role in the overall growth and development of any economy at large. This report throws light on the new business idea that we have created. Through this report we not only aim to explain the new business idea but also lay emphasis on the business’s management styles and the marketing strategy that we plan to adopt for promoting the same. The report also contains details of a tentative financial analysis of the business along with the key risks or challenges that the business is likely to face when implemented.

There were over 0.6 million international students that enrolled in Australia in the year 2015. This is owing to the high quality of education provided by our schools and universities. The competition within the job market is largely increasing and has led to a highly qualified students being unemployed. The increasing unemployment in Australia is a cause of worry and hence our organization puts an effort in not only increasing the country’s employment but also ensuring that the right candidate is hired for the right job. Increasing job dissatisfaction as well as employee attritions in leading businesses are concurrent problem faced by the country. In order to solve this issue, we have attempted to create a business portal where recent graduates and employers could connect with each other. This portal would be online and act as a bridge between job seekers (international students) and employers. The students would also be assisted upon enhancing their interview skills as well as they would be provided guidance on making an effective CV. The employer as well as the job seeker profile would be maintained on the portal and everyone would be provided with their login IDs and password. Personal counselling as well as group trainings would be conducted for students to prepare them for the corporate world that lies ahead.   

The company would employ a group of 25 people to begin with. There will be two partners and a large sales team. Being a startup, we would be hiring young and dynamic employees who can take ownership of the organization and work towards the company’s growth and development. The organization structure would be as below:

Partners Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	2 Key partners.
HR department	4 employees and 1 admin
Sales department	12 people sales team led by 2 sales heads
Finance and Accounts department	2 people.
Marketing and PR	2 employees.

Organizational Structure

The organization would adopt a flat structure that promotes open communication. The departments have been divided so as to clarify the jobs of each employee. Over a period of time, when the organization grows, the initial culture and essence would be maintained.

Marketing involves the activities that help in promotion of the product that has been developed (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015). Marketing plays an important role to make sure that the product developed reaches the targeted market. The target market of FINDINDOT are corporates (employers) as well as international students (job seekers). In order to promote the product, the following strategies will be adopted.

Seminars and events would be conducted in Australian universities to enhance awareness about FINDINDOT. Event marketing is an effective strategy to ensure that a large group of people are indulged in face to face conversations under a single roof. It provides them an opportunity to clarify their doubts and hence has a greater impact.

Search engine marketing as well as search engine optimization would be conducted to ensure the brand is promoted as well as easy to search for on online platforms (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). Digital marketing strategies are adopted to ensure that the business is easy to search on predominant search engines as well as it effectively targets its potential consumers through different digital platforms.

Any marketing done via social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, twitter or Snapchat is better known as social media marketing (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). Facebook page and twitter account would be created to enhance brand awareness and reach out to the target market.

Like every other industry, the career counselling and HR solution based companies are increasing in number. This industry comprises of a large number of organized as well as unorganized units. However, in the organized sector, seek.com, khojira.com, Suman Tiwari Facebook page, careerone.com, jobsdb.com and simply hired Australia are leading competitors. In order to ensure effective sales of the firm, it is imperative that our business has competitive advantage against them. Some firms compete based on price, while some compete based on the uniqueness of their product (Fabra & Garcia, 2015). Our competitive advantage would be as below:

1. Augmented services – personal counseling of students, guidance on CV preparation and interview development skills training (Kauppinen-Räisänen & Grönroos, 2015).
2. Unique target market – only international students.

Having a competitive advantage allows businesses to position themselves uniquely in the minds of their target market. This brand positioning eventually leads to enhanced sales and improved goodwill in the industry (Price, 2017).

For any business to flourish, it is important to have a financial understanding and the ability to forecast future financial needs and upcoming expenditures as well as revenues of the firm (Storey, 2016). This helps the business in avoiding any unforeseen expenditures for which the firm is not prepared.

Land and Building (on rent)	AUD 18000
Employee salaries of 25 employees	AUD 400000
Sales cost	AUD 45000
Marketing expenses	AUD 12000
Miscellaneous expenses	AUD 5000
Total	AUD 480000

Customer	Fees paid
Students	Fixed advance fee of $2000 + 50% of first month’s salary
Employers	Fixed advance fee of $2000 + 50% of first month’s salary paid to employee + Bonus of $5000 after the employee completes 6 months.

Own funds	AUD 350000
Raised from friends and family	AUD 150000

Financial Analysis

Once the business grows and develops, the profits will increase and the same money will be put back in the business. Secondly, angel investors would be approached after third year of operations after complete analysis of the business’s working, profitability as well as brand value.

Every business faces a certain set of challenges and risks that hamper the growth of the organization. It is important to know these risks in advance so as to be prepared for them.

Increasing competition is the biggest challenge faced by any business today. With the increasing population and advent of globalization, the need for new businesses is rising and so are the number of business. The ease of starting a new venture has increased and all the industries have become Red Ocean due to a high number of players. To a certain extent this leads to increased innovation and growth of economy but eventually it leads to price wars.

Once the employer and student have been aligned. It is largely possible that the student gets a better opportunity or the employer hires a better candidate. They are no obligated to work together. Although the advance fees has already been received but it creates a lack of trust and hampers the goodwill of the company.

A large number of attrition in employee sent to different organization will affect the brand image of our company as well as may lead to losing corporate clients. If these students are poached by competing organization after joining, then too the clients lose their trust in the business (Anitha & Begum, 2016).

Since the market targeted by us is niche (international students) it is highly difficult to reach out to this market (Amos, 2016). Advertising on social media and organizing seminars in colleges would target all the students simultaneously. This could be a major setback for the firm.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship forms an essential part of the economy and leads to growth and development of a nation through creation of new businesses (Kuratko, 2016). This report has highlighted a new business venture ideated by us. The business revolves around creating an online job portal which would bridge the gap between international students who are seeking jobs and potential employers across Australia who are looking for competent candidates to fulfill various job requirements of their firm.

The firm would be targeting only international students through conducting events and seminars in colleges, social media marketing, digital marketing and depend on work of mouth publicity. The business will offer augmented services like preparing students for interviews and helping them design CV and guiding them through the entire recruitment process.

The organizational structure of the business would be flat in nature and would promote and propagate open communication among all stakeholders. Like every other business, FINDINDOT could face challenges like increasing competition, higher number of employee attrition and poaching as well as difficulty in reaching the target market. Overall, the idea is provide for an excellent, user friendly and largely accessible portal with the aim to unite job seekers with recruiters and vice versa

References

Amos, D. (2016). How to Define Your Target Market.

Anitha, J., & Begum, F. N. (2016). Role of organisational culture and employee commitment in employee retention. ASBM Journal of Management, 9(1), 17.

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2016). Digital marketing. Pearson.

Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Kauppinen-Räisänen, H., & Grönroos, C. (2015). Are service marketing models really used in modern practice? Journal of Service Management, 26(3), 346-371.

Kirzner, I. M. (2015). Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press.

Kuratko, D. F. (2016). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.

Price, L. G. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,646,288. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Storey, D. J. (Ed.). (2016). Entrepreneurship and new firm. Routledge.

Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2017). Social media marketing. Sage