A Business Design for the Start-Up Company of Shepherd Life

Abstract

Your life is your message to the world, make sure it is remembered. The undeniable fact of life is death. The only problem is that very few people are financially prepared for it. Death generally comes unexpected, and with this comes unexpected expenses. All reasonably responsible people will ensure that in the event of passing away, that adequate provision is made to pay for his or her funeral. Inequality and extreme poverty in South Africa necessitates a product that will eliminate fraud and exploitation of customers. Shepherd Life aims to provide a funeral policy product to a niche target market that will support the ethical norms of the founders. The niche target market includes all South African citizens dependent on a social grant. The product will be superior in quality and innovation with the lowest possible premium in the market. This project has one main objective which is to develop a well-defined business plan for Shepherd Life. This objective was divided into two specific deliverables. The first deliverable is the development of a business model for Shepherd Life that will support the strategy and objectives of the company. The second deliverable is the design of a tablet application that supports the business model. A literature study was done to gain an understanding of all the techniques available to design, evaluate and validate a business model, a financial model and a tablet application. Using these techniques studied in the literature review two business models were developed and compared using a business model canvas and a financial analysis. The target market, industry and competitors of Shepherd Life were studied comprehensively. The models were evaluated using an analytical hierarchy process and the optimal model was chosen. The tablet design was done by developing context data models, detailed entity relationship diagrams, context data flow diagrams and screen mock-ups. All of these techniques assisted the technical design team of Shepherd Life to develop the application. Shepherd Life implemented the proposed business model and tablet solution. After implementation a SWOT assessment as well as an objective compliance check to validate the business model was done. To validate the tablet design a questionnaire was distributed and completed by all agents and team leaders of Shepherd Life and finally analysed. An objective compliance check was also done for the tablet design. Shepherd Life aims to deliver a state of the art product while at the same time supporting the niche target market the company operates in. Helping the underprivileged and eliminating fraud from the industry will help make South Africa a better country with each funeral policy sold.