Business plan

YA Lit Publishing Company

This is a project to open the first publishing company for young adult literature in
Romania, for which we have identified a growing demand and an insignificant offer. We
require an additional capital of $15.000 in order to launch our business.
The YA literature market in Romania
Our initial marketing thrust will be directed to publishing the translation of the winning
titles of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award in the last 10 years, in electronic
format. We will then publish the 5 most successful of the novels in paperback format.
Our long-term policy is aimed at gradually developing the resources to publish all novels
in both traditional and electronic format, as well as creating multi-platform novels that
combine traditional literature and the Internet.
The young adult literature market in Romania is virtually inexistent. With less than 20 YA
novels published in 2012 by the major publishing houses Humanitas(5) , Litera (10),
Teora (1) and Triton (3), Romania`s YA market is far from developing into a booming
success like the US market, where over 4,000 titles are published every year. Not only do
Romanian publishing houses market very few YA titles, but they do not focus on
advertising and promoting them as well as they should and do not even consider them a
separate category from Children`s Literature. YA literature is incredibly successful in the
US, where it has emerged as a quality literature which attracts both young adults and
adults and brings over $80 billion in profits to publishing houses every year.
Our publishing company sees the same potential on the Romanian market and aims at
turning it into a multi-million dollar industry in the near future, not only by publishing a
wide array of YA literature, but also by launching an aggressive sales and promotion

campaign. In order to be able to start up our business, we require a loan amounting to

$________.
Company shareholders and staff
Loana Grigu, Virginia Petric, Bogdan Duicu and Simina Popua will hold equal shares
in the company.
Loana Grigu will hold the position of Publisher and Translator, acting as strategic
leader of the company, setting its vision and tone and overseeing the entire operation,
starting with publishing rights acquisition to sales. She has graduated the Applied Modern
Languages department of Babe-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and has a Marketing
Master`s Degree from the same university. After graduation, she worked for the
publishing company Litera as Editor for 3 years. She has raised $3,000 to invest in the
company.
Petric Virginia will hold the position of Managing Editor and Translator, performing all
necessary duties related to the acquisition and publication of books, including dealing
with literary agents, authors and other editors. She has graduated the Applied Modern
Languages department of Babe-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and has a
Management Master`s from the same university. After graduation, she worked as a
freelance literary translator for 3 years, having collaborated with publishing houses such
as Humanitas, Corint, Tritonic and Litera. She has raised $3,000 to invest in the company.
Bogdan Duicu will hold the position of Editor, Translator and Financial Director. He has
graduated the Applied Modern Languages department of Babe-Bolyai University in
Cluj-Napoca and has an Accountancy Master`s from the same university. Following
graduation, he worked as a freelance specialized translator, while holding an accountant
position with Harper&Fischer for 3 years. He has raised $3,000 to invest in the company.

Simina Popua will hold the position of Creative Manager and Marketing Manager,
handling the creation of the covers for all published novel, as well as organizing the
marketing campaign for each. She has graduated the Applied Modern Languages
department of Babe-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and has a Marketing Master`s
from the same university. Following graduation, she worked as a Marketing Agent for
MarketSpecialist for 3 years. She has raised $3,000 to invest in the company.
Other permanent staff includes:
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Ioana Pastor, Website maintenance

Teodora Clin, Editor

Daniel Hadrea, Lawyer specializing in Publishing Law

Andrea Bepra, Secretary

Products and benefits for customers

Our products will initially include YA novels in paperback format, which will eventually
be available in electronic format. Although our focus is on winning titles of the Michael
L. Printz Honor Book Award in the past decade, we hope to expand our horizons and to
be able to provide translations for a wide range of titles in young adult literature.
Customers will benefit from the best quality in translation, guaranteed by our team of
highly trained, experienced translators. Furthermore, our selection of novels will not be
comprised solely of British or American novels. The working languages of our translators
vary from German to French, Spanish and Finnish. Consequently, if need be, a translation
of a successful novel in a less accessible language shall be provided.
Business organization
While each member of the team will be assigned specific tasks, they can also be
interwoven when necessary, since the qualifications of the members allow them to
perform multiple duties. Loana Grigu will translate some of the novels and proceed to

publish them after a revision and proof-reading performed by either Virginia Petric or
Bogdan Duicu. The latter will also be in charge with the financial aspects of the
publishing in itself. He will draw up financial reports and forecasts, handle expenditure
and profits and also come up with strategies meant to reach or preserve financial balance.
Simina Popua, the creative brain of the company, will be in charge of the creative aspects
of the business, from book covers to slogans, posters, all while developing marketing
strategies meant to promote our business and to increase profit.
However, all members of the staff will have to come up with a plan for an advertising
strategy, which will be discussed in one of the meetings held weekly. The timeframe for
the meetings has been set so as to increase productivity and ensure the efficiency of this
work in progress. In addition to the weekly meetings, a timetable shall be set for all
activities, in order for the staff to be properly organized and meet the deadlines, which
will lead to meeting clients expectations.
In case of crisis, further meetings will be held in order to maintain efficient
communication. Management will be asked to bring out their best work so as to avoid
such crises. All staff shall gather their experience and try to come up with a strategy in
order to cut losses and handle the said situation to achieve the previous state of balance.
The number of employees is a small one, which allows for a permanent communication.
They will be in contact at all times and keep each other informed of possible changes in
the strategy of the business, in approaches they decide on and in the demands of the
market.
Business development
Given that our publishing house is a pioneer in focusing solely on young adult literature,
we expect that with the proper funding resources our business will boom in the first five
years of its existence. Our market studies show that at least 50 unpublished YA literature

authors from Romania are looking for a publishing house to sign with, while the quantity
of YA literature to be translated from foreign languages is absolutely immense.
The next key strategy will be expanding in more than one location around Romania. We
plan on setting up at least one book store by the end of year three, provided that we
manage to hit a positive cash flow by then.
In the short run, we will continue to establish and maintain the relationship with clients as
well as to develop a database of former clients. We will also facilitate the improvement of
our language service system so as to achieve more publicity. Moreover, we will also seek
to extend our translation capacities by acquiring trained translators for other languages
such as Dutch, Danish and Russian, therefore gaining access to three other blooming YA
literature markets.
Financial forecasts
Having closely inspected the current situation, we have concluded that the initial loan of
$15.000 would cover all costs related to staff, maintenance and printing. We have
summarized the costs for the first two years of operation in Table 1 as follows:

As the table shows, we expect to be able to fully return the loan by year 3. The projected
cash flow is based on estimated expenses for marketing, office rental and supplies, etc.
Figure 1 illustrates the projected cash flow and Table 1 is the projected cash flow
spreadsheet (all sums expressed in $).