Soaring Compass Points

Venture Pitch

Venture Pitch Project

Cole Anderson
ETEC 522 - 64A
University of British Columbia
July 31, 2016

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Introduction:
Cole Anderson is a full time Social Studies teacher at Lord Tweedsmiur
Secondary in Cloverdale British Columbia. He is currently working on his Masters of
Educational Technology at the University of British Columbia. In his first nine years of
teaching he has become an Edmodo Ambassador where he has published over 14
different resources and materials through their online store called Edmodo Spotlight.
Additionally he has created and curated two courses and one textbook on iTunes
University. He has a very proud family history in education as his father, Allan Anderson,
has been teaching for over 42 years and he created products such as the Naxos Music
On-Line History Modules along with being the president of BCMEA and CMEA.

Presentation Agenda:

1. Welcome & Credentials

2. What is Soaring Compass Points (SCP)?
3. How to Include Soaring Compass Points into the
Classroom?
4. What are the Platforms can be Used?
5. What are some Alternative Technologies?
6. Educational Market & Financials
7. First Hand Account Experiences
8. Personal Reflection & Summary

Championship
What is Soaring Compass Points?

Soaring Compass Points is a series of workbooks, handbooks, answer keys, PPTs, podcasts,
and modules for the new BC Social Studies curriculum. SCP was registered with the Canadian
Intellectual Property Office on December 4, 2015 because of the growing interest from teachers
in recognition to the passion I have spent the last four years writing SCP materials for my Social
Studies.

To start this venture I would like to raise $10,000 C through the Patreon supporter network. This
money will be used to pay for the various start up costs and legal paperwork. I would like to
create a small publishing business that is independent from any other major publishing
company. This will be a Canadian made small business thats not connected to any other
multinational company.

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Pain Point & Market Focus
How to Include Soaring Compass
Points into the Classroom?
There is no official material that has been published
exclusively for Social Studies. Any new material that
has been published has been in conjunction with
other subjects. In the new British Columbia (BC)
curriculum there is no replacement textbook for
Social Studies. SCP will fill this gap while providing
a scaffold foundation to both the student and the
teacher to create an inquiry project based learning
environment.

SCP will match very nicely with new curriculum in BC

as there are Three Core Competencies and the three core competencies are:
Communication
Thinking
Personal & Social
Source: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

In addition to the Three Core Competencies for Social Studies there are
the Four Big Ideas for each level. The BC curriculum has a growing
number of Social Studies teachers who use the The Historical Thinking
Project. This is a project that emphasis on SIX big ideas when it comes to
learning history which are as follows:

Cause and Consequence

Historical Significance
Ethical Dimensions in History
Primary Sources
Continuity and Change
Historical Perspective
Source: http://historicalthinking.ca

With the knowledge of the Pain Point I would like to create a small
publishing business that is independent from any other major publishing
company. SCP will have a market focus in the Canadian education market
and in particular Social Studies.

SCP will produce the following resources:

- A professionally designed website for all to access with updated Canadian content
- An iPad app to replace the current course website
(https://sites.google.com/site/mrandersonssocials/home)
- Weekly Podcast episodes that covers a variety of topics relating to social studies and will be
posted in Edmodo Spotlight, iTunes and YouTube.
- A junior, intermediate and senior level core workbook that can be used throughout the entire
course that will include up-to-date podcasts and PowerPoint presentation and direct
references to the curriculum.
- Individualized and unique project and unit modules

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If you would like to know more first hand accounts on what people are saying about my products
please check out Edmodo Spotlight. (https://spotlight.edmodo.com/product/social-studies-11-
exploring-21st-century-canadian-issues--325015/)

The Exact Market Focus Details for SCP

Face #1 - Market Focus

The market focus for this venture focus will on the K-12 public
school education system in British Columbia.

Face #2 - Types of Offerings

The type of offering the SCP will offer is a Content model and
SCP can be implemented immediately. I am the expert in the
content and subject matter. As an independent author who is not
influenced nor financed by any large multinational company
there will be published books that will coincide with web
platforms. Additional support will be provided on an official
YouTube Channel and weekly Podcast Episodes.

Face #3 - Who is the Buyer?

A typical K-12 buyer is the focus for this venture. SCP will target
secondary EVA buyers who are searching for learning materials
but could also be buying centrally such as a public school.

Face #4 - Global Market

In the beginning SCP will focus on the anglophone Canadian
market but french versions of the same materials will be
produced because Canada has two official languages after five
years. Canada has a population of over 36.2 million (http://
www.worldometers.info/world-population/canada-population/)
and it would be foolish to ignore the French Canadian market as
the province of Quebec has the second largest population in the country, a population of 8.2
million (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo02a-eng.htm) .

Face #5 - Market Status

SCP is suitable for a market that supports the importing of content and infrastructure. School
districts and individual teachers are empowered to look and support local businesses in learning
in which SCP fits.

Face #6 - Competition
SCP will target the Learning Technology Substitutes for Other Forms of Learning. As
the result of ongoing budget cutbacks and new curriculum changes the public education
market is always looking for new platforms to enhance student learning while constantly
searching for new ways to save money.

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Solution
What Platforms can be Used?

SCP will begin with the Apple ecosystem. Im the most conferrable with Apple. I will use pre-
existing Cloud Based Learning platforms such as Apps, iTunes University, YouTube, Edmodo
Spotlight and weekly Podcasts Episodes as the main platforms to distribute SCP materials for
this venture.

Lord Tweedsmiur Secondary, A.R. McNeil Secondary and Richmond Continuing Education are
schools who are already using
SCP as of June 20, 2016. Lord
Tweedsmiur Secondary is the
largest high school in the
province with a population of
over 2,300 students and 169
full time teachers. A.R. McNeil
Secondary is the youngest but
largest high school in the
Richmond School District with
a student population of 850.

Differentiation
The Educational Benefits

The benefits of using and financially supporting SCP would be as follows:

- Less teacher prep time
- Up to date accurate and engaging content
- Guarantee of Canadian content made by a Canadian and not an international company
- Lower student stress level because students are terrible at being organized
- Up to date with curriculum standards and Ministry of Education course requirements
- Logical flow and progression from year to year
- Modules can be reproduced for each class but complete workbooks need to be
purchased individually

SCP will have a core set of books for Social Studies, grade 8 - 10. Grade 8 will be primary,
grade 9 will be intermediate and grade 10 will be senior level. From these levels weekly
podcasts, curated YouTube Playlists, iTunes University materials will be created to
support.

Content will be updated once every six months or 12 months. If there are required corrections
after a material is printed an updated file will be posted on the website free of charge. If there is
more than just page or two an errata will be posted on the website for free.

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Competition
What are Some Alternative Platforms?

There is an incredible variety of platforms that cover Canadian topics. Infant theres too much
information and its hard to access because there is no middle ground. That is a weakness for
this market. However, SCP will provide that middle ground. Theres fascinating examples of
printing press operations as the result of Globalization in the Education Market. However, there
is not a Canadian specific brand name for Canadian Social Studies.

Complete Canadian Curriculum Series

http://www.popularbook.ca/new-products-details-ccc

This series is owned by Popular which is a company who specializes in

educational and fictional markets. They are headquartered in Singapore
and have made a foothold in markets such as Canada, Peoples Republic of
China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan. This is a multinational company
that was founded in 1940. Very little company information is provided
publicly but it does classify as a private company that has 500 - 1000
employees and a revenue stream between $100 - 500 million Canadian.
They are part of the retail industry but they not registered with the Better
Business Bureau (BBB) (http://www.popularworld.com/en/index.php) The
name POPULAR was an acronym for: people, objectivity, product, unity,
leadership, action, reward & recognition (http://www.popularworld.com/en/
CoreValues.php) The Canadian division was founded in 1994 Toronto.

This series covers the core academic grade subjects from grade 1 - 8 such as english, french,
math and science. Each book cost $20 and can be bought from large department stores such
as Costco. As the result of creating a very kid friendly layout over 1 million copies have been
sold in Canada.

Today in Canadian History

This is a Calgary community station which is a registered non-profit society.
It was based out of the University of Calgary with 7 paid employees and
over 200 volunteers. It is not registered with the BBB (http://www.bbb.org/
calgary/business-reviews/broadcast-radio-companies/cjsw-radio-909-fm-in-
calgary-ab-55565) For two years the hosts conducted short interviews with
authors, professors and historians on Canadian history. In their run the hosts
created over 200 short but extremely well written and funny post cast
episodes that can still be downloaded for free on iTunes.

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Pearson Canada eText
http://www.pearsoncanadaschool.com/index.cfm?
locator=PS1fA4&PMDBSUBCATEGORYID=&PMDBSITEID=5161&PMDBSUBSOLUTIONID=&
PMDBSOLUTIONID=38621&PMDBSUBJECTAREAID=&PMDBCATEGORYID=&PMDbProgra
mId=76761

Pearson Canada is a private company that fits into the media industry. Their
headquarters is in New York Ontario and is a large multifaceted company
that supports several provincial Ministry of Educations in British Columbia,
Alberta and the Atlantic Provinces. They produce textbooks that cost $85 as
well as digital copies of their textbooks. Their textbooks support an
impressive collections of websites that coincide with specific topics inside the
textbook, small group options and even self-directed
highlighting and note taking capabilities. They have local sale
representatives who are willing to go to any school.

The actual founder, Samuel Pearson, of Pearson dates to

1844 in Yorkshire Northern England. Further company origins
can be traced even further back to 1724; the original founder Thomas Longman.
Since its founding Pearson has become the largest education company and
book publisher in the world.

Source: https://www.pearson.com/about-us/our-history.html

The Ask - The Educational Market and Financial Overview:

The corner stone of this venture pitch is the Patreon supporter network. Patreon is a unique
crowd sourcing platform as Patreon supporters help fund material that is produced by SCP and
there is no limit on how many investors can sign up. As a Patreon supporter you will gain
exclusive Google Hangout and FaceTime monthly chats, first hand look on material that is
currently being developed, exclusive rights to any material and a public recognition. All money
raised from the Patreon supports will be spent to finance the venture.

To start this venture I would like to raise $10,000 C. This money will be used to pay for the
various start up costs and legal paperwork. Afterwards I will keep 40% of any profit revenue
generated from actual sales and there will be a price variation for each product:

- $5 per weekly podcast episode

- $10 per small module
- $50 for complete workbooks

In the first couple of years the business will be kept small. Once SCP reaches the five year
anniversary it might begin to diversify into other provincial markets such as Alberta or Ontario
but only if there is a minimum of $5,000 in the bank account.

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The opening financial summary for SCP.

Item Cost Objective

Apple App Developers Fee $130 C per year To pay for the cost of developing an app to
replace the course website.

Website Domain Name &
Web Hosting
Various Computer Gear
$83.89 Through GoDaddy.com Web Hosting a Deluxe
Package with unlimited web storage.
www.soaringcompasspoints.com
$4,000 Computer, Print, Software, Microphone and
miscellaneous staple items

Business Registration $380 Basic entry level registration fee and name
Provincially approval fee

Business Liability Insurance $1,200 Westland Insurance Estimate for Liability

Accountant for Tax Filing $1,000 Go over business structure, tax issues, monitor for
discrepancy and income tax filing

App & Website Developer 1,000 This position will target a young worker who can
create an Apple App and a website.

Graphics Designer 850 This is a commission salary for the start up costs

In the first few years any books that will be published by SCP will be printed via Amazon Self-
Publishing. This offers the best financial option because Amazon Self-Publishing takes only a
20% royalty cut but more importantly the company will only print the amount of books as they
are ordered. This reduces the risk of over or undersupply issues in the first few years.
Additionally for the smaller handbooks these resources will be made available as a PDF to be
purchased and downloaded from the SCP website and Edmodo Spotlight.

The Return - First Hand Account Experiences:

Pearson Canada and the Surrey School District partnered in a five year Pearson E-Textbook
Pilot Project (https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/pearson-etext-for-canada/id668696227?mt=8).
The project was marginally successful despite passionate efforts because the success
depended on the individual school. The company spokesman said Pearson wasnt interested in
workbooks because theres no market. Pearson Canada is the largest distributor of textbooks to
the Surrey School District. (http://www.pearsoncanadaschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS2tZy) It
was at this moment four years ago I knew I wanted to create my very own self-publishing
venture for Social Studies.

From my experience working with Apple Canada in the iTunes University Course Creation
Project I created two courses: Comparative Civilization 12: What is Civilization? (https://
itunes.apple.com/ca/course/comparative-civilization-12/id872842031) and Social Studies 11:
Exploring 21st Century Canadian Issues (https://itunes.apple.com/ca/course/social-studies-11-
exploring/id735664171). I have the desire and the market is ready for this product to be taken to

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the next level, I want to take this product venture to the next level. Additionally I wrote and
published my own textbook, Exploring 21st Century Canadian Issues. (https://
itunes.apple.com/ca/book/book-exploring-21-century/id735542119?mt=13)

Personal Reflection & Summary:

Thank you for listening and reading through my Venture Pitch Presentation. SCP has been a
real passion of mine for many years and I feel that the time has come to take this product to the
next level and that is why I am asking for your support. As I have laid out there is a market for
this product and as the result of the curriculum change in British Columbia there is a need for
this product.

As I reflect both personally and professionally on the strengths and weaknesses of my product
its clear what are the strengths. The weakness of SCP would be BC Teachers Federation
(BCTF) and the Code of Ethics. There are not many laws in the province currently to regulate
teachers from self-publishing their own materials but the threat of a conflict of interest violation
between two or more members in the BCTF is serious. This is a serious threat and a concern
that will need to be monitored on a weekly basis. If a conflict of interest issue is raised by a
Surrey Teachers any resource they want for free. Another weakness of this market is teachers
are cheap and would break copyright protection laws because the education system is under-
funded. In order to mitigate this weakness an aggressive and compelling pricing system needs
to be implemented.

In the next 2 to 5 years I want to elevate SCP to become a brand that would be recognized as a
Canadian brand for Social Studies. Perhaps after the first five years SCP will expand to include
other provinces in Canada.

It should be noted that every image, not unless it has a source in this document, are images
from the actual completed materials at this point.

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Resources:

Anderson, Cole. (2014, May 2). Comparative Civilization 12: What is Civilization?
[iTunes University Course]. Retrieved from
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/course/comparative-civilization-12/id872842031

Anderson, Cole. (2013, October 31). Social Studies 11: Exploring 21st Century
Canadian Issues [iTunes University Course]. Retrieved from
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/course/social-studies-11-exploring/id735664171

Anderson, Cole A. Exploring 21st Century Canadian Issues. 2nd Edition. Surrey:
Soaring Compass Points, 2013. iBooks Edition.

Apple Developer Program, accessed on July 14, 2016,

https://developer.apple.com/programs/

Building Student Success: BCs New Curriculum, accessed on June 1, 2016,

https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

Canadas History: Today in Canadian History, accessed on July 9, 2016.

http://www.canadashistory.ca/Education/Your-Resources/Articles/Today-in-Canadian-History-Podcast

Complete Canadian Curriculum, accessed on July 6, 2016.

http://www.popularbook.ca/new-products-details-ccc

Corporate Registry Fee Service, accessed on July 23, 2016,

http://www.bcregistryservices.gov.bc.ca/bcreg/corppg/crfees.page

Council of Better Business Bureaus, accessed on July 13, 2016,

http://www.bbb.org/council/

CJSW 90.9FM. (2010, June 9). Today in Canadian History. Retrieved from
http://www.popularbook.ca/new-products-details-ccc

DOMAINScanada.ca, accessed on July 14, 2016,

https://www.domainscanada.ca/clients/domainchecker.php

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Glassdoor - Popular Holdings Inc,accessed on July 13, 2016,
https://www.glassdoor.ca/Overview/Working-at-Popular-Holdings-EI_IE618205.11,27.htm

GoDaddy Canada, accessed on July 14, 2016,

https://ca.godaddy.com/hosting/web-hosting

Houghton Mifflin Harcout, accessed on July 13, 2016.

http://www.hmhco.com/at-home/featured-shops/the-learning-company

Lord Tweedsmiur, accessed on July 13, 2016,

https://www.surreyschools.ca/schools/tweeds/Pages/default.aspx

NCS Pearson (2016). Pearson eText for Canada. (1.9) iOS9. Retrieved from
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/pearson-etext-for-canada/id668696227?mt=8

Our Story - Pearson, accessed on July 21, 2016,

https://www.pearson.com/about-us/our-history.html

Pay Scale Human Capital, accessed on July 14, 2016,

http://www.payscale.com/research/CA/Job=Application_Developer/Salary/9fc43370/Vancouver-BC

Patreon, Inc (2015). Patreon. (1.6.7) iOS9. Retrieved from

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1044456188

Pearson Canada - British Columbia Social Studies, accessed on July 10, 2016,
http://www.pearsoncanadaschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS2tZy

Popular, accessed on July 13, 2016, http://www.popularworld.com/en/index.php

Social Studies 9, accessed on June 10, 2016,

https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/social-studies/9

Statistics Canada, accessed on July 13, 2016,

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo02a-eng.htm

Take Control of Self-Publishing, accessed on July 22, 2016,

https://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200260520

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The Historical Thinking Project, accessed on July 5, 2016, http://historicalthinking.ca

Welcome to A.R. McNeil Secondary School, accessed on July 13, 2016,

http://macneill.sd38.bc.ca

Westland Insurance BC Business Liability Insurance Quotes, accessed on July 23,

2016, https://www.westlandinsurance.ca/bc/insurance/business/liability-insurance-quotes

Worldometers, accessed on July 13, 2016,

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/canada-population/

What do Editors Charge? accessed on July 14, 2016,

http://www.editors.ca/content/what-do-editors-charge

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