We know that your time is precious, and you can’t be wasting your time on unwanted notifications on your phone. We know days when smartphones were a novelty and people used dumb phones for making phone calls and messaging. They were focused on just the calls and messages. Their battery lasted for months and you didn't have to worry about charging the battery on a daily basis. People weren’t bothered by notifications from dozens of apps. We want to bring that feeling back. We are bringing a product that will change your life for the better. Introducing dePhone. It is essentially a smartphone deconstructed. DePhone will be based on dumb phones and its focus will be giving you a notification free life and to focus on tasks at hand. It will come with the most essential features like great battery life that lasts for weeks and a 4G connection for better connectivity. The phone is designed to be used just for calls and messages and other important functions. It basically detaches you from the complexity of app notifications. DePhone will be serving you not you are serving the device itself.

The main purpose of a phone is communication and if you attach multiple functions with it, it becomes difficult to manage all those functions and take advantage of those functions. Phone manufacturers now a days are focusing on putting more and more features on to the phone. They want you to be attached to your smartphones all the time. This much reliance on technology is not only bad for your health but for your productivity as well. Although many smartphones still provide very productive features, but they are still a smartphone and you will be bombarded with notifications from different apps all the time. DePhone is designed to be a product that adapts to you not you adapting to the products. It doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed. We want to empower you by making use of your time efficiently. DePhone is a simple phone which is reminiscent of old classic t9 keyboard phones. It is simple in its use case and advanced in terms of technology. The phone will use an e ink display which is a low power display and give you everlasting battery life. Smartphones don't last for days and usually, their battery dies at the end of the day. DePhone will bring you about a month of stand by time and 30 hours of talk time which is more than enough for a week or two. You will also be able to install maps and other essential apps (Zelenko, 2019).

Our product has the potential to transform the world for the better. The smartphones company may claim to make your lives better, but they are hoarding money from advertisers and getting your attention by bombarding you with notifications and ads. We want to free you from that notification hell and make your life easier. We want to give you an experience which is simple and fulfils all your communication needs. DePhone will bring you that experience by essentially reducing features and giving you the ones that you need the most.

Objectives of DePhone

Our main objective is to reduce your screen time and make yourself more productive in doing so. Smartphones are essentially a whole computer. You don’t need a computer with you all the time. Smartphones can run multiple apps and each app gives you notifications related to that particular app. Sometimes we don’t need notifications for everything.

Our second objective is to make you free from notification hell. We want you to be informed about the important stuff. DePhone will help you with that and will only tell time and date, yes that it. It will also be not bombarding you with social media notifications which are the major cause of losing precious time.

Our third objective is to give you a product that lasts for days. Smartphones usually last for just a day and you have to charge it every night. dePhone will bring you a month of standby time and 30 hours of talk time which is more than enough for a week or two even if you’re are a heavy user. Battery life is one of the main concerns for smartphones user and they have to carry huge battery banks with them if they are travelling and going on a vacation.

Project Planning of DePhone

Marketing Plan of DePhone

	Details
Product	The key product of the company is the smart phone. This product is different from other competitor's product because of its advanced features and options. Smart Phone will also have a detachable keyboard to work easily. Features: Touch Screen, 12 MP Camera, Qwerty keyboard, Wireless synchronization, and embedded memory.
Price	The business owner will follow up low-cost market leadership price strategy. In this price strategy, the company will offer its products at relatively lower prices than market to attract customers. The price range for smart phones is OMR 200 to OMR 500.
Place	The smartphone will be offered in the local markets of Oman. In the beginning, the company will only offer its products in the big cities of Oman. While the primary targeted audience would be youngsters and adults.
Promotion	Company will also promote its product by advertisement and marketing. The social media platform and the company's website will be used to advertise the features and functions of the smartphone offered by the company. Moreover, personal selling and Public relations strategies will be also used for promotion.

Our focus will be on customers who value their time and doesn’t want unwanted notifications and ads on their phones. Our customers will be professionals, students, people who want to be productive and reduce their screen time. Our competitors will be feature phone companies and smartphone companies. Our slogan will be “less is more”. We will be providing fewer functionalities in dePhone and will be focusing on features that are most important to the consumer. We will be creating our own website which will tell us about our company’s mission and vision and also what made us think about this product. We will be sharing our story of how we came to be. We will be using a combination of both short term and long-term marketing strategies to be able to distinguish ourselves from our competitors (Aceyourpaper, 2019).

Product of DePhone

The product of the company is the smartphone and devices that will be very effective and enough power to run any kind of application. The product is also attractive and has very attractive features. The smartphone most notable feature is the minimize the screen time the people is very attractive that can easily grab the attention of the users. Furthermore, people will have no any need to sit in front of computers to perform their tasks even they can also work from their mobile devices. The mobile device (dePhone) is a simple phone which is reminiscent of old classic t9 keyboard phones. It is simple in its use case and advanced in terms of technology.

Price of DePhone

The pricing is the very challenging thing in the project but the price of the mobile phone device will be set minimum that covers up the cost per device and the prices will be attractive for buyers that create the desire in a customer to purchase this device. The mobile device will have installed ads module that will also provide help to support financially to the company lifetime but it does no harm to the customers and their experiences.

Place of DePhone

The mobile device will be placed in the existing market in the big cities and after then the market segment will be increased. The big cities and the existing active markets are selected to place the product because the main target or the intended customers of these mobile phones are the professionals, youngsters as well as low budget people. It is because they will like this device by knowing its cheapest rates into the market. When it will be introduced into the existing markets, then the impression of these devices and the company will become stronger and the company can easily take a good and strong position in the market.

Promotion of DePhone

We will be facing competition from both smartphones and feature phone companies. Our major competitor will be smartphone companies which have the largest market share when it comes to mobile usage. The company will also develop its own website that will provide information about the company's mission and vision and also what made us think about this product. Furthermore, every new and old mobile device, as well as all products, will also be uploaded and highlighted on the website. But having the only website is not enough for the business of the company, so some other advertisement and promotional activities will be started. The mediums that we will be using for our marketing campaigns are mentioned below:

· TV commercials

· Social Media

· Search Engines

· Advertising in Tech Journals

· Marketing our Product in Tech Shows and holding Conferences

· Loyal customer base (word of mouth)

· Customer Referrals

· Creating our own fan page

Financial Plan of DePhone

Initial Cost	OMR
Materials	20000
Website development and Social media Applications	10000
Packaging and Boxes	1000
Office equipment	5000
Machines	10000
Total Initial Cost	46000
Initial Expenses
Marketing Expense	700
Recruitment and Salary Expense	4000
Rent Expense	500
Total Expense	5200
Total Required Capital	51200

Following the above table, the company would require at least 51,200 OMR as initial capital to start up business operations. In this initial expenses and cost, the labour cost is not included as it would be added in year-one cost or expenses after the start-up of the business. While the initial capital will be only used to purchase machines, equipment, pay-advanced rent, and make payment of marketing campaigns regarding the introduction of the company and its products in the local market of Oman.

From there on we will be then focusing on the production of the product (Kagan, 2020). We will also be taking loans from the bank to further finance the business. We are estimating to reach our break-even point in one year and after that, we will see continuous growth. Our assets will include our product design, our chip design and our employees. We will be investing the revenue we generate in investment companies to further generate capital.

Operational Plan of DePhone

Our operations will start as soon as we have raised enough money for production of the product. Our supply chain will then provide us with the necessary parts to build dePhone. Our products will be manufactured in China and we will contract with the Chinese manufacturing company to assemble our product. Our main headquarters will be located in Silicon Valley. We will also be running a research and development centre which will focus on refining the product features and working on future models of the product. Our operations will consist of production facilities, human resource department, finance department, research and development department and sales department. All these departments will be linked with an MIS to give real-time updates to each department. Each department will be responsible to their head of department. The head of a department will then be reporting to the country manager and the country manager will report to the CEO. Our top management will consist of co-founders which built the company and who started their campaign on Kickstarter. Our mid-level management will consist of country managers who will be updating about the sales and other important figures from our authorized distributors in that country. Our main operations will be handling distribution channels of our products which will be handled by our country managers. Our authorized distributors will also ensure quality services and will follow the guidelines of our company. Our operations will also heavily depend on our supply chain and we will maintain inventory levels by using JIT manufacturing method.

Organisational Plan of DePhone

Our organisation is a Kickstarter company will be organized in a simple way. On top of our organization will be the CEO who will also be the co-founder of the company. There will also be a research and development team which will be a separate department. The R&D department will be reporting to the CEO directly. Below that will be country managers who will manage distributer in their respective regions. Below them will be the sales team who will be promoting our products in their respective area. Our production will be handled by outsourcing. Our product will be assembled in China where the factory will be responsible for all the operations. There will also be a separate department of Human Resource and Finance who will also report directly to the CEO.

The following is the organizational chart or hierarchy for the company. In this hierarchy, the organization is headed by the CEO (Chief Executive Officers). While each department is under the control of relevant departmental manager e.g. finance manager and marketing manager. After the expansion, the company would also appoint directs and non-executive directors to lead each department in the corporate management team.

Designation	Salary Per Month	Total Number of Employees	Working Days	Duties and Responsibilities
Operational Manager	OMR 3000	1	Full Week 5 working days	In a business start-up, operations managers will give suggestions and work for the proper installation of machines and processes. The operational manager will have the responsibility to monitor the operations of all workers and the labour force working in the workplace. Moreover, operational managers will also develop plans for materials and resources utilization.
Finance Manager	OMR 3300	1	5 working days	In business, the start-up finance manager will develop budgets and plans for the purchase of assets and resources. The finance manager will lead the accounts and finance department by monitoring and controlling the work performance of the finance department.
Marketing Manager	OMR 3000	1	5 working days	The marketing manager will design a promotional campaign for the business start-up. Moreover, they will set marketing policies. All marketing and advertising efforts will be headed by the marketing manager. He would also design campaigns for promotion.
Marketing Team	OMR 1500	5	5 working days	The marketing team will work on digital media advertisement and social media promotional campaigns. They will write interactive content and engage customers with products and services.
Accountants	OMR 2000	3	5 working days	Record keeping of financial transaction and development of financial reports are the key responsibilities of accountants.
Labour in the operations department	OMR 1200	15	5 working days	Labour will manufacture smartphones. Painting, assembling, packaging, and delivery are the key responsibilities of labour in the operations department.

Contingency Plan of DePhone

We will be facing risks of production delays and low market demand. We will use the JIT manufacturing model to ensure that the products are made according to demand. We can face the risk of our fault in our products for which we will ensure checking products at each step of the production cycle. Factories will work according to our guidelines to make products. We will be prototyping our product and handing it to developers first to check the viability of the product. Our products will follow the latest quality standards to ensure that they are free from any fault. We will study customer behaviour towards feature phones and incorporate that into our strategy and make the adjustment to our products according to that. Our employees will be the asset of our company and we will ensure their health and safety and provide them with safe working conditions (Hughes, 2018). There is also a risk present of our products being copied so we will patent the technology that is being used in dePhone to ensure copyright.

Personal Reflection of DePhone

This business project plan helped me understand the value of time. It made me rethink about our daily lives and how much of our time is getting wasted on smartphones. Technology is advancing at a rapid rate and we are getting more and more features on our smartphones. Sometimes these features can overwhelm you and you will not be able to use them properly. Technology should adapt to you not you adapting to the technology itself. A product is good when it makes a difference in your life and saves your time. This business project plan made me realize that we can solve people's problem and it will in return help us making a profit. We have to make products that not only enrich people lives but at the same time makes them productive as well. Smartphones are a big part of our lives now. We are continuously attached to the screen of our smartphones and looking at our social feeds for likes and comments. These social apps are then taking our attention by way of notifications and also send us ads. Big smartphones companies are focusing more on seeking your attention and grabbing advertisement money. They are focusing less on your productivity and time. By making a product that is both useful for basic communication and your life. You will be spending less time on your phone screen and more time doing tasks that are important. It will change the world for the better. It also helped me understand the dynamics of business and how each department is interlinked with each other. Innovation is also necessary in order to survive in this day and age where every year there is a new model of the product available. It helped me in understanding that you can start your own business if you have a unique idea and a creative mind. You can collaborate with creative people and build your own company (Wiklund, et al., 2019). You can take advantage of Kickstarter to kickstart your business. It is the need of our time where large corporations are sucking your money and using attention economy. In short, a good business idea can go a long way as long as you do proper business planning.

References of DePhone

Aceyourpaper, 2019. Marketing Plan for Smartphone. [Online]
Available at: https://www.aceyourpaper.com/documents/marketing-plan-smartphone/#
[Accessed 4 April 2020].

Kagan, J., 2020. Financial Plan. [Online]
[Accessed 16 April 2020].

rockdovesolutions.com, 2018. How to Make a Contingency Plan. [Online]
Available at: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/contingency-plan
[Accessed 16 April 2020].

Wiklund, J. et al., 2019. Entrepreneurship and well-being: Past, present, and future. Journal of Business Venturing, Issue 34, pp. 579-588.

Zelenko, M., 2019. The High Hopes of the Low-Tech Phone. [Online]
[Accessed 16 April 2020].