Business Proposal

Chandinet Phoeun
Ana Pelcastre
Joanna Campos
Diorella Gatchalian
Mary Duzak
ENS 434 Prof. Comana
Fall 2014

A. Challenge/problem:
Childhood obesity has become an epidemic in the United States. According to the CDC,
the percentage of children aged 611 years old who were obese had doubled from 7% to
nearly 18%. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 1219 years old who were
obese had quadruple from 5% to 21% in the last 30 years. This presents many potential
consequences including the emergence of an unhealthy population and economic collapse
due to high lost on employee productivity and increasing healthcare cost. It is,
therefore, crucial to stop this epidemic from reaching an even higher percentage among
our children and adolescents.

B. Vision Statement and Rationale

Our Vision:
Our organization aims to reduce the obesity incidence among children and adolescents by
engaging and empowering them to make better choices by incorporating healthy eating
habits and exercises and by building a strong social support through shared experiences.

Our Rationale:
As we know, there are many factors that contribute to obesity including excessive caloric
intake, inactivity, genetics, social resources, income levels etc. These reasons may
explain why addressing obesity by just telling people to eat less or to exercise more
rarely works. Two or more factors need to be addressed simultaneously. The solution is
Healthy and Fit for Life, which is a program designed to address multiple contributing
factors namely diet, exercise, and social support by bringing fitness specialists and
Registered Dietitians together.

C. Program / Product Overview

Program Overview:
Our program proposal is to create a diet and exercise facility within the afterschool
programs, where low income children ages k to 12 years old and parents will find both
Registered Dietitians and Fitness Specialists (personal trainers) to help them achieve and
maintain healthier body weight along with nutritional education. One aspect of our
program which is especially important to our given demographic is low cost membership
fees. Another unique aspect is gardening which will encompass health as a whole (e.g
nutritional education, physical activity and environmental sustainability).

Right now as a start up our specific target population will be children and parents in the
Logan Heights area schools. However, eventually we hope our program will spread
throughout the San Diego County school system.

Product overview:
Our program will be structured by three main components; Group and Individual
Activities and healthy eating Education. The following describes specific activities our
program will offer under each of our main categories.
Group activities:
Amazing race activity age-appropriate
Obstacles course
5k -10k team races
Big Brothers and Big Sisters
Group Hiking
Gardening- partnered with: "Healthy Works School Gardens"
a.
In the community around SD
b.
Our own facility Garden
Individual activity
1. One on one functional training with personal trainer
2. Individual counseling with RDs: The ratio of RDs to members will be 1:25.
*There will be an additional fee for this service
Healthy Eating Education
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Food label Education

How to identify and avoid GMO
Dietary guidelines Education
Learn different food alternatives
Cooking classes designed to guide people to develop healthy choices by RDs.
*Parents will be involved in this activity since they are responsible for home cooking.

6. Hosting farmers market monthly

D. S.W.O.T Analysis
Strengths
This program is unique in ways that we have a support system of Registered Dietitian
and Fitness coaches working in tandem to empower children to live a healthy lifestyle.
Also, afterschool programs will take part in promoting healthy lifestyle. Furthermore,
the physical activity program will offer obstacle races, running races that allows

children to set and meet goals. In addition, hiking club and big sister and big brother
mentorship will help children build healthy relationship and belongingness. In addition,
our nutrition educational program will offer gardening project that children can grow
and harvest to sell at the farmers market. Furthermore, there will be cooking
activities that children can implement at home to continue to practice a healthy
lifestyle.
Weaknesses
The program will need funding for the facility, equipment and membership
commitment.
Meeting the number of children that will participate in order to qualify for grants
Opportunities:
Our organization sees our children participants as an opportunity to raise future
successors that one day they can also inspire and mentor others to live a healthy
lifestyle.
Threats:
We will compete with other non-profit organizations and adherence to long-term funding
and legal policies.

E. Branding and Marketing strategies and Logistics:

Our program will be appealing to our audience because of its diversity in activities,
affordable membership fees, hours of services, environment sustainability features
and also because our clients will have easy access to Registered Dietitians, Fitness
Specialists and college level interns.
The way we plan to connect with our audience is by following the next marketing
strategies:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

We will partner with local schools, existing after school Programs, and pediatrics hospital.
We will develop brochures and pamphlets
We will offer discounts for referrals
The organization will have its own Website
We will have a YouTube channel posting short nutrition information and exercise

demonstrations weekly/biweekly.
a. We will Feature different groups of kids for every video
*Parents consent will be required.
b. We Hope to inspire kids to keep up with the workouts and healthy eating choices.
6. Other social media: Facebook, twitter, vine and Instagram
7. Bus stops, Public libraries, shopping centers, grocery stores etc.

The way our organization will communicate with our clients will be through short
electronic, phone calls and hard copy surveys so we can hear their satisfaction, needs and
whether our methods are being effective. These confidential surveys will be monthly so
that we have enough data to evaluate our overall program efficacy. We also plan to keep
BMI records of the children participants as they progress through our program; by doing
that we will monitor if we are meeting our primary goal which is to reduce the incidence
of childhood obesity amongst our target population. This will also help us obtain more
money grants and our credibility as an effective-innovative organization will increase.
Financial metrics
projected totals
revenue
type

52 week

memberships

government grants

$ 151,250.00

private grants

83,000.00

donations

600.00

fundraising

20,000.00

totals

$ 290,850.00

36,000.00

expenses
type

52 week

rental space

32,136.00

utilities

6,000.00

insurance

5,000.00

kitchen use

54,912.00

CEOS

82,000.00

staff1

65,223.60

staff2

23,400.00

liability

program
related

8,505.00

administrative

12,825.00

totals

$ 290,001.60

1.

How Healthy & Fit for Life will obtain funding:

Around 290K will be required

a) Grants: government & private

b) Fundraising
c) Donations
1.1.

Our program will remedy the problem of childhood obesity by addressing associated

factors (e.g. generational habits involving poor food choice, limited physical activity, etc.)
a)

To reduce costs-program will be implemented via existing after school program (e.g.

YMCA)
1.2.

Benefiting populations: goal is to serve children & parents of all socioeconomic levels but

initially the focus will be on low-income children & parents (this population has the highest
obesity rates)
1.3.

Validity of our approach- Parent-child interaction is one of the primary tenets of this

approach as both will receive education to develop new healthy habits & discontinue existing
unhealthy habits. For the majority of the time, the parent is the individual responsible for food
purchase & preparation, and therefore is an essential part in achieving the desired outcomes.
a)

Measurement of our desired outcomes (e.g. decreased BMI, increased physical endurance)

will be done via the respective health professional in the form of record keeping (e.g. physical
fitness tests)