Data Recovery Services Business Plan

Data recovery is an often overlooked option when data loss has occurred.  TTR Data Recovery Technologies has the expert technicians, knowledgeable customer support staff, and the laboratory facility to solve most disaster recovery crisis quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

It is estimated that, last year, companies lost data valued at $2 billion dollars through mechanical or electrical failure, virus activity, system malfunctions, accidental erasure or water, fire or smoke damage.  TTR Data Recovery Technologies can recover mission critical data when all other conventional methods and experts have failed.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies, depending on the extent of the damage, will get the data back to life in 24 to 48 hours.  For time-sensitive data loss situations, a direct modem-to-modem transfer or high-speed T1 FTP data transfer will be available by way of the Internet.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies has proprietary recovery technology that is not operation system dependant.  From DOS to Novell to Macintosh to UNIX, the company has the technology and expertise to retrieve critical data. TTR Data Recovery Technologies’ engineers have a commitment to innovation, and have developed in-house software and hardware solutions to retrieve the maximum amount of data.

Dan Whitaker, co-owner of TTR Data Recovery Technologies, has been a professional in the field of data recovery for fifteen years.  He has recovered data for Fortune 500 companies, governments, military, and a number of the country’s leading educational and research institutions. 

1.1 Objectives

• Establish TTR Data Recovery as the national leader in critical data retrieval.
• Increase the number of Value Added Resellers (VARs) offering recovery services through TTR Data Recovery by 20% over the next two years.

1.2 Keys to Success

The keys to success in TTR Data Recovery Technologies are:

1. Offering innovative solutions to data retrieval.
2. Reliable and timely solutions. Get the data back to the company in two days at the latest.
3. A reliable administration that is ready to serve customers, prepare accurate billing, follow-up on orders and other documentation, and maintain a close watch on expenses and collection of accounts receivable.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies is a new company offering recovery solutions for data loss on computers, servers, and any operating media.   The company will focus on three target customers:

• Value added resellers (VAR);
• Company IT units;
• Public institution IT units.

Dan Whitaker is creating TTR Data Recovery Technologies with fifteen years of experience in the field.  His insight and management skill will be instrumental in establishing the company as an industry giant.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies has proprietary recovery technology that is not operation system dependant.  From DOS to Novell to Macintosh to UNIX, the company has the technology and expertise to retrieve critical data.

2.1 Start-up Summary

The start-up cost of TTR Data Recovery Technologies will consist primarily of computer and data restoration equipment. Dan Whitaker will invest $100,000.   A silent partner will invest $150,000. Dan will also secure a $100,000 loan.

The $80,000 in equipment listed in the start-up table is for clean room equipment (air filtering system equipment), data retrieval equipment for hard drives to store recovered data and hardware fixtures to examine and clean hard drives.

2.2 Company Ownership

Dan Whitaker, co-owner of TTR Data Recovery Technologies, has been a professional in the field of data recovery for latest fifteen years. The company will be set up as a Limited Partnership.  Dan Whitaker will share ownership with a silent partner.

TTR Data Technologies recovers a client’s data from tape backups, hard drives, optical media, removable media and anything in between, getting data when all others fail. Remote file structure repair services are also offered.

Depending on the extent of the damage, TTR Data Recovery Technologies will get the data back to life in 24 to 48 hours.  For time-sensitive data loss situations, a direct modem-to-modem transfer or high-speed T1 FTP data transfer is available by way of the Internet.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies has proprietary recovery technology that is not operation system dependant.  From DOS to Novell to Macintosh to UNIX, the company has the technology and expertise to retrieve critical data.

In-house software and hardware solutions have been developed by TTR Data Recovery Technologies’ engineers to retrieve the maximum amount of data from damaged data storage mediums.

Data recovery is a $150 million specialty industry that is growing by 10% each year. As more and more companies realize that there are solutions to data recovery that can save millions of dollars, the industry will grow even faster.

An important element in the growth of the industry is the how often most companies need recovery services. Recent surveys indicate that recovery services are required, on average, two to five times a year.  Consequently, most companies don’t invest in personnel with data recovery expertise.

In a number of respects, recovery services are important to a company only after data has been destroyed.  This offers an opportunity and a disadvantage to firms like TTR Data Recovery Technologies. 

When companies contact TTR, they want the problem solved yesterday.  When TTR contacts the company concerning future failures, companies are hesitant to invest in preventative actions. This will change in the future.  The marketing goal of TTR Data Recovery Technologies is to successfully sell preventative recovery programs to companies.

4.1 Market Segmentation

ERR Data Recovery Technologies will focus on three customer groups:

• Value Added Resellers (VAR): This group is the critical supplier of products and services to almost every industry.  Data recovery services can quickly become a strong profit center for VARs serving their markets. The VAR would sell the service to the customer and TTR Data Recovery Technologies would perform the work.
• Company IT Units: These units manage the company servers and networking systems.  Clearly, when data is lost, it is their job to retrieve it quickly. TTR Data Recovery Technologies would be an invaluable resource when recovering data.
• Public Institution IT Units: These units manage the research and educational institutions’ servers and networking systems. Years of research or institution data can be lost.  Typically, these institution don’t have the expertise in-house to solve these problems.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies will aggressively pursue developing a VARs program to open the market for data recovery.  In addition, the company will cultivate relationships with company and public IT units by providing a free diagnostic software program that will assist in assessing damage to a media.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Dan Whitaker is the competitive edge of TTR Data Recovery Technologies. Dan has worked for both Rogue Computer Services and CBL Technologies over the past fifteen years.  In his last position with CBL Technologies, Dan managed the growth of the Data Recovery Unit. He generated sales in excess of $3 million annually. His strength is his customer relation skills and he has been successful in expanding the range of services offered by the company.

The staff of TTR Data Recovery Technologies are impressive also:

• Al Siano: Seven years of experience in data recovery.  Area of expertise: mechanical failure, head crash, media damage, controller malfunction, actuator failure, and damaged motor.
• Linda Stevens: Eight years of experience in data recovery. Area of expertise: user error, accidental deletions, reformatting, repartition, virus infection, directory corruption, and lost/forgotten password.
• Roger Williams: Five years of experience in data recovery. Area of expertise: natural disaster, fire, flood, hurricane/tornado, earthquake, and power spike.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies’ facility has a Class 100 Cleanroom in order to make delicate repairs, with no margin of error for the smallest of particles. This pristine facility maintains fewer than 100 circulating air contaminant particles per million (10,000X purer than the everyday environment), ensuring a regulated atmosphere for performing sensitive open drive surgery. In addition, the staff wears special suits, hair caps, face masks, boots and latex gloves.

5.2 Sales Strategy

TTR Data Recovery Technologies will have three distinct sales approaches:

• For VARs: We will offer VARs a flat service fee. Each VAR can then set their own price for the service to their customer.
• IT Units: We will offer a free diagnostic software program that will assist in assessing damage to a media.  We will also offer a 15% discount for recovery services.

5.2.1 Sales Forecast

For the first month there will be no sales, as the company will be establishing its operations.  We anticipate that sales will grow quickly during the second and third month of operation.

The following is the sales forecast for three years.

Dan Whitaker will manage the day to day operations of TTR Data Recovery Technologies, as well as serve a a member of the data recovery team.  In addition to the recovery team, John Marks has been added to the staff as sales manager.

John has been sales manager at Rogue Computer Services for seven years.  During that times sales for the company has grown between 9% and 12% each year.  Last year, Rogue Computer Services exceeded $10 million in sales of product and services.

TTR Data Recovery Technologies will also have one customer service/clerical staff member.

6.1 Personnel Plan

The personnel of TTR Data Recovery Technologies are as follows:

• Manager;
• Customer service/clerical (1);
• Data recovery staff (3);
• Sales manager.

The following is the financial plan for TTR Data Recovery Technologies.

7.1 Break-even Analysis

The monthly break-even point is shown below.

7.2 Projected Profit and Loss

The following table and chart will highlight projected profit and loss for the next three years.

7.3 Projected Cash Flow

The following table and chart highlight the projected cash flow for three years.

7.4 Projected Balance Sheet

The following table highlights the projected balance sheet for three years.

7.5 Business Ratios

Business ratios for the years of this plan are shown below. Industry profile ratios based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 7379, Computer Related Services, are shown for comparison.