Jessica Turner is one of the entrepreneurs who is the founder of Turner Test Prep which prepares people for CPA exam. The fact that she got many rejections from accounting firms created influence as a push-factor on her entrepreneurship in the she decided to exploit the opportunity of the experience she had before.
As spring of 2003, she had been suffering from a low market share due to fierce competition in the sector. Furthermore, the second vital issue is that she was unable to reach the break-even point even after three sessions.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
She had a successful teaching experience
Facilities such as audiotapes enabling students to review the lectures at home
She made herself available with holding biweekly meetings with each student
One-to-one attention which increases satisfaction of students
Weaknesses
Incurring to high operational costs
Lack of successful marketing activities
Since it was a fresh company , it has no brand recognition
Non-existence of online materials such as software, online tests etc.
Lack of metrics to evaluate financial performance such as break-even point.
Not offering various types of courses like NTC does
Opportunities
There is a potential and growing market.
Threats
Fierce competitive market
Substitutability of learning like e-learning
Recommendations
As we calculated the break-even point, the result is 140 students per semester. (Appendix) Yet, the last session she had only 105 students. So, what she needs to do is looking for the ways either to attract more students or decrease the costs.
It is possible to reduce printing costs with providing online materials.
E-learning might be a good opportunity for students who do not enter to live lectures.
In the long run, it would be much logical to provide the opportunity of online chat with instructors. Since in time the number of students will increase, Jessica could not response their questions.
She should give importance to marketing activities such as