The School of Business has considered starting a small business institute which would provide business consulting services for a fee.  Some private organizations have an interest in the sorts of travel and tourism studies that we have proposed.  If one of these organizations was willing to pay a reasonable fee to our school for the conduct of a focus group study, what would we promise with regard to deliverables, what would be the timeline that we would provide, and what would be a reasonable fee for our services?

Below is a proposal that could be sent to one of these organizations. 

1. Complete the parts entitled "Costs and Deliverables" and "Project Timeline."  (Do not include other parts of the letter -- only include these two sections.)  An example of a proposal is here.

2. Attach a copy of a Gannt table and Gannt chart that would be used internally to guide these activities and ensure that the project stays on time and on budget. 

3. Attach a copy of your budget worksheet that would be used internally to estimate the billables in your proposal.  In working out the budget, we need to receive $50 per hour for work that is done behind closed doors in our facility, and $75 per hour when a Ph.D. professor meets with a client in our facility or at the client's facility.

Although you are only submitting two sections of the proposal, note that your proposed timeline and budget is for the entire project from start to finish.  Also note that you are submitting your proposal as an individual, but you are nonetheless encouraged to discuss issues associated with the proposal with other students and with the professor.

Dear Xxxxx,

Thank you for considering our consulting services.  This letter serves as an initial proposal for the conduct of the focus group research that we had discussed. 

Project Background and Objectives

Although secondary data provides us with some answers regarding the economic impact of tourism on the local economy, we still don't know what travelers/tourists do for recreation and entertainment while they are here and we don't know how much they spend on these things.  Importantly, we don't know what people would like to see that we do not have.

The present study would be an initial exploration into questions associated with what travelers/tourists do for recreation and what isn't offered that they would like to see.

Methodology

Finding actual travelers/tourists could be expensive and time consuming.  Since the information posted by the Texas Department of Economic Development suggests that the majority of travel to Texarkana is to visit friends and relatives, a quick and easy starting point for an exploratory study would be with those friends and relatives who are visited.  Rather than find travelers/tourists and ask them directly, we propose identifying local people who have recently been visited by friends or relatives and asking about recreation and entertainment activities.  A limitation of using this kind of sample is that it still would not tell us what might cause other kinds of travelers (people who have no friends or relatives in Texarkana) to stop and spend money in Texarkana, but it should nonetheless give us a reasonable start without spending a lot of time, effort, and money.

Our proposal is to recruit Texarkana area residents, limiting respondents to a quota sample that includes people within the confines of Texarkana and some people who live in outlying areas (e.g., Ashdown, AR).  The respondent's location would be determined by asking the zip code as an initial screening question during telephone recruiting.  We would like a sample of at least 48 Texarkana-area residents (six focus group sessions of eight people), with 36 from the local Texarkana area and 12 from outlying areas.  We would over-recruit to ensure that we achieve this number of shows for the focus group sessions; our total number of participants could be as high as 56.

Focus Group Topic Areas

Recommended discussion flow is as follows:

1. Initial questions regarding who last visited (friend, relative, acquaintance), the length of stay, the nature of the visit (holiday, vacation, family crisis, etc.), and such.

2. Questions regarding entertainment and recreational activities during the visit and how much money was spent in these activities.

3. Questions regarding entertainment and recreational activities desired during the visit but not available within the Texarkana area.

4. Questions regarding speculation as to why many travelers do not stop in Texarkana or do not stay in Texarkana if they do stop.

Costs and Deliverables

We will provide you with a topline report summarizing the results of and conclusions from these sessions.  We will also provide you with a presentation of results and conclusions at your facility.

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Project Timeline

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Xxxxx, I think that about sums up our initial thoughts about your research project.  We appreciate your consideration and want you to feel free to contact us if this proposal needs any modifications in order to best suit your needs.

Cordially,