Category: Business Plan

If you have in mind starting your own massage therapy business, you’ve probably wondered what is the necessary planning for starting a business? Certainly, doing good planning requires investing the time and energy you could spend practicing massage therapy. However, it is certainly a long-term investment for your business success. If the various tools presented in this article are not guarantees of the success of your company itself, they will certainly improve your chances of success in the adventure.

Business Plan and Massage Therapy Strategies

To learn more about the planning required to start a business, check out the Network’s webinar .

Plan # 1: Canvass of the business model

Before discussing the first plan to start a business, it’s important to understand what your business model is. The business model is the set of functions, processes and inputs needed to run your business.

In line with this definition, the business model framework allows you to structure your business model in a visual way and thus promotes an overview of your business project.

It becomes easier to illustrate your business model. This facilitates the linking of the different elements and gives you a global vision of your company. Such a template allows you to organize information and summarize your analyzes and reflections throughout your project.

Once completed, your template should contain all the information that will be in your business plan. However, pay special attention to the following. The primary purpose of the business model framework is not to replace the business plan, these two tools are complementary.

The canvas is a tool for structuring and testing your ideas. It allows you to have an overview of the different elements of your company. The business plan is a tool for communicating your ideas.

This is why you need to complete your canvas and test your business model before starting to write your business plan. When all the thinking around your business model is completed and tested, you’ll write a concise and useful business plan much faster!

Plan # 2: The Strategic Plan

Strategic planning, is it the art of planning the growth of your business to finally realize that our projects do not come out as planned?

Well yes! It sums up pretty well!

For a self-employed worker, a strategic plan can be complete in just a few pages. This is a document that will allow you to define on a timeline what actions you will need to achieve in order to achieve your business strategies to achieve your business objectives, ie your business vision.

This type of plan allows you to illustrate your business vision and translate it into objectives that will speak to you and motivate you. Then, it will allow you to develop coherent strategies and an action plan to achieve these goals.

Entrepreneurship is uncertain and unstable. To succeed on your account, it is important to arm yourself against the unknown, because, be certain, you will have to face it! In this sense, you probably wonder at this moment: If I evolve in such a changing context, why would I need to draw up a strategic plan when I know that everything will change?

The answer is simple: you will be able to detect faster than a change of strategy is needed and you will be able to react more effectively in this situation.

To illustrate my words, take the image of a mountain to climb. You enter the forest at the base of the mountain. Your strategic plan is your compass. At the top of this mountain is your advertising goal: reach 70 readers per month on your blog for three consecutive months, before your 10th month of operation.

You have your compass (strategic plan) to get there and your climbing tools: 1000-word articles, published bi-monthly on your blog and advertising through the Facebook platform. You realize at your 5th month of operations that you have no more than 20 readers per month, you have not even climbed half of the mountain!

If the summit is achievable (your goal is realistic) and your compass is well adjusted (you have achieved the planned actions), it means that there is something wrong with your tools (you do not use the right strategies ). It’s up to you to find the problem later. Do your customers prefer more frequent and shorter items? Do they prefer to interact through your company’s Facebook page than through your website?

In short, your strategic plan is there to reassure you (or sound the alarm) against your different development goals. With a good strategic plan, you’ll be able to adjust your strategies faster to achieve your business vision more effectively.

Plan # 3: Your Business Plan

The famous business plan … Too often portrayed as dirt that is hidden under the carpet before guests arrive, it is a real stress for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Yet, the business plan is nothing more than a communication tool. Whether you have not started your business or have been practicing for several years now, the business plan allows you to explain and communicate your business ideas to another person in a text format.

While it may be interesting to get some help in setting it up, be aware that the main challenge is not in writing the plan. The real challenge is to create the content. It’s about structuring your business in a consistent way (and that’s where good entrepreneurship training can help!) In a start-up context, if the business plan is not reserved solely for funding applications, it is widely used to achieve such an objective. Why?

Because it allows to communicate to the financiers the functioning of your company (your business model), as well as your future objectives for the company (your strategic planning), all in a standard text format for the reader.

Is it absolutely necessary to have a business plan in hand when you knock on the doors of banking institutions (or any other type of investor)? Some would say that a detailed business model with supporting evidence will suffice, but the reality is that many financial institutions still require a formal business plan. In this sense, planning properly will greatly increase your chances of getting the amount you want, on favorable terms for you. In concrete terms, it will increase your credibility as an entrepreneur and project leader with investors.

Introduction

Top 4 Business Plans are: 1. Business Initiative Plans (Startup Business Plans), 2. Long Term Business Plans (Strategic Plans for Business), 3. Growth and Development Oriented Business Plans, 4. General Plans. If any of the aforementioned catagoreies draw your atteniton, get in touch with us if interested in investing in these.

Business Initiative Plans (Startup Business Plans):

Why are business plans important? How can they help in running a busniess?

Got problems in running your Business? do not fret! Business Plans are here to save your day. A good business plan acts as a guide or a mentor for initiating as well as for managing your business. Your business plan is similar to a roadmap. A roadmap that gives direction to your structure, functioning, and also to the growth of your start-up. It’s a means of figuring the core elements of your business out.

How can one create a right plan?

Writing the right plan might seem impossible. Don’t worry! we’ve got your back.

There is no such thing as writing a wrong or a right plan. Then what exactly matters? All you need for writing a good business plan is to bear your needs in mind in order to match them with your business plan.

Majorly, business plans fall under one of these two Most business plans fall into one of two common categorizations: Traditional Business Plans & Lean Startup Business Plans.

(1) Traditional Business Plan Format

If you possess detail attentive and extensive planning preferences, then you are more likely to opt for traditional business plan format. This will also come into use when you will be planning to apply for funding from conventional sources.

While formulating a business plan, you need not stick to the exact business plan outline. In lieu of that, you can make use of segments that are more sensible for your business as well as for your needs.

(2) Lean Startup Business Plan Format

If you’re willing to give a quick elucidation about your business, then you should choose lean startup format instead of traditional business plan format. This plan will also work wonders for you if your business is relatively straightforward, or you plan to modify and enhance your business plan frequently.

The charts that utilize only a couple of elements like USP (Unique Selling Point), substructure, clientele, and finances, to elucidate about your firm are non-other than Lean startup formats. They’re super handy when it comes to picturing merits and demerits as well as fundamental facts about your organization.

The Business Model Canvas, fabricated by Alex Osterwalder is one of the oldest and the most renown lean startup format out of several other formats that are accessible currently.

Long Term Business Plans (Strategic Plans for Business)

If you’re willing to focus your efforts, create unification between your team in a single direction, and want something that will offer you guidence through complex decision making, then start functioning with a plan. A strategic plan calls for specifying your objectives and also facilitates you in acheiving those. This in turn is an enormous competitive edge.

Here is a list of 11 essentials that can be put into use for creating an effective and long-term business plan.

1. Identify your company vision
2. Identify your personal vision
3. Understand your business
4. Determine goals for the short run
5. Create a Synopsis of your strategies
6. Formulate a plan of action
7. Encourage strategic communication
8. Examine and add variations frequently
9. Hold yourself Responsible
10. Be Flexible
11. Develop a strategic planning team

Growth and Development Oriented Business Plans

This business plan is all about key management decisions, measures, metrics, and making it come to life. It is similar to the business visions of several firms.

It is all about what is supposed to happen and not about elucidating or protecting a business for outsiders.

Key components of the business plan for strategic growth

Strategy

Strategy can be as plain as a record of key points, or concise descriptions, or even a series of photographs.

If simply put, it is what you’re not doing.

Strategy serves as a reminder of what is most crucial in your plan of action.

Recognition of market and its offering

The issue you resolve

Your solution

Target audience

Identity (put differently, “why us”)

Try not to rip your strategy apart by taking various elements into account at a time. Always bear in mind that things change in planning along with all spheres of business.

Changes aren’t just challengings, infact they are chances to flourish.

Execution

Excecution tactics are the measures, activities, as well as the decisions made by you. They also reffer to the paths you opt for to bring your strategy into action. Strategy has no worth without its execution.

Costing, commodities, publicity, messaging, channels, social networking, assistance, lead generation—it’s all about execution.

Give a thought to strategic orientation as you start working with tactics. One thing you need to be sure about is that your tactics match your strategy.

Milestones and metrics

Your objective is to execute, and milestones and metrics report execution. Give a thought to your dates, time-boundations, and firm specifics.

There exist other performance indicators like traffic, leads, conversions, presentations, visits, trips, engagements—and even likes, retweets, and follows, Relying on the nature of your busniess. Convert your metrics into estimable and meaningful ones.

Essential business numbers

Real planning has to be ingrained in specifics, including sales, expenditure, and flow of funds.

You would have probably being managing cash flow and reviewing the functioning if you already own an existing business.

From then on, keep it fresh

Creating a business plan was just the initial step. From there, you are lead by your protrusions which facilitate you in examinig your plan and let’s you compute it with the actual outcomes so that one can make desired rectifications.

General Plans

A written document that elucidates how a new business is going to achieve its objectives in detail is known as a business plan. This plan also establishes a scripted plan from a promotional, financial and functional outlook.

Business plans play a crucial role in a business as they permit a firm to set its goals as well as invites investment. They also are a means for a firm to keep themselves on track while progressing ahead.

Every enterprise should possess a business plan as it is not just useful for start-up firms but can prove to e useful for them too.

Introduction

Business plan includes the strategic approaches and functional approaches of the organizations to achieve the business goals and objectives. Further business plan discusses the financial feasibility and market attractiveness of the businesses in order to develop the strategic approaches to attain the business goals and objectives. The business plan covers two business areas such as electrical contractor (Premiere Electric) and painting contractor (Barnum Painters). The purpose of the report is to analyze and evaluate each company’s business plans according to several criteria including business profile, vision, mission, goals, marketing plan, products, and services.

The section 1 of the report will describe each company’s business plan including business profile, vision, mission, goals, marketing plan, products, and services. In section 2, the strongest component of each business plan will be discussed. In section 3, the weakest component of each business plan will be discussed. The section 4 will provide the suggestions of how the business plans could be improved. In section 5, Challenges and learnt lessons of working on this assignment will be discussed. The section 6 will describe the competencies I believe that I have demonstrated, and Section 7 will provide the summary of the report.

The descriptions of two business plans of two companies

Premiere Electric

Vision

Vision is to become the market leader in electrical service industry in Australia and deliver electric service related consultancy to other competitive firms in the market.

Mission

Mission statement aims to develop the loyalty customer base to the organization in order to ensure the business sustainability and achieve majority of market share in the industry.

Goals

Our primary goal of Premiere Electric is to ensure that business operations are integrate with overall corporate growth strategies and increase the level of customer satisfaction over the period of time. In addition to that we aim to integrate our business operations with modern technology to ensure the business effectiveness and efficiency over the period of time.

Marketing Plan

Our main marketing approach is online marketing. That means we use social media to reach larger number of customer base within limited period of time at lower cost. In addition to that we perform market feasibility test to identify the real requirements and expectations to target market customer base. Further our marketing plan aims to perform the direct marketing approaches to reach the specific clients in order to deliver our strengths and capabilities.

Products or Services

The main service is providing electrical installation and maintenance services to both corporate clients and individual clients. Further we expect to provide consultation services to corporates on electrical services in future.

Barnum Painters

Vision

Barnum Painter defines the vision statement of “delivering unique and differentiate service to corporate clients and individual clients in Australia”.

Mission

Mission statement emphasizes that in order to ensure the service uniqueness and differentiation, it is essential to understand and analyze the behaviors of social environmental changes and customer perception in target market.

Goals

We aim to match the customer requirements and expectations with the service features and specifications. Based on that we expect to maintain annual 20% revenue growth rate and 10% net profit growth rate per annum. In addition to that we target to keep employee turnover ratio below 5%.

Marketing Plan

In order attract the customers for Barnum Painters, it is used the combination of online marketing and offline marketing. Under offline marketing, it is expected to advertise the service details and specifications in business newspapers, publish on yellow pages, participate to industrial expos etc. Under online marketing approach, it is used the social media as primary method of online marketing.

Products or Services

Barnum Painters provides the services of industrial painting services for houses, buildings etc. In future we expect to sell the high quality paints to outside market to generate the other income sources.

Identified of three the strongest elements of each plan

Premiere Electric

It is mainly considered on trust and good services to the customers. For that purposes it is expected to ensure the high level of service quality assurance to the customers to ensure the customers satisfaction. Quality management strategies have been implemented to ensure that service features and specifications meet the quality standards to ensure trust and quality service.

The main critical factor of electrical service industry is safety and awareness. We have implemented safety standards and parameters to ensure that operational process in terms of delivering the service are occurring with respect to the safety and awareness assurance. Further we plan and conduct training and development programs to ensure that our employees are aware about safety assurance standards in delivering the services.

It is important to identify the market segments in order to develop the marketing strategies. In developing marketing strategies, we follow market segmentation, targeting and positioning. Psychological method is used to develop the identify the market segments. We have identified the right market segments in order to develop the market strategies and service features and specifications.

Barnum Painters

Most of the customers are expecting the uniqueness from our service. For that purpose, we are using service development strategies to find out the strategic approaches to deliver differentiated service to the customers. We perform market researches to identify the changes in people mind set in terms of painting and plan the service compositions based on those implications.

Creativity and innovative approach of service development is another strength of the business. We always come with new service designs to impress the customers and meet the market competition from competitive business firms. Our innovative management strategies focus on how to develop creative service packages and ensure the creativity.

Value of customer is important to build strong customer relationship management. We have implemented excellent after sales service process to gather customer feedbacks on our service. In addition to that customer relationship management process involves with managing the customer complaints within limited period of time.

Identified of three the weakest elements of each plan

Premiere Electric

Market competition is considered as one of the main weak point to increase the market share. That means there are larger number of competitive firms in the industry which are delivering similar kind of service to the market. In order to manage the adverse implications of market competition, it is essential to deliver innovative service to the market.

Financial plan consists of two aspects such as working capital management and long term capital management. We do not have proper working capital management plan to increase the retained earnings of the business. As a result of that growth of the business will be limited due to lack of adequate financial resources for reinvestments. Further budgeting strategies need to be implemented for each functional area of the business.

Further we have to invest huge startup cost at the initial stage. We cannot rely only on debt financing at the initial stage due to it increases the financial risk position of the organization. Due to lack of adequate initial capital requirements, it is essential to implement the business development plan step by step.

Barnum Painters

In order to ensure the uniqueness of painting services, it is essential to have competent and skillful human resource. The problem is there is a labor shortage for skillful human resource in painting service industry. As a result of that there is a potential risk of increasing the labor turnover of the business.

Market fluctuations in painting industry will be affected to the business operations in different perspective. That means people perceptions and tastes towards painting industrial services are rapidly changed. As a result of that there should be an excellent service development mechanism to match with the customer requirements and expectations. Further due to the changes in economic environmental variables, prices of services should be changed to match with the purchasing power of target market customers.

Requirement of administration plan is essential to manage the overall functional activities to achieve the common goals and objectives of the business. Current administration plan of the business should be restructured to compatible with the external environmental forces.

Suggestions for improvements

It is essential to plan the service components based on the external environmental implications. That means service packages and components based on the economic environmental implications. For example; increases of economy inflation rate should be considered in determining the pricing packages. Further financial management strategies should be planned based on the budgeting techniques. Forecasting techniques involve with predicting the future scenario based on the historical data.

Most of the manufacturing business organizations use forecasting techniques to predict the material requirements, human resource requirements etc. to meet the production targets and achieve the production goals and objectives. For example; human resource budget involves with forecasting the future human resource requirements to compatible with the production requirements. Budgeting technique is considered as one of the best forecasting technique. It involves with formulating the expectations and parameters of forecasting process to compatible with internal and external business environmental factors. Budgeting technique can be used only for the quantitative data analysis.

Business level strategies of the organization should be planned considering the financial and non-financial capacity of the business. Capacity management is a process which coordinates the all the sub process from starting point to end point of the operation process. Capacity management discusses the capacity time scheduling, capacity resource scheduling, achieving the operational objectives, determine the capacity direction and guidance etc. Further capacity management involves with linking the all the processes of the operation process into one chain in order to attain the operational objectives of the organization.

Further supply chain management strategies should be structured to acquire high quality raw materials to deliver the unique and quality service. Supply chain management strategies involves with implementing the integrated supply management practices in the organization through proper combination of forward supply chain process and backward supply chain process. Supply chain management process discusses the both supplying processes of forward supply chain and backward supply chain. Forward supply chain discusses the how organization should distribute its products and services to the end customers of the organization. Backward supply chain process discusses about how organization should get the required resources for the production process of the organization.

Challenges and learnt lessons

The main challenge is rapid changes in internal business environment and external business environment. As a result of that business level strategies and corporate level strategies of the organization need to be changed in order to survive in the market. Further it is learnt that competitiveness among existing firms in the industry limits the development and growth of each business firm. For that purchase it is required to promote innovative business culture to deliver differentiated product to the market. In addition to that financial limitations create barriers to achieve the future growth related goals and objectives. Further human resource management is essential to ensure the business sustainability. That means having competent and skillful human resource is an asset to the business organization. However, there is a huge labor turnover in labor market.

Customer service management is considered as one of the critical success factors for long term customer retention. That means there is a positive relationship between proper customer service management and customer retention. That means when organization has an excellent customer service management framework, it is help to retain the customers for longer period of time. The main importance of customer service management is business organization can ensure the longer period of customer retention and it will help to ensure the business sustainability in financial and non-financial perspective.

Demonstrated competencies

Founders of business have excellent educational qualifications and practical experience in electrical services and painting services. It is an internal environmental strength to the organization in order to face the market competition. Further our human resource has adequate skills and experience to ensure innovation and unique service delivering organization culture within the organization. Further we have knowledge sharing organization culture to promote on job training and development within the organization. Further current marketing management process has segmented the whole market properly in order to identify the right customer base. Further financial performance forecast for next three years’ period shows that net profitability of two business segments is increasing over the period of time.

Conclusion

Both electrical service industry and painting service industry are very competitive industries. In order to meet the market competition, it is required to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency innovative service development mechanism. Further there should be an integration among functional management process of the organization. In addition to that marketing management strategies of the business organization should be updated frequently with respect to the changes in business environmental forces and changes in customer perceptions to retain the existing customers and attract the new customers towards the business. The main challenge is customers’ behaviors and perceptions are changing frequently. As a result of that business organizations have to change the customer relationship management framework frequently. In addition to that lack of business readiness to respond to the changes in business environmental forces and update the customer relationship management process in real time basis. Customer relationship management strategies should be integrated with technology. It will help to identify the changes in customers’ behaviors and responses in real time basis.

Main Issue

In Zipcar: Refining the Business Model, Chase and Danielson face the challenge of not having enough capital to scale their business idea. In order to grow and be a dominating force in the ridesharing industry, Zipcar needs access to more cars. Currently, Zipcar only has 12 cars and needs more inventory to expand its services. In addition, Zipcar has few employees and is only in Boston. Also, Zipcar needs to figure out what its pricing model is so that it can remain competitive. Since there are competitors that are essentially doing what Zipcar is doing and because there is also the threat of car manufacturers and car rental companies creating a similar venture, Zipcar needs to come up with a brand differentiation strategy to attract and retain more customers.

Because competing in this market involves a high amount of capital and investments, Chase and Danielson need to be clear on what all of Zipcar’s strategies are so that Chase can present this business opportunity to investors. Additionally, lease costs and parking costs are both increasing. As a result, the revenue that is the return on these 12 cars is low, so Zipcar needs to find a way to be profitable while being competitive in its pricing model and strategy.

Evaluation of Available Options

Chase has several options, including not asking for more capital from investors since she and Danielson have been able to run the company on $375,000. Another option is for Chase to ask for $1.3 million in addition to the $375,000 that has already been spent on the business.

Recommendation and Justification

As stated in the main issue, Zipcar needs to find a way to differentiate itself from its competitors. Throughout the case study, Zipcar is described as a company that places an emphasis on environmental impact rather than on simply convenience in comparison to the competitors. Zipcar should definitely highlight this throughout its marketing efforts and bring awareness to people about how the usage of Zipcar has a significant impact on the environment.

Another part of the recommendation is to raise capital in order to hire more employees and purchase more cars. Based on the financial projections, it can be seen that Zipcar needs to reach its breakeven point. The way it will do this is by increasing its number of vehicles. A key consideration is the utilization rates of Zipcar. With a total usage revenue of $14,644.50 being broken down into $5,317.60 for revenue from daily uses and $9,326.90 for revenue from hourly uses, it is evident that a larger percentage of revenue is coming from hourly uses. With this said, the hourly rates can be set higher than the overall daily use price of Zipcar. Additionally, there is a substantial percentage of people using Zipcar during nights and weekends, so increasing the prices during these times could generate more revenue as well.

Both the per mile charge and per hour charge can be increased until Zipcar is not only breaking even but bringing in profit. Considering overhead and cost of goods sold—specifically parking, lease, and fuel costs—are increasing for the cost of each individual car, the prices must increase as well. With an overhead of $44,000 per month, Zipcar needs to produce more revenue. Although Zipcar is already profitable with 239 members enrolled as of September 2000, Chase and Danielson need more members and more vehicles to scale this business to other cities besides Boston. Due to this, marketing efforts must be increased at a high rate. Throughout the case, there was a notable lack of marketing efforts. Zipcar’s marketing strategy is greatly influenced by word-of-mouth marketing in addition to advertising on cars. If Zipcar wants to grow its business, more marketing must be done and more money needs to be invested into the business and utilized for marketing purposes.

During Chase’s pitch to investors, she needs to emphasize Zipcar’s success in Boston and how Zipcar is different than the competitors in the industry as mentioned previously. As stated in the case study, Zipcar can be marketed as a convenient, cost-saving, and environmentally friendly technology. Rather than advertising Zipcar in subway stops and creating postcards, Zipcar needs to create a more personalized and creative marketing strategy approach. Since Zipcar is providing an alternative to owning a car, Zipcar can focus on urban areas such as New York City and on customers like college students who are in favor of saving money. In addition, college students love the rise of the sharing economy versus the traditional economy that is rooted in high ownership rates.

In order to persuade the investors to put $1.3 million into Zipcar, Chase needs to communicate the benefits of Zipcar in a succinct, precise, and effective manner. She also needs to define her marketing strategy in a clearer and more specific way because market segmentation and targeting are highly important and are key in any business. Zipcar could narrow in on its marketing efforts and campaigns by focusing on college campuses. With many colleges and universities located in Boston, this could lead Zipcar to enter the market in other areas. Because there are competitors that offer the same exact service, Zipcar needs to do an excellent job at informing its target market about the cost advantages and energy efficiency of Zipcar versus owning a car.

Another recommendation for Chase and Danielson is to gain enough traction so that car manufacturers would want to partner with Zipcar. However, first, they need to focus on following through on the marketing strategies discussed throughout this section so that investors can see Zipcar’s potential and the company can gain more members and ultimately traffic.

A way to appeal to the investors who would be putting in $1.3 million is to mention the way the investment money has been handled in the past. In the past, Zipcar has taken out convertible loans that have then been converted into equity. This type of negotiation is significant when dealing with investors, so proposing the cash investment through this lens would be in Chase’s best interest.

Another way for Chase to go into the pitch is through stating the growth of the car-sharing industry. According to the case study, the car-sharing industry grows at a rate of 30% each year. Considering the investment into Zipcar has not been close to the $1.3 million that would be invested, an appealing factor would be that the investors would own most of the equity of Zipcar.

Chase needs to stress the fact that car-sharing services are prospering in Europe and no other competitor is locating itself in the Northeast like Zipcar is doing. Because of the growth potential that Zipcar has and due to the market that it is in, Chase has the capacity to create a compelling argument that is based on why $1.3 million would further advance the future of Zipcar. Acquiring this capital is pivotal in the success of Zipcar and will further the Zipcar business model, feasibility, and revenue streams—creating a sustainable business in the process.

Introduction

There are many reasons why every company should have a business plan, but not every business needs a formal plan to show to outsiders. Project management primarily focuses on planning, managing and organizing the available resources. Some of the activities that should be a part of project management activity are to efficiently guide the project team through all phases and execute the project successfully. Other activities include identifying and efficiently managing the project life cycle and implementing it to the user-centered design process.

If your plan is just for yourself and your team, then you may be fine with just the lean business plan. This is an example business plan for a start-up clothes business selling a collection of self-designed bags and will expand the product portfolio to apparel for female motorcyclists – the goal is to establish itself as a well-known brand for motorcycle clothing for fashion-conscious women by combining functionality (protection) and style.

The market and the needs of your potential customers will change over time. If you acknowledge this fact, you will have a clear mind on your business. Be critical and adapt your business plan if necessary. Stays focused and know that not everything will go as you expected. Eventually, the growth of your brand will be positive if you keep your business plan flexible.

A business plan of a clothing line is a key document with information about the description of the market, your brand story, your products with the pricing, your marketing strategy and financial information.

1. Market analysis

A market analysis is research about the business market you’re in: the fashion industry. The analysis is necessary because you have to know your market and if you can build a sustainable brand in it. You can do a market analysis by following these steps:

• Investigate the targeted fashion segment
• Describe your segment and ideal customer
• Find out the latest fashion trends
• Which brands are popular
• Don’t know how to find your ideal customer? Buy the Customer Blueprint
• Find out your potential competitors

2. Brand story

The best brands are built on great stories. Every great brand tells a great story, let’s talk about your story. A brand story goes beyond what’s printed on your t-shirt. Your brand story is what people believe about your brand based on the facts, feelings and interpretations evoked by your clothing.

Your brand is just another commodity if you don’t have a true brand story. Building a story is about building something that people care about and want to buy into. You can write out your brand story with the follow key aspects:

• The name of your clothing brand
• The tagline
• Values of your brand
• The reason why you want to launch your own clothing brand

Vision: what is your brand in this world?

Mission: what purpose has your clothing label?

A brand story has to be clear and understandable. Here’s an example of a known British brand that tells a simple but powerful story: Paul Smith.

Paul Smith – Brand story

Paul Smith is one of the great English fashion designers who developed his own ‘classic with a twist’ style. The Paul Smith brand story is simple: the thwarted athlete who still wants to become a world beater. When he was 17 years old, he wanted to become a professional racing cyclist.

Paul Smith had a serious accident and stayed in the hospital for months. There, he met interesting people who told him stories about the Bauhaus and contemporary design. From that moment, he wanted to tell his story through an own clothing line. The brand story is about an outsider who makes high-quality clothes and accessories. It’s a story that reflects simplicity with elegant twists. Eventually, the Paul Smith brand has become known in the international market.

Another great example of a successful brand story is the famous Jack Daniels Whiskey. Read more about the story in this inspiring post.

3. Product

You can’t start your clothing line without knowing exactly what you want to sell and who will want to buy it. First comes first: create your own product. You can start with a small collection. After your first release, you will find out which products are trending the most.

Follow these steps to create your own product:

• Create your own design
• What is your idea? What do you want to create? If people will see your design, what should they think about it?
• Draw your design digitally, and focus on every detail. Don’t have a clue on how to design clothing? We can help you out with our design service.
• Choose the style of your clothes
• Which colors of textile do you want? Which style of clothes fits your brand strategy?
• Find a good partner that can produce your clothes.
• This is a very important step, don’t choose the most easy or cheapest producer. Find a reliable partner that works on long-term.

Make sure that this partner is doing quality control. Your brand has to be made from high-quality materials. That’s a must for the image of your brand, and will certainly lead to success.

Price

The price of your clothes has to be right. Prices that are too low or too high will attain in bad results. Look at your competitors, how much do they ask for a sweater?

4. Marketing strategy

The marketing strategy is the phase where you decide how you will sell your clothes. How will you sell your clothes? Online, offline, or both? E-commerce is booming for years, so a web shop is certainly a good idea.

Also offline selling (in retail shops) is necessary. Find out which stores fit your style and ask them if they want to sell your clothes. Thereby, you have to find out how you’ll communicate with your audience. Choose the most effective communication channels (social media, website, blogs…) and communicate on a regular basis. You can organize giveaways on Facebook to have more likes for example.

We recommend you to read the post about 17 successful marketing strategies to take your clothing brand to the next level. You will be surprised about all the possibilities to boost your clothing label.

5. Financial situation

The purpose of the financial part of your business plan is two-fold. First, you will have to find out if you need investors or partners. They will have to see the financial numbers of course. The second reason, and that’s the most important, is to calculate your own benefit. How do you write the financial part of the business plan? These 6 items are absolutely necessary:

1. Sales Forecast. Start with a sales forecast. For every month for the first year, you can set up different lines of sales. This can be measured on the results of the past year(s). If you’re starting a clothing brand, you can make an educated guess.
2. Create an expenses budget. How much is it going to cost if you actually make the sales you have forecast? Take into account the fixed costs and the variable costs.
3. Cash-flow statement. Let’s move to the third step: develop a cash-flow statement. The cash flow measures the total amount of money that goes in and out of your business per month. This is very important, as you have to measure your cash reserves.
4. Income projections. A projection statement makes you look ahead and helps you to make some estimates about the financial status of your business. Shortly said, these are the profits that the company will have in the future. In other words: the profit and loss statement.
5. Assets and liabilities. Next, you have to deal with assets and liabilities that are not in the profits and loss statement. Let’s explain it easy: an asset is anything that puts money in your pocket, and a liability is anything that takes money from your pocket.
6. Break-even analysis. Last step: set up your breakeven analysis. The break-even point is when your business’s expenses match your sales or service volume. Your business is viable when your overall revenue will exceed your overall expenses.

The importance of your brand identity cannot be understated – especially in the world of fashion. Clothing is very personal because our clothing choices are one of the ways that we define our identity – to both ourselves and to the world. As a result, the brands we choose to wear and the labels we display on our clothes become an extension of who we are and how we see ourselves.

Reference

1. https://articles.bplans.com/a-standard-business-plan-outline/
2. https://www.brainhive.de/en/fashion-business-plan-example-clothes-business-plan/https://blog.merchandise-essentials.com/how-to-write-a-business-plan-for-your-clothing-brand

Executive Summary

Established in 2020, Aromium Pty Ltd is an Australian Small Enterprise that is dedicated on providing consumers an innovative technological diffuser that will create a pleasant and comfortable environment through the sense of smell. Aromium’s Ultrasonic Candle Diffuser, the first official innovative candle diffuser within the technological industry, focuses on aromatherapeutic purposes, as well as the significant health risks associated with burning candles for long periods of time. Through this business plan, which outlines various fundamental business decisions and strategies, such as Aromium’s marketing plan, financial plan as well as human resources, this business plan provides Aromium with the primary vision and concept of the business, which can then be utilised when considering and evaluating potential weaknesses within the business, as well as implement various goals and strategies to achieve long-term success.

Business Overview

Name of business

Aromium is centred around creating a distinctive and pleasant environment through the sense of smell. As a business, Aromium is dedicated to producing the highest quality automatic diffusers in pursuit of enhancing both physical and emotional health. The business aims to provide consumers with a comforting experience and retreat from the hassles of everyday life. Moreover, the name ‘Aromium’ is minimalistic and appealing, promoting the business to have distinguished brand recognition.

Logo

Aromium’s business logo (refer to Appendix I) is minimalistic and clear, which symbolizes a healthy and enhanced lifestyle. This is to appeal to customers as a marketing ploy where the business promotes a minimalistic lifestyle that will improve customers quality of life, in which the business advertises.

Prime function of business

Aromium provides an ultrasonic candle diffuser that can improve people’s quality of life and indoor environments. This product uses electricity to burn candles and release safe amounts of aroma at once, ensuring that indoor environments do not become toxic and allow people to burn candles without the fear of using a real fire. Trading hours will be from 8:00am to 5:00pm from Monday to Saturday and consumers can also shop on Aromium’s website after closing hours.

Business mission

Aromium’s mission is to make an ultrasonic candle diffuser that enhances consumers physical and emotional health by assuring customers a healthy lifestyle and a pleasant environment with aromatherapeutic fragrance, while ensuring that indoor environments do not become toxic.

Business goals

• To establish policies to treat employees fairly and motivate staff to achieve employee satisfaction.
• To maximise profits to ensure that the business can invest more into the business, such as renovating the store, expanding to new locations as well as hire more staff.
• To adopt sustainable strategies to support environmental concerns, such as reducing plastic in packaging as well as making the diffuser’s eco-friendlier (e.g. minimise energy consumption).
• To achieve business growth internally and externally by increasing sales and establishing competitive advantage over competitors.

Location

Aromium will be located on the first floor of the Queen Victoria Building (refer to Appendix II), a busy business and shopping district where products can appeal to a wider target market. The Queen Victoria Building is easily accessible as it is located in the central business district, surrounded by; hotels, cafes, bookstores and near Town Hall train station where there is generally a large crowd of consumers. As the building is famed for its architecture and the dark historic interior design, locating Aromium’s shop in this building will create an ambiance atmosphere that will suggest high class and elegance upon the retail’s store image.

Legal structure

This business will be a proprietary (private) company with limited liability to ensure that additional funds can be invested in all the key business functions; operations, marketing, human resources, finance, as well as in the production process. With limited liability, the business restricts each shareholder’s financial liability to the amount they have invested, ensuring the business will have separate legal identities from the shareholders, which will protect their personal assets and funds.

Operations

Production process: Diffuser

• a. Inputs: Aromium offers an innovative ceramic diffuser that is plastic free. To manufacture this product, Aromium to purchase raw materials needed for the production process, such as: ceramic, electricity and water.
• b. Transformation process: The ultrasonic diffuser will be outsourced directly from a wholesaler overseas such as in China. The product will be outsourced to Shenzhen Zhuo Sheng Jia Tai Tech Co. Ltd., which is an aroma and ultrasonic diffuser manufacturer, with several experiences working with clients in ensuring top quality ceramic products. In the transformation process, Aromium’s diffusers will undergo thorough design, manufacturing and quality control to ensure that the tangible product will be high quality and complies with the business’ mission.
• c. Outputs: The finish output of this production process will be a ceramic ultrasonic candle diffuser. By using safe-certified ceramic, an environmentally friendly alternative material which is more durable than other materials such as: plastic, wood and bamboo, Aromium ensures that chemicals will not affect the fragrances and effectiveness of the diffuser.

Quality management – Quality Assurance

By adopting a system that ensures that the diffusers will achieve set standards in ensuring customers a safe and reliable product, Aromium will be utilising the ISO 9000, which provides guidelines and requirements for the manufacturing process to aim to achieve. This will prevent defects in the product, such as failure in electrical wires which could potentially lead to hazards and complaints by consumers. By utilising this effective system, Aromium can assure and deliver customers high quality diffusers which are safe and comply with the business’s prime function.

Human Resource Requirements

Number of Employees

At the start of the first financial year in 2020, Aromium has decided to employ 2 part-time employees to help maintain sales and provide services in Aromium’s official store in Queen Victoria Building. As Aromium is a small business, Aromium will be employing only 1 employee to supervise the store for 4 hours each. Employee training and development will focus mainly on communication skills, teamwork and critical thinking to ensure that sales associates are able to multitask under pressure and answer questions about the product to deepen consumers understanding about the purpose and prime function behind the business and product.

Number of Managers

Due to the fact that Aromium is a newly established small business, the business management role will be undertaken by the founder of the business. Managers employed into the business will be strictly interviewed, based on the requirements listed below to determine whether they possess the skills and knowledge required to efficiently operate a business. They will be expected to help assist sales associates at the official store, as well as communicate with employees about the business mission and goals to ensure that staff will gather a deeper understanding of the primary vision of the business. Overtime, as the business expands its management board, training will be provided to ensure that Aromium’s managers are able to work under pressure and make appropriate business decisions. Examples of training and development for managers would focus on strategic planning, time management, negotiation skills when dealing with suppliers, as well as creativity to ensure that Aromium is always thinking about the business’ future.

Qualifications

Requirement for Employees Requirement for Managers

• Good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Sales associate must be fluent in English and may be fluent in other languages as well.
• Able to use cashier and demonstrate adequate understanding of technology.
• Able to multitask and work under pressure in a fast-paced work environment.
• Must be quick-thinking to answer inquires that consumers may have.
• Must have previous sales associate experience.
• Able to follow instructions and be adaptable to challenges faced in working environment • Must have adequate interpersonal and communication skills to motivate employees and interest consumers
• Must have satisfactory time-management skills and be organised
• Must present good leadership skills
• Must be able to work under pressure and deliver on time to show that they may be trusted to operate the business efficiently
• Must be able to take initiative and establish goals (such as key performance goals and meeting deadlines)
• A bachelor or TAFE diploma in management is required

Marketing Plan

Identification of target market

Aromium conducted a survey to identify the primary target market to specifically focus the

product on. Aromium was able to establish a greater understanding of its target market by conducting a survey which listed reasons that may drive customers to purchase candles (refer to appendix VI). This information allowed Aromium to determine if the product will be popular and in high demand to the target market. The data research indicated that candles are most popular among young people aged between 16-19 with 46.9 per cent (refer to appendix III). By informing consumers of the potential risks of burning candles and how Aromium offers a product that significantly decreases these risks, Aromium found that 65.6 per cent (refer to appendix X) of customers would purchase this product. Therefore, by analysing the competed survey, Aromium has decided to primarily target this product towards young people aged between 16-22 through a niche marketing approach. Through a narrowly selected target market, Aromium will be able to direct its product to a specific target market of consumers who are mainly interested in candles with aromatherapeutic benefits and fragrances within the candle industry.

Competition

This business will face competitor brands such as Glasshouse fragrance, Dusk and Diptyque

as premium candle brands in Australia. As the candle industry is predominately monopolistic competition, where candles are differentiated through packaging, benefits and quality, Aromium’s innovative diffuser changes the candle industry to focus more on the sense of smell rather than proving an ambiance light source. Although products produced from Aromium and these companies are different, the business acknowledges that consumers may be reluctant to change to a diffuser if they are not particularly interested in the scents and fragrances of candles. To gain competitive advantage and customer attraction, Aromium’s innovative product will provide a safer alternative to burning candles, which will reduce potential health risks associated with burning candles for a long period of time.

Promotion

a. Personal selling: This business will have sale representatives to promote the product. This is intended to encourage consumers to ask any queries about the product to deepen their understanding of the purposes and safety of the diffuser. To conclude any frequently asked questions about the product, Aromium will also offer business cards (appendix XVII) and brochures (appendix XVI), given to nearby consumers along Queen Victoria Building, which outlines the business goals, as well as introduces the product more thoroughly to allow consumers to read over before purchasing.

b. Advertising: Advertising the business through popular social media platforms will entice more customers, leading to an increase in sales. Through short informative video advertisements on social media platforms, such as YouTube and Instagram, Aromium can present a visually appealing video with informative information to engage viewers. Aromium will also establish an online website (refer to appendix XIX) that aims to raise product awareness and expand trading hours. As the business has insufficient funds to expand domestically, delivers will only be accepted from New South Wales in the first financial year. Moreover, the business can also determine if there is will be high demand for the product in other parts of the Australia.

SWOT analysis

Strength Weakness

• Candle diffuser is an innovative product in the technological and candle industry.
• Provides health benefits such as reducing risks of toxic close and small environments.
• Product is a safer alternative to burning scented candles.
• Aromium has adopted sustainable and eco-friendly packaging. • Currently, the business lacks customer loyalty and product awareness
• The business has inadequate experience in the marketing and candle industry
• Outsourcing product from overseas can be more expensive and prone to issues when there are miscommunications between supplier and business.

Opportunities Threats

• The business encourages consumers to consider potential health risks associated with burning candles for too long
• Expand to open new stores across Sydney and to other states within Australia • Currently, there are multiple established and high-end competitor businesses such as Dusk and Diptyque
• As the product is innovative, consumers may be reluctant to purchase the product if they are not interested in scented candles or unaware of the health risks associated with burning candles
• Due to covid-19Australia’s economy is in a recession. This will negatively impact the business as sales will decline due to lack of consumer spending.

Pricing

As this product is innovative, Aromium will be adopting a cost-based method in determining

the price of the product. This is to ensure that the cost of the production process do not exceed the sales revenue of the business, as well as to reduce the business debts for the first financial year. As Aromium is a brand-new business in the candle industry, selecting the appropriate price range for this business will influence customer’s perception on whether or not the product is luxurious or cheap. As a result, the diffuser will be priced at $69.95. The survey conducted by Aromium showed that 31.3 per cent of consumers are willing to purchase this product at a price ranging from $64-70 (refer to appendix XI). Therefore, by selecting a price range between $64-70 that has been highly voted by responders, Aromium can provide customers a luxurious and affordable product which will increase potential sales and customer loyalty in the future.

Financial Plan

List of Establishment costs

To finance the establishment costs of $32,459.95 (refer to appendix XVIII), Aromium must borrow $33,000, which will be sourced from equity and debt finance options. Most of the funds will collected from equity funds of 20,000, which will be invested into the business to pay the establishment costs that are required to start the business. To pay for the remaining 13,000, Aromium will be applying for an overdraft loan from National Australian Bank (NAB) and will intend to pay back the loan by the end of one financial year. Moreover, the remaining $540 will be invested further into the business, such as paying for small advertisements to increase business exposure (e.g. creating more posters and brochures).

Sales forecast

Aromium sales forecast (refer to appendix XX) indicates monthly sales that the business can expect throughout the first financial year of opening the business. The data shows that that the peak season for Aromium’s products will be at the beginning of summer in December, as well as the beginning of winter in April. This could be due to the fact that, as it becomes colder or hotter, people are more likely to stay indoors and enjoy the aromatherapeutic fragrances. The estimated sales forecast indicates that the diffuser sold each month will increase towards the end of the financial year, allowing Aromium to have a thorough understanding of how many diffusers must be manufactured and whether the product is in high demand. According to the estimated sales forecast for 2020, Aromium will expect to sell exactly 3167 candle diffusers for the first financial year.

Cash flow statement

The cash flow statement (refer to appendix XXI) for Aromium Pty Ltd for 2020-2021 indicates the amount of inflows and outflows that the business can expect and how these factors will affect the net flow of the business. From the beginning of the financial year in July, Aromium’s total inflow will consist of the owner’s total capital as well as the sales that Aromium will expect to sell, generating a total inflow of $38,805.9. However, Aromium will expect to pay $59,955.3 in total expenses, causing the net flow of the business to be negative. As the financial year progresses, Aromium can expect a negative net flow for the first eight months of the year. From April, where Aromium can expect an increase in monthly sales, the business can use the idle cash to invest further into the business, such as increasing stocks as well as pay for commercials to increase business exposure and product awareness.

Break-even analysis

A break-even analysis graph (refer to appendix XXII) allows the business to determine how many units must be sold in order for the business to generate profits. By calculating the total costs that the business must pay, as well as the total revenue that the business obtains in one financial year, Aromium must sell 297 diffusers ($20,775.15) in order to break even. According to this analysis graph and Aromium’s expected sales forecast, the business will expect to break-even within the third month of the financial year.

Income statement

The income statement for Aromium Pty Ltd (refer to appendix XXIII) is to determine the expenses, gross income, and net profit of the business at the end of one financial year. For period ending 30 June 2021, Aromium will expect to earn a gross profit of $41,888, indicating that the business is making high profitability as generated sales revenue is exceeding the cost of manufacturing products throughout the year. After paying fixed and variable expenses, such as operating expenses, shipping and advertisements for June 2021, Aromium will expect to make a net profit of $17,379.70, indicating that the business is financially growing and has high growth potential to achieve business success.

Future Prospects

At the end of the financial year, Aromium will assess the financial statements and consider whether the business is capable of entering the growth stage. For the first few months in the second financial year, Aromium will focus on offering promotions and discounts which will create business exposure and establish stronger brand loyalty. In addition to this, the business will also aim to hire 2-3 more employees to help assist with sales and customers. In the future, once evaluating the strengths and weaknesses within the business plans presented above, as well as whether the business is financially capable of expanding, Aromium aims to open 2 new store locations across Sydney as well as begin shipping nationally across Australia through the Aromium official online website.

Challenges faced when starting a business

Abstract

There are many challenges that an owner might face while starting a business depending on what a business might sell due to the current difficulties. Which is when taking proportions and answering every detail and being ready for any flaws that might occur and ruin the business. such as the pandemic and how businesses may tend to struggle with how they could operate and make a profit by selling their goods to their customers. They must also pay attention to their market and the competition that is selling against them and might lose them to customers such as sanitizers against wet wipe companies because of the pandemic crisis going on. Including keeping up with people’s trends and desires. Owners should be able to tell if their stock prices match the customer’s demand and or if they are going to be stable for the next month for the business to survive. They should also be prepared for what their consumers want most at their current moments and try to come up with ideas that would help them get safer.

Keywords;(stock, desire, demand, survive)

Challenges faced when starting a business

A business might face a lot of difficulties when starting such as knowing the exact proportion of demands that their customers want so they don’t overly supply and waste their money. Businesses should be able to handle a crisis when it comes their way and be able to handle their financial downfalls and rise up again. They should also be prepared for any type of recession that might happen without their knowledge. They should handle a crisis such as the pandemic that is going on right now . to figure out ways that they can profit while staying at home. Schools profit by using online teaching for their students to learn at a distance. overtime entrepreneurs learn to make better decisions and make their businesses succeed. An example of real-life risk is how many businesses got shut down because of a pandemic going on due to a sickness called Covid-19, Businesses struggled with how could they make a profit when people aren’t allowed to visit any shops, so it led to businesses creating an idea such as online shopping for people to order at a distance and be able to protect themselves, not only does the business reduce its risk of getting sick but they could also gain profit from customers. Such as the supermarket where people order online the necessary supplies that they want and they deliver them to their houses safely with limited risk of human contact and at a safe distance from getting ill. Another type of business that seems to be benefiting are salons such as “The salon I go to just announced it would create custom color kits for clients, providing everything they need to touch up, plus FaceTime support,” says Kristen Elworthy, Opening a business through this type of situation might be very hard cause they need to consider the fact of employment and how products are going to be supplied or produced. they need to think of ways such as making online for ordering and delivering to their customers safely and also hiring employees to live chat with the customer in case they needed help in their online ordering. They should be ready for problems that haven’t even happened yet they should keep a wide eye for what may happen in the future and be prepared .. Covid-19 has led to reducing business hours and which meant limiting their time in selling their products. For example, some countries place curfews for their citizens and try to protect them, while others reduce the employee’s shifts or working hours. The outbreak of the disease has led to a high rate of unemployment some jobs were useless if workers had to stay away from each other and their jobs could not have been handled at a distance. Some examples of jobs that have been shut down such as dentists, working staff, schools, and coffee shops. businesses should be ready to have a negative demand for their supply because when a crisis comes the last thing people might want is useless things that won’t help them stay safe or get through it example in a pandemic people won’t even think of going to malls just so they can buy clothes if they are going to stay indoors or going to the cinema for their entertainment. The pandemic of covid-19 the lack of resources has been increasing people are buying more than what they needed and are creating a shortage of food and raw materials for other people and their needs as to what they want. The lack of toilet paper in some countries such as America and Australia. the lack of food and raw materials for people is also becoming a problem because it would lead to starvation. Some businesses, in this case, are benefiting a lot such as hand sanitizer companies, medical supplies, and tissue companies because they keep their business working so they can supply more and more for their customers and yet profit a lot from it. People will also start funding medical institutions to try and develop a cure for solving the problem. Another type of world crisis that is going on is the increase in plastic in the environment which lead to people getting mad and stopping buying any products made out of plastics, which lead to a lot of companies losing profit but they came up with an idea such as making metal straws to reduce the pollution and stop killing turtles for their plastic. Making a funding business or campaign to volunteer and save the turtles from plastic where would benefit a lot because that’s what people want. An example is a business called “Eco-Maniac” which is located in the indigo icon tower. Their website gives more information as to what they do such as “Our mission is to provide you with eco-friendly alternatives to the single-use plastics that are littering our planet. Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse! We can help you with products designed to help you live a more sustainable, earth-friendly, ocean-friendly lifestyle!”. They try and spread awareness and help the environment stay safe. Also helping the habitat of animals. Businesses try to come up with ideas to benefit the world and at the same time profit from it.

References

1. https://www.ecomaniaccompany.com/wp/
2. https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/11-ways-help-small-businesses-affected-coronavirus-right-now-ncna1178261

Primarily, Costco’s strategy is to create maximum market and sales volumes by selecting high quality, branded product with wide spreading merchandise in minimal revenue. As Costco is a wholesale store every items can only be purchased in bulk. For example, Advil comes only in 360-count bottle, which is very much larger than common sized found in supermarket or a drug store. In the same way, Costco’s core focus is to sale definite product in a huge quantity with less profit so the customer can make a wise selection (Miles media, 2017). For example, if someone is offered with twenty-five different flavoured candies then it is relatively difficult to make a good choice in comparison to having just five flavours.

In the same way, Costco present one of the biggest and most elite item alternative to be found under a solitary rooftop. It furnishes its individuals with a determination of around 3,600 dynamic products. Of these, 85% of the items are quality branded items and about 15% convey the organization’s private mark, Kirkland Signature, which is intended to be of equivalent or preferred quality over national brands (W. Shonk, D. Anders, B. Miller, 2016). A common retailer acquires around 125,000 to 150,000 products for customers to browse. It also operates self-administration fuel stations at some of the areas in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, Spain, and United Kingdom. Costco is known for conveying top quality national and local brands, with 100% satisfaction, at costs reliably beneath conventional discount or retail outlets (W. Shonk, D. Anders, B. Miller, 2016). In the core of their targets and strategy, Costco’s uniqueness is that they merchandise membership to their clients which produce the fixed income consistently as well as increment of the brand reliability and familiarity with the consumer towards Costco (Miles media, 2017).

One of the vital disadvantages of the Costco is that they simply have 4,000 choices of product. For the most part, different stores, for example, Wal-Mart loaded around 40,000 to 150,000 things for customers to look over and BJ’s have 7,300 things (Miles Media, 2017). Likewise, another serious issue of Costco methodology is they spend exceptionally less in the promotion and exclusively depend on the notoriety and verbal advertisement. Moreover, the significant contenders of the Costco that is Sam’s Club spent about dollar 50 million every year on publicizing and standard mail advancements. It might influence Costco’s future execution and contenders, for example, Sam’s Club may remove its market share of the overall industry because of the absence of limited time exercises (Miles Media, 2017).

The business plan of action depends on limited distribution centre evaluating which makes rivalry incredibly high. The main three noteworthy players in the American discount club industry, as per all profound sales are: Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Because of low net revenue and focused estimating, the intensity of contention is amazingly high.(W. Shonk, D. Anders, B. Miller, 2016). Costco’s business and competitive strategy has impressed the consumer worldwide. Costco has introduced the competitive strategy which involves the huge discount in the product if purchase in bulk size and the membership fee. Costco’s income is more from the membership fee rather than the product revenue. This means the product sold in the Costco wholesales may have some profit or also may have loss. It applies the annual membership fee of fifty-five dollars and every year members of the Costco wholesale are rapidly increasing. Of those, there are 94.3 million members of Costco worldwide in 2018 (Market Watch, 2019). Together both the strategies generate the consumer’s commitment toward Costco. In addition, Costco operates a different manufacturing department which supplies packed food, raw meat processing, jewelleries, etc. All of these competitive strategies is more focus on cost leadership and differentiation which means low cost product with high quality attributes. Despite of selling the low price item with minimal profit, Costco’s annual net sale is approximately 116.073 billion USD increasing (Market Watch, 2019). By this, Costco gains power to purchase the large quantity of goods, which is advantage to negotiate the prices from suppliers and create some profit in the goods. The focal point of Costco and the CEO is to beat all the vast chain stores by concentrating on the significant factor of selling more in amount however offering to a lesser degree a choice However, Costco’s main concepts is to produce more sales and make a dynamite end result.

In conclusion, it can be noted, that the strategy of member might be a drawback for Costco, simply opening doors for just individuals with membership implies shutting doors for every one of the individuals who even can’t bear to pay or not inclined to make a payment for membership fee annually. So all consumers should have the equal right to purchase goods from the store they like to. As Costco does not have many item decision (4000) contrasting with the contenders that can be a future difficulties for the Costco in light of the fact that client needs decision.

Reference list

1. Miles Media,2017, Costco case study and strategic analysis, http://milesonmedia.com/costco-case-study-and-strategic-analysis/ Retrieved on 01/05/2019
2. W. Shonk, D. Anders, B. Miller, 2016, Team1-Costco Wholesale cooperation case analysis, https://www.academia.edu/36420109/Team_1_-Costco_Wholesale_Corporation_Case_Analysis, Retrieved on 01/05/2019
3. The Statistics Portal, n.d., Costco-statistics and facts, https://www.statista.com/topics/4399/costco/, Retrieved on 01/05/019
4. Market Watch, 2019. Annual Financials for Costco Wholesale Corp., https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/cost/financials., Retrieved on 02/05/2019

Imagine touring the DC monuments and being in awe of their beauty. Suddenly, you look and see the filthy and disgusting water of the Potomac River, ruining your beautiful image of Washington, DC. The Potomac River is not safe to swim in because of the pollution from overflowing sewage and runoff that occurs due to rain. This problem has an impact on the residents of Washington, DC, as well as tourists and students. Due to the pollution in the Potomac River, aquatic life has diminished and recreational enjoyment of the river hardly exists. The DC Water’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plan published a pamphlet that explains their work. DC Water uses ethos, pathos, and logos in its pamphlet to help inform and show its audience a solution to this problem through the creation of facilities that transform wastewater into clean water and energy.

DC Water’s plan is described as being one of a kind, purifying 384 million gallons of water a day and over one billion gallons a week at peak performance. This plant covers more than 725 square miles of the DMV area and treats all of the water in the District of Columbia. The plant is located in a great position at the bottom of Washington, DC, allowing for water headed towards Maryland and Virginia to be treated. The project regularly tests its water and always plans on conducting at least 100,000 tests a year. This constant filtering and testing of water make a large impact on the river in an attempt to clean it up.

Many of the pages in the pamphlet are based on scientific evidence, establishing credibility to their claims by using ethos. An example of this would be DC Water stressing the importance of removing nitrogen and other nutrients from the river because of the damage it causes to the water and local environment. It is critical that nitrogen is removed from the water, and DC Water states: “Nitrogen can act as a fertilizer in the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, creating unruly grasses that deplete oxygen needed by marine life to live and thrive”. Clearly, this is a major problem that DC Water is addressing. This is scientific proof presented to the reader to help justify the need for the purification plant in the Potomac River.

The pamphlet uses logos on pages 4 and 5 when describing the process of purification in the water. DC Water provides the logical steps they use to purify their water and also gives justification as to why this needs to happen. The pamphlet also talks about the use of water and turning it into energy. DC Water can simplify the complicated process of what they are doing, and by doing so, they are able to logically show the reader what their plan is. This allows the reader to actually see what the facility is doing, as well as see environmental statistics related to the project, without having to do heavy reading. When the reader can see the facility and its complex parts, they can understand the project more easily and find it easier to support.

Pathos is used to make the reader feel the need for this work to continue. Community members will read this pamphlet and want the work to continue because of the benefits it offers the community. This water that is being purified also affects their health. DC Water explains: “Before sewers, disposal methods were even more primitive, contributing to epidemics of cholera and dysentery that caused a high death rate. Sewage conveyance and treatment, and the sanitation they brought to the district, were heralded for public health, quality of life, and economic benefits.” It is an understatement to say this treatment plant is important. This sewage water could be the reader’s drinking water, therefore growing an emotional connection to this project. Without DC Water, the reader might not be getting clean drinking water, which raises major health concerns. Therefore, the reader may feel obligated to support DC Water and their efforts.

The pamphlet’s target audience is local citizens, politicians, and financial backers. Citizens are concerned with their community and are always looking for ways to improve it. In this instance, citizens in the DMV area are concerned with the pollution and poor quality of water in the Potomac River. This pamphlet targets politicians in the hope of gaining support and making sure they are able to continue what they are doing in their community. If there was a problem with their project, there could be actions taken to prevent DC Water from doing what they are doing. Politicians can also provide government funding to their agency if they believe it is doing a good job. Through the pamphlet, DC Water can garner support and help grow its project through its different methods of appeal.

This pamphlet provides a great way to inform the community about a local solution to a serious problem. There is scientific and factual evidence, as well as a local emotional appeal to those who read it. The author is able to explain the importance of this project, and this project does a great job of trying to solve the problem of pollution in the Potomac River. This project showed me how powerful the use of pathos, logos, and ethos is. Through the use of those techniques, DC Water showed why their work is important, and how their project is making a great impact in the DMV area. It is important to call on the community and local legislators of Washington, DC to support DC Water and take the appropriate steps necessary to help end pollution in the Potomac River.

1. Executive Summary

Parkaid is a smart parking application that helps drivers to solve parking issues by using real-time parking data and GPS technology. Its main purpose is to improve parking efficiency, optimize the use of available spaces and minimize the impact of parking on traffic and environment. With the implementation of big data and intelligent algorithms, we dedicate ourselves to provide our users with an enjoyable and less stressful parking experience.

Parking inefficiency has been a common metropolitan area issue. With the crowd and busy traffic as well as vehicle overcrowding and a demand for a more efficient smart parking system, our company aims to start from a busy downtown Vancouver area and estimate our main market size based on the lower mainland (the Greater Vancouver area). We will get first-hand technology information, experienced personnel and fast-changing market indication with this premier location to support our first-stage growing period. Due to the region characteristics, Parkaid targets working professionals as our key customer segment. With high exposure to high-tech products, we believe our smart parking application will appeal to them. Moreover, busy-scheduled working professionals highly value time and convenience which are primary aspects in line with our value proposition.

In terms of the marketing plan, Parkaid plans to integrate social media into our primary marketing campaigns by strategically focusing on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. We will also introduce a referral program for Parkaid customers that are brand loyalists and love to share their experience with family and friends and various time-limited coupon promotions to all users from time to time. We will evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing strategy and the receptiveness of our social media presence on a regular base and make corresponding changes for future business operations.

In order to establish our market position and capture sufficient market share, at Parkaid, we differentiate ourselves from competitors by focusing on a streamlined process from accurate, real-time information to having secured payment options. There are no smart parking technology companies with real-time guidance in British Columbia up to now and we hope to utilize this first-mover advantage to establish strong brand recognition. However, we need to pay close attention to the company which provides parking information and payment options yet does not have real-time guidance, since they may decide to expand their business to a larger scale.

After going through a successful six-month testing phase, our team is looking for funds to support our initial stage development which will be mainly used on research and development and marketing campaigns that will enable us to reach out to our target customers and our market position. As a return for our investors, Parkaid will strive for the dominant position in the market by consistently devoting to technology updates and improving customer experience. We show our sincerity not only by offering equity in the company, but Parkaid is better protected with vesting schedules which prohibits a co-founder from leaving the company with a large piece of the pie.

Overall, we are a team of six that cover both technology and financial sides, we hope to recruit a few right veterans on the team which can bring us more insightful market information for further growth. Parkaid is a young and lively technology company that advocates work-life balance, being mindful and open communication company culture. In the start-up stage, instead of rewarding our employees with cushy benefits, we offer a promising future return though share company ownership.

2. Company Introduction

2.1 Who We Are

Parkaid is a smart parking application that helps solve parking issues by providing users with real-time guidance to the nearest available parking.

2.2 Services Provided

For most drivers circling for parking can be a headache but this is not just of personal inconvenience, it also fills the streets with avoidable pollution and makes stores and restaurants less appealing to potential customers. Parking in crowded areas can often take 10 minutes or more according to customer discovery and every extra minute spent searching for places to park means more traffic stress and frustration, burning more gas, producing more emissions and most importantly causing more congestion in the city. Therefore, we should move towards a more sustainable city and find ways to minimize the impact of parking on traffic as well as optimize the use of available spaces.

Parkaid is the parking solution that helps drivers, cities and the environment solve parking issues by providing real-time guidance to the nearest available parking. Users simply enter their destination into the application to be routed to the nearest parking space available in the area with our built-in GPS navigation system. Parkaid also includes rules of parking facilities so users will receive notifications not to exceed the limit. Additionally, Parkaid offers secured in-app payments so users can park and walk away instead of fussing at the pay station with coins or a credit card. If users have specific parking preferences, for example, the size of the parking space, maximum hours of parking, or the price, they can use the filter option to only show parking spaces that meet their requirements. To find the best parking and provide real-time data for users Parkaid has installed in-pavement sensors and cameras in various parking facilities that track exactly where and when spaces become available. We also developed proprietary algorithms that utilize hardware data with software analysis to power our quick, simple and painless smart parking application. By downloading Parkaid users can enjoy time and fuel savings, more convenience and a reduction in stress, frustration, and unpredictability with finding places to park.

2.3 Company Culture

The culture at most technology companies are working long hours, having intense competition, and little time for reflection, however, at Parkaid we work towards having a healthy work-life balance, being mindful and open communication. During our startup stage, want employees to work hard but also live well. We also want to have a diverse and open-minded workforce where everyone is treated with respect. To achieve this we plan on surveying our employees anonymously at the end of every month to know what is working and what is not so that we can do something about the things that are not working.

3. Market Size Analysis

Industry experts reported that the global smart parking systems market size was valued at USD 3.9 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 17.4% in the next 7 years. (Grand View Research, 2020). It also worth highlighting the following four factors that are contributing to the growth of the global smart parking market:

• Increased adoption of smart parking sensors
• Growing adoption of intelligent transportation systems
• Advanced analytics on telematics to reduce traffic congestion
• Growth of the automotive industry

We believe within this promising blue sea industry and favorable market trends, we have a huge growth potential and market to generate profit.

Parking inefficiency has always been an issue in busy metropolitan area. With the increasing population in the Greater Vancouver area and the speeding up of city constructions, with potential future vehicle overcrowding and parking difficulties, a more efficient smart parking system would be in high demand.

Our company starts from busy downtown Vancouver area estimates out market size based on the lower mainland. We identify all the drivers within this area could be our potential market. Based on the data from ICBC of BC active driver license holder number, we estimate 60% of this population would be the active driver, given the fact that some driver license holders may not currently drive, rather they keep a driver’s license a form of primary identification. Within that range, we estimate 60% of the potential market would be our available market which contains people who have interest, income, and access to our app. By using a conservative assumption, assuming 20% of them will consume the premium model ($49.99 per year) and 80% would pay a 3 months fee ($4.99 per month), the potential and the available market is estimated to be $26 million and $20 million per year respectively (Appendix 1).

3.1 Target Market

Parkaid plans to target working professionals as our key customer segment, due to the size and affluence of this market. In general, working professionals consist of mostly Baby Boomers and Millennials who hold significantly higher purchasing power and disposable income compared to students who tend to belong to the Generation Y or Z cohort. Also, working professionals can be classified as “tech-savvy” because most either grew up using wireless technology or were young adults when wireless technology was introduced; making them an attractive market for our parking solution. Another characteristic of working professionals is that they greatly value time and convenience which corresponds to the value proposition that Parkaid offers. With similar levels of purchasing power, homemakers are another customer segment with great potential for our company to target however, those who belong to that segment seem to have plenty of time to shop and hang out with friends as well as pick up their kids. From our customer discovery, we found that those who fell in the homemaker segment do not see as much value in the amount of time saved to find the nearest available parking compared to students and working professionals, therefore, our smart parking technology delivers the most value to students and working professionals however, our company will not be as profitable if we were to target students due to their low level of disposable income and purchasing power. Working professionals will be our most profitable segment to move forward with and as we grow we will be able to generate more revenue streams from different customer segments.

Given our target customer is working professional, we estimate the population by narrowing 60% of the available market would working professional and around two-thirds (70%) of them would be potential users and this yield to our target market. Currently, we expect the target market size of working professionals to be about $6.3 million per year in the Greater Vancouver area (Appendix 2).

3.2 Key Metrics to Reach Revenue Projection

In order to push our business moving forward smoothly and be able to go through the early valley of death stage for startups, we identify the following key metrics and will keep track on these data to compare whether we meet our expectations.

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): This is being measured as divide our sales and marketing costs, by the number of customers we picked up for each month. An efficient marketing plan is vital for our business to capture a sustained growing user base which is the key to drive our revenue and gain market share. Especially we devote a significant amount of money and effort into marketing, we need to inform ourselves whether these campaigns are working and whether marking plan is efficient and profitable.
• Active users: we need to keep track on our customer’s engagement through daily active-user number and the trend of this data. This data provides a lot of information such as during what time of the day our app is being used for a high frequency, the location, and busy areas that our users demand the help provided by the app. These figures and trends can help us better understand our users in order to focus on future design improvements which can attract more users.
• Conversion ratio: this would be calculated by using the number of customers who have downloaded the app and have paid for the premium model divided by the total number of total users who have loaded the app. This metric is a key driving for generating revenue and meeting our expected growth projections. A monthly data trends also indicate how our product is well-designed and are able to gain a sufficient amount of market share, we need to do further customer discovery and redesign our pricing model if we see a significant drop in this trend or an underperforming number on this ratio.
• Retention ratio: Our company intends to make a significant effort on maintaining a loyal users base. The profit margin from new user acquisition is much lower than maintaining current users based on cost components. Further customer discovery is necessary to find out why users have stopped registering in the membership program.

4. Business Model and Marketing Strategies

4.1 Branding

Two key traits our target reported in valuing businesses during our customer discovery are integrity and innovation, which is aligned with Parkaid’s value of building a relationship of integrity with our users through innovative technology. By using accurate, real-time information and our proprietary algorithms, Parkaid will help users reduce the stress with finding open spaces along with unwanted emissions and enjoy time and fuel savings.

Prior to our official launch, Parkaid will host a focus group to gauge market receptiveness and feedback. The focus will test our smart parking application and provide recommendations for improvement. Our team seeks to include primary consumer feedback to predict market acceptance post-launch and when we will be able to successfully cross the “chasm”. We believe by introducing Parkaid as a “trendy and tech savvy” solution, we can increase market acceptance because our target market grew up in a digital world or were young adults making the Internet a big influencer on consumer behavior. Due to our target audience being Millennials and Baby Boomers we need to rethink how to appeal to both demographics. We plan to integrate social media into our marketing campaigns by strategically focusing on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and creating unique sharing opportunities around news and trends related to our smart parking technology. Our plan for Parkaid to become a trend is to first strike a deep emotional chord with consumers by demonstrating how our solution is right for them and how it improves their lifestyles, then ignite a community of social influence as the latest Trust in Advertising report states that 84% of consumers trust and are influenced by their friends, family and colleagues when making purchase decisions (The Nielsen Company, 2013). We will also be providing guides, FAQ’s, and testimonies to create consumer trust. Because we have a target market characterized by many time constraints and values convenience, Parkaid offers simple queries and search options along with in-app payment option that allows for easy navigation and minimize steps needed to find available spaces.

4.2 Referral Program

Our target audience consider themselves as brand loyalists and returns to brand offering positive experiences. They also love to share and recommend products to family and friends. Introducing a referral program for Parkaid users to receive 5% off every referred sale will incentivize consumers to share the positive features of Parkaid and how it has improved their parking experience. Like a snowball effect, as more consumers are incentivized to share Parkaid within their personal networks, the more word of mouth we will receive and that word of mouth generates sales.

4.3 Coupon Promotion

Research shows Millennials love bargains and are heavy users of digital coupons (Littleton, 2017) whereas if Baby Boomers are provided with a coupon or loyalty discount they are three-times more likely to purchase a product (Bedgood, 2016). To capitalize on their purchase behaviour, we have two strategies in place to capture the available market. Offline, Parkaid will provide 5% off coupons through direct mail and print brochures sent to the homes of our target audience whereas online, we will be giving out customized coupon codes to our target audience via targeted social media advertisements. With customized codes, we can track the effectiveness of online coupons and the receptiveness of our social media presence.

5. Competitor Analysis

The global smart parking industry continues to grow and offer opportunities as more driver licenses are being activated in British Columbia every year (ICBC, 2020). Across the globe, various companies are developing smart parking technology Parkaid, however, is differentiated from competitors by focusing on a streamlined process from accurate, real-time information to having secured payment options.

5.1 Direct Competition

As of today, there are no smart parking technology companies with real-time guidance operating in British Columbia which allows Parkaid to become a first-mover business in empowering drivers, cities and businesses in B.C with real-time parking data. By being first companies are typically enabled to establish strong brand recognition and customer loyalty before other companies enter the market. From a global perspective, there are a few other competitors namely Streetline, Smart Parking Technology, and ParkiFi with similar parking solutions as Parkaid, however, comparing the features of every technology, Parkaid reigns supreme (Appendix 3). Parkaid is user friendly, it allows users to set detailed preferences, has a secured payment option, includes rules of every parking facility, and most importantly provide reliable data which are all basic features a user would expect in this type of technology however, some of our competitors lack these features. Although some companies may not have the features Parkaid has, it is also beneficial to learn from competitors because their decisions may reveal