16 pages mkt

Retail Business Plan Project

Rubric

Following is an outline of the key elements your plan should include. Respond to the following points. In addition to you’re written response, use charts, tables, visuals and/or bullet points as appropriate.

Also consult the retail start-up guide from Vend. You may also want to tailor your plan to include additional elements that are pertinent to your business

Thus, the rubric below may be adjusted to suit your particular retail business and will be used as a general guideline for grading to further ensure fairness. Typically most business plans are ~15-20 pages in length.

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (maximum: one thousand words)

A. List: Retail name, corporate address, phone, contact person, and title.

B. Type of Retail business. One sentence summary.

C. Mission - List company's mission statement (Your WHY)

D. Retail company description. One paragraph summary of the problem/gap/need you’re addressing in the marketplace. One paragraph on the products/services you plan to sell, your target customers, and key activities/functions.

E. Key personnel. Sentence or paragraph description of the top 2-4 people you’ll need to run your business, explain the qualifications of personnel needed to lead your business.

F. Competition and your competitive advantage. One paragraph summary

G. Start-up schedule. One paragraph description

H. Funds needed to start your business and run it until it is cash flow positive. Two sentence statement.

II. INTRODUCTION

A. General Contact Info - Develop a paragraph which gives the address, phone number, and individual who should be contacted for business inquiries

B. Description of your retail business - Provide a general description of the problem/gap/need you’re addressing in the marketplace. Describe the product(s) and/or service(s) you plan to sell. Explain your Value Proposition – Why customers should buy from you. What is unique different about your store/website? What is your competitive advantage? Are any of these sustainable?

C. Retail business history - Explain how you came up with the idea and when you plan to open your store/website or other retail channel

D. Future plans of the business - Develop in chronological order the plans of the business for the next three years. Be sure to highlight expansion plans (e.g., second product lines, geographic expansion, other)

III. RETAIL STRATEGY/MARKETING

A. Product/Service

a) Describe and explain goods and/or services in detail: What is it? How does it function? What is it used for? What are you going to sell?

B. What is your Value Proposition / Unique Selling Proposition?

a) What Pain Point or Consumer Need are you trying to Address?

b) Why should customers buy from your store?

c) How are you different/better than the competition? What sets your business apart?

C. Target market

a) Target Customers: Who? Where? How many?

b) Demographics: Age, sex, income, marital status, etc.

c) Psychographics

d) How big is the market your targeting? Quantify as much as possible

e) Customer Persona – Create at least 2 Customer Personas (Primary & Secondary Target)

See: The Complete, Actionable Guide to Marketing Personas: https://blog.bufferapp.com/marketing-personas-beginners-guide

D. Place

a) Where do plan to locate your store or business?

b) Is this an online or physical retail business? Or both?

c) Characteristics necessary for the desired location

d) Proposed location - include a specific address (Append a real estate ad.)

e) If your concept is an online business, are their geographic markets you will prioritize?

E. Price

a) What is your Pricing strategy? (Premium? Value or Discount?)

b) How will you set the price? Costs + mark-up? Or based on what the market will bear?

c) How does your pricing strategy compare to the competitions? (higher/about the same/lower)

d) What type of margins do you expect to make?

F. Promotion

a) How will you acquire and retain customers?

b) Considerations: advertising, customer word of mouth, public relations, social responsibility

c) Do you plan to run sales or discount the product?

d) Specifics:

i) Costs, methods, and rationale for Grand Opening and first-year advertising/promotions

ii) Describe selling techniques

G. Competition

a) List all major competitors

b) Describe these businesses (products/services/markets)

c) Discuss the expected influence of each on your marketing/sales efforts. How will you leverage your competitive advantage(s)?

d) If appropriate discuss alternative solutions or retailers that consumers are using today to address their pain points/needs

H. Customer Experience

a) Outline the customer experience you plan to deliver

b) What will make it:

i) “Remarkable” and drive Word-of-Mouth advertising?

ii) Worthy of a superior NPS score?

I. SWOT Analysis

a) Identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for your retail business

J. Other Required Charts/Tables to include in your plan:

1) Customer Segmentation Map

2) Competitive Differentiation Map

3) Competitor Analysis Chart

Segmentation Maps are useful in answering questions like:

· How many customers of a given type are there?

· Where is the money/demand in this market?

· Who should we target?

Competitive Differentiation Maps & Competitor Analysis Charts are useful in answering questions like:

What is our price relative to our competition?

How different are we from our competition? Along which dimensions (e.g. product quality, service, delivery, flexibility, durability, convenience, etc.)?

What is our value proposition (Why customers should buy from you)? Does it relate to price, quality, service, speed, ease/convenience, luxury/status or combination of these or others?

Which competitors are serving customers of a given type?

Whose needs are being underserved? This highlights potential opportunity for a new business

Here are some examples

Competitor Analysis Chart

A Competitive Analysis Chart helps identify competitive strengths and weaknesses and points of differentiation

IV. MANAGEMENT

A. Goals and objectives

- Goals (usually more general and longer term)

- Objectives (usually more specific/quantifiable)

B. Key personnel

- Who will manage which functions (key company officers)? Who will operate the store(s)/website?

• Include short background/qualifications

• Attach job description and hiring requirements of key personnel

C. Organization /Staffing

- Include org chart and describe organizational relationships

- Store staffing plan

D. Operations Management

- Quality control - Explain how to control for quality

- Inventory control - Explain how to manage the inventory

E. Supply Chain Management

- Key supplier relationships

- (Likely) terms of agreements (refer to letters of intent in your appendix)

F. Human Resource management

- Recruiting, job descriptions, performance evaluations, wage and salary structure, benefits, grievance system, etc.

G. Policies

- Internal: sales, employee, general, financial controls

- External: credit, checks, layaway, guarantee/warranty, returns, collections

H. Insurance

- Types of insurance needed and cost

I. Legal

- Describe/discuss any of the following which you might have: contracts, licenses, patents, permits, lease/rent agreements, trademarks, etc.

- Legal structure (LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation)

V. FINANCING AND ACCOUNTING

A. Turn-key costs (explain and itemize) these are costs you will incur in starting-up and running your business for the first year or until the business turns cash flow positive

B. Equity funding: Equity contributions from founder(s), friends, angel investors, etc.

D. Business loans and collateral

E. Projected cash flow and income statements

- Annual statements for years 1, 2 and 3

- Explain in narrative the rationale for your figures

F. Break-even analysis. What sales volume (units and/or $’s) do you need to achieve to break-even?

This is calculated dividing your fixed costs by your product Margin

E.G Fixed costs - $500,000

Average retail price - $200

Average cost of goods - $100

Breakeven Calculation: $500,000 / ($200 - $100) = 5,000 units needed to breakeven

G. Be sure to include provisions for taxation in your costs - Federal, state, social security taxes, etc.

You’ll need to research the tax rates in the location you’re locating your business.

VI. APPENDIX

A. Other Charts, graphs, diagrams such as store/website layouts, menus or product catalogs

B. Job Descriptions and hiring criteria

D. Other (such as more detail of some aspect that doesn't really need to be in the body of the plan)