Grant Request (Essay Sample)

E-commerce Business Plan Student name Course Title and Code Instructor name Institutional Affiliation 3rd July 2024 Abstract Social media marketplaces have had a great impact on the sale of urban lifestyle products in a way that resonates with pop culture and consumerism. This business will build a brand and reputation around reliability and lifestyle products that enhance urban life experience and style. The business will be purely online and manage only 40% of the listing's inventory, while the rest of the listing will be dedicated to drop shipping. Drop shipping is a way of monetizing brand reputation by referring visiting leads to marketplaces they can find an item they are looking for. When a site visitor clicks on an item they are interested in purchasing, they are redirected to a shop with the actual inventory and check out. The unique selling point will be built around the ability to list trendy items, life hacks, and lifestyle goods that resonate with the mood of the people, trending fashions, and urban lifestyles. This business will not specialize on a specific item. It will only avoid perishable goods like groceries. The culture of the organization, online presence, and image will be built around urban lifestyle image. The business will engage in vigorous online promotion, social media presence, and SEO. It will take advantage of paid promotions, search engine optimization (SEO), e-mail marketing and social media presence. The business will seek to hire an SEO and Content writing expert to manage social media accounts, improve search engine ranking and manage online campaigns. Grant Request Summary This is a $20, 000 grant request to aid in opening an e-commerce business focused in outfits, footwear, fashion apparel, accessories and journals. The business will target women ages 20 to 45 years. It will operate with centralized management with a strategic objective of being reliable online shop for fashion products. The business will have 60% of its listing drop shipped from other reliable vendors. The strategy of disrupting the online apparel and fashion market will be combined with strong online presence that resonate with the target market. The analysis below shows that it will have a monthly recurrent cost of $14, 095. It will have initial cost of $68, 000 as a fixed initial capital. There is $80, 000 funding available for the business. The grant is required to sustain the business for three months, as it is launched. The grant will be 20% of the total initial capital required to run the company for three months assuming that it will take 3 month to break even. Company Description Mission statement: At Bee Bossy, we offer more than just sales; we offer a lifestyle. Our home decor items add a touch of style and warmth to your living spaces. Additionally, our journals, planners, and manifestation books help you organize your thoughts, set goals, and manifest your dreams. Our diverse range of products is designed to support and inspire you on your journey to becoming the best version of yourself and making the best life experiences. Vision Statement: To become a leading e-commerce website and brand offering high-quality home living, fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products of the modern world. Business Ownership Structure Bee Bossy is an e-commerce business that will be registered as a limited company. An LLC company would cost the business about $129 to start and about $104 to run annually. The LLC model of business was preferred over other forms of business because of its ability to maintain its own identity as a separate entity. An LLC company trades and transacts with other Businesses as a separate entity from its shareholders and owners. The ability to enter contracts while limiting liability is critical for any company. The LLC will shield owners from liability arising from the debts of the business. An LLC company will enable the business to transfer part of the whole business without any legal limitations. The company will be open to sell shares as a way of raising capital, carrying out acquisitions and mergers. The other advantage of an LLC is that it will allow the owners to make legal contracts with other businesses without committing their names and resources to business dealings. A company may seek funding and secure a financial facility with some of its property. A sole proprietorship cannot seek business funding separate from personal funding. An LLC may be able to seek funding that is separated from personal financial facilities. Therefore, an LLC works to protect the autonomy of the business, as well as its liability and scalability. The LLC company will own all the tangible and intangible properties of the business, including the websites that it uses to distribute the goods, inventory, and premises on which the store's physical offices will be placed. The management structure will only comprise of shareholders. The business will be registered with one shareholder, holding 100% of the shares in the company. The person will also serve as a director and CEO of the company. Business Model The E-commerce business will specialize in the online sale of goods. The business will maintain an inventory of 40% of the products it offers in its online shop while dropshipping 60% of the products. The hybrid method of online shopping will allow the business to offer a very wide range of products while maximizing profits with its inventory of fast-moving goods. Drop shipping involves listing products offered by other businesses for sale. The e-commerce approach will create a large pool of customers and direct them to the website and other points of sale, such as social media. E-commerce will also require a logistics company to handle the delivery or the purchase of items. The company will hire an established courier service company for items to be delivered to various locations. In order to start building a reputation earlier, the business will operate and sell within metropolitan areas where courier expenses will be low. In a metropolitan area, advertisement, delivery, and continuous improvement will be managed centrally. Target Market    The E-commerce business will target women between 20 to 45 years who have embraced online shopping. The market may be made up of young professionals with limited time for physical shopping. The characteristics of the target market are access to the internet, frequent use of mobile devices, and social media presence. These characteristics place the market within reach of the business in terms of advertisement, goods delivery, and use of market response. The strategy used will combine both social media presence, especially TikTok, and the e-commerce page of the website for checking off. Social media like Facebook have a marketplace that people can use to check off. These options will also be exploited to maximize online presence and appeal to the target group that is tech-savvy, consumerist, and affluent. Products and Services    The business aims to provide daily solutions to home living. These include home décor goods and personal support goods like journals and diaries. The business will start with fashion and footwear. The vendors that have been identified to start the drop shipping service include Tendsi, Fashion2Go, and Faire. The business will aim to support and promote modern lifestyles, from fashion to essentials for homes. The business will not sell perishable goods like vegetables and fruits. The product ranges include fashion and apparel, accessories, beauty products, sports and fitness, consumer electronics, health products, stationery, books, cosmetics, baby supplies, garden supplies, furniture, toys, and pet products. Sourcing the Goods The e-commerce website will first source products primarily from various direct supplies. Some products can be sourced directly from the suppliers if they allow in their supply chain management strategy. These are items like branded beauty products and electronics. One of the main sources of products listed on the e-commerce platform is drop-shipped items. The website will start with outfit and footwear products drop shipped from Tendsi, Fashion2Go, and Faire. The main seller of the item supplies these products. The e-commerce website will take advantage of the applications that connect the main website to the drop shipping websites. The applications include Importify and Modalyst when using a wix e-commerce website. These are free applications for the wix website. If the website will be migrated to the wordpress platform, WooCommerce will be used. The WooCommerce plug in in free and works as the best plug in than other paid plug in like Dropify, OptinMonster, and Ezusy. 60% of the products listed will be dropshipped from the other main websites, while 40% of the products will have an inventory in the physical location of the website. The e-commerce website can also meet and sell items produced on a low scale directly from the website. These are things such as hand-woven clothes, sculptures, art drawings, and books. Some of the distributors include L'Oreal SA, Procter & Gamble Co, and Unilever Plc. Some of the dropshipping suppliers include AliExpress, DSers, Worldwide Brands, Doba, SaleHoo, Wholesale2b, Megagoods, and Wholesale Central. These will be contacted and expand into the goods they deal in later. The strategy of the business for sourcing the items is to seek supply from different quarters in a way that creates variety and authenticity and promotes the business image. For instance, though the business will source directly from small manufacturers like painters, the business will list and sell the item on its own. This differentiates it from other models like Amazon, where sellers can also be the producers of the product. The management, sourcing, checking out, packaging, and delivery will all be done by the business. Value proposition and Selling point The organizational...