Business Plan: The Dollar Store (Essay Sample)

Business Plan
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Executive Summary
The Dollar Store is an upcoming retail store that is operating in Bend, Oregon where it is providing numerous merchandise options at competitive prices to the consumers. Financing of the business activities is going to be facilitated by the contributions from the two owners who are Ted Brinkman and Jim Spencer. They are going to donate the required equity that is going to be cleared within 36 months. There shall be payment of dividends that shall be facilitated quarterly on the outstanding equity.
The management has placed the appropriate mechanisms in place to ensure that this firm is incorporated to operate on an increased scale. Such a measure shall ensure that the liability of owners is limited to the amounts contributed for business activities as well as preventing them from cases of double taxation. The initiative will see these two investors treated as shareholders since the enterprise shall have to operate as an incorporated entity that shall have a separate legal life from that of the founders. The majority owner, Ted Brinkman, will be instrumental in contributing much of the needed capital from his own personal savings. With a well structured and aggressive marketing plan, this firm expects to experience undisputed growth as it becomes dominant in the environment.
The business shall have an avenue of opening up new operations throughout the region in the next three years where the main motive shall be bringing the services and products near the doorsteps of the consumers. The large capital investments availed by the owners will facilitate the stocking of the business in a manner that shall enhance it to cater for the service and products needs of the society with much ease. The numerous income categories that exist within a society like the elderly, low income families, and a large student population in the region shall benefit from the services and products of this upcoming retail discount store. The critical operation of the Dollar Store will enhance the customer base that shall facilitate it to be self-sufficient in the eyes of both the existing and potential customers.Marketing Plan
Dollar Store is currently operating as a small scale organization that has aspirations of enlarging in the next three years due to a number of the above outlined strategies. There is a variety of discount merchandise that is being offered by this enterprise where items like dishware, cosmetics, and household products are being given top priority. Other products that the management of this enterprise has been selling include toys, greeting cards, and candy among many others. According to Mckeever (2012. P.89), there is need for a dedicated staff that is well trained and experienced in the service delivery traits. The organization is banking on such attributes to help it to take its operations to the next level after a short while.
There are numerous manufacturers, wholesalers, and suppliers that have been contracted to provide the required products to the premises of the firm within the required time to ensure that there are no shortages of the necessary products when needed by the customers. Some of these manufacturers and suppliers include General Mills, Procter & Gamble, and American Greetings among many others that always ensure that all the necessary products are availed at the right prices, time, and meet the minimum quality standards expected of them. There are always shipments that arrive on a daily basis to fill the disparity between demand and supply thus ensuring continuity in the business activities of the enterprise.
The store is concentrating on the products that are mostly consumed by the individuals and families that are both in the lower and middle levels of income who are constrained by their limited financial bases to shop in the leading retail stores whose prices are considered to be higher than their expectations. There is segmentation of the market where the enterprise has identified the ever increasing student population in the area, the low income families, and the elderly (Ruzzier et al., 2013.p.63). These are individuals who are always compelled by their limited levels of income to shop for the product that meets their quality aspirations at low prices in such stores like Dollar Stores.
These target customers are spread across the town where the main store is situated to ensure that there is an easy access to the premises thus making it easy for the shopping activities. Each of the three market segments identified by this firm are obsessed to finding high quality products at low prices thus making this enterprise be a vital solution to their concerns.
The marketing budget available to this firm is quite moderate in the sense that the management is going to ensure sufficient awareness among the existing and the potential customers regarding the products on offer to enable them to continue or start buying the stocked products by Dollar Store. There are numerous mechanisms that have been and shall continue to be used to create awareness and promote the products being offered by this enterprise to ensure that customers are fully aware of what is being offered. Product mix is being to be prioritized where there are numerous mechanisms that are going to be in use to ensure that maximum awareness regarding the products is facilitated. The first mechanism is going to be an advertisement of the products in several media platforms. There is going to be the use of both the digital and print platform where the management is going to ensure that the potential consumers are made aware of the products being offered.
The advertisements shall be run on the local daily newspapers that offer such services at low prices. The target customers here are going to be students and low income fraternity that reads the daily papers for various reasons. The digital platform shall be enhanced by two broad strategies where the first one shall rely on the use of the newly launched website by the organization. The website shall ensure that those customers who happen to log into it for various reasons are enabled to identify the products being offered in terms of their specifications, usage, prices, and any other relevant information surrounding them.
There shall also be the use of the enterprise’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to reach the customers. Majority of the targeted customers under this platform are the students. The enterprise is located in an area where the population of students is increasing due to the presence of numerous causes and colleges that offering tertiary education. These students have a heavy presence on the above named social platforms where they normally use them for interactive and informative activities. The management is going to capitalize on the heavy usage of these two platforms to inform the customers about the prices, qualities, and other essential attributes of the products being offered to help in steering the volume of sales and hence profitability.
The management of Dollar Store is going to focus on the two traditional pricing strategies to achieve the set sales targets at the end of the trading period. The market is quite competitive in the sense that there are a number of large scales and well established retail stores in the same vicinity that are going to fight for the same market with Dollar Store thus the need for proper pricing mechanisms. Marginal-cost pricing and market-oriented pricing mechanisms are going to be harmonized and used properly to help increase profits and the number of customers to the enterprise.
Marginal-cost pricing is going to be used in such a way that the price that the firm is going to set on its products is going to equal the extra costs that are going to be incurred in the provision of extra units of output. According to Finne & Sivonen (2009), it shall imply that the products are going to be sold at prices that are slightly above the costs incurred in acquiring and packaging them among others to help the company to acquire profits that are going to help it to break-even and pave way for future profitability.
The market-oriented pricing technique is going to be utilized about the target market. Dollar Store is a firm that is targeting low income earners as well as the middle income earners whose main target is realizing the value for their money. Blackwell (2011.p.125) argues the management is going to ensure that there are frequent market research activities that shall aim at establishing the income levels of the target customers to ensure that a balance is established between income levels of the customers and the prices charged by the firm. The main aim here is ensuring that the stock turnover targets are achieved within short periods to enable the management to obtain new stocks that shall facilitate the growth of the store within the required time frame.Organization Plan
Dollar Store organization is an enterprise that is focused on ensuring that it moves to the next level in terms of the increase in sales and profits that shall be coupled by an increase in the number of customers. The owners have identified the idea of hiring well trained and experienced workers to steer the activities of the firm forward. The experienced employees are going to bring a lot of technical and managerial traits into the firm that is going to necessitate the achievement of the set goals.
There are performance contracts that have to be filled by each of the employees to ensure that all activities being undertaken by each are geared towards ensuring that the stated goals are obtained in a timely manner. Finne & Sivonen (2009) observes that these contracts are going to spearhead improved performance and hence profitability of the firm since each employee is going to be focused on the idea of ensuring that all aspects entitled to him/her are achieved. The ta...