Bedford Wedding Planners - Essay Example

Bedford Wedding Planners: Business Plan Contents Bedford Wedding Planners: Business Plan 1 Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Mission 2 Objectives 3 Keys to success 3 Company Summary 4 Company Ownership 4 Start-upSummary The estimated start-up costs will be £1800. This includes advertising costs, setup costs and administrative expenses. As an operating capital for the company, an additional £3,000 must be earmarked for the operations. The initial investments are to be covered partly through personal investments of the proprietor and partly through bank loans. 4 Company Location and facilities 4 Market Analysis Summary 5 Market Segmentation 5 Market Analysis 6 Target Market Segment Strategy 7 Market Needs 8 Service Business Analysis 8 Competition and Buying Patterns 8 Strategy and Implementation Summary 9 Competitive Advantage 9 Sales Strategy 9 Sales Forecast 10 Identification of operating resources required 11 Identification of material risks and contingency planning 11 Financial Plan 12 Conclusion 14 Reference List 15 Executive Summary The objective of the paper is to develop a business plan for a fictional company called Bedford Wedding Planners (BWP). The company, BWP, aspires to become one of the premier wedding planning companies with operations mainly concentrated in Bedford and the United Kingdom. It will provide complete wedding packages to couples, provide consultation to family members for ensuring proper gifting ideas, etiquette training and other services and also provide services to organize events for anniversaries or other post-wedding events. As part of business plan, a detailed start up strategy has been devised, which includes sources of capital, potential material risk and contingency plans. The detailed operations plan has also been made to promote the carefully designed value proposition through an elaborate marketing strategy. To shed light on the financial perspective, expense forecast, sales forecast and profit forecast for BWP have been prepared. Mission Bedford Wedding Planners (BWP) is a service company, which provides end-to-end consulting services for weddings and holy unions. BWP planners are experienced and hard working professionals with profound knowledge and event planning experience. BWP is different in a way that it provides customers with extremely focused attention. BWP understands requirements of clients and work along with them to organize the wedding of their dreams. The customers’ aspirations become BWP`s tasks to be completed. So, whether customer wishes a Western, Chinese, Indian or Las Vegas style wedding, BWP provides the best. The value proposition of BWP includes weddings, receptions, holy unions, budgeting and managing every aspect of a wedding so as to make it memorable for individuals involved. Objectives Irrespective of the wishes of customers and type of event, BWP desires to fulfil the dreams of clients pertaining to every detail of the event planned, such that it is both pleasurable and memorable experience. Thus, BWP offers a plethora of packages, carefully tailored for catering to requirements and preferences of each couple. BWP is absolutely confident that this venture will be a great success and also forecasts net income to increase consistently over next few years. Keys to success The key to success of the company are dependent on meeting needs of the client promptly so that he/she is completely satisfied with the service, fostering a working relationship with service providers and suppliers such that weddings can be effortlessly conducted and maintaining service level that the brand name assures so as to achieve further business through word-of-mouth publicity. Company Summary Bedford Wedding Planners (BWP) is a company that delivers end-to-end services for weddings and holy union event planning services to couples and their family members. BWP is a complete service wedding planning group whose ultimate goal is to introduce innovative ideas, moving away from the mundane activities of a conventional wedding planning. Many people get stressed and overly frustrated while planning such events. BWP has experienced and competent consultants who will use their expertise to create enjoyable, pleasant and memorable events for clients. So, events are organized as per client’s chosen style, which is a true reflection of the relationship that is being celebrated. Company Ownership This business shall start as a sole proprietorship, controlled and operated by its founders. With growth in business and operations, the company will be considered for re-registering. It can be registered as a limited liability company or a corporation. Start-upSummary The estimated start-up costs will be £1800. This includes advertising costs, setup costs and administrative expenses. As an operating capital for the company, an additional £3,000 must be earmarked for the operations. The initial investments are to be covered partly through personal investments of the proprietor and partly through bank loans. Company Location and facilities The company will operate out of a single room office in the beginning as most of the business will be carried out over the official website, which has to be created. After a period of three years, business can be expanded to a larger facility in an operational office. Services BWP is a wedding planning group that provides full services to clients in order to fulfil their need of a spectacular wedding. BWP also provides several other services like, etiquette consulting, event planning and scheduling, managing invitations, vendor management, rehearsal attendance, complete supervision of the ceremony and managing budgets. Bird watching functions on certain commitments “that bird species exist in nature; that they can be identified and indexed on the basis of sensory (mainly visual, but also audible) evidences; that separate species can be identified and named; and that species can be represented in paradigmatic illustrations and described in texts. The entire literary language game relies upon and testifies to these naturalistic assumptions” (Law and Lynch, 1988, pp. 273-4). Wedding planners of BWP operate in a similar fashion on a number of commitments. The natural accountability of BWP wedding planners is characterized by a socially-determined reality called wedding, which demands planning and management. Furthermore, there is sufficient literary language works, which suggest that any wedding can become a disaster for the couple as well as family members, if planning and management is not appropriate or timely. Each aspect of the wedding entails with it a unique quality that should be understood in order to well-execute the event by taking appropriate decisions. Market Analysis Summary According to Office of National Statistics, London, average cost of a wedding in England and Wales is 8000 and around 231490 couples tie the knot every year. This study suggests that couples in England and Wales spend around £2 billion every year on weddings (Office of National Statistics, 2014). Hence, professional wedding planners are a necessity rather than a luxury. BWP are complete service wedding planners that offer a host of services to all clients who want to make their wedding experience memorable. Planners in BWP pride themselves over their professional and courteous attitude at all times. BWP has custom designed packages to suit needs of every taste and moods. As mentioned previously, wedding in the Great Britain is an industry with very high prospects for growth and high earning potential. Thus, every individual can be regarded as a prospective client. However, BWP mostly advertises and aspires to fulfil needs of couples planning to tie the knot and their family members. Market Segmentation Although the market looks very lucrative for wedding planners in the Great Britain, BWP had initially segmented the wedding planning and management business on the basis of geography and later, on the basis of economic status of prospective clients. So, BWP aims to provide its services to brides and grooms of Bedford in the beginning and subsequently expand to other areas. In 2010, 231490 marriages took place in the Great Britain. According to Office of National Statistics, current British marriage rate is twenty marriages per 1,000 people, which is one of the highest marriage rates in western world (Office of National Statistics, 2014). This marriage rate can be perceived to increase in years to come. Bedford, or the area where BWP aspires to operate its business, has a good market potential in terms of weddings being registered every year. So, in this line of business, Bedford seems to have a huge market gap for BWP to bridge. Another segment that BWP aspires to target is represented by family members and guests invited to attend weddings, holy unions, anniversaries and events of similar kinds. This segment has a lot of requirement in event preparation services like, dresses, gifts, etiquette and others. Along with handling the wedding planning, which BWP considers as their main assignment, the company can also provide services pertaining to post-wedding or anniversary celebrations and so on and so forth. Market Analysis Assuming that only one-hundredth of the weddings in Great Britain takes place in Bedford, along with a growth rate of 5% per year and at least one family member in every alternate wedding ceremony employs BWP’s services, the following market potential has been calculated for a period of 5 years. Table 1: Market Potential (Source: Author’s creation) Figure 1: Market Potential Forecast (Source: Author’s creation) Assumption: Number of other events in which BWP offers services can be assumed as 300 in the first year. Target Market Segment Strategy BWP will render services mostly to couples who have decided to get married as well as to their family members. BWP will position itself as an end-to-end provider, which gives full services for making any wedding a memorable one. BWP will offer a full service for weddings and in turn ensure that clients have the convenience of one-stop service shopping, as opposed to hiring different vendors for separate matters. This will drastically reduce the client’s time and efforts while preparing for one of the most important events of their lives. In addition, BWP wish to achieve economies of scale through ordering in bulk from vendors, whose quality standards are closely monitored by BWP. BWP will pass on the savings made through economies of scale to its customers, who in turn will be able to save on considerable cost (Petsko, 2012). Market Needs Customers show a strong desire for a perfect wedding ceremony that is well planned and efficiently executed. This has eventually generated a strong market demand for wedding planners. Many couples spend great amount of time planning their ultimate wedding, but eventually realize that they cannot effectively make all necessary arrangements in the given time in a cost effective manner. Such customers form the target customer segment of wedding planners who work with clients to ensure that all their requirements are duly met in a cost effective manner. Service Business Analysis The wedding services market has a large number of vendors who provide only limited and specific services. There are a number of property owners, florists, stylists, hair stylists and caterers who offer services for wedding purposes. However, companies who provide end-to-end solutions in wedding planning and management are quite limited in the Great Britain at large and Bedford in particular. Competition and Buying Patterns Competitive analysis conducted shows that although there are a number of companies who provide wedding services to couples and their family members, only few of them provide complete end-to-end services for planning any weddings. Most of the competitors offer services like, catering, property renting, gifts or flower arrangements. Out of these competitors, only two offered end-to-end services that are comparable with those that BWP has planned to incorporate as part of its offerings. The major competitors that offer wedding planning services in the Bedford area are Any Occasions Event Organizers and Hammond Weddings (Bedford, 2014). Market research also indicates that prospective clients estimate wedding planning services to be expensive. Generally, higher prices are associated with excellent service quality. By aggregating all wedding services under one banner, BWP will offer its clients the ease of single window shopping. Strategy and Implementation Summary The strategy of BWP is to provide end-to-end services to clients so that they can have a wedding of their dreams. BWP also carefully strategizes to achieve economies of scale by integrating various vendors and passing on savings to the customers while maintaining image of a one-stop shop for all wedding planning services. BWP, thus, provides complete customized packages to couples who are about to be married and their family members through consulting services. Competitive Advantage BWP will have a competitive edge over other wedding planners in Bedford area as the company will provide complete aggregated services for all wedding ceremonies as well as offer consulting services to family members under a single roof. This one-stop solution to all wedding needs of clients forms the value proposition of BWP. BWP will launch an innovative yet effective marketing technique in which customers will be covered through social media. Digital marketing will form backbone of the marketing initiative through which BWP will establish itself as a premier supplier of all wedding solutions. Sales Strategy BWP’s sales strategy will contain a three pronged strategy, which will be based on elements ranging from print media to social media marketing. The print media advertising will mostly consist of advertisements in Yellow pages and visual advertisements in leading dailies popular in the Bedford area. In order to cater to needs of larger customer segment and spread the word of BWP’s superior service offerings, local vendors like, florists, stylists and others, can be given a percentage of profit, that they bring to BWP through referrals to prospective clients. BWP would also benefit from word-of-mouth publicity created by satisfied customers as well as customer referrals. Digital Marketing will form backbone of marketing activities at BWP (Ryan and Jones, 2009). Forms of social media such as, Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest, will be leveraged through creation of pages where satisfied customers will be encouraged to post their reviews and comments so that superior value proposition of BWP can be publicised (Saravanakumar and Suganthalakshmi, 2012). A blog featuring different types of weddings can be created, which would give innovative ideas to couples for planning their weddings. This will not only increase customer base of the company, but will also lead to higher sales through greater demand for new styles of wedding. A special section on Chinese and Asian styles of weddings can be included in the blog so as to encourage Asians to opt for a traditional wedding for which BWP can provide specialized packages. Sales Forecast Based on the market potential, it is assumed that BWP will consult for 500 clients in the first year of operations and then grow at the rate of 5% for next 5 years. The approximate price of a wedding is considered as £8000 (average wedding cost in the Great Britain according to Office of National Statistics). It is also assumed that at least one family member in every alternate wedding ceremony uses BWP’s services and BWP annually earns only £0.005 million from organizing events, apart from weddings and consulting family members. Sales Revenue Forecast Table 2: Sales Revenue Forecast *All figures in £ million Source: Author’s own creation Figure 2: Sales Revenue Forecast (Source: Author’s creation) Identification of operating resources required Resources required for BWP’s successful operation are an office space from where operations can be carried out; and two employees who will oversee marketing initiatives and managing operations. For BWP to function smoothly, it has to have close relationships with vendors providing single line of services to weddings like, florists, stylists, hair stylists, property owners, hotels and bridal shops. BWP can partner up with few of the chosen vendors, where both parties can share certain amount of profits from the sale, thereby benefitting both the partners. Identification of material risks and contingency planning There are several material risks involved in the operation of BWP, which includes spoilage of perishable commodities, if not delivered or used on time. This may lead to huge losses for the company. Some other material risks are cancellations by clients at last moment, after the company has invested in preparations of the event. BWP can protect itself from such contingencies through charging an advance fee upfront while signing to organize any event from clients, which it can use to cover losses in case the event is cancelled. BWP can also sign a memorandum of understanding with select vendors of goods and services required for weddings, like, a profit sharing agreement where both parties will share profits or losses if they occur in any event. This will ensure that vendors add value to BWP’s value proposition through quality products and timely delivery. Financial Plan Since BWP is a sole proprietorship that, through integration of various vendors, provides end-to-end wedding solutions and does consulting for family members attending the wedding, major expenses of the company are administrative cost, marketing cost and payroll cost. BWP can start its operation in the first year with two employees. The average salary in the United Kingdom is £26500 (NAHT, 2014). It is assumed that in the first year of operation, administrative expenses are £300. The marketing cost forms bulk of the expenditure made in first year as the company is in introduction phase of the product life cycle (Kotler, 2011). Nonetheless, since digital marketing forms the backbone of BWP’s marketing strategy, marketing expense of BWP will be quite low than other competitors. It is assumed that marketing activities will cost the company £1,000,000 in the first year of operation. In successive years, payroll and administrative expense of the company is forecasted to rise by 5% as sales is also estimated to grow by a similar percentage. Then again, when the service offering will enter into growth stage of the product life cycle, advertising and marketing cost will reduce (Armstrong and Cunningham, 2002). So, it is evaluated that in subsequent years of operation, advertising costs will reduce by 2%. Table 3: Expenditure Forecast Source: Author’s creation Figure 3: Expenditure Forecast Source: Author’s own creation Therefore, expenditure is way less than sales revenue forecasted, which will give the company a high profit margin. The consolidated table to calculate profit margin of the company is given below. Table 4: Profit Forecast Source: Author’s own creation Figure4: Profit Forecast Source: Author’s own creation The company`s profits are forecasted to grow constantly through the next 5 years. Conclusion BWP will fulfil wedding planning requirements of its clients by providing them with one-stop solutions. It will be profitable from the first year of operations and will continue to grow in subsequent years. Some sale points of the business is that the business has very low capital requirements. The business is easy to establish and can be run by a couple of employees. The business stands on marketing of the company`s value proposition. BWP should start a good digital marketing initiative through its own blog and implement a social marketing plan through which it can connect to its prospective clients in a more interactive manner. Hence, the company prospective looks promising and expansion strategies should be considered in the near future. Reference List Armstrong, G. and Cunningham, M. H., 2002. Principles of marketing. Scarborough, Ont.: Prentice Hall. Bedford, 2014. Wedding Planners in Bedford. [online] Available at: [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Kotler, P., 2011. Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal of Marketing, 75(4), pp. 132-135. Law, J. and Lynch, M., 1988. Lists, field guides, and the descriptive organization of seeing: bird watching as an exemplary observational activity. Representation in scientific practice, Boston, MA: MA, MIT Press. NAHT, 2014. 2013-2014 salary scales. [online] Available at: [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Office of National Statistics, 2014. Statistical bulletin: Marriages in England and Wales. [pdf] Office of National Statistics. Available at: [Accessed 14 May 2014]. Petsko, G. A. (2012). Economies of scale. Genome biology, 13(4), 154. Ryan, D. and Jones, C., 2009. Understanding digital marketing. Lontoo: Kogan Page Ltd. Saravanakumar, M. and Suganthalakshmi, T., 2012. Social media marketing. Life Science Journal, 9(4), pp. 4444-4451. Read More