African Fashion and Design Centre - Example

African Fashion and Design Centre BUSINESS PLAN Contents Business Plan Summary 3 The Business 3 The Market 3 The Future 3 Goals: 3 The Finance 4 THE BUSINESS 5 Business Details 5 Registration Details 5 Business Premises 6 Organization Chart 6 Management and Ownership 7 Key Personnel 8 Innovation 11 Risk Management 12 Legal Consideration 13 Operations 13 Sustainability Plan 15 THE MARKET 16 Market research 16 Market targets 17 Environment/Industry Analysis 17 The customers 18 SWOT Analysis 20 Sales and distribution channels 21 THE FUTURE 23 Vision Statement 23 Mission Statement 23 Goals/Objectives 23 Action Plan 23 THE FINANCES 24 Finance Objectives 24 Business Plan Summary The plan drawn below regards that of a business by the proposed name as African Fashion and Design Centre. This business intends to engage in customization and designing of clothes and wrist bands as well as foot wares. The design will borrow materials from African cultures, combine with the latest fashion and come up with a customized product in relation to the demands in the market. The opportunity exists with Australia and beyond and therefore there are high prospects of success for the company. The Business Proposed name: African Fashion and Design Centre Products: Ladies dresses, men shirts and T-shirts, wrist-bands and foot wares The Market Target Market: The business targets all age groups who have desire for a complementary fashion Marketing strategy: The business intends to major on online selling to target many customers The Future Vision Statement To become a world leading African fashion designer and exporter Goals: To promote the African culture in the Australian market through customizing of the dressing fashions To take advantage of the opportunity existing in the Australian clothing industry in regards to customized Cultural dressings To use the latest creativity in fusing the modern fashion and the African cultural designs in promoting cloth designs The Finance The business targets a profit of$4110 in a span one year after operation. The proposed start up capital is $4210 that will be raised through owner’s savings, loans and grant. THE BUSINESS Business Details The proposed business intends to engage produce and sell the African clothing designs using the modern online platforms. The clothing designs range from the clothing ware, the wristband, the shoe wears and the complementary portable women bags to complete the outfit. The entire design covers everything considered as a part of the clothing meant to March the African culture or promotes the African clothing culture. The business seeks to include all these facets under the umbrella of African clothing design. The focus is on how to locally produce such items and promote them both top the local and foreign markets. Recently, there has been a growing demand to complement the modern fashion with a kind of African outfit depicting the colors, model, and the African feel. The desire has been witnessed especially in the clothing industry where this knowledge has been borrowed to complement the modern classic fashion. Some of the African designs have been demanded both for casual and official wares. The Australian market, as well as other international markets, has a great potential for a supplementary clothing design to offer an alternative for the readymade clothing designs which are virtually in every clothing shop (Cravens & Piercy2006). A unique brand in the market would be more appealing and attractive both to the youthful, young and even older generation. The anticipated demand covers on both Africans living in Australia and beyond as well as non-African descents that have a desire to match their clothing patterns with the African feelings. Therefore, this is the demand opportunity intended to be exploited by the business planned. Registration Details Proposed business name: African Fashion and Design Centre Proposed business structure: sole proprietor Business Premises The proposed business is to be located in Canberra City, Australia. The proposal is to have a premise which is located in the highly populated city within an easy reach for potential customers. The plan seeks to start with a three-roomed premise identified in a building, about kilometers from the Parliament House. This region is one of the highly populated areas in Australia. Besides, it has been identified to be highly cosmopolitan. That implies that it is inhabited by many people from diverse cultural grounds as well as different ethnic groups which have found their residence in Australia. Since the focus of the business was on the cross-cultural clothing designs founded from African culture, the cosmopolitan market would be highly ideal for the furnishing of the business prospects and marketing objectives. Other shops are neighboring the premise identified. Most of these shops sell high-end electronics, clothes, household items and some of them deal with fast food. The great traffic flow in this region has also seen the establishment of many restaurant and refreshment outlets within the neighboring shops arguably targeting the customers who need to ease the traffic jam pressure. Organization Chart The following is the proposed organizational chart for African Fashion and Design Centre Management and Ownership African Fashion and Design Centre are proposed to be a sole proprietorship under my person management and ownership. The business is proposed to start from a more liner structure wit few departments and levels of operational due to the small structure. The business will majorly be run by the owner who will oversee every activity in the business. However, the marketing manager as well as the productions manger will be quite critical in ensuring that production and marketing process are well coordinated for purposes of the business success. Decisions making will majorly be made by the owner, productions manager, marketing manager, IT head, sales head and the Quality Control Manager. The production team as well as the sales team is very crucial in the plan. The major qualities required from the members of the production team include their knowledge of the African trends, culture and clothing designs. They are also expected to be knowledgeable on the proper making of clothes, wristbands and shoe wares by integrating the African designs, colors and cultural outlook in the making process. The team is expected be having experience from another related organization either from Africa or from the local market modeling and producing clothing designs of the same expectation. The sales team who are headed by the Sales head is expected to be aware of the local and international demand of the African design in the modern market. They must possess qualification of minimum standards of sales and marketing, be able to identify the potential markets and also be knowledgeable on how to use the social media platform in engaging their potential; and existing clients. Generally, the sales team is expected to be vibrant and active in selling the products of the company in the highly competitive clothing industry in Australia and even markets beyond Australia. Key Personnel Job Title Quantity Expected staff turnover Skills necessary Date required Marketing Manager 1 [2-3 years] Academic Qualification in Marketing [At least 2 years experience.] [January/2018] Production Manager 1 [2-3 years] Academic qualification in clothing production and design [At least 2 years experience.] [January/2018] IT Coordinator 1 [2-3 years] Academic qualification in Information Technology [At least 2 years experience.] [January/2018] Sales Head 1 [2-3 years] Academic Qualification in Sales [At least 2 years experience.] [January/2018] Quality Control Manager 1 [1 year] Academic Qualification in Quality Management in cloth production [At least 2 years experience.] [January/2018] Sales Team 10 [1 year] Academic Qualification in Sales [January/2018] Marketing Team 5 [1 year] Academic qualification in marketing [January/2018] Recruitment option The ideal recruitment strategy intended is to majorly use advertisement on the local media and online platform so as to invite application from people possessing the required qualifications. The advertisement is to run on the basic online advertisement platforms and social media platforms frequently used by the job seekers. Training Programs The business intends to ensure periodic training programs for its staff. The training program is intended to equip the staff with knowledge regarding how to effectively remain productivity within their areas and how to maximize exponentially from the available opportunities within the market. The training is to be commenced when the staff gets recruited in the business and further be rolled out on an annual basis for purposes of skill polishing and improvement. Skills Retention Strategy The business intends to have a record of all employees and their performance milestones in different departments. The outcomes from the performance of all the employees are intended to be documented so as to show which specific skills need improvement or otherwise. The business further seeks to carry out regular performance appraisal. The performance appraisal is intended to assess the existing skills of the workforce and determine points of deviations from the objectives set in the strategic plan of the business. This helps in proposing need for training. Product/Service Description Price African dresses for ladies and women The dresses are of different colours, different patterns and drawings and are of different sizes. They have unique African feel in the drawings, paintings and shades. 48A$ African shirt for men The shirts are of different sizes and colours. They are unique with the patterns drawn around the collar to me patched by the pants. 40A$ African foot wares The footwear comes in different shapes and sizes. They are black but have the African shades. 25A$ Wrist bands Wrist bangs come in different colours and are made with the beads of different shades 5A$ Necklaces and beads These come in different shapes and colours 6A$ Market position: The products promoted and sold by the business are competitive products. They are intended to give a complementary alternative to the normal clothing fashion which is usually readymade products in the market. The products have a price-friendly strategy which makes them compare quite competitively to others in the market. For example, most competitors sell their African dresses meant for ladies at 55-60A$ (Cohen 2005). Besides, most of the products offered by the competitors have little unique features embedded upon them. Therefore, the business offers a more competitive product bunch into the market. Selling position: African Fashion and Design Centre seek to operate both physical selling point as well as intense selling through the internet. The physical premise is intended to have a point of access, especially to the local customers. Besides, the business intends to have a robust online selling platform to enable the customers located oversees have access to the products. Anticipated demand: The business anticipates that every product is bought by an average of 50 customers every month. This implies that the business targets about 250 customers at the beginning. This figure is projected to rise after six months of entering the market (Hollensen 2015). Pricing strategy: the business intends to charge the minimum average price in the market. This represents the least end of the average charged within the market for all its products. The startup has chosen on this strategy so as to enable the business enter into the market, appeal to more clients and gain a considerable market share. Value to customers: the products combine the elements of necessity and luxury. Clothes are necessities in life. However, the additional of the African feel and fashion gives them a more luxurious quality to the customers. Growth potential: the products are expected to grow on an annual basis due to the market research and the profitability prospects expected from the market. The growth is expected to be 5% every year both in the value of stock and on the varieties of new products brought into the store by the business. Innovation R&D: The business intends to implement a more robust technology of producing better textile and designing clothing for purposes of improving the quality offered to the market. Research on better fashion making machines and designing technology is intended towards modernizing the clothes and also on ensuring fast production process (Jain & Haley 2009). The business will also implement an innovative strategy on how to fuse between the African culture and the Australian culture in coming up with the designs. Intellectual property strategy The business seeks to register all its innovation and gave the patent right to carry along such innovation. The patent rights are expected to protect the fashioning of the clothes and any new idea generate ion coming up with the designs. Presently, there is no registered patent yet. However, the business intends to make registration of the trademarks and patents. Risk Management Risk Likelihood Impact Strategy The risk of theft of intellectual property especially due to the use of online mechanism to market the products. Likely High The mitigating action will be to register the intellectual property rights through patenting such rights. The risk of financial shortage to finance most of the production and marketing activities of the business. Likely High Identification of additional financing resources such as seeking for grants and financial loans to aid in the financing of the activities of the business. The risk of losing substantial amount of money from fraudulent middle men and business brokers in the Australian clothing industry. Highly Likely High Direct selling or using of accredited agencies to promote the products of the business will be the strategy used to combat and mitigate the happening of the risk. The risk of low revenues during the initial period of introducing the unique product into the market. Highly Likely Medium The risk would be mitigated by producing few products so as to minimize the production costs at the initial stages of the business. Legal Consideration The Consumer law of Australia will have the immense impact on the activities of this business since it specifies the rights of consumers and the actions of businesses towards meeting such rights (Wood 2008). Besides, the Business Law prevailing in Australia dictates the conduct of business such as defining ethical practices expected of businesses. These laws have a direct implication on the business performance. Operations Production process African Fashion and Design Centre intend to specialize in production and fashioning of clothes. The process involves getting already manufactured clothes, customizes the clothes according to the preferences of the customers and also adds African complements to the clothes. The women dresses are customized and fashioned using the preferences on the size and models of the customers. Besides, the wristbands and the foot necklaces are sewn using the beads. There are no manufacturing activities in the business. The business majorly customizes the already produced textiles and simply fits them with the African beads. The products are delivered to the local markets using the sales team. Besides, the business intends to exploit the use of established oversee transporting agencies so as to be able to supply the products to the international markets with ease. Suppliers There are two major suppliers intended for African Fashion and Design Centre. The first suppliers are the textile manufacturing company called Fast Company. The company which produces various clothing materials will be in charge of supplying clothes and another assortment of buttons to the business. The other supplier is an African based company called Natives which is in charge of supplying various beads of different colors and makes. These will be used in making the wristbands and the also as assortment for fashioning the clothes. A good relationship will be maintained through having a comprehensive and timely payment program upon delivery of the required raw materials. Technology The business intends to use the QuickBooks accounting software for the purpose of accountability. This will help maintain proper records for a start up business and ensure efficient use of the financial resources. Besides, the business expects to run the sales through its website which offers a proper interface between the market and the potential and existing customers. Communication channels; the business intends to run a 24-hour service telephone lone and email services to allow the customers easily interact and communicate with use. Also, there will be the active administration of the social media accounts to facilitate easy communication with the clients. Payments accepted; the most acceptable and advocated payment type is the use of cash to allow the startup company make returns and continue in its production processes. However, the business will also allow for payments to be made in cheques as an alternative. The other type will be through allowing short credit periods so as to integrate the credit customers into the database of the business. However, the credit sales will be highly limited at the initial stages of the business. Quality Control The business intends to set up a quality control management department within its structure. The department will be in charge of ensuring that all the clothes and other assortments which come out of the company meet the desired quality as per the expectation of the clients. These imply the quality of the final products and ensuring that the products meet value for money. This will be done by physical inspection of the final products and gauge the customer's views in regards to the products bought. Sustainability Plan Environmental impact African Fashion and Design Centre have little negative impacts on the environment. The challenge is at the disposal of the clothing materials which have been cut off from the customization and fashioning process. This produce has the ability to cause pollution to the environment. Community impact and engagement The business impacts positively in the community surrounding the establishment of African Fashion and Design Centre. The members of this community will be absorbed into the business especially in departments such as the sales teams and the marketing team. This is intended to give back to the society and also to promote positive coexistence between the business and the community. The business will engage the members of the community in performing most of the basic activities such as fixing the beads and processing of the recycling pieces of clothes into packaging for easy transportation. The level of engagement with the community will also be witnessed in the involvement of the African Fashion and Design Centre in Corporate Social Responsibilities such as promoting environmental protection and conservation. The Strategies The strategies intended by African Fashion and Design Centre to mitigate the possible pollution effect is through recycling of the already used pieces of materials and selling such to other companies or businesses dealing with assorted pieces of clothes such as those making pillows and cushions. This will help minimize the wastes channeled to the environment. The reduction of any pollution of any kind will help to promote a positive environment and promote CSR participation in the society. THE MARKET Market research The market opportunities existing within Australia and beyond were discovered through customer preference patterns in the clothing industry. The realization of these opportunities came from careful consideration of the demand in regards to the suitable clothing besides the official office wear. There was an actual statistical assessment done to realize the potentialities existing in this market. This came from the mere observation of the trends within the market and study of the patterns of purchase. The African art has a deep root in Australia and therefore portraying the art through the clothing design would be best suited to fill into the opportunities in the market. An opportunity exists within the clothing industry in which fashion meets culture. There has been strong demand in the way modern fashion can represent and fuse with culture. For example, artists tend to underscore this vast opportunity through their drawings and paintings. The use of this type of clothing design will equally satisfy the target market. Market targets The business has a monthly target of selling at least 50 of every product designed in the business. This includes targeting a sales minimum of at least 50 of every footwear, clothes, wristbands and necklaces every month. These are the targets set for the initial stages of the business but are expected to appreciate as the business occupies a larger market share and become known both domestically and internationally. Environment/Industry Analysis The entire economy of Australia stands out as one of the fast-growing economies in the world. The business sector is highly vibrant and keeps on progressive with the introduction of better technology and advancement in the economic situation. Canberra is one of the regions with a more vibrant economy. The city which is located within the capital territory is populated by an approximate range of 400,000. Most of the people inhabiting this city are the working class who has a relatively stable economic base. The cosmopolitan city is inhabited people from different regions and of different cultures who are attracted to stay in the city for purposes of doing various jobs or business. Ideally, the largest percentage of the residents of Canberra is business people who have the stable economic ability. This makes the performance of the business in this region highly. The market size is about 814.2 km2 which consist of a highly growing population. The residents of this region continue to increase in number, and new people have recently advanced their residence to Canberra. The fashion industry is equally dynamic and vibrant. Many people go for clothing depending on those which are in fashion. In fact, most people in the city are fashion conscious. Therefore, there is a high potential when the latest fashion is fused with the African culture which is highly admired and acceptable in the region. There is a potential of many people accepting the products which have been modeled and customized with fashion and cultural blend. This explains why the business chose this region and the possibility of realizing much return on the investment. When we finally launch our participation in the market, many customers will change and shift top the African-customized products. The casual and official wares which are in the market require a fusion with the African or any cultural taste to make them more desirable. Therefore, we expect a significant customer shift towards out products. The customers Customer demographics African Fashion and Design Centre targets both men and women. The products which will be developed are for all the gender. Besides, the products are meant for all the age groups. That means from the children to the old people are targeted by the products. The youth, however, are specifically targeted with the wristbands and the foot ware designs which are tailor-made to meet their fashion preferences. The target customers are trendy, and the kind of designs given to them need to meet their preferences for trends. Besides, there is a growing preference for cultural aspects in their fashion. Most people within this have high preferences for African culture fusing with their trendy fashion. The business will seek to exploit this level of preference for the African feel and customize the products according to their preferences. Key Customers The key customers targeted by the business are the individual buyers who buy these products for their personal use. However, the business also prospects for large consumers who buy the products in bulk and either sell out again or export elsewhere. These are however secondary to the individual buyers due to the starting small scale of African Fashion and Design Centre. Later, the business will expand its scale of operations and include the secondary buyers of the products. The business has a significant target for people with African descent who stay in Australia. The statistical information reveals a considerable number of citizens and residents of Australia have a link with the African culture. For example, there are many Africans who stay in Australia. These residents have a preference for clothes which portray their culture in an integrated fashion. Therefore, this category of people will form a central focus of the business in regards to target marketing. Customer management The business intends to manage the customers by enhancing the quality of products and also through fair price strategy. This will give reason to the customers to consistently come back and seek the products offered by African Fashion and Design Centre. SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses - Integration of fashion and culture - strategic location of the premise - Robust technology to aid in online communication - Existence of ready supply of raw materials and expertise High initial costs and capital required Little technological infrastructure available in the business Opportunities Threats - high customer demand on Africa customized designs both in Australia and beyond - stable economic potentials of the targeted customers in the market - Low business producers to meet the growing demand for African designs within the market - Great competition from other established clothe fashion companies - Challenges associated with online marketing of products such as clothes - Ease of duplication of the innovation and creativity in the designs made by the business How to address the weaknesses The business intends to seek its budget financing from grants and loaning services so as to meet the high initial costs of establishment. This is additional to the savings made so as to buttress the high costs required. Besides, the technology applied in the business will be improved through the installation of modern facilities especially after realizing full potentials in the market. The technology will aid in quick customization of the products and also mechanizing most of the activities from manual hands of the workers. How to address the threats The business intends to counter the increased competition in the industry by focusing primarily on its unique designs so as to target on a particular market segments. Most clothe business sell the already-made fashions. Therefore, the customization of the products would be advantageous to several customers seeking a unique product. The online market is robust with several challenges such as fraud, hacking, pirating, and theft among many others. The business intends to use secured social media accounts and online portfolio to help guard against such challenges such as building firewall to secure the content of the business. Lastly, the business intends to register its patent rights so as to secure its creativity and innovation against duplication from other players within the industry. The ideas behind customization will be licensed and registered to protect such from duplication. Sales and distribution channels Channel type Products/services Percentage of sales (%) Advantages Disadvantages Internet Channel Foot wares Lady’s wear Wrist bands Necklaces 70% Easy for identifying many customers Quick way of accessing the market Easy access of oversee markets Prone to online challenges such as internet theft Prone to fraudulent customers who default in making full payments Requires the establishment and maintenance of a robust technological infrastructure Shop front channel Foot wares Lady’s wear Wrist bands Necklaces 50% Suitable for domestic clients Quick means of dominating the local market Suitable for selling small items such as the wrist bands Its susceptible to the intense competition in the domestic industry Not suitable for accessing large markets Wholesale method Foot wares Lady’s wear Wrist bands Necklaces 60% Suitable for selling the products to major retailers in the market Quick way of disposing off the products at a large scale Suitable for large and bulky products such as the ladies wear It’s not ideal for selling mall items Exportation of the products Foot wares Lady’s wear Wrist bands Necklaces 40% Is a prudent means for accessing foreign markets It’s a cheap strategy for accessing the over sea markets Profitable for small start ups such as my company It is prone to financial challenges especially in managing the exportation networks. Its susceptible to currency changes and legal challenges in benefiting from the foreign markets THE FUTURE Vision Statement To become a world leading African fashion designer and exporter Mission Statement To integrate the African culture into coming up with latest customized dressings to complement the fashion in the clothing industry. Goals/Objectives To promote the African culture in the Australian market through customizing of the dressing fashions To take advantage of the opportunity existing in the Australian clothing industry in regards to customized Cultural dressings To use the latest creativity in fusing the modern fashion and the African cultural designs in promoting cloth designs Action Plan Milestone Date of expected completion Person responsible Setting up the physical premise in Australia 6 months from today; 30th September, 2017 The manager Completing hiring process of all the staff in the company 8 months from today: 30th November, 2017 The manager Rolling out the process of cloth designing and customization process 9 months from today: 30th December, 2017 The Products Manager Establishing the marketing channels and setting out the process of marketing 10 months from today: 30 January, 2018 The marketing manager THE FINANCES Finance Objectives To increase the volume of sales of the products to enhance the sales revenue To increase the income potentials and enhance funding activities such as soliciting for grants and investor trust Reduce expenditure operations so as to save on costs of operations Finance required References Cohen, W. A. (2005). The marketing plan. John Wiley & Sons. Cravens, D. W., & Piercy, N. (2006). Strategic marketing (Vol. 7). New York: McGraw-Hill. Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Jain, S. C., & Haley, G. T. (2009). Marketing planning and strategy. Cincinnati South-Western Publishing Company 1985.. Peter, J. P., & Donnelly, J. H. (2011). Marketing management: knowledge and skills: text, analysis, cases, plans. Plano: Business pub., INC. Wood, M. B. (2008). The marketing plan handbook. Pearson Prentice Hall. Read More