Business
Introduction
Jessica is passionate about creating beauty ever since she was a child. She had just received her certificate from her hairstyling and cosmetology courses and is very excited to apply her knowledge and skills in the field. Her kids are now at school-age which allows her more time to venture into a small business that would fit her family schedule.
Over the years, she has made many friends in her neighborhood, and she is confident that she can bank on her connections to start off her business that she calls Haircuts-at-home (HAH). She will offer haircuts, hair treatment and make-up at home or visit clients to do these for them at the comfort of their own home.
Mission Statement
The mission statement of HAH is: “to provide the best hair and make-up services that will bring out your own beauty”.
Short-term Goals
In the short-term, Jessica aims to establish HAH as a start-up business. The success of HAH would be her entry point and deciding factor to pursue having a salon of her own in the long-run.
Long-term Goals
Establishing a salon with spa is Jessica’s ultimate goal. Capitalizing on the positive reputation from her HAH business, she figures she can expand into this area when her kids are grown up. She can launch a salon from scratch or enter into a franchise agreement.
Situational Analysis
Strengths
Jessica is passionate about beautifying people and is very creative at it. Her family had lived in their town for quite a while. Being active in the community earned them good reputation and enabled her to be connected with majority of the families in her community. From talking with working moms, she determined that there is strong demand for beauty care in home servicing.
Weaknesses
Inherent to being a new business, Jessica is yet to prove her position in beauty care. Moreover, her time is constrained by his family’s schedule of activities, mainly of their two children.
Opportunities
Jessica’s hometown is growing fast. The families who moved there more than 10 years ago have teenage girls by now who can be her potential clients. New families are coming in as well, who want to live away from the city.
There is little competition in beauty care services in the community. In fact, in the town-proper, there is only one hair shop, which only offer haircuts with hardly any styling involved.
Threats
Anyone with interest and certification can go into a beauty care home-business. This easy entry can create stiff competition later on. Moreover, the budget for beauty care is based on a family’s disposable income, which is dependent on economic condition. In bad times, business can go also go bad.
Marketing Strategy
The following elements make up HAH’s simple marketing strategy.
- Target Market: ABC town with more than one thousand families and growing.
- Service: HAH offers haircuts, hair treatment and make-up services.
- Place or Distribution: HAH will be delivering its services at Jessica’s home or at the clients’ home for their convenience
- Promotion: Initially, HAH will be promoted by word-of-mouth. Attuned to e-Business trend, her husband who is in the IT field would help her develop a website where HAH can be promoted, and facilitate her service bookings.
- Price: Customized to the town’s household affordability, HAH offers its services at the following price points.
Implementation Plan and Budget
Jessica plans to register her business as a sole proprietor and will secure required permits from the municipality. She will be managing and providing the services herself in her free time on weekdays and weekends.
Initially, she needs a capital of $5,000 that she took out of their family savings. The amount is enough to cover for the equipments she needs at home and the beauty products she will be using.
She has drawn up the following budget on her first year of operation. Subject to achievement of this target and progress in the next 2-5 years, she plans to pursue launching her own salon in town.
References
Melcrum, Ltd (2014).9 Steps to Effective Strategic Planning. Retrieved from
https://www.melcrum.com/research/strategy-planning-tactics/9-steps-effective-strategic-planning
Kiskea (Mar 2014). Introduction to e-Business. Retrieved from
http://en.kioskea.net/contents/206-introduction-to-e-business
