MANAGEMENT
We have been given the task to design a mini venture and discuss the learnings from our experience. The name of our business venture is Pets Go. Pets Go is basically a pet store which was decided to be established in the area of Halifax in Canada. We will answer the seven basic questions of who, what, when, why, where, how much and how often in relation to this business venture.
As mentioned, the location for this business venture was decided as Halifax, Canada. Halifax is the capital of the smallest province of Canada, Nova Scotia. The city of Halifax is regarded as a great business center- it offers an ideal and conducive environment for carrying out businesses of various sorts. It was decided by the owners that they would set up the pets store in a popular street in the city so as to gain more attention of pet lovers and those interested in helping the pets. There will be ample parking space available to customers so that they can make their visit to the pet shop a memorable one.
Business Venture Details
We named the business venture as Pets Go. The idea behind Pets Go was to establish a store where pet lovers can come and buy items which help them in offering more care and comfort to their pets. The store was established by keeping into account the types of pets people like to keep in the area of Halifax so that the needed care based items can be available to them within ease of access.
The venture Pets Go is based on the partnership of three friends who are still doing their bachelors and they wish to become a part of this venture to create a better understanding of business planning and management. The partners have equally participated in the venture planning by ensuring that they apply all the business concepts they have learned during the duration of their degree program. They have also made use of creativity and came up with the idea of pet shop which targets a niche market.
Budget
As the business partners were students so the number of funds they had were limited. Some money was borrowed from family members and close friends which helped them in setting up the pet store in the mentioned location. The initial budget was enough to get hold of basic pet care items. The pet care items were mostly related to the beauty and health of pets. This is because pet owners have two concerns (a) they want to keep their pets healthy, clean and away from illnesses (b) they want to pamper their pets and give beauty treatments so that they could walk with their pets proudly in the streets and at parties.
Services Offered
We decided to offer several kinds of services in out pet store such as:
-Pet food
-Pet care training manuals
-Beauty products such as soaps, shampoos, hair accessories
-Pet care training classes for beginners
-Service of Vet
-Pet house and bedding
-Pet cleaning products and manuals
-Pet toys
Pricing
The price of pet car items available at the Pets Go would not be expensive. This is because we aim to make out pet shop an affordable one so that pet owners do not deprive their pets of the best beauty and health care products only because they cannot afford it. We do not wish to keep our prices very low either as this will give the pet owners and image that we do not take the pet care business seriously and offer sub standard products and services.
Promotion
There could be several ways which we can employ to promote this business venture. The most popular way is to advertise about the pet store in newspapers especially on weekends when people get to read newspapers more. Brochures can also be distributed at popular places such as shopping malls, bus stops, train stations and even door to door. Speical pet care events can be organized by the business venture team so as to educate the pet owners and pet lovers about the basics of pet care, nutrition, hygiene and how to inculcate a sense of responsibilities within themselves with regard to the care of pet animals. Seminars and pet care awareness programs can also be organized for the purpose of creating awareness about the Pets Go venture.
Business Planning and Learning
Before carrying out the task of opening the business venture of a pet shop in the area of Halifax, several business planning steps had to be carried out. We learned that the first step is carrying out any business is to conduct a situational analysis. A situational analysis is based on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the organization as well as the outlook for factors in the external environment which serve as opportunities and threats at both current and future times. Several other factors also need to be considered with regards to the environment in which the pet shop would be operating. The factors include political concerns, economic factors, social factors, environmental measures, technological aspects and most importantly, the laws and regulations in relation to pet care and possession in the area of Halifax.
We also learned that whenever a business venture is established, it cannot run in isolation. This means that for every business, there exist competitors. For Pets Go, the competitors could be other pet shops already established in the area which has a sound customer base and they have successfully gained brand equity in Halifax. By offering excellent quality products and services to those who visit the pet shop, it is quite likely that the customers would want to buy pet care items from Pets Go. Also if the price offered by Pets Go is less than those of competitors and quality levels are kept at a premium, then it is quite likely that the newly established pet shop will attract market share.
References
Christopher, M., Payne, A., & Ballantyne, D. (1991). Relationship marketing: bringing quality customer service and marketing together.
Houben, G., Lenie, K., & Vanhoof, K. (1999). A knowledge-based SWOT-analysis system as an instrument for strategic planning in small and medium sized enterprises. Decision support systems, 26(2), 125-135.
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