The business that I have chosen to do a business plan for is a children’s clothes shop. I have chosen this type of business because I have previously worked in a children’s clothes shop for a few years, therefore I feel that I have the right skills to do a business plan for a clothes shop because I know what the objectives of a children’s clothes shop could be, also because I have experience in working in a clothes shop and also because it is a simple business to do. The business will be situated in Spindles Oldham town centre unit 36. The main reason for me wanting to open a children’s clothes shop. Also my family owns a clothes shop in Manchester and a clothes shop in Oldham.
The name of the clothes shop will be ‘slick kids (c)’. I have chosen this name for the children’s clothes shop because the clothes shop is for children and does not have adult’s clothes in it. It only sells to children. This will fill a market niche because it only sells children’s clothes and clothes that are not in stock can be ordered if there children’s sizes are not available. Its target market is children. The legal status of my business is a sole trader this is a term of business where one person runs the business.
I want it to be a sole trader because I am doing the business plan individually and because it is only a small shop. The advantages of the sole trader are they have complete control, they are independent, and the owner has flexibility so if an activity is not profitable the owner can switch to something that is more profitable, and keep all profits and there are small start up costs compared to other type of business. The drawbacks of this type of business are that they have unlimited liability and bear all risks.
The clothes shop will open at 0900 and close at 1700 six days a week. The shop will be closed on Sunday. When carrying out primary research I constructed a questionnaire. The aim of the questionnaire is to find out information about customers. I distributed the questionnaires in my cousin’s shop. I interviewed 40 people in total. As customers came into the shop they were given the questionnaire. They filled in the questionnaire before leaving the shop. I got a great response from customers and it was a real help in preparing my business plan. I also distributed them at college.
From the 40 people who took part in the research 15 people would buy clothes from Oldham and the other 25 people would not buy clothes from Oldham. From the 40 people that I interviewed 15 people shop at Trafford centre, 12 people shop in the Arndale and 13 shop elsewhere. From the 40 people that I interviewed 10 people’s favourite clothes shop was Debenehams. 12 people’s favourite clothes shop was Adams. 28 people had other favourite shops.
From the 40 people that were interviewed 11 people were buying clothes once a week. 16 people buy clothes fortnightly. 13 people buy clothes monthly. I am going to segment the market demographically (age, gender ; social class). This is because my target market is children between the ages of 5- 15. To start off with we will also be segmenting the market geographically (region) because I am only going to sell my clothing in Oldham to start with. My target market will be children between the age of 5 to 15 for all nationalities, race and religions of both genders. Conducting market research is important for this clothes shop because it will give me an idea of whether or not my clothes shop is needed, and where it could be situated. Also it will give me an idea of who my target market is.
An analysis of the external environment I will be analysing my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and comparing these with the competitions strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis is the assessment of a product, division or organisation in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Its simple, four-box format makes it easy to use as a visual aid in a management meeting or conference. The strengths and weaknesses are the actual position of the product or company, while opportunities and threats represent future potential.
