Executive Summary The Paw Print is a small, local pet store that is located in Lower Burrell, PA.
The Paw Print carries a wide range of small pets, pet food, pet toys, and has a thriving pet grooming service.
They have been open under different management for approximately 15 years.
They have been open under the current management for almost two years now.
They are the only pet shop within approximately 15 miles of Lower Burrell with PetLand and another national chain store being the closest.
Paw Print would like to extend its offerings to the area by expanding its brick and mortar store into the e-business arena.
By expanding its brick and mortar store into the e-business arena, the Paw Print will generate approximately 20% more revenue per year. In order to achieve this goal, the Paw Print must implement several long-term strategies that will guide them to the full benefits of the e-business world.
First, they must add technology to their store.
Currently, the Paw Print uses ledger books instead of accounting and inventory software.
This strategic plan requires that they implement QuickBooks Pro within two months of the plan being accepted in order to track inventory and accounting electronically.
While this is being completed, the Paw Print will have a web design service create a static web site that they can start to publicize.
After the static site is in place and the inventory is in electronic format, the web site designers will start to implement more interactive features on the web site. Once the strategic plan is fully implemented, the Paw Print can expect to break even on their investment in approximately four months time.
This figure is based on approximately 20% increase in revenues per month, about $4,000, weighed against an initial investment of $14,000. The greatest risk to the Paw Print comes in the form of hackers and other malicious users.
In order to mitigate this risk, the Paw Print will outsource the web-hosting portion of its e-business.
The hosting company will have the expertise to configure the systems correctly and maintain security patches, etc for the Paw Print. Paw Print Strategic Plan Company Background The Paw Print is a small, local pet store that is located in Lower Burrell, PA.
The Paw Print carries a wide range of small pets, pet food, pet toys, and has a thriving pet grooming service.
They offer a number of different lizards, birds, mice, kittens, and other creatures.
They also have a large collection of fish available for sale along with aquariums and supplies.
They also offer a pet grooming service concentrating on dogs and cats, but they will also groom other animals as demand calls for. They have been open under different management for approximately 15 years.
They have been open under the current management for almost two years now.
They employ two full time groomers, two part time groomers, three part time employees, the owner as the manager, and her husband as part time manager. They are the only pet shop within approximately 12 miles of Lower Burrell with PetLand and another national chain store being the closest.
Paw Print currently leases space inside a building that has several other businesses in it as well.
They are currently limited in the size of their store because any empty locations in the building are not adjacent to their current space.
They have discussed looking to relocate to a location that offers greater space for showrooms, stock items, and more grooming bays. They do not currently have their own website, but they do have a single information page on the www.bizburgh.com website that promotes businesses in the Pittsburgh, PA region.
This site has the store hours and location information listed, but is a static page with no options for any interactions. Being that they have been a small, family owned business, Paw Print has never taken the time to create a vision or mission statement.
As part of their strategic plan, the following vision and mission statements are being proposed to Paw Print for adoption. Vision Statement Providing Pets, Caring for Pets, Building Love. These three phrases combine to outline what the Paw Print is all about.
The first phrase, Providing Pets, is one of the main objectives of the pet store: To provide pets to persons of all ages.
They currently do this with their selection of small pets and fish.
The second phrase, caring for pets is what they provide with the grooming service and the food and toy areas.
Building love is their objective when placing pets in homes.
They reserve the right to refuse to sell any animal if they have any doubts on the care that it might receive.
When they build love of pets into their customers, they are ensuring that these owners will continue to care for their pets which means repeat business for the Paw Print. Mission Statement "The mission of the Paw Print is to provide pets and services to the people of Lower Burrell and its surrounding communities while building relationships with our customers." This mission statement guides the Paw Print in how they should conduct their business.
It shows that employees should strive to provide the pets and services that the customers want, while at the same time trying to build a business relationship with the customer.
This relationship, along with strong customer service and quality products, is what will keep the customers coming back the Paw Print and being repeat customers. Environmental Analysis Internal Environment The internal environment for Paw Print can be examined by looking at both Paw Print's strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths Lack of immediate competition Name recognition in area Knowledge Existing customer base for groomers Weaknesses Low to no technology exists in store No space available for expansion Several competitors for grooming in the immediate area Lack of immediate competition Other than grooming shops in the immediate area, the nearest competitor that sells small animals and fish are approximately 15 miles away.
This allows the Paw Print the ability to be the only store around that supplies these pets and fish, driving down price competition. Name recognition in the area Since Paw Print has been in operation for over 15 years, most people in the area know the name of the store and right where it is located.
Many locals prefer to shop at the Paw Print instead of driving 15 miles to the larger stores and fighting the traffic that is associated with getting to them. Knowledge Paw Print employees are all animal enthusiasts.
As such, they have a variety of knowledge about most pets.
This knowledge lends itself to customer service when the customer is not sure what they really need or want.
Paw Print employees have the ability to offer the guidance that the customer needs because most of the employees have been through the same or a similar situation with one of their pets. Existing customer base for Groomers Many people dot over their animals as if they were their own children.
As with your own children, you don't just take them to any barber or hairstylist where you happen to be.
You find your groomer and you stay with them.
The groomers that Paw Print employee's are of the highest caliber and have been doing this for many years.
As such, they have a solid customer base that they provide their services to.
This customer base helps the store because they keep the customers happy while minimizing the risk to other companies. Low to no technology exists in store Today, technology in the Paw Print is limited to the terminal that is used to run credit card transactions.
Because they are a small business, it has not been a priority for the Paw Print to invest in any technologies that will help them run the store more efficiently.
Paw Print, in wanting to expand their services into the e-business realm will have to upgrade the store and install at least one computer to deal with the inventory issues and customer management. No space for Expansion The Paw Print leases space in a building that houses several different businesses.
The space that they occupy is limited to what they currently lease as they have businesses on the sides of them.
Their current store layout is chopped up into several rooms that give a closed in and small feeling to the location.
They have the fish in one of these rooms, pets in another section, supplies in a third section, and the grooming areas behind doors in a separate area.
The Paw Print also has a small trailer parked outside of the backdoor to their store.
This trailer allows them additional storage space as well.
However, they are limited to just the small trailer as there is no room for a larger sized trailer. In order to expand to e-business, the Paw Print will have to expand stock items to fill the additional demand.
In order to have room for the additional stock, the Paw Print will have to find more room for these supplies.
At this point in time, they only have a couple, limited options.
Option 1 is to rent out additional space in the building, however it cannot be directly accessed from the store as there are other businesses on the sides of the Paw Print.
Using the additional space in the building would then require employees to leave the store in order to retrieve the supplies. A second option for the Paw Print is to look for a new location when their current lease expires.
Their current lease is set to expire December 31, 2005 and has an automatic yearly renewal if neither party expressly cancels it.
There are several buildings on the main road in Lower Burrell that are available for lease or purchase.
Any of these buildings would need extensive modifications to meet the needs of the Paw Print. Local competition for grooming services Within a 5 mile radius, there are several other businesses that specialize in pet grooming services.
These competitors provide grooming and basic pet grooming supplies (shampoos, etc), but they do not carry food, toys, small pets, etc.
These other grooming businesses have existed for a long time and they have their own base of customers that are not likely to switch to the Paw Print.
However, if customers become dissatisfied with the service they are receiving from a groomer they are more likely to leave the business entirely then ask for a different groomer.
Many customers are looking to save money as well, they will switch from one business to another because of price savings.
The Paw Print needs to follow the local market in order to keep themselves priced competitively.
At the same time, they need to differentiate themselves from the rest of the grooming services in order to attract new customers. External Environment Remote Remote environment has to deal with economic, political, social, technological and ecological issues.
These are issues that all businesses have to face in one way or another.
Some businesses are affected more than others.
The Paw Print has to deal with technological issues and economic issues. From a technology side, the Paw Print still uses ledger books for all accounting and inventory items.
They do not have any computers in the store currently and they do not receive the benefits from electronic ordering with suppliers.
All of the main competitors of the Paw Print are larger chain pet stores that have these systems in place. The economic issues that surround the Paw Print primarily deal with where they are located.
They are located in a small town that is a mix of older and younger generations.
Many of the younger people commute to different towns (including Pittsburgh, about 25 miles away).
These commuters pass the larger chain stores on their way to Pittsburgh, but the stores are off the expressway and are inconvenient for commuters already frustrated with the rush hour traffic.
The Paw Print is located on the main road in Lower Burrell, easily accessible by customers and conveniently located in town.
The Paw Print is also a small family store versus large chain stores approximately 15 miles away.
While being small limits the amount of items they purchase and lessens the volume discounts available, it provides a warm atmosphere where you are welcome to bring your pet. Industry The industry environment takes into account entry barriers, buyer power, supplier power, and the availability of substitutes. The Paw Print is an established customer with supplier relationships already in place.
In addition to the larger suppliers of food, supplies and small pets, the Paw Print also has relationships with local animal breeders to maintain supplies of small animals.
These local breeders provide a cost discount on the small animals as the costs of shipping and handling the animals is almost zero. The Paw Print does have limited buying power do to the smaller amounts of products and services they currently sell.
However, with the 20% increase in sales that are expected from the Internet they will be able to increase their buying power. Operating Environment The operating environment contains the competitors, creditors, customers, labor, and suppliers.
This environment covers issues that revolve around running the business. The Paw Print has no competitors within a 15 mile radius for small pets and supplies for these pets.
Approximately 15 miles away are two chain stores within about ¼ mile of each other.
These competitors are PetLand and Pet Supplies Plus.
Both of these are national chain stores with millions of dollars of revenue per year. For pet grooming, there are approximately three competitors within a two mile radius of the Paw Print.
These competitors offer full service pet grooming as does the Paw Print and they offer grooming supplies such as shampoo, combs, bows, etc.
The competitors do not carry items such as food, litter, toys, etc.
that the Paw Print does carry. The Paw Print is able to keep its labor costs reduced by having the owners work as full time managers.
During busy times, both owners will work to supplement the staff.
During slower times, the owners will split the shifts in order to have personal time off.
The majority of the staff are family members that work part time for the store.
There are three part time employees that work evenings and weekends to stock shelves, wait on customers, clean, and perform other duties.
There are two full time and two part time employees that work just as groomers.
In addition, the owners fill in for the groomers during busy periods.
The full time employees are provided with health benefits, though they have to pay a small sum each month out of pocket.
The part time employees are not provide any health benefits. Long Term Objectives In order to stay competitive and profitable, the Paw Print has set the following long-term objectives: 1) Update the technology available in the store, putting inventory and sales into a software package for ease of management. 2) Create and maintain an e-business presence by having a website that offers products for sale, allows reservations for grooming, and that offers free advice sections to keep customers interested and coming back. 3) Purchase or lease a new building in the immediate area to allow for expansions as business grows.
The new building should have additional stock, showroom, and grooming areas available. It is important that the Paw Print recognizes the need for technology within the store.
Without adding computer aided inventory and sales tracking, they will not be able to achieve their goal of doing business over the Internet without the fear of being short on products.
A proper system will allow them to continuously know what they have in stock and what has been sold in the store and over the Internet.
This will allow them to streamline their ordering processes and approach a more JIT model. The ultimate goal for the Paw Print is to enter the e-business arena.
They have the ability to serve the local communities and make it easier for their customers to conduct business with them.
This arena will expand their reach from the immediate areas into a more regional and possibly global market. While the Paw Print is currently limited in the space that they have available to them, they must look ahead to future business needs.
Adding an e-business segment to their store will increase the amount of storeroom areas they need to handle the increased sales demands. Strategic Analysis and Choice The Paw Print is faced with many choices on how to continue their business and compete with the larger chain stores.
They have decided on a strategy to further expand their services and features.
They know they cannot compete directly on price with the large chain stores and therefore need to compete on the customer service.
One area of customer service that the Paw Print will improve upon is to increase staff knowledge on all the pets and supplies that they carry in order to more accurately convey this information to the customers. Plan Goals and Implementation Whenever an objective is set by a company, it is important that goals be set to measure the progress on achieving these goals.
In order to achieve the goals, the Paw Print must set strategies and measurements to reach these goals.
These strategies and measurements make up our strategic roadmap that the company should follow.
The Paw Print has set the following roadmaps for its three long-term objectives. Within 6 months of the implementation of this plan, have all inventory and accounting being completed electronically.
Create a web presence and expand it until they have their full e-commerce site completed.
Explore purchasing or leasing new property that will provide the growth opportunities that are expected to be needed.
Financial Projections and Analysis The Paw Print is an existing brick and mortar business that has approximately $20,000 per month in revenue from a combination of grooming services, pets, and supplies.
In the two years that they have been open under the current management, they have increased sales each year by about 15%.
The previous owners of the Paw Print only recognized 5% growth over the last two years that they owned the business.
It can be seen that the new owners are growing the business and by implementing the e-business portion of the Paw Print, they expect to add an additional 20% to yearly sales. Being an established business will allow the Paw Print to expand to e-commerce with less costs than if they were starting from scratch.
Inventory costs will increase as they increase their inventory levels in anticipation of the increased sales.
They will also have the increased costs of adding hardware and software components to the store, the initial web site design and hosting, the costs to upgrade the web site to be dynamic, and increased rent costs for additional space.
These costs are displayed in the table below. Projected Startup Costs Description Amount Computers for store $ 1,100.00 QuickBooks Pro $ 299.95 Initial static website $ 500.00 web site upgrades $ 2,000.00 Increased rent $5,000 415 per month Increased Inventory $5,000 Total costs $13,899.95 The total start up costs for the Paw Print are $13,899.95.
These are the costs for the first year of the new e-venture and the majority of them are not repeating costs.
With web site sales increasing revenue by 20% or $4,000 per month, the initial break even point will be reached in month 4 of the increased sales. The pro forma profit and loss expectations are included in the table below.
One note is that the owners base salary is included in the payroll expenses on the balance sheet.
Also the increases in rent and inventory costs are shown for 2005 in the other expense column along with the rest of the start up costs.
Starting in 2006 and going into 2007, these additional costs are included under the Rent expense and the Direct Cost of Goods.
From the table, it can be seen that the Paw Print will maintain positive profits even in the first year with increases expected each year. Pro Forma Profit and Loss 2005 2006 2007 Sales $240,000.00 $288,000.00 $345,600.00 Direct Costs of Goods $ 50,000.00 $ 65,000.00 $ 77,000.00 ------------ ------------ ------------ Costs of Goods Sold $ 50,000.00 $ 60,000.00 $ 72,000.00 Gross Margin $190,000.00 $223,000.00 $268,600.00 Expenses: Payroll $108,000.00 $129,600.00 $155,520.00 Sales and Marketing and Other Expenses $ 12,000.00 $ 14,400.00 $ 17,280.00 Utilities $ 10,800.00 $ 12,960.00 $ 15,552.00 Insurance $ 2,400.00 $ 2,880.00 $ 3,456.00 Rent $ 9,600.00 $ 14,400.00 $ 14,400.00 Other $ 13,900.00 $ - $ - ------------ ------------ ------------ Total Operating Expenses $156,700.00 $174,240.00 $206,208.00 Profit Before Interest and Taxes $ 33,300.00 $ 48,760.00 $ 62,392.00 Taxes Incurred $ 10,500.00 $ 12,600.00 $ 15,120.00 Net Profit $ 22,800.00 $ 36,160.00 $ 47,272.00 Because the Paw Print is already established in business, they have a solid balance sheet that is projected to continue to be positive based on past performance and expected increases from the new e-business segment.
The balance sheet also shows that the Paw Print does not have any outstanding loans and that they maintain only a small accounts payable liability.
It also shows that there are no expected large expenditures in the immediate future for the Paw Print. Pro Forma Balance Sheet Assets Current Assets 2005 2006 2007 Cash $20,000 $24,000 $28,800 Inventory $23,500 $28,200 $33,840 Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0 Total Current Assets $45,505 $54,206 $64,647 Long-term Assets Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0 Accumulated Depreciation $0 $0 $0 Total Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0 Total Assets $45,505 $54,206 $64,647 Liabilities and Capital Current Liabilities 2005 2006 2007 Accounts Payable $4,700 $5,640 $6,768 Current Borrowing $0 $0 $0 Other Current Liabilities $0 $0 $0 Subtotal Current Liabilities $4,700 $5,640 $6,768 Long-term Liabilities $0 $0 $0 Total Liabilities $4,700 $5,640 $6,768 Net Worth $40,805 $48,566 $57,879 The Paw Print is in good financial health and from all indications they will continue along this path.
Other than adding the e-business segment to their business, the owners do not have any immediate plans for any large expenditures or changes that could affect the Paw Print. Critical Success Factors Critical success factors are those that must take place in order for the strategic plan to continue to be effective for the company.
These success factors as decided on a per long-term goal and strategic roadmap basis.
These success factors are listed below along with the long-term objective that they correspond to. Moving inventory and accounting to electronic means · Purchase and learn QuickBooks Pro for inventory and accounting.
This should be completed with 2 months of the acceptance of this plan. · Migrate inventory to the new commercial software.
This should be completed within two months of the selection of the software. · Migrate accounting records to the new software within two months of its selection. Create e-business web site · Within 1 month of the acceptance of the plan, create a static web site in order to establish a presence on the web. · Within 3 months of the inventory being moved to electronic tracking, add the ability to purchase products onto the web site. · Within 11 months of the establishment of the static web site, have the ability to place online appointments for grooming services. Controls and Evaluation Whenever strategic plans are put in place, ways to evaluate the success of the plan need to be determined.
It is these measurements that tell the company whether changes are needed to the plan or whether the plan is successfully guiding them where they want to go.
In order to do this successfully for the Paw Print, the following measurements will be taken: 1) The first measurement will be how much revenue increases due to each phase of the e-business plan. 2) A second measurement is the ratio of the cost of the site versus the increased revenue.
Was it worth it? 3) Use web site tracking to see how much the site is being use versus the sales/grooming appointments being made. By measuring how much revenue increases as each phase of the strategic plan is put into place, it will tell us how accurate our plan is.
If the plan is discovered to be inaccurate, the monthly measurements will help provide guidance on how the plan needs to be modified. The second measurement is the cost versus benefit of the site.
With revenues expected to increase by approximately $4,000 per month (20%) and an initial startup cost of approximately $14,000, it is expected to pay for itself in just over three months.
By measuring the actual revenue increases, the Paw Print can see how soon the improvements are actually paid off. The final measurement in not financial, but it is a measurement of how much the website is actually being used.
By analyzing the web logs and web tracking features of the web site, the Paw Print can see what areas of the web site are being visited and those areas that are not being visited.
This knowledge will allow them to modify the website in order to provide what their customers are looking for. Project Implementation Plan In order to meet the objectives of this plan, certain items must be completed within set timeframes.
If an action item gets off track, it has the potential to set back implementation of other areas of the plan.
To help mitigate this risk, the following time frames have been set for the key components of this plan. 1) Accept the strategic plan by June 15, 2005.
The Paw Print must accept this plan and authorize it to move forward no later than June 15, 2005.
If they delay past that date, then all of the following dates must be revised to account for that. 2) Create static web site by July 15, 2005.
Within one month of accepting this plan, the Paw Print will have a static web site created that they can start to publicize.
This static site will consist of their own url (possibly www.pawprint.com) and be the starting point for all future web site projects. 3) Purchase Accounting and inventory software by August 15, 2005.
It is recommended to use QuickBooks Pro for these features.
With the software purchased by August 15, 2005, it gives the Paw Print time to prepare the software for their use before the full migration. 4) Move Inventory to new software by October 15, 2005.
A full store inventory must be taken and entered into QuickBooks Pro by October 15, 2005.
After this point all sales, returns, etc.
must be processed through QuickBooks in order to maintain accurate inventory information. 5) E-shop open by January 15, 2006.
The website will be updated with a shopping feature by this date.
Customers can choose to pick items up in the store or have them delivered to their homes. 6) E-Appointments available by June, 2006.
Within one year of starting this plan, the Paw Print will enter the final phase of the current scope of the plan.
They will allow existing customers to make grooming appointments over the Internet. Technology Plan In today's competitive business world, it is important for businesses to gain any advantages that they can over their competitors.
One way that a business can gain this advantage is through the use of technology to simplify the way they do business.
Business' must carefully way all of their technological options and choose the option that best suits their needs.
This paper will focus on three possible technology alternatives that a business should consider. Open Source Software Open source software is a term used for any software that can be used free of charge.
In the past, the software has usually been hard to use and much less robust than its paid for counterparts.
This is no longer the case, as there are several open source software packages on the market that have joined the ranks of their paid cousins. The biggest benefit of software is the price.
Most of the software can be purchased very cheaply (the cost of the disks and handling charges) or can be downloaded from the Internet.
A second price benefit is in the service plan.
Service plans can be purchased for when support is needed for the software.
If the users are fairly computer literate, these service plans can be eliminated and the users can research their problems on the Internet. While there are cost benefits to using open source software, there can also be some negative items when using open source.
A lot of open source software is not completely compatible with its commercial counterparts.
This lack of compatibility can cause problems when trying to share documents with people outside of your company.
This problem can be mitigated somewhat by carefully choosing the options of commercial software that are used and by saving documents back to plain text when necessary. It is recommended that a combination of open source and commercial software be used in this case.
For the operating system, it is recommended that Microsoft Windows XP Corporate edition be the standard software.
For a file and print server, it is recommended that Linux open source server be used.
While slightly more difficult to set up, the cost difference between Microsoft Small Business Server is approximately $600.
For word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations it is recommended to use the latest version of OpenOffice from OpenOffice.org.
The reviews on this version of the software have it working well with other document formats (Svensson, 2005).
Using OpenOffice is expected to save approximately $400 per user. Web Hosting Being that the goal is to create an e-business, where to host the web site must be decided.
There are pros and cons to hosting the site with external providers versus internal.
If the site is hosted internally, the business must have someone able to support the necessary servers and they must purchase or lease all of the equipment.
On the other hand, if the site is hosted externally there is only the fee paid to the provider.
This fee however is usually much less than the cost of purchasing the hardware and having someone maintain the server.
These companies also are usually connected to multiple Internet backbones in order to have redundant connections to the Internet. Since our business is small, it is recommended that we use a hosting provider to host our website.
1&1 has several levels of packages available starting at only $4.99 per month (www.1and1.com, 2005).
We can purchase a smaller package to start the site and then upgrade our service level as needed in the future.
It is important that the web provider be able to provide at least 99% uptime on whatever hosting package that we need.
It is recommended to start with their business hosting package that runs $9.99 per month until we have the initial website created and our business started.
After that, it is recommended that we upgrade to a managed server package for $79.00 per month.
This package provides us a dedicated server that does not share resources with any other customers.
The server size is more than adequate for our needs and the transfer allowances should be adequate as well. Faxing Needs Even with the popular use of email, every business needs to send and receive faxes at some point or another.
A company has several options on how to set up their offices with faxing capabilities.
The first option is to provide a phone line and a stand alone fax machine in order to receive the faxes.
A second option is a phone line and fax software on a computer equipped with a fax modem.
A third option would be to outsource the faxing to a fax service provider such as eFax.
Each of these options has advantages and each had disadvantages for the company. Both the first and second option require a company to invest in at least one additional phone line in order to avoid tying up their primary phone lines.
Additional phone lines can be somewhat expensive, but they provide the fax capabilities that most people are familiar with.
Simple stand alone fax machines start at approximately $100 and can go up to several thousand dollars depending on the needs of the company.
Some small companies can get by with only one fax machine.
For these companies, a computer with a fax modem is a possible solution.
Many of these solutions are not convenient though if more than one person needs access to the received faxes or need to send faxes.
A person can buy a fax modem for their PC for approximately $40. An additional option for businesses is to use eFax.
eFax provides its customers with a fax phone number that is local to their area.
All faxes are received and stored in a digital format that is then accessed via their software.
While the fax is stored in a proprietary format, anyone can download the viewer and it is possible to convert it to another format.
The faxes can also be emailed to various users in the company depending how accounts are set up.
According to its website, eFax costs approximately $10.50 per month for each fax number and then about 10 cents per page for inbound and outbound faxes.
(eFax.com, 2005). Because we are primarily an e-business and expect to do most of our communications through email and phone, it is recommended that eFax be implemented for this company.
While there is a monthly fee and a per page fee, for the small amount of faxing that will be done it is less expensive than a separate phone line.
eFax also allows for future expansion while still giving employees access to the faxes while limiting the number of phone lines that are needed for the company. Risk Mitigation Risks and Exposure Risk Probability Impact Exposure Customers not wanting to use the Internet .25 .50 1.25 Hackers or other malicious users .40 .80 3.20 To much business for current staff .20 .30 .6 From the chart above, it can be scene that the greatest risk for the Paw Print is the risk of hackers and/or other malicious users.
For the purpose of this ranking, other malicious users include Spy-ware, Ad-ware, and users who make appointments or purchases without intent to fulfill their obligations (similar to teenagers ordering pizza and having it delivered as a prank).
In addition, hackers that enter the Paw Print's website for malicious purposes (destroying data, gathering customer information, defacing the website, etc) are a greater risk than other malicious users.
Hackers can bring the website down or alter information on the website.
In order to reduce this risk, the website will be hosted by an outside company.
This company will be responsible for the security of the web site against hackers.
In addition, the Paw Print and its web site designers will be responsible for maintaining strong passwords on the website (i.e.
not using the word password as the password).
If malicious users become a problem, the Paw Print will implement registration requirements in order to verify who the users are that are making reservations. The second highest risk is that customers will not want to use the new website to interact with the Paw Print.
While this will not cause severe financial harm, it will cause the Paw Print to not achieve its goal of a 20% increase in revenues from the web site.
The majority of the work done on the site will be for naught on the startup costs will have been forfeited.
To mitigate this risk, strong marketing campaigns in the store will be used to publicize the advantages of using the site.
Customer feedback will also be collected in order to gauge what areas of the website are more important and getting used more.
If there is a strong customer demand for a service that is not currently provided, the Paw Print will look at the feasibility of providing this service. The final risk to the Paw Print that is listed is the risk of to much business.
If the website is more popular than expected, the Paw Print might have to hire an additional staff member to deal with the increased sales.
At the same time, they might have to increase inventory levels by an additional amount to meet the demands. Marketing Plan The Paw Print, like all businesses, is faced with competition from several small local shops and two larger chain stores.
In this face of this competition, they have been able to increase their market share and gain new customers.
Below is a list of each of the competitors that the Paw Print must actively follow and brief description of the size of the business and the services provided by each. 1) Doggie Groomers - This small grooming business is located approximately two blocks from the Paw Print.
They specialize in grooming only and do not provide beauty products for sale. 2) Pet Groomers - This grooming business is located approximately one mile from the Paw Print and they provide grooming services and supplies for their customers. 3) Pet Supplies Plus - Pet Supplies Plus is a large chain store that is located approximately 15 miles from the Paw Print.
They offer a full service store that has small pets, fish, supplies, and grooming services. 4) PetLand - PetLand is a chain store that is located approximately 15 miles from the Paw Print (and about ¼ mile from Pet Supplies Plus).
This store does not offer grooming services, but the carry a full line of pets including dogs (which the Paw Print does not carry).
They also have supplies and other items for pets as well. Given the history and economics of the area that the Paw Print is located in, it is not expected that a any other pet stores will open in this area.
Over the past ten years, there have been several other small shops within approximately 5 miles of the Paw Print, but they have all shut down. Current Marketing The Paw Print does not spend a lot of money on advertising their business currently.
Their primary method of paid marketing is to use the Penny Saver circular that is included in the U.S.
mail once a week.
The Paw Print usually runs a 1"x1" add in the Penny Saver that highlights a special of the month.
This offer is usually a 10% discount on a product, pet, or service. The Paw Print also relies on its physical location to help bring in customers.
Being on the main road through Lower Burrell allows them to use their store as an advertising billboard itself.
They have their name on the sign board out front of the shop as well. Another way they advertise is by using the www.bizburgh.com website.
They have a single, static web page that lists their location and hours.
The bizburgh.com web site is designed to highlight businesses in the entire Pittsburgh, PA region.
The Paw Print has only been on this website for approximately 5 months and are still trying to assess if they are receiving more business from it. The final way that the Paw Print advertises is by the good old word of mouth.
By focusing on quality customer service and the small town atmosphere in the store, the owners promote people to come in and look around.
While it may be hard to determine how much business is generated from the word of mouth advertising, many customers have commented that they learned about the store from someone else.
The groomers try to encourage their customers to spread the word, often offering discounts to new customers that were referred from existing customers. Future Marketing In order to promote its new website, the Paw Print will concentrate new marketing efforts to focus on the website.
At the same time, the Paw Print will continue its previous marketing efforts with no monetary cuts to it. As a first step to promote the website, the Paw Print will start placing its web site address onto all documents that they generate, including: receipts, business cards, invoices, advertisements, etc.
By putting the web site address out there in front of people, it will quickly become a means for someone to find the address and visit the site.
Along the same lines, the Paw Print will have signs and posters put up in the store that display the web address for customers to see. To promote the website outside of the physical location, the Paw Print will become involved with key word searches on the major web sites.
These sites will display advertisements for the Paw Print whenever someone searches on a specific set of terms.
The Paw Print will have to pay fees based on the number of times the advertisement is displayed for customers.
Several of the search engines allow you to set a maximum dollar amount per month in order to help small businesses like the Paw Print to manage online advertising costs. As a final promotional campaign for the website, the Paw Print will circulating a post card mailing to all of its registered customers.
These post cards will follow the in-store "Visit us on the web" theme and will help to reinforce to customers that the site is there and to highlight what is available on the website. Conclusion The Paw Print is a small local store that is looking to increase its sales, revenue, and profits by moving into the e-business world.
This strategic plan presents an evaluation of the Paw Print and the expected benefits of implementing this plan.
Expansion into the e-business world will generate an additional 20% of revenue per year for the Paw Print.
This increased revenue will translate into increased net profits for the Paw Print and provide the owners with a solid return on their investment after the fourth month after the full implementation of this plan. References: (n.d.).
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Review: openoffice, a free alternative to microsoft suite, matches all but the e-mail.
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