Dollar Tree: Save Your Life Organic

My project is titled Save Your Life Organic. 

It is focused on own small bakery next to the retail store. As the store specializes in selling household goods, healthcare products, and groceries, I have decided to mix the last two fields in one beneficial project. It would be like an extension rather than a separate shop. Despite there are only 5,000 residents living in the town, Save Your Life Organic bakery will “establish a large regular customer base” (Wall, 2013:3) as a guarantee of its stable income.

The first thing I have to do before implementing this project is solving legal issues. “All information regarding site ownership would be kept handy” (Dorfman, 1998:68).

As a manager with more than 4 years of experience in sales and marketing, I am responsible for conducting all necessary management procedures in our retail store. 

My Business Administration ground allows me introducing new ideas for the existing product line. In addition, I am good at finances and accounting, so I can estimate the future expenses and revenue. That is why I believe in my project, Save Your Life Organic. I would like to share my brief personnel plan as new employees will be needed for this project. One cook will be borrowed from the main store. I have calculated the labor costs for the next two years. 

PERSONNEL PLAN
	YEAR 1	YEAR 2	YEAR 3
Manager (me)	$45,525	$48,000	$110,250
Pastry Bakers (2 units)	$36,800	$40,440	$44,982
Baristas (2 units)	$80,000	$90,000	$132,300
Other	$0	$0	$0
TOTAL PEOPLE	7	7	10
Total Payroll	$162,325	$178,440	$287,532

Problem definition or project rationale.

I have proposed to launch an organic bakery as organic food is 1) healthier and 2) gaining more and more popularity from day to day. Save Your Life Organic is based on a strong belief that eating a healthy meal at least three times a week will improve the overall health condition of the customer. Among 5,000 total residents, we have at least 80% living in the families. Families pay more attention to their nutrition, especially women. Moreover, fitness is becoming widespread. Sportsmen would like to keep fit with the help of special nutrition. So the retail store will definitely win from such idea, taking into account there is no organic bakery in our town yet. 

Another opportunity is connected with the environment. To obtain organic food, there is no need to kill animals, destroy important plants, use toxic factories, etc.

Finally, organic bakery tastes really good. It might be different from the ordinary meals, but

Proper sourcing, recipes, and consistency should make this product our top competitive advantage.

Goal definition.

Personal Goals:

Dedicate minimum 60 hours per month to bakery’s marketing. 

Search for and find two speaking engagements connected with the organic food and healthy lifestyle (fitness)

Business Goals:

Reach the mark of about $300,000 in total net revenue (year two)

The number of monthly transactions per client should achieve 7 by the end of year three

Achieve mean monthly consumed per customer of $38 by year three

Strategic Goals:

Increase overall funding in order to run a franchise in the third operational year after proving the brand’s efficiency

Obtain 98.5% customer satisfaction rate 

Achieve 20% market of the main retail store by the end of year 2

Tactical Goals:

Get 3,000 e-newsletter subscribers by the end of the first year

Receive official Organic Bakery US Community club membership of 4,000 by year three

Possess at least 10 business referral partners by year two.

Objective definition

Save Your Life Organic project is designed to serve consumers and create a local brand which van be spread in extra locations in the upcoming years. We will try to hit this target by using effective advertising campaign, referrals, and a special loyalty program for customers. As for the benefits, I expect to raise the general awareness if the retail store, turnover, and obtain no less than $300,000 net income by the end of the second year.

To conclude, the primary objectives are profit maximization, improved pricing strategies, and gained brand awareness. Here are some calculations.

	Year I	Year II	Year III
Personal
Total Payroll	$162,325	$178,440	$191,635
Hours spent	720	500	480
Speaking engagements	2	6	12
Manager vacation days	7	14	14
Business
Total revenue	$250,000	$300,000	$375,000
Transactions per customer	48	60	84
Spend per customer	120	360	456
Tactical
E-newsletter subscribers	3,000	3,800	4,500
Club members added	1,000	2,800	4,000
Referral marketing (number of partners)	4	10	16

As for the expected costs, I have developed another table, estimated only for year I.

Start-up costs
Legal expenditures	$2,700
Premise design	$11,500
Equipment	$32,000
Payroll	$162,325
Other	$900
Total start-up costs	$209,425

Initially, the project will take about half a year to be released.

Resources: Identify the resources necessary to complete the project.

Speaking about the major goods to be offered, Save Your Life Organic will introduce bread (prices vary), assorted cakes ($7 per unit), sandwiches ($9 per unit), and beverages (about $10 per bottle). But the absolute sales winner will be “the best tasting coffee beverages in the area” (Wall, 2013:3), a business card of any good bakery. 

To produce and sell this sort of goods, I will need more resources that I have mentioned above. For instance, shelves  (storage places for keeping the ingredients and other items); a bit of equipment not presented in the retail store (commercial mixer (stand one) and slicers are the most important items); commercial oven; utensils, meaning dough cutters, spatulas, and more; a range of pans; donut fryer for the top sold good; refrigerator (for beverages and cold sandwiches mostly); and some display cases. Sure thing, the bakery will require raw materials like flour and other components to produce its products. However, these resources can be borrowed from the head retail store. 

Risk analysis.

The first risk factor is the workplace safety. The number of hazards in the bakery industry impresses. Employees around the world name “ handling heavy loads, extreme temperatures, stressful deadlines, and overloaded noise” (Alexopoulos, Kavadi, Bakoyannis, and Papantonopoulos, 2009:1) among them. So, the first risk is concerning employee safety and production security. In other words, liability risks are the biggest problem.

As far as my business is associated with potential public risk of injuries, liability insurance is one of the primary steps in dealing with liability risks. Proper insurance is crucial for this type of industry.

As for the human factors, my bakery staff may face discrimination risks associated with age and gender as it often happens in small towns. It is important to implement democratic policies regarding hiring both young and old, male and female, poor and rich candidates. 

Perhaps, few financial threats like dealing with fraud and lower income are necessary to mention. I.e., the existing retail store’s competitors may “expand their business close to where our bakery is located” (Wall, 2013:5).

However, I have developed a plan that prevents company from turning a complete bankrupt. After all, the revenue of retail store is enough to cover the expenses and debts in case of the bakery’s failure.

References

Academia International (2010). 10 Tips on How To Start a Bakery Business . Retrieved January 27th 2010, from http://www.academia21.com/blog/2010/01/27/br ead-bakery-10-tips-start-bakery-business-5/

Alexopoulos, E., Kavadi, Z., Bakoyannis, G., and Papantonopoulos, S. (2009). Subjective Risk Assessment and Perception in the Greek and English Bakery Industries . Journal of Environmental and Public Health, Volume 2009: 1-8.

Dorfman, M. S. (1998). Introduction to Risk Management and Insurance . Prentice Hall, 6th Edition.

Wall, W. P. (2013). Business Plan to Start an Organic Bakery. Shinawatra University: 3-6.