Executive Summary
1.1 Introduction
Gift Basket is a premier gift for the people. We are concentrating on making
various kinds of gift baskets with high-quality items. We will offer different types
of baskets to the customers such as, Chocolate basket, Birthday gift, Stationary
products and other gift items. The customer will choose our basket which they
need. In addition to having several baskets, we will also offer the option of a
custom basket allowing the customer to choose the items themselves. We will sell
our baskets to individuals. We also sell our gift baskets in a corporate level. In
corporate level they use our basket for AGM or giving gift to their delicates. We
sell our product in our brand store and door to door. We advertise our product by
word-of-mouth referals and by internet. Some of our products will also displayed at
our shop.
1.2 Mission
Our mission is to create the finest gift baskets. The business will be based on some
retails products which are currently available in the market. This will be a homebased business. We supply our products door to door and it will be shown in our
shop. Our Gift Basket will contain good quality Chocolates, Stationary items,
jewelry items, cards, candles, cosmetics items, Mugs, flowers and other gift items
etc. We also offer a custom basket which allows customers to pick items from a list
and we will assemble the basket with its custom products and other decorative
items which the customer can select from our collections.
1.3 Objectives
The objectives of our business include:
1. To create a well known company and the primary goal is to exceed customer's
expectations.
2. To serve customer a better gift basket with quality products.
3. To develop a sustainable home business, surviving off its own cash flow.
4. To help people to choose right gifts for their dear ones.
5. Increasing size of our shop in Dhaka and open other outlets in Dhaka city and
some other cities.
6. To sell more products in corporate level.
7. Improving our brand images by selling good products.
The Business Description
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2.1 The Market
The selling of gift baskets is very "seasonal." More than half of the gift basket
purchasing occurs during a wide variety of holidays and public occasions. Our
competitive advantage will be based on two factors, low overhead which allows
reasonable prices and customer will get some good and well known products
together in a bundle or basket. Our sales strategy will be targeted at obtaining
customers through word-of-mouth referrals. Customers will be able to place and
order over the phone or via the Facebook fan page or via direct e-mail to us.
2.2 The Business
Gift basket business will be a average profitable business. Our profit from this
business will not be so high or low. It will be sold in average and reasonable price.
Actually it is one kind of service business. We usually don’t produce any products.
We will bought some good quality well known brand’s popular products and
packed them together in a basket called “Gift Basket” So basically it is a service
business with average margin profit.
The Product
We sell retail items gift baskets. We offer various types of item’s basket. We Offer
some different categories baskets. The Baskets categories are:
 Yummy Chocolate
 Birthday Surprise
 Wild Learners
 Born to Fashion
 Special Baskets for special day
o Valentines day
o Fathers/Mothers/Friendship day
o Eid/Puja/Christmas/Buddho Purnima
 Custom Basket
Yummy Chocolate
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In this Category we offer three types of Chocolate basket for different customers,
Little Souls, Wild Lovers and Choco Freak. Little Souls, basket is for childrens.
This basket contains some small sizes chocolate, toy, Stickers/Tattooes. This will
be the cheapest basket than others two baskets. Wild Lovers, we design this basket
for lovers. A boy/girl can gift this basket to his/her girlfriend/boyfriend. It’s
contains different types of various sizes chocolates. We plan to offer two red roses
free in every purchase of Wild Lovers basket in Valentine’s Day eve. Choco
Freak, basket contains various kinds of big and medium sizes chocolates. This will
be expensive chocolate basket than others two baskets. Yummy chocolates price
will be the same. The prices will not be changed. But it can be raise if the item’s
price will increase.
A Sample Product List
Birthday Surprise
In this Category we offer two types of Birthday gift basket for male and female
customers, Adam’s Basket and Eve’s Basket. Adam’s Basket is for female
customers who will give this to male. It will contain Birthday card, Body Spray,
Candle, Birthday Mug, Key Ring etc. Eves Basket is for male customers who will
give this to female. It will contain Birthday card, Candle, Perfume, Chocolate,
mobile phone strap doll etc. The Customers also can add other items from our
Birthday gift list. The list contains Watches, Pendant, Ring, Earring, Bracelet, Neck
chain, Sunglasses etc. for both man and women. The price will be vary by the items
which customers wil select.
Wild Learners
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This basket is for students. Our target consumers are school kids. It’s contains
different cartoon print Pen, Pencil, Sharpener, Rubber, Plastic Scale, Color Pencil,
Crayons, Pen Holder, Pencil Box, Geometry Box, Small size staplers, scissors,
Glue sticks, Glitters pens, Sign pens etc.
Born to Fashion
This basket is for Jewelry lovers. It contains Necklace, Anklet, Chain, Pendant,
Locket, Nose Pin, Ring, Earring, Bracelet etc. In this category basket, our target
consumers are women.
Special Basket for Special day
We offer seasonal basket in special days such as, Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day,
Mother’s Day, Friendship Day, Eid special basket, Puja Special, Christmas day
gifts for childrens, Budha Purnima basket etc.
Custom Basket
In this basket we will provide a list of options grouped into different categories.
The customer then chooses items from each of the categories and the gift basket
will be made for them. It’ll be well decorated with wide range of decorative items.
We will also offer various decorative items to the customers so that they can
choose those and decorate their basket by their own way. Prices will be depends by
their items. Customers cannot take Custom Basket less than 200 taka. They have to
choose items which price will be more than 200 taka. Otherwise they cannot take
this basket.
3.2 Benefits
People usually take our products because sometimes we don’t have any idea
what should we give to our dear ones. Sometimes we don’t have much time to
think about any gifts and buy something instantly. That’s why we design our
basket in a way that people can easily take our basket and give it to their dear
ones as a better gift. They will get all the products together and easily take gifts
without any hesitation.
Business Environment and Market Analysis
4.1 Industry Background
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There will be lots of different types of baskets available in our business. Each basket is
unique and different from others. Not only baskets, we also use transparent plastic
boxes for some product such as Yummy chocolates and Wild Learners. We produce
our products in our store. As the items of product’s sizes are small and easy to carry
out, so it will be fit in our store easily. We can manage everything quite well without
any hesitations.
4.2 Competitive Analysis
There are many different forms of competition in the gift basket business:
1. Similar gift basket type retail stores: There are several of these stores located in
market. These competitors offer a wide range of gift baskets; however none of
them are concentrating on the products which we will offer. There are no other
retail stores are available in the market which will offer retail products.
2. Stationary Shop: There are so many stationary stores that concentrate on
making basket or bundle of stationary items. They also have theme based
products for kids. They use various cartoon characters pencils, pen, eraser,
sharpener, scale etc. They also concentrate on making some cartoon character
in every single piece of item. But those baskets contain low quality stationary
products.
3. Chocolate gift baskets: There are several confectionaries and departmental
stores offer different types of chocolate basket. But those chocolate baskets
contain many low quality and cheap chocolates. Most of the people usually
don’t like those baskets especially parents don’t allow their children to take
those chocolates.
There are no other companies or stores offer this kind of gift basket which we will
offer. There are many different gift baskets are available in the market. But those
are not good enough to compete our products. Those baskets contain only few
items good and others are very low and cheap in quality. But we will provide very
high quality products. Every single piece of item will be good and high in quality
and people usually like those products very much.
4.3 Market Analysis
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We will go after two distinct market segments, individuals and corporations. Both
groups buy gift baskets as a goodwill gesture, typically for different reasons.
Individuals typically buy the baskets as a present with more than half of sales occur
during holidays. Corporations buy the baskets as presents as well, but usually for
events unrelated to the holidays. By going after both of these groups, sales will be
less seasonal (relative to if only the individuals were targeted). Our main target
group is individuals and target customers are mainly women. They usually buy gift
baskets for children and men. Usually women are more likely to buy gift basket
than men.
4.4 SWOT Analysis
The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within
the company, and describes the opportunities and threats that face Gift Basket.
Strengths


We have high quality ingredients which is available everywhere.
Low overhead that provides excellent margins and flexibility in manufacturing.
Weaknesses


As a home-based start-up, if sales really spike it might be difficult to fulfill a
large increase in orders.
A limited marketing budget to generate awareness of Gift Basket and its
service/product.
Opportunities


Participation in an industry that is generally quite steady in terms of sales.
The ability to have a marginal decrease in the spread of fixed costs relative to
each basket as sales increase.
Threats


The industry is very attractive and it’s easy to open.
Our all informations will be in our website. So anyone can easily copy that.
4.5 Market Segmentation
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Gift Basket's has two distinct groups of customers, individuals and corporate
customers:
1. Individuals- The individuals are people who are looking to give a friend,
relative, colleague, etc., a gift basket as a gesture of goodwill. These customers
typically do not have a specific type of gift basket in mind when they look at
Gift Basket’s product offerings; they just want to give a gift. So basically we
design our basket in that way.
2. Corporate- The corporate customer is typically buying the basket for a
colleague at work, either as a sign of appreciation, for a special event such as
Annual General Meeting, official or corporate picnic etc. or as a thank you for a
customer.
4.6 Target Market Segment Strategy
Gift Basket is focusing on individuals and corporate customers because they are
the largest segments of purchasers for gift baskets. Individuals are the target
purchaser of gift baskets. They purchase baskets typically as a thank you in
response for something the recipient did or just to be nice. They purchase
baskets for giving gift in an occasion like birthdays, valentine’s day etc. Within
the individual category, women are 69% more likely to be the purchaser of a
gift basket compared to men. This is not to say that women more often purchase
gifts, it just indicates women are more likely to buy gift baskets.
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Gift Basket is focusing on the corporate customers as they currently
represent approximately a third of the purchasers of gift baskets. The
corporate customer could be buying the basket for someone within their
company, or they could be buying it for a customer, vendor, AGM or other
events etc. The trend for the corporation to purchase gifts is not a new
phenomenon and therefore would appear to be a solid market segment to
pursue.
Sales and Marketing Plan
5.2 Marketing Strategy
Our marketing and sales strategy will be based on different types of media and
brochures. Through these two tools, customers will become familiar with our
products. We will also heavily rely on word-of-mouth referrals for business.
Everything we do for developing a happy customer. We also create our official
website of our Wild Souls Gift Basket. So basically we need a developer for
that. We will create Facebook fan page and that Fan page will be our big
advertisement. We will give our all details in that fan page. We will give our all
regular basket’s categories information, price, item lists. We inform our
customers about our special day’s basket. When our basket will available, how
much it costs, how they can get it, what they will get in a basket etc. everything
will be given in our Facebook fan page. Now-a-days Facebook fan page is the
biggest medium of advertisement and promotions. People will be more aware
by fan pages. More than 60% of our customers will be aware by Facebook fan
page.
5.2 Sales Strategy
Our sales strategy will be targeted at obtaining both the individual and corporate
clients. It is our belief that both the individual and corporate customers will be
primarily obtained through word-of-mouth referrals. Our marketing men will
advertise about our product to individual through word-of-mouth. In corporate
offices we will visit those offices and inform them about our baskets. We also
distribute some of our baskets in those offices. We also give some promotional
offers to the customers if they order through Facebook page. That offers include
discount, free home delivery, free items etc. Bkash is also a great way of
transaction of money and delivering our products. Our products will be sold
through E-mail, phone calls, Bkash, Order given in Facebook page and direct
order to us. We will delivered our products in some cheap delivery
charges and sometime free of cost. But it will depend on the loc ation
of a customer and promotional offers.
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5.3 Sales Forecast
The first month will be spent setting up the business. It is unlikely that there will
be much sales activity. In addition to dealing with accounting issues, equipment
and materials will need to be purchased, We hire a store and list of baskets
items. Before start the business we will create Facebook fan page. We will
concentrate on developing our page and improve our fans in that page. We will
be doing a lot of networking in an attempt to spread awareness about our Gift
basket products and service. We will try to send some e-mail to some local well
known corporation in an attempt to doing some corporate business. In the
beginning of our journey we will give lots of promotional offers. For giving
these offers at first we will have to face loss and lots of financial difficulties. So
we will be prepared for those losses and hope that will be helpful for increase
our sales and achieving our targets.
Operations Plan
6.1 Production
In the beginning of our business we will hire a store. We will use our store as
our office where we produce our products. So there will be no other extra cost
for hiring office. Our first month’s target is to make 32 baskets. We will
produce each type of basket for three times. Three from Yummy Chocolate, two
from Birthday surprise and each from born to fashion and wild learners. We
also gather extra items for custom baskets. We will hire 2 employee for making
the baskets. They will produce our products.
6.2 Raw Materials
We will buy our items from different locations. For chocolate we find a place
where will get chocolates in less price than market price. But basically we don’t
get huge discount when buying those kinds of chocolate which we
will use in our basket. Those chocolates are imported from other
country. For stationary and ornaments we will buy our items from different
markets. For other items we have some market lists from where we will buy our
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items. All of the market will give us those items in a less price than anywhere
else. Those items are very good in quality. We will research those market and
products and try to find that there will be no low quality things.
6.3 Labor
In the beginning of our business we need 2 employers. They will help us to
made baskets. All others members will be help us to improve our service and
run our business easily. But if our sells will goes higher than we will hire one or
more employers. But that will depends upon our sells.
Management Summary
Gift Basket will be formed as one kind of partnership business. We five partner will
manage the whole business together. Everyone will get equal management power. No
one can take any decision alone and without proper discussion with other left
members. Therefore, there will be five positions for five partner in our business.
General Manager, Executive Director, Marketing and Sales Manager, Finance and
Accounts and Production Manager. There job will be different from others. There jobs
are shown below:
General Manager
General Manager has a large collective knowledge by doing an extensive research and
will receive orders for products and then develop a plan for how to fulfill the order,
including how much of the necessary materials to buy and what employees have to do.
Executive Director
Executive Director will make a design and develop strategic plans for their
organization in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner.
Marketing and Sales Manager
Marketing and Sales Manager has an extensive knowledge about the market by doing
a research, Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the
products to customers, the government, and other external sources. Manager
will make new ideas for promoting our products and increasing sales.
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Finance and Accounts
will deal with financial site of the company and prepare a good financial plan for the
company as well. She will be responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as
well as financial reporting to higher management.
Production Manager
Production Manager will be involved with the planning, coordination and control of
manufacturing processes. He will ensure that goods and services are produced
efficiently and that the correct amount is produced at the right cost and level of
quality.
Here’s an organizational chart showing the positions in our business:
Manage
r
Productio
n
Manager
Finance
and
Accounts
Executive
Director
Entrepre
-neur
Marketin
g and
Sales
Manager
Financial, Risk Management and Loan Proposal
8.1 Financial Plan
Our Business estimate budget is 200,000 taka each and total 1,000,000 taka. In
the first month we will invest each 100,000 taka and total 500,000 taka. Then
we will invest left money gradually. So in the beginning of our business we will
need about 400,000 taka for our Raw materials, Advance payment
for shop,
Computer and other expenses. We will save 100,000 taka in the bank. We will
open an account in the bank. Here’s 5 years projected Income
Statement is shown:
Description
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Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Revenues
100,000
120,000
144,000
172,800
207,360
Cost of Sales
Gross Profit
66,666
33,334
79,999
40,001
95,999
48,001
1,15,199
57,601
1,38,239
69,121
Advertising & Promotion
Bank Charges
Salaries
Insurance
Rent
Telephone
Others
Website
Total Operating Expeses
10,000
1,000
5000
1,000
20,000
2,000
1,000
12,000
52,000
5,000
1,000
5000
1,050
20,000
200
2,000
5,000
39,250
5,000
1,000
5000
1,103
20,000
500
2,500
5,000
40,103
5,000
1,000
5000
1,158
20,000
600
3,000
5,000
40,758
5,000
1,000
5000
1,216
20,000
800
4,000
5,000
42,016
Depreciation
1,500
1,425
1,354
1,286
1,222
-20,166
-674
6,544
15,557
25,884
Net Income/Loss
8.2 Risk Management Plan
We are planning to take insurance for our business in near future. But for now
we are not taking any insurance policy. When we will invest our full money
then we will take insurance for our business.
8.3 Loan Proposal Plan
For now we are not planning to take any loans. If we need funding then we will
take loans from the bank, from where we open our account. So in the beginning
we don’t need any amount of loans.
Conclusion
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We Wild Souls, basically make Gift Basket rich in high quality products. The products
are very well known in the recent market. People usually like this kind of products
very much. Each of the item of basket will be finest quality item and popular among
people of our country. The products include Chocolates, stationary items such as
pencil, pen, sharpener, eraser, scale, different shapes sharpeners and erasers etc.,
ornaments such as ring, anklet, neck chain, pendent, earring, necklace, bracelet etc.,
watches, body spray, candles, dry fruits and nuts and so more. The bundle items will
be offer in a basket or box. We produce our product by ourselves. three or more
employee needed for helping us in produce and deliver the products. We do our
marketing job by ourselves. We create our officially website and Facebook fan page,
use that page for advertise our product, promotes new products, give various offers,
take orders, giving all the information of our products. It will help use to improve our
potential customers. Our main motive is to supply good quality products together in a
basket. At first we need very little amount of money. We are planning to invest
5,00,000 taka in the first month. Our overall total budget is 10, 00,000 taka. We invest
2, 00,000 taka each in this business. Our profit and loss margin will be equal. Everyone
will get same amount of profit and take same amount of risk. Everyone equally take
risk, profit and management power. So individually no one can take any kind of
decision.
Appendix
References
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Understanding Business- 9th Edition by William S. Nickels, James M. McHugh and Susan M.
McHugh.
http://www.bplans.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan
http://www.ildceo.net/NR/rdonlyres/C14C9C44-C30D-46C9-96CC7F2912DC7C06/0/bizplan.pdf
http://www.completebusinessstartup.co.uk/starting-business/market-history.html
http://www.netplaces.com/home-business
www.thebusinessplanstore.com/financialstatements.htm