Give your organization good image with trade shows

We will have a small booth or table top display at four national conventions each year, including the National Toy Show in February in New York, The Toy and Hobby Show in April in Toronto, The International Gift Show in Las Vegas and the West Coast Toy and Gift Fair in May. We will emphasize not just our products but the custom-built displays that we are producing for retailers.

We will also provide limited funds for display space for our independent reps at regional trade shows that they attend. Typically we will pay for one table top display.

OPERATIONS

KEY PERSONNEL

The Company will be managed by the two founding partners, whose individual areas of expertise cover many of the functional aspects of the business. Tom Anderson will serve as the President of the Company, and will be responsible for Product Selection and Sales & Marketing. Nancy Anderson will be the Vice President, in charge of Administration. She will be responsible for customer service, accounting, shipping and the general administration of the business.

Tom Anderson has a long history of experience in the Toy Business and specifically in Kites. For several years he grew the Kite business at Ocean Gifts and Toys in Los Angeles into one of the largest and most profitable exciting in the country. Tom has a many industry contacts and an in-depth knowledge of the kite and toy business. See Tom's resume for further details.

Nancy Anderson directed a staff of twelve as the manager of customer service for LA Selections, a major local jobber of novelty goods. She has also held a wide variety of other inside business and operations positions. See Nancy's resume for further details.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The organizational structure is very simple. The independent commissioned reps will report to Tom Anderson. And support staff at the office and warehouse will report to Nancy. Because Tom will frequently go on buying trips to the Far East or be on the road selling, Nancy will be able to support any day-to-day needs that the reps may have. However, even when Tom is on the road he will be in constant touch by computer or phone.

PRODUCT/SERVICE DELIVERY

In order to deliver high quality, personalized service we will carefully select all employees--especially sales reps and customer service representatives who deal directly with customers. Tom is currently interviewing candidates for sales reps. We will carefully review references not from past employers or manufacturers but from retailers whom these sales reps have served. We will also make sure that each employee understands our way of delivering quality service to each customer. We will have immediate back-up support available by phone from our office for more difficult service issues. And we will give employees enough latitude so that they can respond immediately to almost all customer requests or complaints, which in this industry usually means granting prompt credit for damaged merchandise.

CUSTOMER SERVICE/SUPPORT

We intend to prioritize customer service and make it a key component of our marketing programs. We believe that providing our customers with what they want, when and how they want it, is the key to repeat business and to word-of-mouth advertising. Not only will we train our employees to deliver excellent service, we will give them the flexibility to respond creatively to client requests. In addition, we will continually monitor our clients' level of satisfaction with our service through surveys and other convenient feedback opportunities.

Initially we expect to have few enough accounts so that Nancy and one additional employee can handle all customer service issues. Having just one employee to train should help insure that Nancy can help make the new hire a top performer. As our business grows we intend to hire additional customer service people one at a time and pay a premium over market labour rates to attract and retain quality help.

Shipping problems are a huge issue with the firms that we compete with largely because they insist on using surface shipping methods to keep their costs down to charge low prices to keep their mass merchant accounts happy.

We intend to use air freight to import our kites from the Far East. This will add to our costs slightly. But because all of our products are more expensive it makes more sense for us. It will also allow us to have much thinner inventories in our warehouse without risking stocking out.

Our relatively high cost of shipping has put us at a competitive disadvantage. The current cost of shipping for an average order is $..., which we feel can be reduced by 50 %. We intend to achieve this cost reduction by putting our overall shipping requirements out to bid. Sms marketing made easy

FACILITIES

We plan to lease approximately 10,000 square feet of space as soon as our financing is finalized. We have a specific property in mind and have a tentative agreement with the landlord's agent. This building located near LAX airport has 8,500 feet of warehouse space and a small 850 square foot office. The lease rate is $6.35 per foot triple net for a 2 year lease with the option for two additional years at an increase of 5.9% per year.

The building is located in a busy industrial neighbourhood, but because we do not intend to have customers visit us we have decided we are better off with a lower-rent location, than a location that could double as a fancy showroom.

For More information on Business Plans, you may want to get a copy of the book "Adams Streetwise Business Plans" (430 pages, $17.95, Adams Media Corporation). This book includes complete sample business plans; detailed step by step instructions for writing a business plan; suggested text for each step of the business plan; instructions and worksheets for creating complete financials.