Vision statement for your business plan should include the following:
Our vision of what our company will become in the future is to have developed relationships with key retailers so strong that they will view us more as indispensable partners, than just another supplier. We will work closely with each retailer we serve to recommend product assortment unique for their customer base, appropriate stocking levels, pricing and display assortments. We will constantly seek out and work with the manufacturers we represent to deliver the most innovative and exciting products possible to the retailers we serve.
MILESTONES
1. Overseas manufacturers agreements in place...done.
2. Verbal commitments from many West Coast retailers...done.
3. Presentation to potential investors...underway now.
4. Presentation to potential banks for inventory and receivable financing...underway now.
5. Financing commitments in place..60 days.
6. Product catalogue completed...30 days...
7. Additional sales reps being recruited...underway now…
8. Sales rep selection finalized...60 days.
9. Warehouse lease signed...90 days.
10. First written orders from retailers... 75 days.
11. First orders to manufacturers...110 days.
12. First shipments from our warehouse...160 days.
MARKET ANALYSIS
THE OVERALL MARKET
The overall size of the industry is currently R150 million in the US and Canada. Because the industry includes a very diverse group of product types with significantly different characteristics, it is more meaningful to break out analysis of the industry into roughly two groups. The first group and by far the larger unit volume are lower end kites sold primarily through mass market outlets such as discount department stores. The second groups are higher end kites that are sold largely at independent and specialty chain stores. While the unit volume is much less, the dollar volume is approximately the same (R75 million) as that for lower end kites because the average price point is much higher.
CHANGES IN THE MARKET
The most significant development in this marketplace recently has been the shift in toy and kite business away from independent stores to national mass marketers over the past decade. However, recently this trend has slowed as independent toy and novelty retailers have become better at differentiating themselves and their product selections from those offered by national mass marketers.
MARKET SEGMENTS
The market is primarily segmented by distribution channel. The mass market retailers are looking for low-priced products and a high percentage of their products are licensed merchandise, for example based upon kid's cartoon characters. Independent specialty retailers however are trying increasingly to be as different from the mass merchants as possible and are generally selling much higher priced product and seldom want merchandise based upon licensed cartoon characters.
It should be pointed out that there are few stores that sell just kite merchandise--even among independent specialty stores most of the volume in kites is sold at stores that sell a wide assortment of other merchandise such as toys or other novelty items.