Competitors
We are to locate our business on Ecclesall Road which can be seen below on the map. There is a lot of competition on Ecclesall Road. Our competitors are who sell food. There are lots of cafes, restaurants, pubs, fast food takeaways, sandwich shops etc.
The blue dot with the number 1 next to it is where our Ice Bar is to be located. The blue dot with number 2 is where our mainly close competitors are they are
- The Nursery Tavern Pub
- Sandwich shop
- Newsagent
- KFC
- Menzles Wine Bar
- Yankees
- American diner
Our products are different as there is not another Ice Cream Parlour anywhere on Ecclesall Road. So there is a huge gap in the market.
Promoting the business
Advertising – We are going to place posters at the nearby universities, schools and colleges. Also we are to do a leaflet drop to 500 potential customers. The leaflet drop would be within 1.5 mile of the location of the Ice Bar. To promote our business we are to give 10% off with a leaflet you receive. We are to make the customers aware of Ice Bar that we will be opening soon with the leaflets and we are open. To preview the leaflets look on the next page. We are also planning to promote at the front of the shop. We want to convey a fun, carefree atmosphere, informative, display window.
Reputation – To encourage word of mouth we could do promotions on our Sundaes for a short period of time after we open so people can try our products and tell their friends about Ice Bar.
Image – Our image will mostly be set up by the appearance of our premises. We will be aiming to create a modern, sleek, minimalist yet cosy atmosphere.
Price
Price is an important role of the business. The prices should be reasonable not set too high or too low.
We set the prices reasonable for the customers not too high not too low. The Sundaes depend on the size bought.
- Small £2
- Medium £3
- Large £4
We are to only make three sizes available. The price can vary if more extra toppings are asked for. The extra toppings will cost 15p extra for example a flake or wafer costing 15p each.
Could you please spend a few minutes filling in the questionnaire below:-
1. Gender: Male
Female
2. Age: 6 - 12 13 - 19 20 - 26 27 - 33 34+ 50+
3. Do you eat ice cream? Yes
No
4. How often do you eat ice cream?
Once a week More than once a week Once a month Never
5. What flavours do you like?
Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla Mint choc chip Raspberry ripple Other
__________________________ (if other please specify)
6. Do you ever go to ice cream parlours?
Yes
No
Occasionally
7. If there was a shop selling ice cream on Ecclesall road would you visit
it? Yes
No
Maybe
8. Which name do you think would suit an ice cream parlour best?
Ice Bar Bar Ice Ice Dream Dream Bar
Thank you for filling in the questionnaire.
Questionnaire results
The questionnaire is an essential part of our research it gives us an insight to what people think.
The questionnaire was randomly given out to males and females. More females had answered our questionnaire which does not matter as long as we have the views of the males as well.
It can be seen that a variety of ages were asked to do the questionnaire. This shows us we will get a variety of results.
We asked ‘Do you eat Ice cream?’ 85% of the people said ‘Yes’. This question was vital for us because we are selling Ice Cream. The outcome of the results is good because we had more than 50% saying ‘Yes’.
The question ‘How often do you eat Ice Cream?’ was asked so we can see if Ice Cream is popular within people. Most people said they eat Ice Cream once a month. This is not good as we would like people to come to our Ice Cream parlour. We would have to promote our business to get customers to come to our Ice Bar.
We had asked a variety of flavours. The most popular flavour was chocolate this shows us which flavours we can order and how many litres we would need to buy. We had also asked people if there were any other flavours they like; we did get a few people with more flavours. These flavours do not seem popular but we can try them.
We asked ‘Do you visit Ice Cream parlour?’ majority of the results were ‘No’. This is not good for our business, but it can be understood that there are not a lot of Ice Cream parlours. In the area we are to open Ice Bar there are none at all. So this is good for us but then there is a lot of competition due to a lot of food businesses. We will need to advertise our business to let people know we are open and we sell Ice Cream.
We got more promising results when we asked ‘Would you visit your local Ice Cream parlour’. A majority people of people said ‘Yes’. So this is good for our business. At least we can see from the results that people would visit an Ice Cream parlour if available to them.
Every business needs a name. We came up with a few ideas for our business but could not decide which one to have because four of the ones we chose we liked. As we are partners we could not agree on the same name so we decided to let the public decide which name is better suited. It can be seen Ice Bar was the popular name. So we had decided to go with this name for our business.
Location
Premises are one of the biggest costs. The location is crucial. We will need to
- Find suitable facilities to carry out our business
- Find a convenience and access for our customers
- Allow easy access to suppliers
- Present the right image for our business
- Enable recruitment of staff within a reasonable catchment’s area
By researching which areas are better to locate our business with the help of the above criteria, we decided to locate on Ecclesall Road as this is close to the city centre with a high density of both residential and business premises. Ecclesall Road is a predominantly student area. This will start of with a good client base from which we can build from. It is vital that the Ice Bar has both a shop front facing on the main street, and a visible separate entrance.
The premises we have found is located on Ecclesall Road as intended to. The property details are as follows on the next page. The property is easily accessible, public transportation is available as it is on a main road
Plan of Ice Bar
The layout of the area of the Ice Bar must be made easy for customers and waiters/waitresses to move freely.
The kitchen must comply with all the Health & Safety requirements, but at the same time all implements should be set out within easy reach of preparations areas. Food prepared in advance must be stored in the freezer, which should also be in easy reach of the preparation area. In the plan you can see this is done.
To enter the parlour there are double doors which will make easier access for people and more space for people to get in and out. This will be most necessary when Ice Bar is going to be busy.
We have a main bar in the parlour which designed to for a modern and different look. As there was more space we decided to place another bar which faces the window. So it will also show the parlour is big and welcomes a lot of customers. As we are in a student area we decided to have a corner in the room where people of any ages to come and relax with a table could do some work if wanted to?
Behind the main bar is a worktop where we are to make the ice creams. We cannot make the ice creams on the main bar as this would make the customers feel we were intruding into their privacy. There is more space on the worktop and jus in case of any spills this could be helpful. On the worktop there are to be placed a few of the glasses to show the customers the size of them. It would be quicker an all.
There is an entrance to the store room where all the ingredients to make Ice Cream Sundaes are. The shelving is used for storing the toppings and sauces and spare Ice Cream glasses. The large freezer is to be placed in the store room. The reason for this is that there is not enough space to keep it on the shop floor. The freezer is an industrial freezer so the appearance of it will be unattractive.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is a planned and well-organised pattern of all actions
necessary to provide sufficient confidence that the product or service meets the customers' expectations.
Training
Our quality assurance will consist of a course of training for all our staff. Each staff member will be taken aside and informed of all the information they will need to learn. They will then be tested on this and their score will be recorded on a training record card. All staff will also be trained in how to create the sundaes and present them to a high standard. Staff must complete a basic food hygiene course before they can participate in making the desserts. The staff will undergo all the training needed to work in the Ice Cream parlour. They will receive training in the following: -
- Risk assessment
- Fire safety
- Accident investigation
- Personal hygiene & cleaning
- Preventing contamination & temperature control
- Food poisoning and bacteriology
- Food hygiene
- Customer service
- Health & safety
- Till use & cash handling
If the employers have not already achieved a basic food hygiene certificate they will have to be trained to achieve their basic food hygiene certificate. Without this they cannot prepare any food in the Ice Cream parlour, as this is a legal requirement. Therefore, it will be our main concern to get the staff trained so that they can be better organised.
The following sheets are examples of different types of training from Massarella Catering Group. These are to give us an idea how to train our employers. However, Massarella is not an Ice Cream parlour but it is a café, which handles with food. Some of their training will not be necessary to our business.
Employees
The employees must smartly dress. Customers will not patronise an establishment where the employees are badly turned out. Aprons will be provided and must be worn at the start of the shift and taken off after the shift is finished. They must not be taken home due to hygiene. Employees must arrive on time preferably a few minutes before the shift is due to begin.
Flow of service
- Customer enters bar and is acknowledged within 1 minute of reaching the counter.
- Customer sits down and waits for a member of staff to serve them.
- When the customer has finished their dessert their pots are cleared.
- When the customer has left their place it is wiped and any stools are returned to their original position.
Rules of service
- Tables must be tidied as soon as the customer leaves or as soon as possible.
- There must be no more than 3 dirty tables at any one time.
- Any rubbish or debris must be removed from the floor.
- 0There must always be a clean ashtray on all smoking tables.
- Windows must be kept open by the smoking area to allow the smoke to escape.
- Employees must be a cheerful disposition, and on no account argue in front of customers or with customers. Any dispute should be handed on to the one designed as being in charge.
Suppliers
To ensure that our products are always of a high standard we shall only use reputable suppliers and stay with those suppliers as long as we are receiving a high quality service. We will need to rely on our suppliers to deliver, on time, to the right quality. This will directly affect our customers’ satisfaction with our services.
A few things for us to consider when we are ordering our supplies are:
- Make sure we have adequate freezer storage space.
- Plan our ice cream menu carefully, offer a reasonable choice of products but don't go over the top as this will force us to over stock and store products longer than we intended to.
- Make sure we rotate our stock and if a product is very slow to sell change it to a product that sells quicker. Remembering we are running a seasonal business, run our stock down to avoid ending up with a freezer full of non saleable ice cream and ices.
Training
The staff will undergo all the training needed to work in the Ice Cream parlour. They will receive training in the following: -
- Food hygiene
- Customer service
- Health & safety
- Fire safety
- Till use & cash handling
If the staffs have not already achieved a basic food hygiene certificate they will have to be trained to achieve their basic food hygiene certificate. Without this they cannot prepare any food in the Ice Cream parlour, as this is a legal requirement. Therefore, it will be our main concern to get the staff trained so that they can be better organised.
Production plan
The production process for our Ice Cream Sundaes is very simple. After the customer has made the order, the order will be sent to the kitchen so it can be made. There are several stages to making a sundae. The following are the stages for making a medium sized Zebra Sundae.
Ingredients
- 500ml of chocolate ice cream
- 250ml of vanilla ice cream
- 2 tablespoons of chocolate sauce
- approximately 2 tablespoons of toasted nuts and 1 wafer
Medium glass taken from the shelf
Toasted nuts poured in 1inch deep
1 tablespoon of chocolate ice cream
Then 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
Then 3 more scoops of chocolate
Topped off with sprinkled toasted nuts and a wafer
Constraints on production
Constraints on production are things that might delay the production of our products. The constraints that might occur in our business are: -
- Late or incorrect delivery of ingredients
- Shortage of ingredients
- Faulty equipment, including fridges
- Very hot weather
- Lack of communication between the bar and kitchen
To deal with these constraints a contingency plan is needed. A contingency plan is another way of saying a back up plan. If anything goes wrong you could refer to the contingency plan for a solution.
Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, wafer
Chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream,
chocolate sprinkles, walnut, wafer
Strawberry ice cream, strawberry sauce, fresh strawberries,
blueberries, whipped cream, mini marshmallows, wafer
Various ice cream sundaes
Explained Cash flow forecast
We believe that our business will have £3 average sales. We expect at least 100 customers and the maximum of 300 customers. During the winter we are to expect fewer customers than the summer.
To work out the sales we multiplied £3 by customers in each month and multiplied the number of days in a month.
The opening balance for the business is £40,000. Saima will put £20,000 into the business and Emma will put £20,000. This money will come from savings, previous employment and the sale of our flats. We are to live above the shop as it is being sold with the shop premises. There are 2 floors above the shop so there would be plenty of space for 2 people.
Fixed assets these are the furniture, equipment, fixtures and fittings. These assets are to be used in Ice Bar. These will be our starting up costs to help us run our business with the equipment needed for running Ice Bar and to make Ice Bar look good with the furniture. The furniture is also needed for customers to use. To see what are the fixed assets go to appendix
The rent and rates information were given in the Johnson Fellows brochure. From the information we had worked out how much we will be paying monthly and yearly.
We are to be supplied by the Taylor Company. The suppliers will expect immediate cash, especially for us being a new business, but will offer credit after a while. We are to use Walls Elite Ice Cream.
Wages were worked out buy how many hours of the day we are to work and how much is to be paid.
FT = Full time
PT = Part time
Advertising costs were found out from research. We decided to have 1,000 leaflets and posters. These are to be produced for only two months as it can be seen in the cash low forecast they are to be in April and October. The reason for the chosen two months is that April is when it is warm and summer is closer also there would be a different design from the October leaflets and posters. October is when the winter is due to come up from this we can advertise with promotions because we would like customers to still come to Ice Bar during the winter. The posters and leaflets would be evenly distributed through the six months.
Explained Profit & Loss Account forecast
Depreciation means the reduction in value of a fixed asset during its lifetime. All fixed assets lose value as a result of the following:-
- Physical deterioration
- Obsolescence
- Depletion
- The passage of time
There are a number of different methods of allowing for depreciation. The method used for depreciating our fixed assets was the straight line method. The straight line method is -
Value of Fixed assets
No. of Years of useful life
The depreciation calculation of our fixed assets is the following –
£10,394 = £2,076
5 years
It can be seen that there is no opening stock and closing stock. This profit and loss account is an estimate, so we expect our stock to be gone at the end of the year. However if it were an actual profit and loss account there might be some closing stock left at the end of the year.
Break Even Analysis
Break-even analysis allows firms to identify the minimum level of sales needed to make a profit. Break even consists of total revenue, total fixed costs, total variable costs, and total costs.
Total revenue = £151,125
Total fixed costs (rent, rates and insurance) = £48,500
Total variable costs (electricity, telephone and wages) = £45,269
Total costs = Total fixed costs + Total variable costs = £93,769
Ratios
Ratios show how well the business is doing. There are 3 different types of ratios: -
- Profitability (how profitable the business is)
- Solvency/Liquidity (ability to pay of debts when due)
- Performance ratio (how efficient the business is)
Profitability Ratio
Gross profit % = Gross profit x 100% = £142,229 x 100% = 94.11%
Sales £151,125
It shows how much gross profit is made per £100 of sales. Managers and providers of finance would want to use this to see if the purchases have increased and if the sales have decreased. Or thief of cash/stock could be found out from this.
Net profit % = Net profit x 100% = £46,915 x 100% = 31.04%
Sales £151,125
It shows how much net profit is made per £100 of sales £31.04. Managers, providers of finance, government, suppliers would want to see this ratio. The reason for this is the managers would like to know how much profit they are making, the providers of finance would want to see if the business deserves more loans and if it can pay back. The government could use the net profit ratio and work out how much to tax the business. Suppliers would want to know if they are to be paid.
Performance ratio
Overhead ratio = Expenses x 100% = £95,314 x100% = 63.07%
Sales £151,125
Every £100 of sales shows how much is spent on expenses. You don’t want the expenses to be more than the sales. Management and employees would want to see this information to see how well the business is doing. Also to see if the business can afford to pay the employees.
Evaluation for Ice Bar
First of all we were deciding upon what kind of business we were to set up. First we had decided to set up a chocolate shop. The reason for not starting up a chocolate shop was because we thought this was not necessary and there are a lot of shops which sell chocolate in Sheffield. We wanted to introduce something new instead. So we decided upon setting up an Ice Cream parlour, the reason for this was there are no Ice Cream parlours in Sheffield, but there are cafes and restaurants which sell Ice Cream. By doing research we found out that Ice Cream does not have to be ‘restricted to the summer months only’ as it is a cold dessert.
At the time we started our business plan in the winter where a lot of Ice Cream is not eaten due to the cold weather. Due to us starting our plan in the winter we thought it would be difficult to find information on Ice Cream due to Ice Cream is known as seasonal. We also decided not to open Ice Cream parlour at one point due to it being seasonal. However, doing a lot of research finding out the important information for our business we realised we could be successful. If we put a lot more effort in advertising in the winter. Research is the most important part of the business plan and we believe we were successful in this area. As we found out a lot about Ice Cream the profits you can make buy selling the product.
Pricing is really important in a business. If it is pitched too high then it will frighten off potential customers, but too low a price might give you levels of demand we won’t be able to cope with, or worse leave us with higher costs than revenues. So we had decided making the prices reasonable.
We decided to locate on Ecclesall Road due to it being a predominately student area. We believe it could start us with a good client base. There were different areas from where we could choose from for example London Road, somewhere in the City Centre. As Ecclesall Road is just off the City Centre so it does have its advantages and it is a long road with a lot of competition. Finding the property on Ecclesall Road was difficult as there are a lot of businesses successful. We managed to find a property after a while we had to wait, if we had not been successful in finding a property on Ecclesall Road we would have decided to locate on London Road which is a road like Ecclesall Road with a few cafes and takeaways. London Road is being developed into being another Ecclesall Road. There are flats being made on London Road which are to be filled with mainly students.
We had decided to set up the business as a partnership due to having more ideas and we both have different skills within each other. By putting the skills together we thought we could have a successful business. Setting the business up as partners does have its advantages and disadvantages. As above they are the advantages but the disadvantages are not agreeing on the same idea, which can cause some problems but me and Emma managed to work together and if any disagreements occurred we had sorted them out by working them out. We did manage to get on well with each other and work as partners.
The quality assurance was used by the help of Emma getting information how a food handling business works. As Emma works at Massarella she had the experience and knowledge of what was needed to be done. We used the information from Massarella as it is a food handling business. It had helped us a lot with our quality assurance, production plan, and constraints on production.
The financial plan is crucial as it is a forecast on the business to see if we are to be successful in making any profit. The financial part of the plan took us a long time to do by trying to get it right. It was not difficult doing the cash flow forecast and the profit and loss account as we had to just fill in the months and it were calculated automatically. However finding out all the prices and working them out was difficult and took most of our time working them out. However looking at the financial plan we seem to be doing well not losing a lot of money. As we do expect sales to be high in the summer but not in the winter so it can be understood that the sales figures are low and we don’t make any profit in the first three months. It is expected though we don’t make any profit at the start of the business. Nevertheless we seem to be doing well not losing out on much. Looking at the ratios in gross profit we are doing extremely well, but not in the net profit but we are totally low in the net profit we are jus near the 50% mark but we can grow on this as it is the start of a new business and we might even expect more customers than we predict or less.
If we had more time we would have convert the Ice Bar into a drinking bar in the night. We have a bar in Ice Bar and the name which would be suitable, so there would not be a lot to change the premises itself. We would have to apply for licence for alcohol. We also have a basement we could refurbish it and convert it to a dancing area or have another bar downstairs. To convert the Ice Bar into a night bar it would cost us a lot of money so we would need to take out a loan. If we were not successful in our Ice Cream Parlour this idea would be our back up plan.
We decided to use the Lloyds TSB Bank business plan to help us construct our own plan to help us construct our own plan. There were a variety of business plans to choose from to help us to construct our business plan for example HSBC Bank, Natwest etc. The business plans are mainly available from the banks. We chose Lloyds TSB Bank because there is a lot of information given to help with the business plan, for example a CD was given a book which guides you through the planning of a business. It also gave an outline of a business plan where you can fill in the spaces and use it as a business plan. The guide was very helpful, we used the construction of the Lloyds TSB business plan we did not use as we had a lot more information to add and some of the information in the plan was not necessary to our business plan. We could have chosen different plans like HSBC but we felt HSBC did not have lot information like Lloyds TSB. It was not very helpful it had just given a business plan where you can just fill in what was necessary.
