Vision Is Nothing Without a Plan - Can Business X Succeed?
Vision is nothing without a plan
Can business X succeed?
Introduction:
I needed to choose a simple business idea and do the necessary research to ascertain whether the business could be a success. Alternatively I would need to look at an existing business and plan how it could increase its success. I decided to see whether my own business could succeed.
I have chosen to look at a children's entertainment company that provides food and entertainment. I will have to research the main aspects that are needed to run and work an entertainment company. I will focus on the marketing side of the business and also the financial aspects. I will need to research advertising, and decide whether or not I would use it.
Children's parties can often be stressful for parents. There is a gap in the market or niche, for this business, so it should be popular. I found this out when doing research in the local area, as I found nothing locally. I wanted to start up the business, and when parents have knowledge of the business they hopefully will realise that it is a good idea and that it would be useful for them. It is a good idea, as it will never run into debt. The only competition I will have will be from local leisure centres and they are slightly different, as they don't provide bouncy castles. The customers will be parents of children, who feel a children's party is too much hassle to organise themselves.
Business aim:
My aim is to bring in as many customers as I can, and provide them with a more than satisfying service, so they are pleased with the party, and then they will spread the word of the business.
I have chosen to have a sole trade business. By doing this, it will be easy and quick to start up. I can make all the decisions myself and won't be doing anything that I don't want to do. I will have total control of the business and I will gain personal satisfaction from being a sole trader. I will gain all the profit and then I can do exactly what I want with the money. I would have to pay back the money I take from my savings account to for the start up costs. My ultimate ...
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I have chosen to have a sole trade business. By doing this, it will be easy and quick to start up. I can make all the decisions myself and won't be doing anything that I don't want to do. I will have total control of the business and I will gain personal satisfaction from being a sole trader. I will gain all the profit and then I can do exactly what I want with the money. I would have to pay back the money I take from my savings account to for the start up costs. My ultimate aim is to expand the business, with more than one party going on at one time. I would like to have my own party bouncy castle, which costs £995, so I would not have to pay the £50 per party to hire the bouncy castles.
Kidz Big Bash:
I decided to call my business 'Kidz Big Bash', as it is easy to remember. It is also fun, and refers to a big, fun children's party. When I decided to research children's parties, I had to research into things that I would need to pay for. I thought I could provide entertainment in the form of games, face paints and a bouncy castle and also prepare the food. I decided the best thing to do, would be to hire the bouncy castle from another business until I could afford to buy one. I thought by hiring one each time, it would stop the start up costs from being very high. With the start up costs I did have the best way to pay for them would be to take it out of a savings account, this could be quickly paid back with the profit I get with every party I do for the children. I choose this rather than a loan, as it is only under £100, and therefore not worth paying the interest on the loan.
I would need to provide a satisfying party, so that the business would become popular and the demand for the parties will go up, and therefore making the business more profitable. As a result of this I would hopefully be able to expand the business after a certain amount of time.
The parties could only take place in the spring or the summer, because of the fact that it is an outside an event. I would also only be able to have one party a day as the parties would have to take place outside of school hours. If there are no orders then I will not lose money, as because I would not take out a loan I would not have to pay back a set amount to the back each month, as some businesses do. The total cost for each party will not have to be paid, unless I have a booking, so I will pay for the goods when the party has been paid for. I will not have to pay for anything that is unnecessary as a result of this.
Staff:
To start off with, I decided the best thing to do, when it came to staffing the business, would be to singly manage the business. I thought this because I would not have to pay a set amount for an employee's wages. I believe the job could be done with just one member of staff. I could hire another member of staff once the start up costs had been paid back, as then I could pay the wages and I could do more than one party at one time. I could also provide a better service for the customers.
Pricing and advertising:
I will charge £150 per party, as that way I am making a sufficient amount of profit. Each party would cost me £83, so £150 is a fair price to charge, as I would be making £67 profit. The price of the party is very reasonable especially as it provides for 20 children. It includes a bouncy castle that can be very expensive, food, a soft toy, face paints and other things that are needed.
To get my business up and running I would need to use some advertising. I researched advertising and found that I could advertise in the yellow pages for just under £150, I also found that I could produce 1000 business cards for £81. I choose to use the business cards, as I thought 1000 cards is a lot for the amount of, money I would be charged. To start off with, I could place them in a shop window and when I start to get orders I could leave them out for parents to take home when they come to collect their children.
My total start up cost is £84.38, which are the business cards and also the plates.
Charts:
With my business, I can not easily use charts to measure its success. I can not use a cash flow chart, as I have income expenditure, as the things are bought when it is booked, so the things needed are bought with the money paid for the party, and then the money is taken from that.
With the business I can not use a break-even chart as I can never make a loss and I can guess the amount of bookings I will have.
Conclusion:
Throughout the coursework, I have tried to answer the question set. Having done a lot of research into a certain business area, I feel that my own business, Kidz Big Bash would succeed. I feel that I could bring a high amount of customers to the business. The business is very different, and it would be hard for a customer to find a better entertainment company. The fact that I would use some form of advertising would help with the success of the business, as it would definitely bring in more customers, than what it would if I had used no advertising. I think the business will be popular and therefore the demand will be high, and it should provide a certain amount of profit.
Another reason why my business could not fail, would be the fact that I did not take out a loan. This means the business will quickly make a profit, and this can be ploughed back into the business. I will definitely never make a loss as; it would take just under two parties to pay back the money I took out from my account for the start up costs.
My project was based on both the financial and marketing side of businesses. I did tend to talk mostly about the marketing side, however I did try to find out how much profit I would make, and when I would start making it and also the prices of the things I would need to buy. By using both the marketing and financial side of things, I could monitor whether or not 'Kidz Big Bash would succeed. I needed to look at both of the sides, as if I had just planned my business with the finance in mind I'm sure it would not work, as I would not have looked at the other factors of a business. By researching into this mini enterprise, I decided it would succeed.
Bibliography:
Nuffield - BP, Business and Economics for GCSE
Internet - information on bouncy castles
Yellow pages - information on bouncy castles
Asda - prices of food
