My stock will be from local shoe makers and designers from the Leeds area. This will be a lot cheaper than buying straight from big brands such as: Nike, Adidas, Umbro.
Setting my business up near a town is an advantage, because there will be good transport and a lot of parking places for customers to park there vehicles. Setting up my business in a shop will be expensive, because I will need to pay for the starting up costs, such as decorations, furnishing, cleaning etc, I will also have to keep paying running costs as well, such as electricity, lighting, water.
Being a sole trader, I will have to make all decisions and pay all costs. I will have to research very deeply to see if my business products will be appropriate for the area I have chosen. I will be responsible for anything going wrong. I will use both secondary and primary market research and I will carry out questionnaires to find out what people want in my chosen area
I will also make myself something to work towards, known as targets, or aims.
- To survive the first year or two.
- To break even in the first year of running my business
- To start making profit after the first year.
I have chosen these targets because I will need to survive the first year, to keep my business going.
Market Research
Market research is gathering information about customers and what they want. Market research is important because if you do not do any market research, then you will not know what your market wants, this leading to a failure in the business. For market research, you could make a questionnaire, asking questions that you may need to know about what your customers want. If you do not add a question that you may need, this could be fatal, because this may tell you exactly what your customers want
Market research involves collecting both secondary information (information from other businesses) and primary information (your own information, you have). Some of the information that should be collected is information such as:
- The prices people are willing to pay
- When is the best times for your business to be open
- What would be the most effective type of advertisement?
I could find this information by:
- Questionnaires
- Looking at local shops
- Doing a local survey
Start up costs:
Decoration and furnishing
I will decorate my premises with a clean, modern look that will appeal to my target market. I will use mostly paint and finish off with pictures and ornamental objects to add colour and decoration. I will then add shelves to display my shoes to my customers.
Paint total: £40
Pictures/ornaments: £70
Shelving: £500
Stock
I will need stock to draw in customers, because if people see what we have on offer, they may want to come inside, and see what else I have in my shop.
50 pair designer trainers - £30 on sale return
50 pair casual shoes - £30 on sale return
Advertising
To advertise my business, I will put a small add in the local newspaper, giving the details on where it is, the opening dates and some of the stock we will hold. I could also put out some flyers, giving out the same information.
Place in the newspaper - £30
Total cost - £3640
Primary Research
A questionnaire is a type of field research, is it is gathering new information. I could also use another type of field research such as interviews, surveys or a observation.
Questionnaire
For a questionnaire I could ask questions such as age, some favourite materials, shoe sizes, prices people are willing to pay.
My questionnaire may look like this:
Questionnaire
What age are you?
- 13-19
- 19-25
- 25-31
- 31+
Favourite brands of shoe
- Nike
- Adidas
- Kswiss
- Reebok
- Converse
- Timberlands
- Other (please state) ________________________________________
Shoe size
- 4-5
- 5-6
- 6-7
- 7-8
- 8-9
- 9-10
- 10-11
- 11+
Prices
- £5-£10
- £10-£15
- £15-£20
- £20-£25
- £25-£30
- £30-£35
- £35-£40
- £40+
Where are the most popular shopping places?
- Huddersfield
- Leeds
- Sheffield
- Hull
- Manchester
- Newcastle
- online
I will need to know some of this information, to see where my competition is, and prices I will need to make my products, to satisfy the customers. Also, this helps give me an idea of some of the stock sizes I will need to store, And some ages of people I will be dealing with.
Research Results
This graph shows the preferences of the differing age groups.
I would also do other graphs of the same typpe to find out about my market.
This graph shows where my market are most likely to shop. this shows where my competition is, and also if i were to expand, where would be the best place
