When it comes to children, parents are always trying to give as much happiness and fun to their kids. As jewellery is a woman best friend, toys is a child's best friend. It is extremely important for a kid to have every toy he or she finds and needs to play with at least once in their lifetime. However, as most parents know, children get bored of the same toys, not only because they played too much with it, but also because they grow and will find some toys too childish, not to mention the toys they want for one day as a request but they don't really enjoy too much in the end. Toys4me is the answer to this, and will make children as happy as before, as well as ease every parent's life through a simple monthly subscription. The concept represents a platform in which toys can be exchanged between children through a pick up and delivery service that includes cleaning and sanitisation of every toy. This concept includes three main points:
• Peace of mind for every parent for the child's happiness and enjoyment of different toys all the time and thus ensuring that the kid will play with the toys he or she really enjoys and will give away the toys not liked, or no longer suitable with the age.
• Also, parents will have the opportunity to gain space in their home by giving out the toys to other children who will enjoy it better and make an actual use out of it rather than keeping them in the closet while their children don't even remember they exist.
• Furthermore, by using Toys4me customers will have the opportunity to customize the service chosen in relation to the amount of time keeping the toy, the number of toys they keep at once, the amount of toys they give away to other children. By doing so, it gives the opportunity to adapt every case and situation to the consumer's satisfaction.
The main center of operations will be in London for now where the main channel for marketing our services to the parental world will be through the internet. The essence of the internet will be to link all possible consumers irrespective of the geographic locations where they will coordinate current requests for the service and communicate efficiently on who will be getting toys and who will be giving them out. It will help make the concept become more efficient in providing services to first come basis responses, timely responses will be sent to our clients so they know when their toys will arrive and the team will eliminate conflicts and wastage of resources like time and fuel as at no time will two toys be delivered in closeby locations. Currently, the toy exchange service is not in the London market. That means that the market is currently closed but there is good potential as the concept is new and represents a daily issue parents may have in their familiar surrounding. The service can quickly gain popularity, support and demand.
Consumer profiles are an effective way of determining the specific market segment the end user belongs to so as to have better information to focus in on their individual needs and preferences while marketing and advertising the services and products one has. The focus for our services will be strictly on the parental and children sector that goes no further than everyone's home. The marketing strategy will be guided by the customer profile in relation to the market where the toy network company will utilize both business to business clients and business to consumer market approaches. The key areas of consideration for both markets are analyzed from two aspects. These are:
1. Demographics
This category looks at the similarities or disparities between the clients in relation to age of the child, gender, occupation, education, lifestyles, parental preferences which will adapt the service to the consumer in various ways.
2. Psychographics
These variables are very important in determining why the customer needs the specified service on offer and how they intend to have them delivered to their home. The most significant considerations for this category goes from the culture to understand the belief, values and buying patterns in respect to the amount of toys one may need. The perceptions of the company culture and their employees on meeting them and the lifestyle standard of the staff are also factors for consideration such as regard for physical fitness means the individual takes care of their body and as such their environment also needs to be clean, organized and healthy giving the perception of good quality and respect for the toys of their children. Indeed, a bad impression with the person taking the toys will scare a parent when it comes to the hygiene and therefore usage of the service.
Both the factors are of value to the decisions taken by the toy company and may include other foundations for analysis, for example, frequency of the need for the service but of all the variables, the psychographic information is hardest to find and keep track of as it needs time to collect the information, for instance, the use of interviews or questionnaires which are at times an inconvenience with the individuals to collect and the needs of every human being tends to change over time hence the dependence on the demographic information for making decisions.
The web represents a massive resource which a majority of companies are yet to know and comprehend how useful tapping into the resource is useful in marketing and growing a company or business initiative as it helps the business reach out to clients they previously were not aware existed. The reason for selecting the internet as the main channel of distribution for the company information on marketing and communication is due to the access it provides to real-time data. As a client, access will be granted to all our inventory where one can select a previous item(s) they have chosen in the past or in relation to their reviews which will be posted on the company site by other clients who had the experience of specific toys. Furthermore, our company aims to improve the experience and ease of paying for our customers by providing cashless structures secured and verified through the use of credit or debit cards.
The various ways in which the company will use the internet includes:
1. Customize the company website to be an e-commerce capable site through using tools such as search engine optimization.
2. The use of e-mail marketing options to the current and prospective clients where the company highlights the key distinctions of the service provided by advertisements and promotions where for instance new clients can get discounts on their first service.
3. Through the internet, the company will also have access to platforms such as social media which is a core factor especially for viral marketing strategies of marketing and advertisements using sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
One of the other methods that will be utilized will involve the use of internet agents whose purpose will be to aid the company in designing their products and distribution strategies by building internet oriented marketing strategies such as websites and mobile application. The key to the success of agents is that they are proactive and always on toes to ensure that the companies service and reach is up and running and created with the current and future trends in mind as their success is bound to the company's success. They build the company and its service to the client promoting not the service the company provides but the brand the company represents. Lastly, they are a cushion for the company to land on for instance in cases of bad press or poor reviews as they offer support like effective and efficient communication channels between the company and the client.
The service will have very little expenditures in storage as the company will mainly have its products around in the different homes and will only need to store toys when they need to be cleaned or if they need to be replaced after being severely damaged. The logistics involved will be such that, an order for the service is sent by the client upon which a suitable toy is located in terms of preference of the client or their proximity to the area. Once found, they have to log into the system and assign the location taken, so other deliverers move on to find and allocate a pending toy delivery or pick up.
The risks involved in the business include the difficulty in obtaining the marketing or product and service idea especially if it is internet based. Trademarks and logos can be copied by fraudsters and used to con the clients leading to closure or loss of reputation and clients. Also, an online business depends so much on advertisements online which can sometimes be counterproductive if the ads are many hence the companies traffic reduces due to the loss of value and reach leading to losses rather than income. Another risk, is the failure to persuade clients due to lack of professionalism in the design of the company, its websites and social media content which make a bad first impression on the clients which is a critical step for any industry or company. Negative feedback on the internet is another issue that comes with basing a business on internet and technology especially due to the fact that technology can at times be erroneous and hence the poor feedback such as slow speed of response may be due to the technology rather than the individuals.
Legally some of the factors that may cause problems to the business may involve aspects such as compliance with the sites and social media content, for example; a website must have an unsubscribe option for the clients so that should they be unhappy with the content or service, they are free to leave or cancel their subscriptions. Also, there are legal compliance laws in every country and as such, the company should ensure all are catered to and addressed from the beginning so that their businesses are transparent and honest.
Financial:
Income Statement of Toys4me Corporate Cleaning Services for the next three years
2016
2017
2018
£
£
£
Revenue
24,000
36,000
48,000
Cost of Goods Sold
80,000
12,000
18,000
Gross Profit
16;000
24,000
30,000
Expenses
Wages
4,200
5400
6600
Rent
2,800
3600
4500
Utilities
400
800
1,000
Supplies
1,200
2,200
3,000
Net profit before tax
7,400
12,000
14,900
Tax
1,800
3,000
3,600
Net profit after tax
5,600
9,000
11,300
Balance Sheet of Toys4me for the year ending March 31, 2017.
Assets
£
£
Current Assets
Cash
1,200
Receivables
8,400
Inventory
4,200
13,800
Non-Current Assets
Machinery
45,900
Motor vehicle
4600
50,500
Total Assets
64,300
Liabilities
Current Liabilities
Payables
800
Bank overdraft
2,400
3,200
Long-term liabilities
Loan
25,000
25,000
Owners Equity
Retained earnings
16,100
Common shares
20,000
36,100
Total liabilities and equity
64,300
The financials of the business indicate that the company would break even in its first year of operation given that the company intends to have numerous new consumers that would improve the financial performance of the company. As such, the company will start making profits in the first year of its establishment. The business is quite lucrative given that there are no organizations in the market, thus, enhancing the high market penetration of the business in making significant revenues after its creation. The first few months of the business will, however, be hectic given that the company is set to break even after the first three months of its operations.
Break-even analysis
Month1
Month2
Month 3
Variable costs
1,000
1,200
1,250
Fixed costs
1,400
1,400
1,400
2,400
2,600
2,650
Revenues
2,000
2,400
2,900
Variance
-400
-200
250
After the first three months of the business operation the company's revenues will have exceeds the total costs of the business, thus, the business is set to break-even after the first three months of its incorporation into the market.
The company seeks to utilize donation, and debt financing for the establishment of the company given that the initial outlay of the business will be quite high. The business will, however, have the capacity to pay back the debt offered given that it is estimated to make better profits in the first three years of its operation in the market. The profits will continue to grow as the company continues to find new clients in the market. The company's financial forecast indicates its capability of repaying the debt without any problems. Therefore, the concept of Toys4me simply needs to be started off by all parents wanting more space, more toys, and less headaches with children wanting different toys all the time.
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