Question

Use the business developed below. Explain the 10 assumptions that you used in developing this business.

Overview- We are going to start a bakery business as I have my interest in bakery. This is going to be start-up business plan. The name of our Bakery would be “Bake It or Make It”. It would be managed by me along with my team of new bakers around the city. Opening a bakery at initial stage would involve a lot of investment and could help us to gain advantage over local home-side bakers.

Operational Plan- Mission and Vision of “Bake it or Make it” is to serve the clients with best customised cakes and pastries and cookies different in all way. It aims to get customer satisfaction by providing quality product with best customisation services to its client, i.e- making and designing cakes and pastries according to client’s wish. Since we are opening a new bakery store at our locality, it would be easy for operation as there is no nearby bakery store in the same locality. The near competition is around 2.5 kms away. This would be an added advantage for us. For successful operation of our Bakery we would require to appoint 2- 3 bakers, 2 people at the front end who would serve the clients, 1 delivery boy and 1 person managing the entire store as it could not always be possible for me to be there at the store because of my child who is very small. The store would open at 9 am in the morning till 8 pm in the evening. The theme of the store is so carefully designed in pastel colours and different chairs and tables so that it attracts customers to enter inside. Apart from baking cakes, we would also provide with pastries, cup-cakes, cakesickles, cake pop-ups, cookies and various other variety of stuffs. Our team would be trained in such a way that everyone has clear idea about this industry and can manage very well on behalf of anyone’s absence. We would take prior orders and on spot order as well as per the availability. We would develop a cake brochure which would contain a variety and range of products we would deal with so that it could be easy of the clients to look into the brochure and make a preference. This brochure would contain the images and my past bakery photos. For prior order we would take min 1-day prior order depending on the size and category of product. For orders above Rs. 1000/- our delivery boy could deliver it to clients otherwise there would be delivery charge as applicable.

Market Analysis- Analysing the market is very important for any business concern. We can do market analysis by simply doing market segmentation. Market analysis also looks into its competitor and other barriers during the course of operations. It helps us to find out our target customers on the basis of market need. For our bakery business our target audience is everyone as there is need of cakes and pastries by everyone nearly during some occasion or the other. For further more classification of such market we should look at the market segmentation.

Market Segmentation- Dividing the entire group of market into small segments based on different criteria’s. Such segmentation will be done for those group of consumers only who have similar needs or wants or interests. Such market segmentation is done in the following way-

1. Geographic Segmentation- It is dividing the market on the basis of geography, i.e.- dividing the market on the basis of city, state, country, or further rural area or urban area. It is basically dividing our audience on the basis of location. Example- customising different category of cakes according to different location in the city.
2. Demographic Segmentation- Dividing the market on basis of age, gender, religion, income, occupation, etc. It will be the most common segmentation for our business plan. Like- we can easily segment our market according to the income group of clients and offer cakes and cookies options as per their income so that its affordable for each group of people to purchase.
3. Behavioural Segmentation- Dividing the market as per customers behaviour, i.e- their buying behaviour pattern. Example- If chocolate cake is preferred by clients, it shows the purchasing behaviour pattern of the customer’s interest towards chocolate cake.
4. Firmographic Segmentation- Dividing the market as per the attributes of organisations. It considers company size, no of employees required, etc. Example- It would help us determine our organisation size and thereafter help us determine the number of employees we require for proper functioning.
5. Psychographic Segmentation- It is further more dividing the market based on demographic division, i.e diving current and previous customers according to age, gender, income, religion, buying habits, etc.

Such market segmentation will help us to divide the entire market into groups and segment for better understanding and operations.

Target audience – Our target audience range from kids to adults to men’s and women’s also. As there is always some occasion like birthday, marriages, anniversary, moment of joy or achievement, etc when people tend to celebrate having a cake in their list. Such occasion generates orders for us. Every day there is some occasion or the other for one of us. Like today is my birthday, next day is Peter’s anniversary, next day is a promotion party for Shalini’s husband, and so on. Targeting just one group or two is not in our business.

Competition- Our competition would be similar bakery stores and other in-house bakers. This bakery industry is very vast and it depends on one’s creative and way of thinking out of the box. Such thinking and creative will result to the best possible output for our clients. There is huge competition in this industry unlike others as we cannot always match we our competitors thinking and creativity. But to be ahead of competition we can provide them with best services, delivery option, offers on regular basis, discounts, etc.

Barriers- There can be barriers for entering into such business. Some of them are-

• Funding requirement
• Best advanced technology
• Government Rules and Regulations attached to opening of new store
• Location- The location we want to choose might not have constructed work place or land available
• Huge marketing cost involved

There are many more barriers when entering into new business. To overcome such barriers, we need to have a strong management team and dedication towards the goal of the organization.

Product and services- Not just cakes, but we would also keep pastries, cakesickles, cup-cakes, cake pop-ups, milk breads, etc. Many other variety of cakes can be customised in different shapes and size depending on the client’s demand and preference. We are open to free customisation as per the client’s requirement. We would also have delivery system chargeable for order below Rs. 1000/-.

Marketing activities- In order to promote our business, we would engage in different marketing activities like- advertising through radio ads, advertising in bill boards, distributing pamphlets, distributing paper insertions in the new papers, marketing in social media in way of opening page for “Bake it or Make it” throughout digitally and trying to spend in boosting activities in the social media sites in order to get recognised by as many as people as we can.

Management Team- We would require to appoint 2- 3 bakers, such bakers would have great hands in baking any type of cakes, should have the ability to think differently and creatively. 2 people at the front end who would serve the clients, 1 delivery boy and 1 person managing the entire store. A great management team is always required to help the organisation achieve its goal.

To operate any business or start a business is not easy. It involves many process and procedures. It involves many legality, analysing market, analysing competition, analysing target audience, and effectively functioning each day so that it helps to achieve organisational goal.

Answer 1

10 assumptions made as following:

1. Starting operation would be easy due to less competitive market.
2. Manpower would be sufficient for seamless execution
3. Market analysis can be done simply by market segmentation
4. Target audience is strictly limited to certain set of peiple
5. Orders will be fulfilled for lower order volumes
6. Competition would be restricted to smaller players
7. Many procedures and legality is required is basic assumptions
8. Management team can handle any sort of orders
9. Social media marketing will get maximum recognition
10. Traditional marketing is more costly.