Our pop-up thrift shop intents to help the community in many different ways. We will give an opportunity to those people that want to donate. People often need to donate, and they don’t know how, and they are frightened of the unknown. Most people claim that they are denied by the city officials from giving anyhow because it might perpetuate the problem of begging (Demetry, Thurk, and Fine, 2015). We will advertise our intent through social media, friends and put posters. Most people want to give in a way that the recipients have control which allows them to feel on an equal footing with their peers. Our pop-up thrift shop focuses and responds to these needs. It bridges a gap that makes it easier to give and receive in a dignified way. Eventually after successful donations and running of social events, we will create a retail business where we will be selling items for not more than $ 1.The prices can be less depending on the value of items. We will be selling items for less cash to ensure the needy receive them affordably and at a dignified way while at the same time making a profit from the enterprise.
Assumptions about the size of the business
The pop-up thrift shop is expected to have a medium operation where we will need at least fifteen staffs to help in displaying items, selling them and arranging them back to the store every day. With the help of volunteers, the operation will be smooth. If rapid growth comes sooner than expected, we will be able to handle it because we have strategies to keep up with the growth. We can recruit more staff to help in operation and volunteers are so many in numbers. That rapid growth will intensify the day to day operations which needs people to manage them. The Enterprise actually looks forward to growth because that means we will have succeeded in opening opportunities for donations. Also, growth means more cash to pay staff and pay for miscellaneous costs that are born by the daily operations. To attend to this need, our initial sales will be treated like capital that will be reinvested back in the business before we can start realizing profits. Clark institution has already helped out in advance by providing us with a unit for storing the donated items, so we don’t have to worry about storage costs. In case our estimates for growth are not accurate, we will view the enterprise risky like other investments as the first step. Then we will devise back up plans like increasing amount of advertising and make use of social media as the most effective platform to distribute information. We can also cut prises and see if the items will move faster. The staffs that we will hire are temporary just to be safe in case of failure of growth because it will enable us recruit less and not be positioned in a situation that we have to terminate staffs.
A business that earns a small profit is worth operating because there are many benefits that are realized other than just profit making. In our case, our thrift shop aims to have positive impacts on the society which include giving people an opportunity to donate and satisfy the needs of less privileged. Also, our thrift shop takes an environmental concern into consideration. Waste is a global issue, and if people can recycle their items instead of disposing them of, then we will transform the culture of waste creation into reducing our footprint through recycling. It is, therefore, worth operating a business that largely profits the society while providing a small stipple to the participants.
Start -up costs
Our estimated initial start-up costs are cumulatively $ 8000. This caters for first, operatingcosts. Secondly, location improvement cost which includes customizing the space by putting up counters, tents, poles, and tables. Miscellaneous costly are also included which include hangers for clothing, licensing and advertising costs. We will also need money for our grand opening event which will create our public relations and finally, IT cost including Google services, the store’s email, website hosting, design and development and IT consultant fee. We will not need office supplies and insurance since we will be operating in an open space where will be basically carrying out sales. The IT activities won’t be much so we can be doing them from home or in our computer labs at Clark. Our shop is expected to operate for three months before we can start generating income. This period is enough to establish the enterprise and know the real cost of the business. It is also enough to value the returns of an enterprise having familiarized ourselves with all cost encountered within the business operation and average sales achievable per day.
Pro forma financials
We project that our break-even projections per year will be 40% based on the research we have done. In a years’ time, we are certain that we will have recovered our full capital and we will be entirely calculating profits from operating costs and revenues accrued. We can afford to lose money for that long because our prospects are what matters and after two years of operation, the enterprise will be doing excellent. Apart from familiarizing ourselves with the enterprise and knowing how to cut costs and push our sales, the business will have established itself, earned goodwill and good reputation as well which will successfully ensure that the future is always feasible. Though it is hard to have a projection of income and expense for three years, we are certain that the business will keep on upgrading. For now our targets are to triple profits every year through advertising and coming up with good market strategies as we familiarize ourselves with the business and gained experience as well.
Discussion of feasibility
Business expansion is feasible at this point of our organization because we have already listed potential locations for the business including Boston and New York. Our criteria for these locations are nearness to markets and supply as well as the easiness of recognition from the large populations. Also, we expect to triple the profits of our business per year and we will take all necessary initiates to achieve that target. This will ensure our expansion plans do not fail as we will have enough start-up cost for each expansion. Our social enterprise will meet our mission goals which is creating a culture that do not accumulate waste to the environment but recycling unwanted goods, bridging a gap that will ensure people donate and those in need acquire goods in a dignified way and finally, engaging students in social works that give them earnings at the end of the day. This risk is acceptable because its goals are achievable and it is a unique strategy that has the potential for growth. First, it is acceptable to the community because of the positive impacts it brings. Secondly it is acceptable by the government in helping fight waste disposal, and finally, it engages students in active and developmental activities.
Every investment has its own purpose, and there is no a less investment provided it is not offensive (Hietanen, Mattila, Schouten, Sihvonen and Toyoki, 2016). Furthermore, every business is a risk, and ours is not an exception. We can accept this risk because the prospects are certain and the possibility of it failing is less than its success. Competition is there, and we can’t afford not to earn ourselves a competitive edge. We can compete with the competition because we are advantaged our goods are affordable, and we get them at less cost as compared to retailers selling same things first hand. For enterprises operating an exact business like ours, we can compete with them by offering for example after sale services to promote our enterprise.
We can say the market is growing because people are gaining more awareness of such enterprises and they are growing preference towards these goods. This helps our business just to find strategies that can reach out to this market other than creating a market. It is possible to maintain quality by accepting goods that are valuable to ensure that customers see the value of their transaction as well. If growth occurs quickly, we will not alienate potential customers built. Instead we will get more donations to ensure we grow our stock and maintain customers as new ones come. This will ensure the business grows. It is just a matter of keeping up with the wonderful growth of the business which is the goals for every enterprise. We will ensure we maintain quality with growth and this is very possible with more efforts to get quality goods.
Conclusion
We look forward into having a successful operation and achieving out set targets as our business growth. We also look forward to impacting the society positively and growing a socially active culture that is environmentally friendly. Most of all, we look forward into accumulating income from the business.
References
Demetry, D., Thurk, J., & Fine, G. A. (2015). Strategic poverty: How social and
cultural capital shapes low-income life. Journal of Consumer Culture, 15(1), 86-109.
Hietanen, J., Mattila, P., Schouten, J. W., Sihvonen, A., & Toyoki, S. (2016).
Reimagining Society Through Retail Practice. Journal of Retailing.