Executive Summary
Nowadays, the true value of home gardening is gone, and the city residents have not even cherished the little gardens they have for appropriate land use. More worrying is that town residents are increasingly relying on frozen and stale veggies and fruits sold in the local supermarkets and greengrocery shops. Solutions towards the eradication of the unsafe frozen foods are currently inadequate even as people continue to suffer various health complications from frozen foods. It is to this growing concern that the home gardening veggies business came up with an idea of developing a vegetable and fruits home garden to help the town residents to purchase fresh and healthy veggies.
The home gardening veggies business intends to improve sustainable living among the town residents through providing green veggies and fresh fruits at affordable prices. To make sure that the company achieves its main goal, the business owner designed a mission, vision, and a leadership philosophy.
Mission
As a growing investment, our mission is to innovate ways of delivering an outstanding home gardening business for the production of veggies to feed the hungry populations within the estate and provide convenient purchasing through offering affordable prices for our vegetables for the purpose of reducing people’s dependencies on frozen veggies.
The business also designed its unique and shared vision statements, which would drive the objectivity of the farm. “Our vision as a contemporary gardening idea is to help the consumers get the most affordable green and fresh vegetables grown from a blend of the traditional and contemporary farming ideas so that in future we can reduce the growing human dependencies on frozen veggies that people routinely consume.” “Our shared vision is to work collaboratively towards ensuring that the human population is enjoying farm fresh produce for sustainable growth and development, to avoid overreliance on frozen farm products that are nowadays harmful.”
The intended home gardening veggies business will offer various veggies and fruits to the estate residents at affordable prices. Regarding competitive strategy, the business intends to maneuver due to skilled labor and workforce, the presence of efficient gardening and marketing resources, strategic positioning, easy proximity to the consumers, and the presence of business marketing technology. In the UAE and especially Dubai, the population is growing rapidly, and the demand for fresh household daily consumables from vegetables to fruits is increasing. The number of families moving to towns and seeking refuge around the estates is also increasing at higher rates.
To ensure that the intended business turns out to be successful, and all the plans set for the business are achievable, the business needs approximately $5000, which is an amount equivalent to 18,364.75 United Arab Emirates Dirham. The amount of money will act as the starting capital and the will cater for various expenses during the business set up before the business begins to reap from its first output. From personal savings, the business owner will raise about $3100, the Barclays Bank UAE will boost the investment with at least $1000 while willing donors and the local government-financing program may boost the business with the remaining $900.
Business Description
Name of the Business
Veggies Home Gardening Business is the business name that will guide the development of a plan intended for establishing a home garden investment. The business name follows the idea that most gardening businesses are ideal for saving time and money for vegetable and fruit shopping. The word “Veggies” is the name that represents the business idea regarding the business outlook and the main product involved in the business.
Description of the Business Idea
The history of vegetable gardening, ornamental gardening or home gardening dates back in the 1880s in the United Kingdom, Iraq, Egypt, Greek, and Roman. In these countries, people could practice home gardening within their palaces and villas for aesthetics and beauty. As the demand for green kitchen essentials in the courtyards, gardens, and empires augment, people came up with the idea of raising vegetables, turnips, leeks, and plums to satisfy the necessary kitchen demands.
Since the colonial regime of the Roman, Greek, and Egyptian empires, home gardening has been a consistent idea that has extended from the exclusive homes to the ordinary homesteads and estate premises. Being an essential component in the kitchen necessities, the idea of developing home gardens in our estates and homesteads makes up an important entrepreneurial idea. The home garden will deal with the provision of all necessary vegetables and fruits to the estate members.
Business Opportunity and the Main Purposes of the Business Idea
The report about water wastage from households in Ireland is the motivation behind this home gardening business idea that solely seeks to utilize the water resources. A 2015 report from Ireland, a country with a close economic status with the UAE shows that over estate households lose about 800 million liters through poor leakages and poor water utilization techniques. This assessment implies that almost all residents living in the estates lose water unnecessarily in one way or the other.
The intended business idea that seeks to establish a home garden for horticultural products, especially the veggies, has three significant purposes in its establishment. First, the intended home garden establishment for veggies seeks to utilize the disposable water resources within the real estates, where about 530 cubic liters of water get lost through poor usages, unnecessary wastages, and poor drainages within the estate. A water surveyor recently established that people in the estate do not cherish water recycling as an important water saving techniques.
Another significant reason that motivated the growth and establishment of the home gardening idea is the presence of unused land within the estate gardens. This unused land has become unsafe for the children given the fact that some residents irresponsibly prefer using the gardens as their dumping sites. On my recent inspection of the estate gardens, I noticed that the gardens have become the dumpsites rather than areas of natural beauty and aesthetics as intended by the estate developers.
The last prevalent opportunity that motivated the creation of the home gardening business idea was the presence of some potential consumers who would like to lavish around the estate and enjoy natural and fresh food from the gardens. A personal assessment of the behaviors of the residents revealed that most people would shop for vegetables and use freezers for storage purposes. The garden idea was important in helping people acquire fresh veggies and avoid health complications associated with frozen veggies
Business Ownership
The intended home gardening business will be a single business based on a sole ownership or sole proprietorship system. The business will have a single owner and a team of workers who will discharge their duties depending on the directions and guidelines given by the business owner. The business owner shall act as the business director from the top while the rest of the workers will involve supervisors and casual workers who will work within the farmyards regularly.
Assessment of the Involved Industry
Home gardening often involves the cultivation of small vegetables on the small garden firms around the homesteads and the estate areas. The industry that the business will rely on is the Agribusiness Industry in which all the Agricultural businesses take place (Mason and Stark 230). However, the home gardening business will rely on the single customers from the nearby households, estate, and other local vendors of veggies. From a general perspective, food and agribusiness make up important facets of economic, social, and environmental routes.
Based on the assessments made concerning the agribusiness industry in the world, the industry is worth about $5 trillion, and it represents about 10 percent of the global consumer expenditure, at least forty percent of the global employment, and about 30 percent of the total greenhouse emissions. Although a sizeable progress has occurred in its output during the past 50 years and contributed to an ample food supply across of the world, the rising global population presents a continuous challenge.
The Present Outlook
Currently, home gardening ideas for the provision of cost-effective and convenient veggies solutions are minimal, and the land for making such simple businesses is still inadequate given the manner in which estate developers have increasingly become concerned with the issue of land wasting during construction. The home gardening idea in the UAE is a freshly unearthed business idea. In the United Arab Emirates, the number of estates is growing, and the demand for fresh veggies within the estate is growing due to the increasing the UAE’s population.
The Future Outlook
Feeding the global population is a continuing challenge for the people dealing with agribusiness as the world population keeps on augmenting each successive year (McKeever 100). Scientists and astrologists have hinted that the world’s population may exceed the global agribusiness productivity as the demands for the agricultural food may increase by 70 percent come 2050. The scientists predicted that by 2050, demand for crop meant for human consumption and animal feed may increase by about 100 percent (McKeever 103).
The Ideal Customer
The customers targeted by the intended agribusiness project are the consumers located within the estates, the local vendors of veggies, and other prospective consumers. The business will serve all the consumers willing to make ordinary purchases of veggies and fruits for local consumption. Most of the consumers are the women living within the estate and those who would wish to make purchases of fresh veggies within the farmyard for convenience purposes for cost-effectiveness.
Women and homemakers would make up the favorite consumers for the home gardening business given the fact that these consumers are the ones most used to cooking and various other kitchen activities that require veggies. The customers required for the intended business are the consumers willing to make a frequent purchase of veggies for ordinary consumptions. More important is that the business does not have a specific category of customers regarding socioeconomic status or age.
The Competitive Advantages of the Business
Skilled Labor and Manpower
The greatest competitive advantage is the idea that the intended business venture will work closely with the agribusiness and agricultural experts available within the estate. The business owner has identified three proficient agriculturists who will offer maximum professional guidance and support in the development of the new ideas for planting and nurturing modern veggies. The experts will provide the business owner with enough agriculture and agribusiness knowledge to enhance efficient production and marketing of the crops grown.
Presence of Efficient Resources
The intended home gardening business enjoys facility efficiencies given the fact that land and water will be in plenty for the project to initiate and progress. The business owner has identified an ample dormant land and various water sources, as well as several other farm inputs that are readily available in the market. The small business will benefit from the three agriculturists who have promised to offer various equipment and resources for preliminary agricultural studies.
Strategic Positioning
The intended home gardening business will be enjoying a high flow of customer due to its strategic position. Within the estate and nearby the farmland, there are large shops that attract local consumers who frequently come for ordinary food purchases. While making these food purchases, most of them admire the nearby gardens that will soon have a new look of fresh veggies and other important horticultural products. The footpaths to various houses run directly through the gardens.
An Easy Proximity to the Consumers
The business enjoys an easy proximity to the customers and majority of them are consumers located within the estate. Approximately a third of the consumers targeted by the business will be the residents of the estate and a few passersby, the majority of who will be ordinary visitors with certain relations with the residents. Nearness to the consumers makes the home gardening business a lucrative investment given the continuous flow and interaction with the customers.
Presence of Business Marketing Technology
The home gardening business idea will use marketing automation tools to run most of its marketing strategies within the small areas of the estate. However, since the business seeks to grow and capture various opportunities in other estate and becomes either a giant provider of veggies for retail consumption or the main home gardening solution in many areas of the UAE, the automated marketing tools will bolster extensive marketing in the future.
The Ethical Principles of the Business
Creating a business means creating a place for concern for both the human beings and the environment (Dearman and Bell 196). A business should practice ethics in its daily operations to remain an ethical investment. This business idea has in mind that the investment is going to deal with an environment in which human beings, nature, animals, and other essential plants will form part of the main surroundings. Due to the presence of this knowledge, the following will be our ethical business principles.
Conducting Business with Honesty
The first ethical principle or value that will guide the operations of the intended business and act as a corporate culture for the business owner and the workers is honesty. Being honest with the customers, the workers, and other business stakeholders will be the foremost ethical principle in the home gardening business, as honest creates room for everlasting trust, compassion, and commitment among the workers, and promotes a positive rapport with customers. Winning the consumer trust is the right step towards gaining an everlasting reputation.
Conducting Business with High Integrity
Business integrity will be a core consideration in the operations of the intended veggies home gardening business. The business will survive using the seven principles of business integrity. These seven principles of business integrity include customer satisfaction, concern for the community members, open-minded leadership, conducting business using professional ethics, respect for everyone, and using a hands-on approach to scrutinize the company operation. With these commitments in place, the business will have created a powerful platform for respecting Corporate Social Responsibility.
Ensuring Justice and Fairness
The business intends to hire some skilled labor to offer proficient agricultural knowledge and unskilled labor to offer menial assistance. To ensure justice and fairness, the home gardening investment is going to ensure maximum equity by ensuring that all employees receive equal treatment, have access to all their basic working equipment, and remain respected regardless of any of their physical, social, or economic disadvantages. The business management will ensure equitable distribution of resources, responsibilities, and workload.
Ensuring Loyalty and Law-abiding
Loyalty is obedience, allegiance, or devotion to certain regulations or conditions of a business destination. The intended home gardening veggies business will ensure that it practices its business operations with high loyalty to its customers, its leadership, its corporate culture, and to the existing laws and regulations and govern business activities within the business premise. Serving with integrity means respecting the consumers, the business culture, the leadership, and the local rules and regulations that govern business operations.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
CSR is a business philosophy that involves conducting a business with optimal corporate citizenship, corporate conscience, and highest levels of business responsibility through self-regulated principles (Gruber 785). From the perspective of the home gardening veggies business, the investment expects to serve in an environment where people, land, and other small creatures form part of the business environment (Gruber 787). To protect the environment and its natural ecosystem, the home gardening veggies business will have the following principles towards Corporate Social Responsibility.
Concern for the Customers and Business Partners
The main CSR principle towards the concern for the customers and business partners is practicing business with the highest degree of economic efforts and business accountability. Concerns for the customers include the provision of optimal agricultural products and services, seeking for reasonable profits, responsible payment of taxes, legal compliance, and business transparency. Concern towards other business partners in the home gardening veggies business will involve legal compliance, business transparency, individual accountability, and professional business practices in finance and resource management.
Responsible Business towards the local and global community
While conducting its home gardening business, the intended investment seeks to practice responsible business towards its local and international communities (Sahlman 38). To ensure that the business is practicing responsible business, the home gardening veggies business will put various environmental protection efforts. The home gardening business will ensure maximum participation towards environmental protection, waste reduction, environmental accounting, and maximum participation on issues that involve the initiatives aimed at reducing global warming (Sahlman 55).
Responsible business towards the employees
An effective corporate conscience involves taking into account the plight of the employees and their essence in the operations of a business (Sahlman 75). To ensure that the home gardening business is practicing responsible business, the management will encourage efforts towards customer satisfaction, quality management, and improvement, focus towards the demands of the shareholders, fair trading, social development, provision of safe working conditions, reasonable compensations, disaster prevention and commitment towards employee satisfaction and motivation in the business (Sahlman 79).
Management of the Business
Business Management
The home gardening veggies business understands that all operations of a farm must be managed appropriately to enable an efficient running of the business (Gruber 786). The home gardening veggies business will have a systematic management strategy that will entail a specific organization structure, strategy towards the management of people, the management of talent, the management of resources, main business values, the control of the mission, and the establishment of the visions (Gruber 789). These principle activities and processes make up the entire system of management that the business will adopt and maintain throughout its operations, its responsibilities, and its plans (Evans 73).
The Organization Structure
For an organization to run smoothly and the activities to follow the right protocols established in an organization, a certain chain of command must prevail to ensure that everything works appropriately. Regardless of its tiny structure and its size of workforce, the home gardening veggies business intends to have a systematic leadership structure that runs from the business owner (the manager) to the supervisors (senior workers) and the subordinates (junior workers), who will involve the casual laborers (permanent casuals) and other infrequently hired workers.
Management of the People: Duties and Responsibilities
A command line or a chain of command involves a systematic arrangement of power and responsibilities between the workers within the organization structure. To achieve a maximum command control and structure, everyone in the home gardening veggies business, including the business owner and the rest of the workers, needs to understand his or her responsibilities, and the chain of command designed for the organizational system of the workforce.
The Business Owner
The business owner will be the main leader of the business and will carry out various responsibilities in the home gardening veggies business. Being the Chief Executive Officer, the main responsibilities of the business owner will involve overall leadership responsibilities, decision making, management of finances, management of the employees, giving directions to the supervisors, determine budget and expenditures, take care of important procurements, and implement the policies and regulations of the home gardening business.
The Business Supervisors
The home gardening veggies business will have supervisors who will be accountable to the business owner. The operations of the home gardening veggies business should be in line with the expectations of the owner. Therefore, the supervisors will help in delegating the duties of the casual workers, training and developing new casuals, conducting performance reviews, ensuring the operations are within the set goals, supporting and guiding the casual workers, and implementing the procedures and policies of the business.
The Casual Workers and other infrequently hired Workers
The casual workers will have an integral part in the execution of the menial work at the garden. All the menial workers will participate in a variety of activities ranging from the tilling of land during the land preparation processes, to the maintenance of the farm during the weeding and crop maintenance processes. They will receive orders from the supervisors and work on these orders as instructed, they will report any problems encountered in the gardens, and potential risks from the pastes.
Job Specifications
The Business Owner
The business owner will be the overall manager of all the business operations and procedures. With three years of experience in business management, the business manager will use the advantage of business management to run the firm regarding its human resource sector, its quality management systems, and its marketing strategies. The business owner will guide the supervisors and other workers in achieving the goals and objectives of the home gardening veggies business.
The Garden Supervisors
The garden supervisors will have the junior leadership powers where they will have the powers to control the business activities in the absence of the business owner. They will oversee the operations of the farm during the tilling period, the crop maintenance period and during the harvesting and marketing of the yield. Each of the garden supervisors must have a minimum of a college diploma in agribusiness and relevant skills in several other agricultural activities.
Casual Workers and Gardeners
Menial work will take the majority of the activities that the farm intends to carry out in its daily business. Based on our strategic plan, planning, weeding, and harvesting are the most sensitive and crucial activities of the home gardening veggies business. It is for this reason that each of the casual workers interested in working with our firm must have at least five years relevant experience in home gardening or peasantry.
The Employment Model and Retention Strategy
The Employment Model
The home gardening veggies business will rely on the internal recruitment strategy to hire new workforce based on the explained relationships between the employed workers and incoming workers. Agriculture involves minimal creativity, and manual work is more prevalent in all the processes of the agribusiness. To attract experienced workers who can delegate their duties with minimal supervision, hiring workers through internal recruitment process gives the business owner an opportunity to single out hard-working casuals from the ones invited by fellow workers.
Employee Retention Strategies
There is a need to have a strategic retention plan to ensure that the business routinely maintains its workforce through appropriate attraction, hiring, and retention. The intended home gardening veggies business will have a systematic employee attraction and retention strategy that will involve reasonable compensation, skill development and training, a financial boost, fringe benefits and promotions to other predetermined management positions in the future. The following table is a breakdown of the employee retention strategies of the home gardening veggies business.
Reasonable Compensation
A significant employee retention technique that the home gardening veggies business will adopt is the use of reasonable compensation. All employees working in the garden, be it the supervisors or the menial workers, will remain rewarded for their efforts and skills. Although the level of education and skills will determine the payment structure, the employees of the home gardening investment will get their payments based on the pay-for-performance compensation strategy. The strategy will help to ensure that there is no laxity and redundant work.
Skill development and training
One of the foremost retention plans that the business will adopt and apply is the skill development and training strategy. Since the business intends to have a progressive future, the management of the home gardening veggies business will develop a strategic skill development and training program that will train the subordinates and menial workers essential agricultural knowledge, such as cropping, tilling, harvesting, and crop maintenance. The supervisors will receive regular professional growth coaching to acquaint them with better agribusiness knowledge.
Financial Boost
Through the Pay-for-Performance Compensation Strategy, employees of the home gardening veggies business will receive plenty of financial boosts based on their performances that the managers will review periodically. All employees who will score certain points in their established targets will receive wage and salary increments based on the ultimate decisions made upon the rating scales. All employees, including the supervisors and the menial workers, will receive all their financial compensations and benefits within certain predetermined times during its continued operations.
Fringe Benefits and Promotions
The home gardening veggies business will have a strategic compensation plan that will entail offering fringe benefits to the performing workers and promotions to the continually performing workers. Fringe benefits will involve travel vouchers, shopping vouchers after successful harvests, and agricultural adventures for further coaching and training. The business will offer fringe benefits immediately after auditing its business gains. Promotions will involve on-job promotions that the employees will benefit from their positive contribution to the growth of the company.
Management of the Tangible Resources
Business resources are the facilities strengthen the ability of the business to achieve its goals and objectives as expected in the operations framework and the plan of the business. The intended home gardening veggies business will have tools and finances that need proper handling and management to make the business succeed. The business will have a framework for managing the business resources to gain maximum business efficiency, accountability, and proper resource utilization.
Financial and Equipment Management
Since the business will have a young foundation that cannot manage a high wage bill that may come from high labor turnover, the business owner will be the person in charge of the financial resources of the business. Personal management of the business finances will be a reasonable idea as the owner will be capable of managing accountability and financial trust. Concerning equipment management, the business owner will ensure the safety and care of the farm tools throughout the time.
Corporate Governance
Corporate Culture: Our Business Culture
Why we focused on our Corporate Culture
To have a stable working philosophy that will guide the employees and the management to discharge their duties according to certain principles, having certain guiding beliefs and behaviors may help the home gardening veggies business. This corporate culture will create a psychological bonding between the workers and the management because the cumulative traits of the workforce will help to create a cooperative bond. The following will be the established values of our corporate culture.
Innovation and technological know-how
The most important element of our business culture in the management and operations of the home gardening veggies business is innovation. Apart from nurture veggies for ordinary home consumptions, the business would want to explore the latest innovations in the Agricultural industry to capture the actual value of modern agribusiness and farming. Innovative cultivating skills, innovative agribusiness technology, and innovative research and development on the modern farming techniques will boost the productivity of our gardens.
Commitment to Work
The driving force towards the efficient achievement of our business goals and objectives is the commitment to work. Rather than relying on the extrinsic motivations that may seem difficult to offer sustainable motivation throughout our years of operation, the home gardening veggies business will help the workers to develop intrinsic commitments towards their work. By so doing, every employee of the organization will have a personal willingness to push towards the achievement of the agendas of our home gardening business.
Teamwork and Cooperation
In the development and management of the home gardening veggies business, we believe that nothing can prove much successful through individual efforts or solitary hard work. It is through sharing innovative ideas and helping each other to deal with various issues and demands that workers can manage to deal with the growing business complexities. Through effective teamwork and outstanding cooperation, the business will manage to consolidate efforts towards the achievement of the business goals and objectives.
Commitment towards an Outstanding Quality
It is the believe of this home gardening business that customers have changed in their consumption trends, and therefore, quality farm products remains the most probable solution towards customer attraction. The quality of the farm products will keep the customers glued to our farm produce and committed to making purchases from our business. With this in mind, the home gardening business believes that quality is within us, and thus we should nurture and deliver it unswervingly.
Environment is our foremost Business Friend
Whereas most of the modern investments think of their profitability and growth and ignore the stability of our natural environment; our home gardening business venture has a different perception. The greatest priority of our business is environmental protection and sensitivity towards environmental depletion. As a way of ensuring environmental stability, all the workers of the home gardening veggies business must practice appropriate environmental protection behaviors and promote safe environment activities for a sustainable living.
The Mission of the Home Gardening Veggies Business
Our business mission– “As a growing investment, our mission is to innovate ways of delivering an outstanding home gardening business for the production of veggies to feed the hungry populations within the estate and provide convenient purchasing through offering affordable prices for our vegetables for the purpose of reducing people’s dependencies on frozen veggies.”
The Vision of the Home Gardening Veggies Business
Our business Vision– “As a steadily growing business, our vision is to help the consumers get the most affordable green and fresh vegetables grown from a blend of the traditional and contemporary farming ideas so that in future we can reduce the growing human dependencies on frozen veggies that people routinely consume.”
The Shared Vision of the Home Gardening Veggies Business
Our Shared Vision– As a business guided by our mutual understanding of our corporate culture, the home gardening veggies business has shared vision. “Our shared vision is to work collaboratively towards ensuring that the human population is enjoying farm fresh produce for sustainable growth and development, to avoid overreliance on frozen farm products that are nowadays harmful.”
Leadership Philosophy
Our Leadership Philosophy- Setting landmarks and creating benchmarks for the future professional development of the home gardens as basic activities that will add into boosting the national economy and the good health of the people. All our leaders will lead with celestial wisdom towards environmental safety, sustainable human development, protection of the natural ecosystems, and eradication of city lifestyles such as the use of frozen foods that are nowadays unsafe.
The Marketing Strategy of the Business
The Target Market
Vegetables are farm produce whose demand is diverse across different types of consumers, regardless of age or gender factors. However, since the vegetables require people who use them more often in the kitchens, our main customers will be the employed homemakers and mothers, who are prone to cooking activities within the estates. Although consumers make up the larger population, homemakers and mothers will make up our primary customer base.
Arabic women, girls, and homemakers love cooking as this activity takes much of their cultural norm since time immemorial. The cooking area is the most fervent area for the Arabic women as culture forbids them from taking part in major economic activities. Most of these women love spending most of their time within the kitchens and cooking areas, preparing various food delicacies for their husbands. Their husbands entrust them with food purchases.
Product Features and Benefits
The home gardening veggies business will not have a single business product as the garden business will involve a variety of vegetables. The business will offer various farm vegetables grown from a combination of conventional and contemporary agricultural ideas. The home gardening veggies business will help the consumers to have cost-effective purchases and highly nutritious vegetables from within their homesteads. Here are some of the notable benefits of our farm produce.
Convenient Purchasing
One of the most enticing aspects of a product to a consumer is convenience. Instead of the consumers making several tiring trips to the greengrocer or the supermarket to buy stale vegetables and fruits, the home gardening veggies business will provide consumers with the needed convenience as they will either purchase from within the garden or wait for the home deliveries. The home gardening veggies business will be a one-stop green market for fresh veggies and fruits.
Fresh and highly nutritious fruits and vegetables
Fresh fruits and vegetables from the home gardening veggies business will provide the consumers with higher nutrients compared to the ones acquired from the local green grocery stores. More often, consumers of greengrocers acquired from the green grocery stores complain about the staleness of the vegetables and fruits. With the presence of efficient home delivery programs and quick services to the consumers, the customers will enjoy the freshness of the purchased vegetables and fruits.
Promotion of good health
Quality products should always promote good health among the consumers. Green vegetables and fresh fruits have high nutritional content and boost the immunities and health statuses of the consumers. Most of the nutrients and food components expected from the vegetables and fruits gathered from the garden include anti-oxidants, Vitamin C, folate, and Vitamin A. Products with health importance increase the purchasing motivation of the consumers and increase their dependability on the products that are available on the farm.
Gardening will motivate new ideas
Developing the gardens within the estate may stimulate new ideas for the consumers who understand the aesthetic value of the home gardens. For those who have nature and aesthetics, the home gardening veggies business may stimulate new business and adventure ideas such as photography, development of a nearby farmers’ market, landscape architecture, the study of nutrition and balance diet, and study of botany among the consumers who will feel the attraction of the gardens.
The Business Promotion and Advertising Strategies
Promotion is one of the ideal plans of our home gardening business. While dealing with ordinary farm produce from the home gardens may seem a simple idea that requires simple marketing ideas to maneuver, the home gardening veggies business will have a unique approach to its marketing strategies. The business will adopt various marketing strategies because each of the strategies will have its unique contribution to the marketing decisions and approaches of the firm.
First Strategy: The Traditional Door-to-Door Marketing
The first marketing approach that the business will use in marketing its farm produce is the traditional door-to-door marketing to persuade the consumers around the estate to familiarize with our farm produce. During the first yield of the home gardening veggies business, the business will organize a door-to-door marketing strategy to develop the first familiarization with the consumers before setting up other sustainable marketing techniques for future marketing plans.
Second Strategy: Our Digital/Internet Marketing Strategy
Regardless of its size, our home gardening veggies business understands that the contemporary business environment requires an understanding of the modern marketing technologies that support business marketing and growth. In its capacity, the home gardening veggies business will use a cost-effective digital marketing platform to advertise its farm produce to the nearby estate consumers and the prospective customers. The creation of a digital platform will begin with two important steps.
Step One: The Mobile Phone Marketing Strategy
Nowadays, information is disseminating to people through portable Internet devices such as the contemporary smartphones and the tablets. The home gardening veggies business understands the contribution of the smartphone technologies in modern communication. Some of the most important Internet marketing systems include the social media platforms, which comprise Facebook and Twitter. These powerful social media marketing tools have proven effective in encouraging a highly efficient and cost-effective product promotion strategy.
Statistics collected in the UAE concerning the penetration and use of social media among the populations show that Facebook and Twitter are famous social media platforms. A 2014 research on social media usage shows that the UAE is second in rank concerning Facebook user penetration, growth, and reliance. The UAE is second in this rank with an average user percentage of 60.4%, while Qatar leads the other countries with about 62.9%. These statistics make social media favorable to our digital marketing.
Step Two: Working towards a Website Experience
After developing a sustainable reputation with the consumers of our farm produce, our home gardening business will consider a long-term marketing strategy for future marketing. One of the notable marketing strategies currently dominating the digital marketing trends in the UAE is the Internet. The UAE is currently experiencing high Internet usage rates, and the levels of literacy have soared to unprecedented levels. In the UAE, many people can now operate Internet devices with minimal assistances.
Product Differentiation
As a growing business with a prospective future, the home gardening veggies business understands the need to distinguish its products from the ones available in the market for uniqueness. Unlike the products commonly found in the green grocery stores, the home gardening veggies business seeks to provide a variety of highly nutritious vegetables and fruits ranging from the common to the uncommon ones. The home gardening veggies business will grow the following vegetable and fruit varieties.
The Pricing Strategy
The home gardening veggies business understands that prices are crucial and of regular considerations among the consumers. As a customer attraction and market penetration strategy, the home gardening veggies business is going use a market-oriented pricing. A market-oriented pricing strategy enables the companies or businesses to set their prices based on the systematic assessment, analysis, and research of the targeted market. This market-oriented pricing strategy will help the home gardening veggies business to set the most realistic prices.
The home gardening veggies business is not after profit maximization given the fact that the main idea behind the establishment of this business is providing sustainable green grocery solutions to the needy consumers, who often rely on stale and frozen veggies from the green grocery stores or the supermarkets. With this in mind, the market-oriented pricing strategy will help the business owner to create favorable farm prices that will enable consumers to enjoy cost-effectiveness in the purchases they make on our products.
Business Location and Layout Planning
The home gardening veggies business will have a strategic business location plan (Evans 96). The home gardening veggies business will establish its enterprise on at least five estates after liaising for convenient locations of the gardens with the estate owners. The business owner will negotiate terms with two giant real-estate developers namely the Ezdan Real Estate developers and the Emaar Real Estate Developers. For the start, the company will focus on three major estates of these companies to maximize the population opportunity.
Most of these estates are in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, where the human population is increasingly at unprecedented levels. The majority of the estate residents are people married, and either living in single nuclear families or extended families based on most of the cultural values of the Arabs. When the business records some significant successes and achievements in its three major set ups, the business will consider expanding to other estates through a similar strategy.
Product Distribution Strategies
As initially outlined, the home gardening business will involve a small-scale marketing strategy where the door-to-door distribution of the ordered farm products will be an ideal approach. To make the distribution work easier, the business consider buying a three-wheeled car, popularly known as a trike car or a three-wheeled scooter. To avoid creating inconveniences to the consumers, the business will use its digital marketing platforms where customers can make orders through the instant messaging services.
After placing their orders, consumers will wait at their doorsteps for the distributor, who will deliver the orders and receive more orders where necessary. The three-wheeled scooter will serve the home delivery purposes as its cargo carrier can accommodate more goods. However, the door-to-door deliveries will be specifically for the customers who made their orders through our digital marketing platforms. The business will also consider selling its farm produce to the passersby and other interested external customers.
Analysis of the Competitive Strategy
SWOT Analysis
Market Size and Estimated Market Share
Based on the recent 2015 population census and demographic reports released this year in July, the size of the UAE market regarding population is considerably large. The estimated 2014 population is about 9.9 million citizens, with most of them being foreign expatriates, due to its very diverse population. Dubai or the Abu Dhabi is the largest city of the UAE with several cultural and commercial centers that make the city magnificent and attractive to many people.
Table: Rough Estimates of the Local Market Population.
Growth Rate of the Targeted Market
The UAE’s consumer market is growing rapidly, and most of the city residents are working towards meeting their family demands, which predominantly involve daily household consumables such as food and other basic home amenities. Based on the 2014 census, the UAE expects its city population to grow by 20%, with the majority of the citizens being the expatriates who visit the UAE for various occupational purposes. Dubai alone expects to have a population increase of about 8% in the next two years.
This census presents some important information on how the growth rates will work within the major UAE cities. Out of the estimated percentage, the number of households that the UAE expects is about 100, 000 more families in the next two years. Given such information, it is evident that the number of people living within the estates due to the rental expenses and rising family standards will increase dramatically. The numbers of married women and house servants will therefore automatically augment.
Competition Analysis: The Main Competitors against the Business
The Price Leader
Alpha Retailers and Green Grocers- The retail grocery serves the residents adjacent to the estate residents. The majority of the people purchasing goods and vegetables from the Alpha Groceries are the residents who have developed a long-lasting reputation with the retailer. Durational reputation is the only competitive strategy that is grocery is using to maintain its consumers. Most of the consumers associate with the business due to their long-term trust. Having a long-term reputation has made the Alpha Retailers and Green Grocers to dominate the conspicuous buyers.
The Quality Leader
Amir Green Grocers- Amir Green Grocers has supplied the locals with vegetables and fruits for about seven consecutive years. Consumers consulted through our online interactive segments revealed that they rely on the Amir Green Grocers for quality vegetables and fruits that meet their health and status demands. Coupled with moderate costs, the attribute of quality has made the Amir Green Grocers to have a remarkably high consumer population, with over 1000 consumers making various purchases on a monthly basis.
The Service Leader
Service regarding the green grocery business means cleaning the vegetables and fruits, vegetable chopping, and making any necessary service requests made by the consumers. On services, Amir Green Grocers takes the lead by offering consumers with the most quality and affordable services in a charismatic manner. Consumers praise the Amir Grocers for providing outstanding services including limited home deliveries, cooking ideas that enhance food taste, and cooking experiences.
Finance and Financial Management
The Start-up Capital and Costs
For the business to register a successful beginning, the home gardening veggies business will have a specific amount set for capital and investment purposes. The required investment capital for the home gardening veggies business is around $5000, which is an amount equivalent to 18,364.75 United Arab Emirates Dirham. This amount of money will cater for all the startup expenses and other related costs before the business begins to reap the profits expected from the farm.
Financing of the Business
The business financiers will include a regional bank, willing donors, personal savings, and a local government-financing program. From personal savings, the business owner will raise about $3100; the Barclays Bank UAE will boost the investment with at least $1000 while willing donors and the local government-financing program may boost the business with the remaining $900. The amount will cater for various programs suited for the initiation and development of the business as highlighted in the following sections.
The Cost of Doing the Business
Expected Revenue from the Business
On average, each farm produce will have its price based on the assessment of the market prices and the decisions made based on the market research. However, at least each product sold must have an average price of about $5.00 or and 2.00 when weighted regarding kilograms. On a daily basis, each of the three farms expects to sell vegetable and fruits worth 100kilograms in weight. This aspect means that when calculated with $2.00 per kilogram, each farm gives about $200 on a daily basis. When the sum of the output of the three farms is combined, the farms may give $600. This aspect means that the total output may be approximately $18,000.
Income Statement and Balance Sheet
A Bi-Annual Income Statement (Profit and Loss Statement).
Quality Standards and Assurance
To ensure that the consumers are getting the best and high-quality vegetables, the home gardening veggies business will have a systematic quality assurance program made up of the three agricultural experts that will keep track of the agricultural activities and the processes of achieving quality crops. The maintenance of high-quality crop yields will be a crucial part of the home gardening veggies business. The business will manage its product quality with the help of the agricultural experts.
The Major Business Risk
The greatest risks to the home gardening business include the fluctuation of vegetable and fruits in the regional markets. Fluctuation of the market prices makes the agricultural yields unprofitable or prone to damages. When the prices are high, the number of products tends to be few, and the prices are favorable for those with the required products. However, when the prices are low due to low product demands, most of the farm produce tends to decay within the gardens.
Works Cited
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