Introduction
The focus of this essay is a business enterprise that would be involved in selling glasses and pitchers. The products can be used for various purposes among them putting beer, juice and water. Most people think that bars only sell beer but there are juice bars. A juice bar is a place where people who do not take beer can go and take different types of juices. One of the advantages of the products is that they are able to keep liquids cold for about one hour.
Location
The location of a business is important since it determines its growth. This implies that before starting any business enterprise, it is important to identify a suitable location that guarantees satisfactory business growth (10 reasons to start a business, 2013). Our business would be located in the City of Vancouver. There are other locations where the business could have been established, but the City of Vancouver is the most suitable among them. The City of Vancouver attracts many tourists because of its good hotels and attractive sites.
In addition, tourists are always ready to use a lot of money and this would increase our profits. Apart from tourists, the residents of the City of Vancouver would find the product beneficial. The city is characterized by many bars and restaurants which need a high number of glasses and pitchers. In addition, the local residents like healthy drinks and milk. This implies that our products would fit well with the needs of the local residents because of their high consumption rate of fluids.
The business would be given time to stabilize within the first year before expanding it to other places outside the city of Vancouver. We would first carry out a market research to identify the most suitable locations where other outlets would be established. In the third year, we would spread the business to British Columbia because this would be a viable region where it would thrive well and grow fast.
Market Analysis
The first thing in our market analysis would be our target customers. In this regard, we would first apply business to business strategy. Business to business strategy means that we would walk into local stores such as bars, restaurants and juice points where we would do presentations on our products.
This would popularize our business enterprise and provide local traders with adequate information about our products. In addition, we would offer free samples such as table mats with adverts about our products for the customers to get information about the products. Our second strategy would be business to customer strategy (Rodgers, 2001). In this strategy, we would make use of online platforms to reach customers directly. We would advertise through Facebook, YouTube and other online platforms.
The second item in our market analysis would be the image and special features of the products. It would be important to create a good image of our products by enlightening customers about the special features of the products. We would inform our customers about the plastic products that would be selling at reduced prices. One of the products we would offer our customers is tritan plastic which is used to make glass.
Tritan plastic has many advantages over other products. To begin with, it has the ability to keep fluids cold for about one hour. It is also clear, a quality that makes it possible for the user to see what is inside the glass (Moore, 2008). Tritan plastic is lighter than glass and this makes it convenient to use. In addition, when tritan plastic is compared with polycarbonate, it is easier to transform into various articles with minimal energy and waste.
Apart from plastic products, we would also provide brosilicate which is used in the manufacture of glass products. Brosilicate glass has numerous advantages over other glass products. The first advantage of brosilicate glass is that it has the ability to tolerate extreme heat and cold. The second advantage is that it has a low level of thermal expansion. When compared with shattered glass, brosilicate glass is easy to clean in case it breaks. Finally, it is not easily affected by chemical corrosion.
Marketing
Marketing would be an important activity for our business enterprise because it would inform potential customers about our products. The first marketing strategy would be visiting local businesses such as bars, restaurants and juice points to do presentations in order to popularize our products.
We would also include free samples like table mats with our products in our marketing strategy. The other marketing strategy that we would use is online marketing through Facebook, YouTube and other social sites in order to reach our potential customers. Our initial marketing would start at the City of Vancouver but after the first year, we would move to other places outside the city. The first location outside the City of Vancouver would be British Columbia since it would be a viable market for our products.
In order to reduce costs and shorten the marketing chain, we would apply direct sales. This implies that we would not hire any middlemen since the four members of our business enterprise would be enough to do the work. Our selling strategy would comprise of at least six or eight glasses plus a pitcher. The same strategy would be applied in our online marketing.
Sales Strategy
Our sales strategy would be customer oriented selling approach which would start by establishing rapport with the customer. After a rapport has been established, the second step would be to determine situational factors and objectives of the customer. The third step would involve urging the customer to take an action because his objectives would be met by the product.
The last step in our sales strategy would be to obtain a commitment from the customer. The strategy would also emphasize customer advantage for him/her to see the importance of purchasing the product (Ranchhod, 2007). The competitive advantage for the customer must be read because failure to read it does not benefit customers. It should also be specific because this translates into a benefit for the customer. Competitive advantage is also supposed to be appealing in order to promote it to the customers.
Management
Our management team would be comprised of a marketing manager, a website manager, an operations manager and a financial manager. The marketing manager would explore available external opportunities, design marketing strategies, handle customer relations, ensure timely product delivery, manage budgets and come up with new marketing guidelines.
The roles of the website manager would include monitoring online marketing strategies, ensuring proper functioning of our website, posting important information on the website and communicating with customers online. The operations manager would supervise all activities of the organization, manage projects, work with customers and serve the role of a resource person in our business enterprise.
Finally, our business enterprise would require the services of a financial manager, who would raise funds for the business, allocate funds for different tasks, plan on how to spend profits and provide insights on capital markets (Role of a Financial Manager, 2013). The duties of the different managers would be clearly defined hence there would be no conflict of interest or misunderstandings.
References
10 reasons to start a business. (2013). Web.
Moore, C. (2008). Managing Small Business. New York: Cengage Learning.
Ranchhod, A. (2007). Marketing Strategies:A Contemporary Approach. New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Rodgers, S. (2001). Marketing Strategies, Tactics, and Techniques: A Handbook for Practitioners. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Role of a Financial Manager. (2013). Web.