Business idea

Introduction In the context of tough competition in business world, any company which wants to survive and thrive to the certain level in its area is required to strictly follow an effective strategic business plan, especially to a newly established company (or start-up company). According to Hellmann and & Puri (2002), the key point leading to potential survival and success of a start-up company rests in its initial business idea, which is supposed to be the “backbone” for the entire business plan and operation of the company in the future. Understanding the theoretical hat a start-up company must undergo in the competitive business environment, our group- the founders of a new brand named O.C.S (Original Clothing Store®) which specializes in manufacturing and trading clothing items with rational price yet still high quality. Our slogan is “Wear it, Play it”, which infers to the playable clothing items- the key selling point of our brand. Outline of our business idea From carefully researching the needs and the reality of clothing business area in recent years, our group have conducted an idea of business and follow with systematic business plan which direct us in the pathway of small business. Our main product is clothes and other fashion items that attached with high technology that customers could play games via an app on mobile devices (smartphones, tablet, phablet, and laptop). The products will meet all requirement of high quality garment with 100% organic material and recyclable, which represents environmentally responsible and energetically dynamic young people, our main customer target. The young people with high energy and willingness to try new things as well as adventurous characteristics will be our potential initial customers. In addition, young people are always the ones who catch the first wave of technology with mobile device accompanied by them will spread the product widely. Through an app on their device (support on IOS, Android and Window phone operation), when customers wear our shirt for example, they can play a virtue which interacts with reality as long as their device has camera to capture the background of the game. A detailed explanation is attaches in the online media file (https://youtu.be/PxC2qfkLqzQ). Plus, payment policy is based on online channel which is fairly convenient for people to make their purchase of our product through app on their device (our app is created to download for free). We also deliver the products to the customers or they can directly go to our shop to buy. Generally, our business plan can be presented as below: Market data: Internationally implemented with strong customer demand Customer demographic: Our customers are targeted as young people from 14-27 with average income ($500/month) Market’s Problem and Opportunity evaluation As mentioned of tough competition in business area and challenges to small start-up business, the market of clothing (clothes, garment and fashion items) is full of big brands names with massive outlet system and other selling channel which cost millions of dollars of operation each year (Collins, J.,2001). The majority of customers can at least once hear the names such as Mango, Zara, H&M etc. - the biggest retailers of commonage fashion items in mass market, yet include high fashion brand name with extremely expensive items and professional business plans. Our company is facing big threats from the beginning with the possibility of a premature death. Currently, there is a company in Indonesia named Unifit following the idea of tech-fashion products and gaining certain success in their market, which urges our group to accelerate the process. Additionally, the basic principle in this business area is the frequently changing fashion trends which can decide the success of a company within a season. As we know, fashion changes every year, even in the Internet and mass media era, every month. The challenge for a company is to seize the opportunity of staying ahead of a trend and be the first one to sell that “hot” product. But how to know which would be trendy rests in the market research implementation, which small company lacks of due to limited resources and budget. Next, the competition currently comes from online shops, the companies with no office and online business, plus payment of cash on delivery or bank transfer. Nowadays, when technology advances to serve the need of customers at highest level and people are inclined to be busier, our group realizes the chance to boost up our business with the great support from Internet to promote the brand as well as easily access to the potential customers. Process of business implementation As mentioned above at market’s situation that is competitive and cutthroat to newcomers, we are forced to be smart and innovative to be surviving the harsh battle. We realize the chance of combining fashion and technology into one unique product that can raise the attention from customers and initially sorely a business experiment. However, after presenting the idea to our friends- young people and making research online for similar idea, we see it is a highly potential idea which can be brought to reality and a lucrative deal in Vietnam market. The group consists of people of technology savvy and fashion lovers who want to collaborate on a project with high excitation and avidity. Following the theory of start-up process stated by Peter Gasca on Entrepreneur Online, the project must meet the standard to be an official business that can be substantiated in reality. First, it is a legal business under any government policy and conducted after a process of research as a result of a collaboration of members in a business group. Second, the business is prepared with infrastructures such as official shop, website, an outlined branding proposal, software and online materials. In addition, according to Carter, N, et al.(1996), a possibly successful business must take time for evaluating the initial experimental result. Our group has experimented on friends and other people of small scale for new combined product and the outcomes shows positive signals when people feel excited to try the product. They also give feedbacks on the feature and quality of our items that helps us tremendously in innovating and completing the products to the final one. Teamwork Applied from various theory of leadership within a group to perform effectively in business, we have chosen the style of democratic leadership, which we think to be the most appropriate for our group. Following the democratic, every member of the group can participate in the process of shaping the business idea and contribute to making it to a completed product (Bass and Stogdill, 1990). The leader will discuss all stages of process to members and ask for their opinions and takes responsibility to make the final decision of which is chosen to implement for the entire group. According to Lee-Davies and Kakabadse (2007), the leadership style has shown great efficiency when capturing energy and enthusiasm of all member in the group to make contributions to the final product. No one was outcast in any stages of the process. Additionally, when any incident occurs, the plan can be flexibly change to adapt to new situation thanks to collaborative support from all members. The burden of workload and time will be saved for the leader and he can spend more time with less pressure to direct the entire team. Moreover, Manz and Sims (1993)also said that leadership with participative members will collect novel and innovative solutions to the problems better than that of only the leader dealing with the problem solving. From the experience of our teamwork, we can confirm the theory. Last, the collaboration of members to business ideas also enhances the team interaction within the group and obviously the group solidarity. Presentation experience To any business idea, money is the key to make it real. If a business idea wants an investment to support it, the authors have to make a smooth and convincing presentation to investors, who decide the fate of it. According to Campbell, K. S (2001), an oral presentation with competently articulate and knowledgeable presenter will always be more effective than a submitted paper presentation due to its highly interactive and communicative characteristics. Another reason is that investors want to ask many questions for a business plan they are going to spend their money, such as of its possibility, profitability and sustainability. The presenter for the business would have the chance to interact face to face to investors and timely respond to any wonder coming from them. From our group real experience of presenting business plan to a panel of investors, we have gained several useful tips such as appropriate manner, verbal using and slide preparation. Alternative scenario Our group predicts the business plan would operate well in the future since the obvious demands with youngsters in local market of eagerly trying new things. However, to maintain the profit in long term, we are required to come up with innovative modifications which can adjust well to changing situation and prolong our business, at the same time expand it to markets oversea over the time. In the long term, our group thinks there would be more competitors in the area of tech-fashion products like us and until that moment, we must gain certain success to stay ahead of them. Also, we need to invent new and advanced ideas to consistently develop our brand O.C.S. Reference Hellmann, T., & Puri, M. (2002). Venture capital and the professionalization of start‐up firms: Empirical evidence. The Journal of Finance, 57(1), 169-197. Collins, J. (2001). Flexible specialization and the garment industry. Competition & Change, 5(2), 165-200. [Online] Media O.C.S Final Illustration Video (2015) Available at: https://youtu.be/PxC2qfkLqzQ Uploaded on November 29th 2015 [Online] Peter Gasca (2013). 10 Tools for Smoothing the Startup Process Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242694 Access on November 29th 2015 Carter, N. M., Gartner, W. B., & Reynolds, P. D. (1996). Exploring start-up event sequences. Journal of business venturing, 11(3), 151-166. Bass, B. M., & Stogdill, R. M. (1990). Handbook of leadership (Vol. 11). New York: Free Press. Lee-Davies, L., Kakabadse, N. K., & Kakabadse, A. (2007). Shared leadership: leading through polylogue. Business strategy series, 8(4), 246-253. Manz, C. C., & Sims Jr, H. P. (1993). Business without bosses. Campbell, K. S., Mothersbaugh, D. L., Brammer, C., & Taylor, T. (2001). Peer versus self assessment of oral business presentation performance. Business Communication Quarterly, 64(3), 23-40. Student: ID number: Module Title: Lecturer : Module Code: Submission Date: