Business Final

Gage Howard presents his business plan for Howard's Sporting Goods. The store aims to provide unique services and experiences, focusing on high-quality customer service in a welcoming environment. The target market is ages 10 to 45, evenly split between males and females. The main competitor is Dick's Sporting Goods. Gage plans to seek a $1 million investment. The company's mission is to offer elite customer service, premium products, and a home-like environment. Gage believes a physical location is still relevant for a sporting goods store. Short-term goals include $2 million in sales for the first year and opening a second location within 10 years. The long-term goal is to become a nationally recognized brand. Unique offerings include custom varsity jackets and custom fitting and design for equipment. The marketing plan includes heavy emphasis on social media and physical ads in sporting locations. The operational plan involves securing brand and league deals, as well as hiring and t Hello, my name is Gage Howard. I hope this thing can hear me correctly. Today, I will be doing my business plan final on Howard's Sporting Goods. So, I will start with my executive summary. Howard's Sporting Goods LLC will be a sporting goods store with unique services and experiences. I will talk about these more in detail later in the slides. We want to be focused on the highest quality customer service in a welcoming environment. This means treating all of our customers kindly, having the store be clean, all that type of stuff. We want to look professional and not like a new business as much as possible. Our main target market will be ages 10 to 45, evenly split 50-50, male and female, according to the brand credential. The ages 10 to 45 are usually the most athletic, obviously, because it's just a younger age. People past 45 will still have a place here, but our main target market will be likely teenagers to people in their 20s. That will be the majority. Our main competitor is Dick's Sporting Goods. Obviously, they are a household name by now. They're the most popular sporting goods store in the entire country. I will be seeking a $1 million investment, and I will talk about how that will be used in a future slide. On to the company description. Our mission statement is Howard's Sporting Goods is a sporting goods store that is focused on elite customer service, premium and unique products and services, and fostering a home-like environment that sets us apart from our competitors. I wanted this statement to encompass what I want my customers to think about when they think of my business. I want them to think that we have the best customer service. I want them to think that we are professional and we have a home-like environment. As far as their physical location staying relevant, I know that online shopping has become increasingly more popular, but I feel like a sporting goods store still has relevancy with a physical location because people will be coming to try things on. They'll have to see if things fit right or feel right as far as equipment goes and things like that. So, I feel like a physical location is still a relevant thing for a sporting goods store. As far as goals, a short-term goal for my first year is $2 million in sales. I got this partially from research on other small businesses in the area and from Dick's Sporting Goods Financial Records from 2022. I have a link for that in the references. I think, obviously, we won't be as big as Dick's is right now, but we will hopefully get there. I feel like $2 million is a good number for the first year. A medium-term goal is to open a second location within 10 years of the opening of our first location. It could be shorter than that, than 10 years. I feel like a decade was a nice round number to decide on, and I feel like that's a solid goal that is attainable. A longer-term goal is to steadily grow into a nationally recognized household named brand like Dick's Sporting Goods is. I know that Dick's was founded in 1953, and it will take time to get there, but I believe that we can if we stick to our core values on the products and services. I wanted us to offer unique things that will set us apart from our competitors, things that you won't find at places like Dick's. My first idea was custom varsity letterman jackets. Now, this would be based upon other high schools in the area. We would have preset designs. We would have the logos for the high schools, things like that. Then we will offer personal designs, things like different fonts, different patches, if you want to have your name on the back, just a lot of customization like that. Another idea I had was custom fitting and design for equipment. For fitting, I was thinking things like football gear, football pants, pads, things like that. You could have them custom fit and custom made to your measurements. Then as far as design, things like baseball bats, tennis rackets, stuff like that. You can get personal designs on them that would look cool. It would cost more money, but we would have those types of services available. Then as far as just products go, very similar selection to things like to other stores like Dick's Sporting Goods. Just your basic brands, Nike, Adidas, things like that as far as just our product. Now, for the marketing plan, I wanted to place a heavy emphasis on social media. Obviously, we have a younger target market. I feel like social media is the best way to reach this younger target audience. Also, things like YouTube ads, TV ads, and website ads, just things that younger people are watching and going on the internet and seeing ads for us, spreading the word electronically. Physical ads in sporting locations, so things like flyers, billboards, and places like gyms, sporting complexes, and YMCAs, things like that. I want our ads to emphasize our services that we do unique that I talked about in my last slide, the things like the varsity jackets, the custom fittings, stuff like that to make us stand out out of the operational plan. Obviously, a physical building will be necessary. Starting here in Colorado Springs, we will need to get our deals with the brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and the sports leagues like MLB, NBA, those types of things for jerseys and fan gear and stuff. And then hiring and training employees. I'll talk about this a little more in the next slide in detail. But obviously, we need to hire them and train them in order to enact our core values and have them up to date with our mission here at Howard Sporting Goods. So for management, I will be the sole owner. I will focus for hiring on manager candidates that are experienced and friendly towards people. Obviously, one of our core values, our main core value is elite customer service. So I want people who will follow through with that. And then obviously, having experience as a manager is crucial. They'll know how to handle things. They'll know how to act towards customers and employees alike. So experience is also important to me. All right. Startup expenses. So I have a few sources for this. Northwestregisteredagent.com has all of the different fees for Colorado, just small business fees. There's a $50 filing fee. And then there's a lot of smaller fees that also add up to about $200. And then I also included the 4.55% income tax rate for Colorado for LLCs. The building cost. So rent will be roughly $222,500 per year for the size building that we'll need. I got this from a website that has real rental retail space, commercialcafe.com. As far as merchandise, for the first shipment, I estimate around $200,000 in product for our store. Obviously, this is a reoccurring expense that will hopefully grow. But for now, $200,000. And then employee payroll for the whole year. I estimated at around $600,000 for all managers and employees. We will have part-time employees, full-time employees. Obviously, the managers will make more too. So this was a rough estimate. That's what I kind of ended on for payroll. The financial plan. So I am asking for a $1 million investment to kind of get us off the ground, all of these starting expenses while we're still waiting to grow our sales. Obviously, the money will be a little tight. But as our business grows and we spend money towards marketing, I believe that our sales will grow and we'll be able to fully function on our own as businesses have to, obviously. Like I said, the goal is $2 million in sales in the first year. I think I went over this already, but I did that number based off other small businesses and the Dick's Financial Report. I believe that this is an attainable goal. And with the $1 million investment in the sales that we'll get, I believe that we'll be able to cover all expenses comfortably. And that's it. I have all my references here. And I hope that you enjoyed. Thank you very much for listening.