Lifestyle Northwest
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Marketing and sales
Marketing and Sales
The question that investors will ask is 'How will you turn your forecasts into reality?' Having identified your product or service, and the demand for it in the market, how will you reach that market?
As this is part of a business plan, it is not a fully developed marketing plan. You may need to develop this part of your plan in more detail for use as a marketing plan.
What you will sell
Products highly attractive to certain lifestyle buying habits
Describe what you will sell
Describe exactly what customers will buy, how they will buy it, how it will be provided or delivered, and how it will be supported after purchase. Think about:
- The selection and decision process
- Ordering and payment
- Delivery of real or virtual goods
- Access to real or virtual services
- Follow-up and post-sales services, including warranties
Campaigns
Digital Marketing Campaigns, Local Event Marketing, Local Business Partnerships, Content Creation
Add a campaign
What campaigns are you planning to publicise your product or service? Examples include:
- Press releases
- Special offers
- Mailshots, physical or electronic
- A promotional series of advertisements
- A launch event or open day
- A competition or prize draw
Routes to market
Awareness campaign both online and off
Add a route to market
List the ways that you can reach your market segments. Examples include:
- Retail locations, your own or others
- Direct sales representatives
- Distributors, resellers, catalogues and price lists
- Online presence
- Email, SMS and telephone calling
- Newsletters and leaflets
- Social media and word of mouth
- Shows and exhibitions
- Press coverage and reviews
- Advertising in newspapers, radio, television or specialist publications
- Roadside advertising, signs and notices
- Sponsorship
Market research
See Market Research Avatar Excel
Describe your market research
What market research have you done to identify the best routes to market for your particular segment?
- Where is the best place for your target segment to find you?
- Where is the best place for you to find your target segment?
Operations
Operations
How will the operations of your organisation need to change, to support this plan?
In addition to understanding the opportunity and its potential, investors will need to know that you will also have the capabilities to deliver it, sustain it and scale it up.
Suppliers and partners
Yet to be established.
Add a supplier or partner
- What materials and services will you need from suppliers?
- Who will you need to partner with to make the most of the opportunity?
- Will you depend entirely on them, or do you have alternatives?
Staff, knowledge and skills
Marketing, Promotions, Social Media, Video, Photography, Storytelling, supplier partnerships, Networking, investments, Product Research and Development.
Add staff, knowledge or skills
- What new staff will be needed?
- What skills and knowledge are needed?
- Will you be able to retrain existing staff?
- Can you recruit the right people?
- Are you expecting the investors to bring expertise and resources?
Development
Development of a product in the future
Add a development project
- What new things need to be designed and developed to deliver this opportunity?
- Are these new developments, or enhancements of existing products and services?
- Will they involve research and prototypes?
Processes
Tasks can be split / shared / assigned
Add a process
What new processes will you need to establish? Do you need to change existing processes? Processes include:
- Leadership and strategy
- Design and development
- Production & delivery
- Marketing and sales
- Financial and administrative
- IT and security
- Risk management
- Customer service and support
Equipment
Add capital equipment
What new equipment and tools will you need? Will you replace old ones, or extend your capacity?
Facilities
Home PCs / Smart Phones
Add a facility
How will your facilities need to change to implement your plan? Will you need new premises or changes to existing premises?
Implementation
Implementation
If you win the investment or support that you need, where will you start?
Risks
Time / small fortunes
Add a risk
How will you manage risk in your plan? What could go wrong? Think about delays, cost overruns, technical problems, legal problems, supplier problems, changes in the market, new competitors or even an unexpected increase in business that needs extra resources.
- How are you planning to reduce the chances of a problem occurring?
- How are you planning to reduce the impact if it does?
Next steps
Develop our own product(s) and specialize
Add a next step
- What are the next steps in your plan?
- If you win support, where will you begin?
- If you don't, what is your backup plan?
Milestones
Our first sale / 100k in sales / 500k / 1M
Add a milestone
What are the key points in the implementation of your plan? How will you know that you are making real progress? Think about:
- Signing key agreements and contracts
- Opening premises
- Appointing new staff
- Completing development and design work
- Prototypes and successful trials
- Events and campaigns
- First production
- First sales
- First press coverage and reviews
- Sales reaching breakeven level
- Profitability attained
Forecasts
Making forecasts
If you are proposing investment in your business, you will need credible forecasts of profitability and strategic benefits.
You will probably need to develop some of these forecasts in separate spreadsheets before summarising them here. You might also need to access financial expertise to prepare these forecasts.
Strategic challenges
Our money flow strategy is almost completely dependent on return on advertising.
Add a strategic point
What is the impact on your strategy of this initiative? How will your strategy change to ensure that you can adapt to whatever this plan brings, whether it is good or not so good? Think about:
- What assumptions you are making about the market and your capabilities
- How you will respond if these assumptions do not hold, e.g. if your main competitor changes direction, or if key staff leave
- The best and worst case scenarios
- How you will respond to best and worst case scenarios
- Your exit routes if things do not go according to plan
- How your strategic position will change
- What new opportunities could arise as a result of this change
Cashflow forecast
Continual reinvestment
Add a key point from the cashflow forecast
Even if your plan will eventually be profitable, cashflow limitations could prevent you from getting there. Your cashflow forecast should show that you are in control of this. Consider:
- The best and worst cases for financial exposure
- The effects of poor payment terms from suppliers
- The effects of late payment from customers
- When payback begins
- When payback completes and profitability begins
Breakeven analysis
With a low overhead, we'll be breaking even when advertisement goes positive.
Add a key point from your breakeven analysis
Your breakeven analysis should show the minimum level of achievement that is still survivable. If operations go below breakeven, then you will need to take evasive action. Make forecasts for:
- Survival-level costs and expenses
- What could be delayed or dropped from the plan to reduce costs
- Worst cases for implementation delays and cost overruns
- Minimum sales performance
Profit and loss forecast
We'll profit, it's science not a guessing game.
Add a highlight from your Profit and Loss forecast
Your profit and loss (or income) forecasts should detail where, when and how profitability will be achieved. Highlight changing revenues and changing costs over the time it will take to establish profitability. Consider making forecasts for year 1, year 2 and year 3 of your plan.
Balance sheet forecast
Nothing on this yet.
Add a key point from the balance sheet forecast
How will your balance sheet change as a result of this initiative?
- What new assets will you gain?
- What liabilities will you take on?
- How will the ownership of equity change?
- Will you have any intangible assets or contingent liabilities such as warranties?
Costs forecast
Most of the cost of Lifestyle Northwest in the first year will be advertising costs and content development. Research and development costs will develop in the following years.
Add a key point from the costs forecast
How will your costs base change as a result of your initiatives? Think about:
- Changes in fixed costs and overheads
- Changes in variable costs with volume
- Changes in variable costs with better equipment, better processes or better product design
- Changes in materials costs with volume
- Changes in marginal costs for virtual products
Sales forecast
ECommerce growth is exploding year after year, however, larger businesses are realizing they need to dominate online. Our sales projection is between 500k - 1M
Add a key point from the sales forecast
How will sales increase as a result of your initiatives? Think about:
- Increased sales volume
- Increased average value of sales
- Increased sales to existing customers
- Opening up new markets and segments
Finance requirements
It must be clear to investors what you are asking for, when you need it, and when & how it will be repaid - in short, what value they will get for their investment.
Returns and repayments
We will develop a return and refund policy with some guarantee.
Describe how it will be repaid
Add highlights of the return or repayment plan for investors. Consider:
- Equity ownership and rising value of equity
- Equity buy-back
- Other benefits, e.g. future stock options
- Repayment of capital
Purpose
The initial investment will cover website development, marketing integrations, supplier sources, social media development, images & videos, travel time and finance.
What will you spend this on?
Summarise how this investment will be spent. Include:
- Purchasing assets
- Paying wages or overheads
- Buying stock and materials
- Investing in training or advisors
- Servicing loans
Schedule
Zeth funds the business initially
How much, and when?
Add a summary of how much is required, and when. If there are multiple stages then show each one separately.
The market
About your market
Investors will ask: how well do you know your customers and your market? Your business plan should show that you are targeting your market by well-defined segments, and are focused on creating value for customers.
Competitors
Competitor
Add a competitor
Add an organisation that can compete with you, either now or in the future. Think about all alternatives that the customer may have, including doing nothing, or addressing their problem in a completely different way.
Strategies
Strategy
Add a competitive strategy
How will you compete effectively? Add an element of your competitive strategy. Think about:
- Outperforming them on their strengths
- Outperforming them on their weaknesses
- Having a better value proposition
- Being different and difficult to compare
- Offering additional benefits
- Offering a better customer experience
Weaknesses
Add a weakness for this competitor
What do they do that is less attractive than your product or service? Do they have:
- Higher pricing?
- Lower performance or unreliability?
- A complex proposition that is difficult to understand?
- A poor reputation for value?
- Poor customer service?
- An inconvenient location?
Strengths
Strength
Add a strength for this competitor
What do they do that is more attractive than your product or service? Do they have:
- Better pricing or total cost of ownership?
- A more up-to-date design?
- Better performance and reliability?
- A good brand name and reputation?
- Good customer service?
- A more convenient location or means of access?
- Additional benefits?
Product or service
Describe the competing product or service
- Do they compete with you now, or will they compete with you in the future?
- What do they provide that competes with you?
- Does it directly compete, or offer an alternative way to solve the problem?
Customers
Customer segment
Add a target customer group or segment
Who are your customers? Add a target customer segment. Groupings might include:
- ... by industry or trade
- ... by speciality or job role
- ... by region or locality
- ... by knowledge, concern, interest or need
- ... by demographic (e.g. age, gender, education, income)
Note that the same people may belong to more than one group, so may be reachable in several ways.
Solutions
Our solution is a tailored experience that identifies with the lifestyle of the customer where we can best provide quality products that enhance lives.
Add a solution
What solutions are you offering for customers in this segment? What value do you create for them?
Needs
We provide products to people looking to identify with their lifestyle. Our customers need to feel attached to their identify and our products help them achieve that need.
Add a customer need
What are the needs and interests of the customers in this segment? What do they value? How do they select their purchases?
Pain points
Our customers will fear missing out on a local trend and inclusion. They are looking for a products that best match their lifestyle.
Add a customer pain point
What problems and pain points do the customers in this segment face?
Profile
Our perfect customer will be a person age 27-56 that lives in the PNW. They will be active and enjoy the outdoors as well as being someone who enjoys supporting their local businesses. They will have an active social media file and enjoy sharing their experiences.
Add a customer characteristic
What are the characteristic of the customers in this segment? How do you identify your potential customers?
Segment size
There are over 10M people living in the Pacific Northwest. Not everyone is our customer but that gives you a general audience size for advertising.
Estimate the size of this segment
What is the estimated size and value of this segment?
What proportion of the segment is potential customers for you, taking into account competitors, market maturity and demand?
Market position
LifeNW will move to position itself as an online store that is local, making impacts, relevant, a place where people identify with thoughts and activities
Describe your market position
What market position are you aiming at? Think about:
- What segment you target
- How you compete
- Your 'brand values' - what you are known for
- Your visibility in the market
- How your competitors regard you
- How your positioning needs to change
The industry
LifeNW will begin as a general eCommerce store that is hyper localized and relevant to identified lifestyles. Sales online continues to grow almost 4x as fast as brick & mortar and being positioned as a local online retailer will appeal to many.
Describe your industry
Add some key points about the industry you are working in.
- What industry sector are you competing in?
- What are the characteristics of this sector?
- What kind of changes or trends are happening?
- What are the driving forces for change?
- Which parts are growing or shrinking?
Lifestyle Northwest provides a more in depth experience for it's digital customers. We identify with the core values of our customer's lifestyles and through imagery, video and stories we connect with them. The products that we source are ones that best fit our customer's needs, wants and desires.
Describe your USP
Add a key point about your Unique Selling Point. Your USP is what will lead marketing, and help customers to choose you over alternatives. In comparison to the alternatives, why will your product or service...
- ... be different?
- ... be desirable?
- ... be better value for customers?
- ... be better performing?
- ... be more accessible or convenient?
- ... offer a better experience?
- ... solve the customer's problems better?
- ... have easily understood benefits?
- ... fit in with the customer's typical behaviour, without needing them to change it?
Vision and opportunity
Vision and opportunity
We will begin with the part that is easiest to describe - your vision, and the opportunity that your plan is based on.
The investor's question we answer here is 'Where are you headed, and why?'
You might have an unshakable belief in your vision, but investors will be more sceptical, and will be looking for evidence of insight and a well-formed strategy.
5-year plan
The goal of Lifestyle Northwest after 1 year's time is to develop branded products and retail them online. The ultimate goal being that we sell the business for over $1M.
Add a long-term goal
Where do you want to be in 5 years? Where would you like to be in terms of:
- Company size, turnover and profitability?
- Financial strength and independence?
- Structure and ownership?
- Market leadership and reputation?
- Competitiveness?
- Core skills and capabilities?
- Positioning for an exit strategy?
12-month plan
The goal of the first 12 months of business is to establish Lifestyle Northwest as a premier eCommerce store with sales of $500,000 dollars, social media followings of 100k+ and an email list of 20,000.
Add a short-term goal
Where do you want to be in 12 months? Where would you like to be in terms of:
- Turnover and profit or loss?
- Customer base and sales pipeline?
- Customer satisfaction levels?
- Market ownership?
- Staff, skills and technologies?
- Equipment and delivery capabilities?
- Consolidation and risk exposure?
Your USP
Your strategy
We will be using a combination of attraction and content marketing across social media to obtain targeted customers. With emerging trends towards video and storytelling being our primary focus within each lifestyle. Additionally, chat marketing will be explored and implemented.
Describe your strategy
Add a key point about your strategy. Strategy means having a bigger goal and an adaptable route map to navigate towards your goal. How does this opportunity...
- ... address your current weaknesses and challenges?
- ... exploit your capabilities and strengths, and build new ones?
- ... reduce future threats and competition?
- ... fit it with credible forecasts and trends?
- ... strengthen relationships and reputations?
- ... create value for your customers and investors?
Gaining local traction by featuring businesses in the NW and cross promoting will be key to fast growth.
The opportunity
There is room for a geographically specific ecommerce store that features NW businesses.
We are developing a lifestyle ecommerce store that knows it's consumers at the deepest level to offer matched products. The opportunity is there to stake claim to unique markets of the northwest by attracting the right customers with deep insights into their lifestyle.
Describe the opportunity
Add a key point about the opportunity that you are pursuing.
- What do you plan to do? What product or service will you offer?
- Why does it need doing?
- Why is there a gap in the market?
- Has it been tried before? What happened?
- Why are you best placed to pursue it?
About your business
About your business
Investors will need a clear picture of your business: how it is structured, who owns it, who runs it, and how it is doing so far.
Values and principles
Needs developed.
Describe your values & principles
Add some information about the values and principles at your company.
- Do you actively promote principles such as professionalism, respect, communication, leadership, accountability and trust?
- What is your policy on training and employee development?
- Do you have a policy on corporate citizenship?
- Do you deal with any ethical issues in your organisation? Do you observe any codes of conduct?
- Do you place emphasis on high quality, or on affordable cost?
- How important are innovation and risk in your market and company?
Achievements and track record
Zeth has experience growing an eCommerce brand to $250,000 in sales, specializing in digital marketing.
Describe your track record
Add some information about your successes and achievements. Think about:
- Significant orders placed
- High profile customers you have won
- Innovative 'firsts'
- Case studies
- Awards, endorsements and recognition
- Accreditation, such as certification to ISO standards
- Patents and rights held
Relationships and partnerships
No established partnerships as of date.
Describe your company's partnerships
Add some information about important partnerships. Think about:
- Organisations you have partnered with
- The strategic advantages of relationships
- What dependencies you have on other partners
- Participation in industry associations
- Non-executive roles and investor seats on the board
- Independent professional advisors and coaches
Management team
Zeth Owen - Owner / Pending Specialists Alex S., Eric L., Jesse H.
Describe your management team
Who are the key members of your management team, and what are their skills and experience?
Financial status
$25K in available business credit.
Summarise your credit position
Does your company have a good credit history? Can you negotiate favourable terms with suppliers?
Poor payment terms (such as cash with order) can affect cashflow while building up a new business.
Start up affiliate sales.
Describe your current profitability
Add some information about your current profitability. For example:
- Turnover in last 12 months
- Profitability in last 12 months
- Order pipeline
Funded by Zeth Owen
Describe your investment
Add some information about the current shareholding. How much have the current owners invested in the business?
Initial funding and reinvestment.
Describe your financial structure
Add some information about the capital finance situation at your company.
- Who owns your company? Are you part owned by anyone else?
- Do you have shareholders?
- How would the shareholding change with financial support for this business plan?
- Do you have significant debts or financial obligations?
Regulatory environment
Almost no waste.
Describe the regulatory environment
Add some information about the regulatory environment that affects your company. Apart from company law, what other regulations apply to your sector? Consider:
- Industry regulation
- Bodies or associations with a code of conduct
- Consumer law & distance selling regulations
- Financial regulations and bonding requirements
- Privacy and data protection
- Insurance requirements
- Health & safety
- Professional training standards
- Operating licenses
- Equality and opportunity regulations
- Working with vulnerable groups
Legal status
President / CEO w/ potential partners
Describe your governance
Add some information about the governance of your organisation.
- How are you governed and managed?
- Do you have a board of directors?
- Who is accountable to the owners?
- Who takes the key decisions?
Lifestyle Northwest is a Sole Proprietor but will move to LLC.
Add your legal status
What is the legal status of your organisation? Are you a sole trader, a limited company with shareholders, or a non-profit?
Executive summary
Executive summary
Although the executive summary appears first in the document, it is easier to complete it last, when you can summarise and prioritise the key points in your plan.
Benefits
Potentially after profit.
Summarise the benefits
List the benefits that will come from pursuing this opportunity. Include:
- Profitability
- Payback timescales
- Customer benefits
- Strategic benefits
Financial requirements
Initial investment is nominal and reinvestment of profits will be a priority. We will need funding for product development and fulfillment centers in the future.
Summarise your requirements
List the financial and other support that you are seeking, so that you can take advantage of this opportunity.
Opportunity
Our executive team begins with Zeth and will grow depending on profitability. Our end goal being that we develop and grow to support the desired salaries and allows us to go full time.
Summarise the opportunity
Briefly summarise the opportunity that your plan describes, and why it is strategic for your company.
Team and track record
We have an impressive team of mid-career level professionals in various specialties.
Summarise your track record
Add the key points about the track record of your team and your capabilities.
Products & Services
Our products and services will be developed based on market research and testing.
Summarise your products and services
Add short descriptions of the key products and services which bring your mission to life and are making it happen.
Mission statement
Take time to develop this.
Summarise your mission as an organisation
In one line, summarise the value and the difference that your organisation aims to create. Mission statements are more useful if they describe the difference that you want to make to your customer's lives, rather than what you want to achieve personally. Your mission statement should directly influence strategic decisions.
Generating profit and shareholder value are usually taken for granted for commercial organisations, so do not need to be in the mission statement.
Statement of confidentiality
Confidentiality statement
As your business plan is a commercially sensitive document, you may wish to add a confidentiality statement at the front of the document.
This is an understanding of the privacy laws in place for eCommerce businesses and the expectation of our customers.
