doodle bag biz plan-2011-d1

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Bag It Dont Bin It

Business Plan for Doodle Bags

Doodle Bag Project Overview

Doodle Bag will be an online shop specialising in personalised and designer eco-bags, operated from the Bag It Dont Bin It Eco-Print Factory in Sheffield. Thewebsite will provide the opportunity for customers to upload their images and createtheir own artwork to be printed on a selection of cotton and canvas tote bags. Theywill also have the opportunity to apply to have their designer bag stocked by the

online shop, which will reflect cool and contemporary artwork and for which they willbe paid a royalty fee. Monthly prizes for best bag, voted for by visitors, for differentcategories will help fuel the social marketing for the site, which will also includefacebook and twitter feeds.

Continuous feedback from our B2B website and competitor and market researchpoints to the potential for such an online personalised eco-bag site. The profit marginon personalised bags will be extremely high at around 800%. We have carried out afew pilot sales with great success and feedback.

We have purchased the domains: www.doodle-bag.com and www.doodle-bag.co.uk.Research by the Company Director has not discovered any usage of the brand nameas a Trade Mark, Patent, or registered Company.

A Brief Projection in Numbers

Year 1

EndJune 12

Year 2

EndJune 13

Year 3

EndJune 14

Turnover 80K 120K 180K

No ofBags/Day 20 30 45

% Growth - 50% 50%

Profit 15K 40K 55K

Employs 1 1.5 2

Finance Invest:20K

(loansecured)
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Bag It Dont Bin It Overview

Bag It Dont Bin It makes branded, fairly traded, cloth eco-bags as a cost-effectiveand sustainable marketing tool for businesses. Our corporate website gives an

overview of our product ranges, services and the eco-ethical philosophy thatunderpins our business: http://www.bagitdontbinit.com

Wehave experienced a period of rapid and continuous growth since we commencedtrading in January 2008. We are 15% below target for a turnover of over 800K (endJune 2011) and a profit of 70K. Our award winning business has provided skilledwork for long term unemployed youth and created a total of 13 jobs.

That over 40% of our Order Book comes from an enviable blue chip portfolio is anindication of our advanced manufacturing capability and excellent customer service.New clients are found through continuous investment in a B2B website and trade fairpresence as well as good account management.

Our U.S.P is our ability to understand complex production needs and add value toclients brand. Latterly this has been increasingly focussed at producing a bag as acurrent fashion accessory as opposed to simple, promotional item.

Our ability to obtain finance to fund business growth over the past three years hasbeen a key component to our success. A recent investment of 60K, as a jointinitiative between Finance Yorkshire and UK Steel Enterprises, funds growth,currently standing at 15%, and has enabled us to allocate funds to a specificbusiness development project: an online shop dedicated to selling personalisedbags.

Despite being a fledgling business growing up in a recession, we have never madeanyone redundant and have overcome many challenges. One of the mainchallenges we have faced of late is the soaring cost of cotton, over 30%, which is ourmain raw material and is squeezing margins. The move towards producing bags forpremium brands, our own brand range and now, personalised bags for theconsumer, all help to offset this problem.

Key Personnel

Julia Gash (47) is the Founder, Company Director and main Shareholder (90%) ofBag It Dont Bin It. She has 20 years of business experience, achievedpredominantly in directional, print-led, fashion business as well as first hand retailand political experience. Qualifications include a B.A. Hons. in VisualCommunication, Post Graduate Diploma in Printmaking from Central St. Martins andPGCE from Middlesex University. She won Sheffield Entrepreneur of the Year 2011.

A Designer/Artworker, Martin Catherall, employed on a part-time basis at Bag ItDont Bin It brings web brings much creative experience to the project. He will beemployed on additional days to undertake the work needed to develop the content ofthe website and to be the main link to external agencies involved in the building ofthe site and subsequent marketing campaigns.

There is a strong and developing management structure beneath the CompanyDirector including an Operations Manager, Tim Russell, with several years projectmanagement experience in the Manufacturing industry sector and a diploma in Lean
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Manufacturing Techniques.

Our team profile can be viewed at:http://www.bagitdontbinit.com/our-favourite-things.html

Website Build & Maintenance

We have commissioned Quba to build and maintain the e-commerce site. They builtand carry out the technical work and marketing campaigns for our corporate site,which is by far the main income generator forBag It Dont Bin It. We have cappedour budget at 13,500 for the site build, which is about 20% less than Qubas quote,in the Appendix/Attached. Some of the work quoted for will be carried out in-houseby Martin Catherall.

Design/navigational references include: Soulcreator; Spreadshirt.

Marketing

A Marketing Strategy forDoodle Bag will be created for the first year, divided intoquarterly campaigns. An ongoing online marketing campaign will dominate thebudget and will feature the use of social marketing tools such as Twitter andFacebook. A Content Management System will enable Bag It Dont Bin It to keepthe site fresh with new products, offers and a blog. A monthly E-Newsletter, driventhrough online providerI Contact, will enable us to keep our clients in touch withdevelopments and offers.

Additional marketing focussed on editorials and offers in womens and lifestylemagazines, online and glossy, will be a feature of the overall strategy.

We have commissioned Quba to run a marketing campaign for the e-commerce site,which will be heavily reliant on SEO and PPC campaigns. Quba run the onlinemarketing campaign for our corporate site, which is by far the main income generatorforBag It Dont Bin It. We have capped our online marketing budget forDoodleBag at 1,500 per month.

Sheffield University MBA students will contribute to the Marketing Strategy build and

take ownership of at least one aspect of the role out.

Brand Personality

The name Doodle Bag was created by the Company Director, Julia Gash and ispretty much self explanatory: Doodle i.e. drawing, sketch, creative mark, sometimesmade subconsciously, and Bag, which are the two components of the product. Thebrand image forDoodle Bag will need to reflect the aspirations and character of thebrand throughout every aspect of the website. Key characteristics are

Friendly

Contemporary

Creative
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Quirky

Professional

Eco-Ethical

The branding will stretch beyond the online shop and onto promotional literature,swing tags, packaging etc. Design references include Keelham Hall Farm;Threadless; Toms.

Doodle Bags brand image and personality will be created by an external designagency: Nu Agency, which has been selected for its ability to create quirky andcurrent brand solutions. The Design Brief, Nu Agency Portfolio and Quote are in theAppendix/Attached. A budget of 1,500 has been allocated for this work.

Core Products

Bag It Dont Bin It provides businesses and organisations with a bespoke printed,cloth eco-bag, over 80% of which is cotton based and the remainder is jute. Ourstock levels across several, popular bag styles, are more than adequate to supportsales from Doodle Bag, which will be reliant on several cotton and canvas bagstyles.

We work with three different print methods in the production of our eco-bags so as toobtain the best print quality at the most cost effective price. It is the development ofone of these print methods, the Digital Print Heat Transfer system that will be utilisedin the production. Its main characteristics are its ability to replicate full colour,photographic work accurately, cheaply, quickly and with minimal preparation.

Examples of bags we have made for clients can be found on ourcorporate website.

Over 100 independent retailers nationwide stock our own brand range of bags, whichare sold as a gift or fashion accessory, the most popular style being the I Love Mycity range. Such bags can be customised and will also be available through DoodleBag.

Other cotton based products i.e. T-shirts, aprons, baby grows will be included fromthe onset with a view to adding other products at second stage. The inclusion ofsuch products will be informed by research carried out by Sheffield MBA students.

Key Customers

To be confirmed through market research carried out by Sheffield MBA students

Competitor Research

We have carried out research into other e-commerce sites that specialise inpersonalised products. Several staff members took 3 websites each to review forcreative, navigational, ethical and technical capabilities. A Spreadsheet of thisresearch is in the Appendix/Attached.

We were impressed by the technical capabilities of Soul Creator and Spreadshirt.We liked the creative possibilities offered by Soul Creator. We carried out a mystery
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shop of Soul Creator and were impressed by the speed of service (2 days at Xmaspeak shopping time) but unimpressed by the lack of branding and informationdelivered with the product.

Further research and benchmarking is being carried out by Sheffield MBA students

Production and Logistics

The personalisation of the blank bags will take place at the Bag It Dont Bin It Eco-Print Factory in Sheffield. The bags will be posted on a recorded postal/courierservice, which may operate on different service levels.

Research carried out by Sheffield University MBA students will identify the time takento produce each bag and administer each order. This will help identify staffing needsas the business grows. Research into different delivery methods will also beundertaken.

Financial Projections

Three Year Financial Projections, A Product Cost Analysis Report. Sales TargetReports and Break Even Projections will be created by Sheffield University MBAstudents, based on information supplied by Bag It Dont Bin It.

These reports will help to decide on the price points for various projects, staffresourcing needs and financial targets.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths: Very high profit margin of 800%; existing technology & productioncapacity in place with no further investment required; Company Director has previousexperience of e-commerce retailing;

Opportunities: Additional income generation; big profile raising opportunity; singlemost significant, positive impact for Google positioning for corporate website;opportunity to franchise this operation in the future; competitor research revealsmuch potential in this field, which is currently not being exploited; opportunity tocommunicate eco-ethical philosophy ofBag It Dont Bin It through social marketing.

Other personalised products open up new markets to the company.

Weaknesses: Time intensive, which if not managed well, may result in poorprofitability.

Threats: New/increased competition; dependent on postal service so vulnerable topoor weather & strikes; could interfere with B2B operations if not managed well;could confuse identity if not marketed as separate identity.

.

Short Term Strategic Needs

Financial: Funds have been secured to build website and for an SEO/PPCcampaign for the first three months. Profit generated by the online shop will


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thereafter be used to fund running costs.

Stock: Existing stock and in-house print capability exists and the impact of theonline shop needs will be minimal in the first year

Staff Resourcing: Martin Catherall has been charged with being the key person to

undertake the work needed to develop the website and link to the external agenciesand report to Julia Gash, the Company Director. We have allowed 1-2 days perweek for a period of 8 weeks for this work to be carried out. He will thereafter be theperson charged with processing and printing customers orders and operating theCMS for the site for the first three months or until we can establish demand andresource needs to fulfil this. Printing work can be delegated to another productionteam member if required. We plan to recruit a full-time Doodle Bagger to handleorders and the CMS system after 3 months, supported by a dedicated productionteam member, who will handle printing and packing, the role for which will be phasedin according to demand.

Marketing: Julia Gash, Martin Catherall and Sheffield University MBA students willcreate a Marketing Strategy, which will be delivered through Quba and in-housepersonnel i.e. JG and MC in the first three months. After this time, the full timeDoodle Baggerwill take on much of the off-line marketing and CMS responsibilites.

Julia Gash. 14th March 2011

doodle bag biz plan-2011-d1

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