SWOT Analysis: Small Business Plan

Small Business Plan

The Toddler Warehouse will be afull-service child care/development facility in the city of Perth that caresfor toddlers from age three to five. The Toddler Warehouse will beconcentrating on the upper end of the market, two income professional parents.These personally ambitious parents are typically eager in terms of theirchildren’s development and are willing to pay to have their children attend thebest facilities.

Through specialized training of the supportstaff and innovative learning systems, The Toddler Warehouse is cutting edge interms of child development. This curriculum, coupled with a custom designedfacility and a low teacher/student ratio ensures a top-shelf service for thechildren and the parents. The Toddler Warehouse expects to become profitable bymonth 11, and has projected $43,000 as the revenue for year three.

Situation Analysis

The Toddler Warehouse is a start-upbusiness. A comprehensive marketing plan and effort will be instrumental indeveloping visibility and generating sales. The Toddler Warehouse offers Salem, Ore. a full-service child care and child development facility for toddlers. Theseservices will be differentiated from the competition through advanced trainingand learning systems [1].

Market Summary

Through a lot of research, The ToddlerWarehouse has accumulated good information regarding the market and is aware ofmany common attributes of key customers. The Toddler Warehouse will leveragethis information to continue to study who is served, their needs, and how TheToddler Warehouse can best communicate with them.

Market Demographics

The Toddler Warehouse’s customers can bedescribed by the following factors:

Geographic

The immediate geographic areais the city of Salem which has a 130,000 person population base.

A 20 mile radius is in need ofthe offered services.

The total targeted populationis 12,000.

Demographics

Primarily two parent household.

Two incomes household.

Professional parents.

Household income of at least$70,000.

Parents have at least a collegeeducation, typically one of the parents have a graduate degree.

Behaviour Factors

Have high expectations fortheir child development and child care.

Are willing to pay forhigher-quality services.

Have chosen to work instead ofraising their child full time, however, this by no means implies neglect ion ofthe child.

Market Needs

The Toddler Warehouse is providing Salem parents with a full-time child care service that utilizes a sophisticated learningdevelopment system. The Toddler Warehouse will fulfill the following benefitsthat are important to their customers:

Selection: A complete serviceoffering of child care and learning development for toddlers age three to five.

Accessibility: The facility iscentrally located and is open from 6 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Customer service: Treating thecustomer like they are the most important customer that The Toddler Warehousehas is reinforced in all employee training programs.

Competitive pricing: The pricingis reasonable relative to the services offered [1].

Market Trends

The market trend in child care is anincreased utilization of child care by parents. This is fuelled by the parent’sdesire/need to go back to work generating income for the family. While thistrend fuels the need for more general child care facilities, it also generatesdemand for facilities that offer child development. As the parents are spendingless and less time with the children, they have less time to help them develop.The trend is moving demand away from solely babysitting child care to childdevelopment care. This will benefit The Toddler Warehouse because they offerstate of The art learning systems.

SWOT Analysis

The following SWOT analysis captures thekey strengths and weaknesses within The Company, and describes theopportunities and threats facing The Toddler Warehouse.

Strengths

A sophisticated and effectivelearning system.

Excellent training programsthat all employees must participate in.

An educated customer base thatrecognize the benefits that The Toddler Warehouse offers.

Weaknesses

A lack of visibility due to thenewness of the operations.

The ability to attract and keepwell trained employees.

The inability to perfectlyforecast demand of services relative to the number of employees on staff at anyone time.

Opportunities

A growing market with a largepercentage of target customers not yet aware of The Toddler Warehouse.

Increased revenue as more andmore people is working, thereby unable to care for their children during theday.

As the number of childrenserved grows, fixed costs are spread thinner over a larger customer base.

Threats

Competition from alreadyestablished facilities that improve their service offerings to be more competitiveto The Toddler Warehouse.

Unfounded “publicscares” regarding child care.

Legal liability issues, eitherone large suit against The Toddler Warehouse, or significant increases inpremiums due to changes within the operating environment of the industry.

Marketing Strategy

The Toddler Warehouse’s marketing strategywill be based on an advertising effort as well as strategic alliances withorganizations related to the care of children.

Advertisements: The Toddler Warehouse willrun advertisements in The Yellow Pages, The Marion County Community ResourceNewsletter, and Statesman Journal, The local newspaper. These advertisementswill be used to raise visibility regarding The Warehouse and its services toprospective customers who are otherwise unaware of it.

Strategic Alliances: The goal of thisinitiative is to create an alliance or perceived partnership between TheWarehouse and a number of organizations that are a resource base forinformation regarding raising children.

Two of The main organizations are TheOregon Midwifery Association and Birth to Three. Both organizations are wellrespected and wonderful sources of information. The Warehouse will be tappinginto this organization’s customer base. The alliances will create a sense oflegitimacy for The Toddler Warehouse [2].

One way the alliance will be created is byco-sponsoring parent education seminars. By sharing insight, research, andsystems that The Warehouse uses, it will have a good source of information thatwill be attractive to parents, as well as to the organization themselves.

While networking can be effective, TheToddler Warehouse recognizes that it must offer something of value to theorganizations to create an incentive for them to form an alliance and theco-sponsoring of educational events is just one method.

Mission

The Toddler Warehouse’s mission is toprovide top-level child care. We exist to attract and maintain customers. Whenwe adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our serviceswill exceed the expectations of our customers.

Marketing Objectives

Grow the number of customers by10% annually.

Build customer loyalty throughsuperior service and educational/development systems.

Build the Toddler Warehousebrand to the point where it becomes a household brand synonymous with superiorchild care/development in The Salem area.

Increase the referral rate by5% per quarter.

Marketing Mix

The Toddler Warehouse’s marketing mix isassembled from the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertisingand promotion, and customer service.

Pricing: The pricing structureis based on an hourly rate.

Distribution: All services willbe offered at The Salem facility.

Advertising and Promotion: Twodifferent campaigns will be used. The first will be a multifaceted advertisingcampaign; the second will be the formation of strategic alliances.

Customer Service: Customerswill be pleasantly surprised at how attentive The Warehouse is in regards totheir needs. The business operates on the assumption that it will do whateveris reasonably necessary to keep the customer happy. This reflects the notionthat if the customer is kept happy, long-term profits is ensured.

Financials, Budgets, and Forecasts

This section will offer a financial overviewof The Toddler Warehouse as it relates to the marketing activities. The ToddlerWarehouse will address break-even analysis, sales forecasts, expensesforecasts, and how those link to the marketing strategy.

Conclusion

Childcare considerably affects businesses.An enough delivery of choice childcare gives working families more and betterchoices. It makes available secure, safe care so that parents can work, andhelps employers to attract potential workers with families [2]. Without safe,dependable care that they can rely on, employees may be compulsory take timefrom work because of childcare troubles or use time at work managing child careapprehensions. Their efficiency can have adverse experience as a result, andprized human resources may leave their jobs because of childcare problems.

End Notes

1. city of Perth, officialgovernment website retrieved on 15 December 2007 from the linkhttp://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/

2. Sample Business Plan, day Care,retrieved on 15 December 2007 from the linkhttp://www.realbusinessplans.com/members/free_sample_plan.htm