The Business
A business plan is said to be an essential tool used to grow and manage the business. A well-organized plan helps in attaining the vision of development and involves steps required to reach the desired position in the market (Ekanem, 2017). Along with this, it is an important tool of communication for enticing financing for the business and managers, staffs as the business develops (Schramm, 2018). This report is being prepared in order to create a business plan for C&C Cake’s business which is a social enterprise. The initial purpose of this business plan is to explain the idea or intends of the business for the long term. Businesses change and accept with time, and factoring upcoming development and way into the business plan could be a good method to plan for alterations in the market, slowing or growing trends, and innovations or ways to follow to take the company at the growth stage. Along with this, the report will highlight the details of the staff, product, market and social purpose of the business.
The idea behind this business is to offer fresh and quality cakes to the people of middle class, workforce people, students at an affordable price. Besides this, business is majorly focused towards their social purpose which is to offer 20% of the yearly earnings in the charity to the circle trust foundation. Moreover, business has decided to provide every day leftover cakes to the charity. Business has planned to open its initial stores in the
Legal Requirements or rules that are followed by the business
The water supply serving the business is from the approved supply (Uhl, 2017). The testing is performed yearly of the private sources for coliform bacteria and Nitrate/Nitrite by the business owner.
The business has taken the license from the respective government and fulfilled all the requirements required for commencing the cake business.
The business follows all the food safety practices and general requirements standards and food premises and equipment regulations.
Besides this, the business has also followed the food labeling standards. It includes the requirements of labeling and situation-specific requirements.
Background of business
This business idea is framed by Mr. Cris, he is the citizen of U.K, and pursuing his Ph.D. in Hotel Management from Stanford University. The C&C Cakes business idea started in his kitchen. The idea of this business came into his mind when he was sitting in one of the cake stores in the city and observing their offerings and services. Besides this, he interacted with the manager of that store and asked about what they do with the leftover cakes and he came to know that they use that cake for next day’s serving. This incident helped in clicking this business idea in his mind of offering leftover cakes in the charity and offer fresh cakes to the customers.
Vision- the vision of the C&C Cakes is to open a chain of fresh cakes in the country and contribute to the society by offering 20% of the earning to the charity.
Mission- The mission of C&C Cakes to offer delicious and fresh quality cakes every day.
Objective- The objective of the C&C Cakes is to provide their consumers with the best experience and good products.
Key Staff
Key employees that play important role in the business are the owner of the business i.e. Mr. Cris, he is pursuing his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Besides this, it involves an experienced head baker, head clear and head decorators who are responsible for their department’s work and take account of the performance. Baker’s assistant operates under head baker and performs all the work assigned to him such as arranging ingredients and equipment of baking, etc. Store assistant manages the sales and delivery of the cakes to the customers.
Training- The training programmes will be held for the assistant who is in the learning stage. The training will help them in increasing their knowledge about a variety of ingredients used for making the food items and processing of different machine and technology used in the business.
External Relations
Bank, trust with foundation- C&C Cakes has planned the business in order to run it for a longer time duration, there it is important for the business to maintain good relations with the external firms or organization that can support it in attaining vision by offering funds, etc. The key external organizations with which C&C Cakes need to maintain good relations are bank and Circle trust foundation.
The business needs to maintain good relations with the bank in order to receive funds for commencing the business and for the future expansion plans. The bank is the institution that performs lending activities it can be directly or indirectly with the help of capital markets (Berger and Bouwman, 2015).
Organization
Circle Trust Foundation is the organization that works for the well-fare and betterment of needy people, poor, orphans, and old age people. This trust makes contacts with different organizations in order to receive funds so that they can perform their activities. C&C Cake’s business needs to have good relations with this foundation as it is a social enterprise and in order to achieve its vision and offer 20% of its revenue to this foundation for this it needs to has good associations with them.
Product and Services
C&C Cakes will provide a wide range of Cup Cakes with rare tastes like banana rum, Rainbow Cup Cakes, Raspberry Fudge, gingerbread flavor, Rose Petal, and favorites flavors such as Vanilla, Strawberry, and Red Velvet. Besides this, the business will offer birthday cakes, vegan cakes and wedding cakes with different and attractive designs.
The Market
The industry of cake has knowledge a substantial growth in last some years in the country. C&C Cakes want to create a large consumer base of regulars and along with this, it wants to serve for the development of the society. In order to do so, it has planned to target middle-class people, students, people of the workforce, and meeting points. Moreover, it is a social enterprise; therefore, it will offer the leftover cakes to the charity and 20% of yearly earnings to the charity with the name Circle Trust Foundation.
Changing Purchasing behavior of the customer
There are numerous factors that affect the purchasing behavior of the customers’ i.e.
Marketing Campaigns- Advertisement works as an effective player in affecting the customer’s purchasing decision. They are said to bring a huge shift in the share of the market of competitive industries by persuading the consumer’s purchasing decisions. The campaigns of marketing performed on a frequent basis can affect the purchasing decision of the consumer at a level that they might select one brand over another.
Economic Condition- The spending decisions of the customers are said to be significantly prejudiced by the economic condition prevailing in the market. This holds true particularly for purchases done of household appliances, houses, and vehicles. An optimistic economic environment is said to make the customer confident and eager to do purchases regardless of their individual financial liabilities (IResearch, 2018).
Group influence- Influence of group is also considered to influence the decisions taken by the customers. The main influential groups involving family members, immediate relatives, classmates and the inferior influential groups comprising of acquaintances and neighbors are realized have a superior influence on the customer’s purchasing decisions.
Product and Services
Unique selling proposition of the C&C Cakes is its different designs, decoration and unusual taste which will attract customers.
The worldwide market of cakes is composed to portray a considerable growth, at a CAGR superior to 3% over the prediction period. Rising development attached with an upsurge in the disposable income is anticipated to support the growth. With around more than 40% of the population of the world exists in the urban areas, the whole industry is expected to observe an increase over the following seven years. This industry has always observed growth with the increasing global population, but the current trend of the bakery western-styled in the region of Asia Pacific might fuel demand. Worldwide, the Asia Pacific covers near around 50% of the revenue as the developing population offers an unchanging growth for bakers. As the most of the players in the market are businesses that are small privately owned, growth in diverse economies can be a stimulating task. Though, the increase of logistics sources might offer resolutions for native players to enlarge their reach.
The segmentation of the market is done into two categories i.e. in-store bakers and artisanal. The unique selling point in increasing the demand is artisanal cakes, and the future trend of in-store bakeries might be further offering opportunities for growth. The in-store bakeries provide one-stop-shop providing bakery items and pastries. Current trends of the designer product and nonstop innovations in the offerings of the product are expected to maintain the industry alive. For instance, Minion-shaped cakes of Bimbo bakeries’ formed with the license from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment is one of the examples (Grand View Research, 2018).
C&C Cake’s business is a new business idea which is going to be a social enterprise which will support society by contributing 20% of the revenue to the Circle Trust Foundation and will provide leftover cakes to the charity. The business is going to establish in U.K, and there is various huge cake business that can provide competition to this business idea such as Pound bakery which is a chain of bakery and offer different types of cakes, pastries, rolls, and sandwich. Besides this, Freedom bakery is also one of the key players in this industry who offers the same type of products and is claimed to be a social enterprise.
Market testing is a trial directed before the new product’s commercialization to identify the facts of the product like is the production company is offering is the right one? Is the product priced reasonably? Etc. Based on these findings, the company can either drop or accept the idea of the product (Business Jargons, 2018). Mr. C&C Cakes has performed market testing before planning other aspects. In this testing, it asks people to taste their cakes and took their reviews. From that, it came to know that people will definitely have these cakes.
The Market
The C&C Cakes is planning to offer the best quality of cakes, cupcakes, to the customers at a reasonable price which will help in saving the disposable income of the customers. Moreover, the C&C Cakes is a social enterprise which will offer leftover cakes in the charity and not just this it will provide its 20% of the revenue to the charity. It reflects that this business idea will benefit the society and the people who need food and support to fulfill their needs and requirements.
This social enterprise is required in today’s society in order to work for the welfare of the society and contribute to the development of the nation. Moreover, these types of enterprises contribute to the economy as well as reducing poverty of the nation.
In today’s market, there are various businesses that are offering a variety of cakes and cupcakes with different flavors and design at high prices. But, there are various people who cannot afford these delicious and designer cakes and cupcakes made by experienced bakers. Therefore, the C&C Cakes business has decided to offer a variety of delicious cakes to the people at reasonable prices. Besides this, they will offer some part of their revenue to the charity which will be contributed towards the study, feeding, and development of poor, and orphanage people.
The business is the social enterprise that will put on commercial policies to increase developments in environmental, social, and financial welfare this may comprise increasing social influence along with profits for the external shareholders.
The external stakeholders of C&C Cakes are society, environment, government, and employees (Van, 2015). According to the point of view of the external stakeholders of the business, this business idea has great chances of getting hike and success in the coming future due to its offering of delicious bakery products and aim of being a social enterprise by offering its revenue to the trust. Moreover, the prices of the bakery are also reasonable that will help middle-class people to afford the designer and flavored cakes and cupcakes.
Measurement of Impact
The social impact can be measured by C&C Cakes is the increase in the customer demand, trust of government, and improvement in the society. As C&C Cakes is a social enterprise it can measure it through these aspects that will reflect the clear picture of the business and how much people have accepted this business idea.
Unique Selling Proposition
The tools that C&C Cakes has adapted to measure the impact is surveys that will be helpful in knowing the customers feedback about the business idea and social purpose of the business. The business idea will not cost much to the enterprise as it will take the help of internet to conduct surveys and collect feedback from the customers besides this it can also place canopy’s to let people taste the cakes of the company. The business has the support of internet and its employees to take the feedback from the customers through surveys.
External Factors
Political- The political environment in the UK is very supportive. Moreover, social enterprises in the UK receive the support of the government in setting up the business (Bush, 2016).
Economic- The UK is said to have 5th highest GDP in the world, however it deals with slow recovery from the economic recession of the 2008/2009.
Social- The government of UK offers various free services for the social enterprises such as National health services, etc. which can help C&C Cakes in growing its business. However, there is little social turbulence in term of ethnic groups and migration.
Technology- The UK is considered as the economically developed country, which allows its access to the advanced technology. This aspect will help C&C Cakes in making use of advanced technologies to make tasty and designer cakes.
Issues faced by the Industry
Worker’s bad habit- the unaccepted habits of the workers in the bakery such as chewing tobacco, smoking, and spitting majorly affect the bakery atmosphere, quality of the products. Carelessness, spoilage, negligence, and theft are some of the common issues associated with the workers (Shodhganga, 2015).
Labor absenteeism- Another problem that this industry deals with is the absenteeism of the labor.
Food safety concern- As customer closely observe every idem which he/she is consuming or eating, therefore it has become very important for bakeries to make use of quality ingredients to safeguard the health of the consumers (Bremer Authentic Ingredients, 2017).
Natural products- There is major confusion between natural and organic products, however, both are completely different from each other. If a bakery is using organic products then it should meet the USDA regulations.
Increasing cost of commodity- The commodity cost is another aspect that raises issues for the bakery industry. Every year the commodity cost increases.
Critical Success Factor
Marketing- Make a difference. In order to get successful in the industry, business needs to have effective marketing strategies that will help it in describing how it is different from other players in the market. The needs to tell people how it is contributing to the society and what benefits and flavors it will provide to the customers.
Market size and Trend
Employees- Employees can help C&C Cakes in becoming a success. Therefore it is very important for the business to employ skilled and experienced employees who can add value to the business success (Markovich, 2018).
Business Development Strategy
Show your impact- The strategy that C&C Cakes will adapt to development the business is to reflect the impact of the business on the society. The business idea is of a social enterprise which will help a charity i.e. Circle Trust foundation to improve the society. The company will offer its 20% revenue to this foundation which reflects this contribution will help many people to improve their life. This will definitely attract more and more people towards the business and will increase the revenue of the business (Garton, 2015).
The marketing strategy that business will use is to promote its social services that it is performing to help needy people and support Circle Trust Foundation that will help it in attracting people. This will be done by the business with the help of social media, advertisement through TV, hoardings, etc.
Penetration price strategy- The business will make use of price penetration strategy with the aim of attracting people by offering goods at lower prices (Maguire, 2017).
C&C Cakes will make use of a document that will list some of the complaints and comments of the customers which will be filled by the customer to offer their reviews and experience in the store. Customer feedback will be collected with the help of an online survey.
Marketing team
The C&C Cakes is presently planning to initiate the business and have less number of employees in the structure. Therefore the owner will be reasonable for the marketing of the business.
E-commerce Strategy
Micro-Target an Online Audience- E-commerce is generally about creating a “territory”. Describing and scheming a site to influence an audience with a shared interest or features (Evans, 2014). C&C Caked will make use of this strategy to promote its products.
Location
In the starting business have planned to open two stores in the U.K, Cambridge
In order to arrange funds, a business can make use of its retained earnings, common stock, etc.
Suppliers
Advantages and disadvantaged of suppliers
Advantages
Enhanced satisfaction of the customer
Complete transparency between supplier and organization
Enhanced quality, reliability, and manufacturability for new and attractive designs
Increased supply diversity awareness (Industry Star, 2018)
Disadvantages
Sharing of information with the suppliers is a problem and creates risks
Reduced order volume result in lesser bargaining power (Moglix business, 2018)
The process of mitigating supplier risk
Incorporate risk mitigation and dependence into the process of sourcing
Recognizing the supplier that possess maximum influence on the business (Lamoureux and Mitchell, 2016)
Create a plan of disaster recovery in the supplier failure event
Frequently measure the supplier’s strengths and weaknesses (Kelly, 2010)
Production and/or operation
Quality standards- The business will follow BRC global food safety standards and will confirm the traceability of each product (Seerys, 2018).
Production Method
BFP (Bulk Fermentation Process) – It is a common and traditional method of production used by bakeries. In this ingredients are combined together in order to make the dough and left for some hours to ferment (Federation of bakers, 2018).
While making cakes and cupcakes the business will effectively take care of the quality and health of the customers by using good quality of raw material and equipment.
The business will offer home delivery to the customers with the help of its bakery van and along with this people can visit the store and can sit and have their orders.
Suppliers used, costs, payment arrangements, reasons for choosing the supplier
Equipment
Baking pans, dough hook, measuring cups and spoons, pastry brush, rolling pin, food processor, wire cooling rack, thermometer, serrated knife, and timer are some of the equipment that will be used in the store of C&C Cakes.
Transport- In order to deliver the ordered cakes business will make use of the big delivery van and a small van.
Insurance requirements that business will fulfill are building insurance, employer’s liability insurance, professional indemnity insurance, directors and officers insurance, etc. (Inspire 2 enterprise, 2017)
Equipment
The equipment that will be purchased will cost business around $55000 to 60000. In order to arrange these funds business takes support of financial institutions, banks, etc. Moreover, the business will make use of straight line depreciation method.
Conclusion
In the conclusion, it can be said that above specified business plan is one of the great ideas of making social enterprises by offering cakes and cupcakes. The idea of offering 20% of the revenue to the Circle Trust Foundation is one of the good social initiatives which will support many people in enhancing their life. Moreover, the above-mentioned business plan is very effective as it has involved various details such as business and organization description, employees, external relations, product, market and social purpose. Besides this, the report has provided the information about social impact, business environment, industry analysis, marketing, and sales information. In the end, the business plan has provided the action plan that will provide an outline and direction to get success.
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