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Pulaski trading company
- 1. Pulaski Trading Company KyleCollins Company Description Pulaski Trading Company serves as the “middle man” of Pulaski County. People bring their gently used second-hand items to the store to be sold. Pulaski Trading Company will serve as a hub used to buy and sell any item(s) exceeding the amount of $20. Why choose Pulaski Trading Company? Pulaski Trading Company serves as a consignment shop. The reason Pulaski Trading Company is so beneficial to the customer is that it serves the local need for a consignment shop that caters to more than clothing. At Pulaski Trading Company we believe in the mantra “shop local”. In a community like Winamac that holds a lot of weight because residents are very community oriented. It also takes away the initial shipping costs our customers would of had to pay, which leads to them receiving the largest profit margin possible. Location: Pulaski Trading Company is conveniently going to be located in the building used by New View Solutions. It is crucial that it is easy to access, and that it is next to US 35. ( For Examples sake, I realize that the building is occupied )
- 2. Market Analysis Competitors: In thereselling industry there are many competitors. The main ones around Winamac include: EBay, Refined, and Pulaski Online Garage Sale. eBay: eBay operates off of the same concept of PTC. They take a 10 percent commission as well as a .38 cent flat fee per item. Several hassles are related to eBay that would not be present at Pulaski Trading Company. Using eBay the consumer has to find a box that would fit their product. Then they have to pay for shipping. This cuts into the person's profits and time. Refined: Refined is a competitor, but Pulaski Trading Company is NOT a garage sale. Refined has their own niche in selling second-hand clothing. Most used clothing items are not worth more than $20. Pulaski Online Garage Sale: From the looks of Pulaski Online Garage Sale it would appear that Pulaski Trading Company has no place in this community, but personal experience has taught me the Pulaski Online Garage sale is not an effective place to sell items. I tried selling a Jon Boat at a very competitive price. A few minutes later an individual posted 15+ posts of individual items of clothing. This put the Jon Boat at the bottom of the feed and no one ever hit on it. I proceeded to sell it on eBay. - Pulaski Online Garage Sale is also an unprofessional site to use. The picture you see may not be what you are buying. Picking up the product will be done in a location where
- 3. you have tomeet someone. This could lead to a conflict in which a person could be in danger. Who will be our customers? Most of our customers would be within Pulaski county. However, the objects would be visible online for everyone to see. ( On social media, not a website ) What age group will use it the most? Going off eBay’s statistics this will be the average age of our customers. -14% are between 18-24 -18% are between 25-34 -32% are between 35-49 -29% are between 50-64 -7% are between 65+ The average age of someone in Pulaski county is 41. Which puts the average age in the highest bracket of which people will use it.
- 4. Business Organization andManagement Owner: Mr. Kyle Collins All major decisions will be made by Kyle Collins. He has 100 percent of the voting rights. No investors will be necessary. ( Other than the bank ) He will be held accountable for all debt that the company owes. Percentage: He owns 100 percent of the company. Company legalities: We will be a LLC. This will provide us with the necessary protection. Company Decisions: All major decisions will be made by Kyle Collins. Service / Product Line Pulaski Trading Company is a company based around service and convenience. We will serve people in selling their goods that are worth more or equal to $20. People today lead busy lives
- 5. and tend toaccumulate a lot of items that they do not necessarily think are worth anything. By being a marketplace for people to sell items, I can help them make money, organize, and reach a large audience who may be interested in purchasing their items. How we make money? First off, a potential customer walks into the store with an item they want to put up for sale. The customer and I agree upon the price before the item is put up for sale. This is important because if a customer is charging too much for their product we will have to turn them away. We take the product and advertise via social media and put it up for sale in our store. We will charge 10% commission based off of the selling price. Which will be determined between myself and the customer. - A contract of sale will be a part of every deal. The details of the sale will be set in stone on this document. This is needed to protect both parties. The customer will know what they will get for their item, if sold. It also serves to protect myself as the business owner. Marketing & Sales One of the most important things about a business in a rural community is that it has to be supported by the people in the area. As far as product placement we will have a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account that will post about the product with a detailed description. This opens up many avenues. - 73% of Americans have social media
- 6. - Based uponwhich item we are trying to sell, we will post on to the correct corresponding social media. - If a product appeals to the teenagers/ young adults, we will target Twitter/ Instagram. - If it appeals to the older classes we will post it on Facebook. - How can I get the company name out there and improve the company face? Like I said earlier one of the most important things when it comes to small communities is the perception of the business. Which is why I plan on affiliating my business with the local school. I plan on offering an internship program that will give a few students valuable experience while offering myself temporary employment for my company. - Young adults are more social media savvy. - As an intern they would be in charge of product development and marketing. They will also be able to see how customers are treated when they walk in. - They would post it on social media which will put our product out there. How will our intern (s) be picked? We will have an announcement put on the school announcements about the position. After examining their resumes and references we will pick our intern(s). We want to have the leaders of the community being a part of our business. The school offers an internship class in which a student gets to leave school for 2 hours to explore a career field they are interested in. This bond will help make people more aware of Pulaski Trading Company. How to get Clients from Outside Pulaski County? Our only true source of marketing is social media. We will make several posts throughout a day on our large ticket items. This makes sense due to the fact that it would yield us the highest profit selling these. I do not feel the need to have our company's own website, however there
- 7. still is agreat tool to get out of town customers. Located right off of US 35 our company will get traffic from people that live outside our community. An eye catching sign from the road will hopefully bring in many of these travelers. We will post no more than one object per hour on sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This will prevent the bombardment of products, which would lead to a deficiency in time that a potential client could see the product. Traditional Media Usage The vast majority of our advertising will take place on social media, but once a month we will run an ad in the local Pulaski Journal. This will keep people thinking about PTC and will allow people without social media to get exposure to the company. Total Marketing Cost: $48 per month Company Details Schedule:Monday - Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Saturday: 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Sunday: 12:00 p.m. - 3:00p.m. Employees: Being a smaller company we will not need a large workforce. We plan on allowing 1 - 2 interns. The rest will be done by Kyle Collins. These interns will be fully capable of posting objects on social media and giving a brief description of its uses and condition. There is no one more capable of using social media than today's youth. I know because I am one of those youth.
- 8. Vacation: For thefirst year of business I will not take a vacation. In business sacrifice is needed and the first year of a company is crucial. As far as being sick, I have missed 2 days of school in the past 12 years due to being sick. If I'm sick I'll close my doors. Salaries: At PTC we will expect quality work from our interns. So therefore we will feel the need to compensate them for their time and effort. Every intern will receive $8.00 per hour. This will make them want to be there, and it will help maintain a positive work environment. Standard of employees: At PTC we want to maintain high standards for our interns. Therefore if any employee is convicted of a crime they will be terminated with no exceptions. Financial Projections Loan: PTC will not need a huge start up amount of money. However, like in all business unexpected costs will appear. We would like to receive a $5,000 loan. This will be used for start up costs and it will allow us to have extra spending cash for unexpected costs. Fixed Costs: Rent- $500 per month ( Our example building is New View Solutions’ verified by Mike Haschel) Utility-$200 per month One Time Costs: Cash register- $100. Shelves- 8 x’s$50 = $400. Security Camera- $200
- 9. Laptop - $1,000 Daily: Salaries:We will only hire two interns. Which will only work for two hours per day. This will cost $32 per day. Monthly: Pulaski County Journal- costs $12 per square inch. Will have a 4 sq. inch ad. - $48 Internet- $29.99 per month My salary: is 60 percent of total profit of the company. The company comes before my needs. Total Asset Cost: 1,700 Cost of Operation per Month: $1,738 Sales & Projections Forecast: The outlook for the market is favorable. People are always looking to get money / cut down on excess items. Also, people are always looking to sell family members items once they pass away. Projection of Sales: The projection of sales is hard to do for a consignment / reselling shop. The national average of a loan in a pawn shop is $150 - per item we would obtain 15 dollars based upon this national average. The Resale Industry: The resale industry is impossible to predict. Cash flow fluctuates extremely. It all depends on the caliber of product brought in and how many customers come in.
- 10. - Although itis hard to predict, the benefit to the resale industry is that it does not require a huge start up cost. Executive Summary Pulaski Trading Company Kyle Collins One of the flaws within Pulaski County is that it is next to impossible to reasonably resell an item. This leads to the flooding of online options, including: Ebay, Craig’s List, and Pulaski Online garage sales. There are many advantages to using / establishing a consignment shop within Pulaski County. Here are just a few: 1. Sites such as Ebay are very appealing due to their client base, but they add on commission, shipping, and a small product placement fee. 2. Free options such as Pulaski Online Garage sales get flooded with tons of posts of, for lack of a better term, crap. Anyone that has knowledge of social media knows the importance at being at the top of the feed.
- 11. 3. Establishing PulaskiTrading Company would be very affordable. A small loan of roughly 5,000 dollars is all that is needed.The potential of someone stopping in from the highway and buying a product is very likely. This would bring money back into our local economy. If any of this sounds like something that you would like to have in Pulaski County, I politely ask you to consider my business plan. A small business like Pulaski Trading Company would benefit the whole community. Thank you for your time and consideration. Kyle Collins *