Business Plan SC Business Owner/Founder 847-546-9786 River North Chicago, 60654
Changing Fashion Business Plan Executive Summary
Changing Fashion is a new, innovative approach towards creating clothing that is for all people. We are a for-profit company located in the heart of Chicago, which provides us with a large opportunity to reach many individuals around the area. Our inventory is specifically made to cater to all ages and genders; making it easier to reach a much bigger audience. The store is filled with plenty of unique clothing items; with a portion that goes towards supplying homeless shelters. We are a small store but hope to create great impact on the community. Changing Fashion not only provides clothing for local residents, but also for the homeless. After every five items bought in the store, one item is given to homeless shelters in Chicago. It’s important to our business that we share values with our consumers. We make it a priority to make sure each person knows the significant impact that is made with each purchase. Our passion as a company is simply to help make people’s lives a little bit easier. This is shown through our customer service and donations.
Hedgehog Concept
One of Changing Fashion’s biggest value is being transparent with our customers. We enjoy sharing our accomplishments as a business because it wouldn’t be possible without them. Back in 2018, I came up with the idea to open a store that would help a much larger community. The idea of donating clothing to the homeless came up, and since, our mindset has changed to reach as much homeless shelters in Chicago as possible. The Hedgehog Concept is our business model that gives the store an opportunity to share the importance of the impact being made. Within this, Changing Fashion has shared our passions about the company, what we are the best at, and lastly, our audience we target within the city.
SC, Hedgehog Concept, (2019).
Company Overview
Mission Statement We thrive to help the community by ● Improving the lives of others in making necessities more accessible ● Creating a close knit community through relationships and donations ● Give back to the community ● Trust within the business and between customers Vision Statement We want to live in a world where ● Community becomes a priority ● People are more willing to help others ● We open a peaceful space ● We impact people lives Legal Structure Changing Fashion’s legal structure provided is an LLC (Limited Liability Company). The LLC structure best fits our store because we are a small business and it is important to us that we keep it simple and can be flexible. One of the main purposes of an LLC is to provide liability protection for the owners. This allows the liability to stay only on the company’s shoulders.
Products & Services Changing Fashion will provide simple clothing items in a variety of sizes. Our inventory is specifically made to cater towards a wide group of people, making it easier to give donations. Our items are made from places a<img src="https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/a377a744390651.581146de3a1d 7.jpg" alt="Dark and moody"/>round the world. ● Womens Shirts/Pants (S,M,L.XL) ● Mens Shirts/Pants (S,M,L.XL) ● Infant Shirts/Pants
Marketing & Sales
Changing Fashion uses social media to help advertise our products. This is one of our main marketing tools we use for our business. Most of our target audience includes young individuals that are constantly using social media. We recently have been more involved on our website as well. Since our main audience is people living in Chicago, we use this platform to reach a much larger group. We have hired two specialists to run this part of our business. Our Facebook and Instagram pages are being updated constantly with new products and how we’ve impacted those around us. Here are some of our ads on Facebook and Instagram.
@Changing.Fashion
@Changing.Fashion
Demographics and Psychographics Chicago leaves great opportunity for business. Most of our customers mode of transportation is the CTA. Chicago and State red line is located two blocks from the store. The red line is 24 hours and runs all the way between 95th/Dan Ryan to Howard. This station is right in the heart of downtown near Michigan Avenue and has a lot of traffic. Changing Fashion tries to target a wide spread audience but the least common age group within our store is teens. Teenagers are known to have significant spending power, because of the fact that they don’t need to pay bills or save money. It creates conflict trying to get teens to come to the store. Overall, teens are becoming more and more digital. Although we have an online website, we still have to do a lot of work in order to make it represent the store and our values. Our most common group happens to be between the ages of 17-30. It has been a pattern that middle aged people are more likely to purchase and donate from the store. Demographics ● Ages 17-30 ● Middle Class ● Living within the city of Chicago ● Highschool/College ● Uses Public Transportation Psychographics ● Democrat or Liberal ● Interested in Modern Fashion ● Smartphones ● Passionate about Helping Others ● Values Community ● Enjoys Shopping
Operations Manual
Each of our employees and members of our team are required to show up to work with a good attitude, and ready to help. Our business values positivity, and hopes to make Changing Fashion an inviting place. Towards the front of the store we have a vision board with pictures and information about what we do and how our donations have helped the lives of others. Our employees have been trained to make sure the board is noticed by customers, so they are aware of the impact they’ve had by buying clothing from our store. Once an item is bought the customer will receive a card with the number of clothing donated because of the purchase. ● Shows proper customer service ● Item is bought ● Employee gives a card to customer to show their impact ● Makes the vision board known to the customer
Job Descriptions
CEO - The Founder is in charge of making sure everything surrounding the stores needs is going well and all the current employees are doing their job correctly. ● Sets up scheduling between partnerships ● Organizes events within the city to help promote the store ● In charge of hiring new employees Sales Associate - The Sales Associate is in charge of keeping the stores space organized and provides helpful customer service. ● Organizes clothing ● Provides good customer service ● Can work with the cash register Marketing Director - The Marketing Director is in charge of making sure our social media platforms and website are up and running smoothly. This position is responsible for getting the statistics for how well each platform is doing, and what we need to do to improve. ● Posts weekly to Instagram and Facebook page ● Updates website accordingly ●
Sends out email subscriptions as needed
● Puts together ads ● Keeps track of statistics of marketing Donations Director - The Donations Director is in charge of keeping donations organized. ● Organizes donations accordingly ● Works closely with Marketing Director ● Keeps track of statistics within our donations ● Holds separate events for donations
SC, ORG CHART, (2019).
Partnerships Changing Fashion has partnered with local homeless shelters around the city of Chicago. Every Sunday we bring our donations to a different shelter, helping more people to get the opportunity to receive our clothing. We have so far partnered with Lincoln Park Community Services, Deborah's Place, and Pacific Garden Mission. Each of our partnerships share our values. The Lincoln Park Community Services is a shelter located in Lincoln Park. They provide meals for the homeless, as well as guidance in getting them back on their feet. Deborah’s Place is a shelter located on the west side. Their approach is helping people break through barriers and get the proper health care. Pacific Garden Mission is located near west side. This organization is all for helping bring new life to Chicago’s homeless and hurting through finding faith.
Competitors Changing Fashion is a unique store that has similar values with other businesses that are interested in helping the homeless. Our main competitor is TOMS. They have a very similar business model to us. With every TOMS pair of shoes purchased, one pair of new shoes gets donated to a child in need. One for One. to kids around the world. TOMS is a well known and have a lot of loyal supporters. Changing Fashion is more about helping the local community than the world.
Work Cited “Chicago Station (CTA Red Line).” W ikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 June 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_station_(CTA_Red_Line). D-image Studio, Goganga. C reative Commons. “HOME.” L PCS Chicago, lpcsonline.org/. Kaplan, Marcia. “Teen Shopping Habits and Trends.” Practical Ecommerce, Practical Ecommerce, 11 May 2017. Milo, D ark and moody. Creative Commons. Merlo, Portfolio-108. C reative Commons. Takahashi, Yugo, E mi. Creative Commons. Toms. “The TOMS Story | TOMS®.” T OMS® Official Site, TOMS, www.toms.com/about-toms. “We Open Doors for Women Experiencing Homelessness.” D eborah's Place, www.deborahsplace.org/. “We Open Doors for Women Experiencing Homelessness.” D eborah's Place, www.deborahsplace.org/.