Marian Mats

Business Plan

Cody Bauer, Emily Boxler, Jason Chandler and Laurel Rathbun

December 15, 2015

Marian Mats Business Plan

Introduction:

Marian Mats are an essential way to show your school spirit in your living

accommodations. Not only does it show school spirit, it also provides a way for people to clean

their shoes and get rid of any unwanted materials from outside. Marian Mats is a doormat that

consists of 250 gsm (grams per square meter) of nylon material with a white latex backing. The

material we have chosen will make it thin enough to fit under the door and slip resistant so it will

stay in one place. Our Marian Mat will be 2’ x 3’ (60cmx90cm). The design on the mats would

include the Marian logo and the saying “Marian University Knights” silk screened in white. This

product is perfect for students that live on or off campus, faculty/staff, alumni and parents/family

members of students. Our product costs $4.80 to make and our selling price is $20 which gives

us a 75.54% profit margin. We also offer a $2.50 discount for purchasing more than one mat

because we believe in rewarding our loyal customers. We want to encourage our customers to

buy a mat for a family member or friends. The best part about our product is that is it not tailored

to one group of people. It can be used for male or female, undergraduate or graduate, dorm or

house, student or teacher, even alumni and parents can enjoy our school spirited and useful mat.

Executive Summary:

We start with buying each doormat printed with the phrase “Marian University Knights”

and the Marian Knights logo printed in white from Shezhen Dotcom Warehouse Products

located in China. We will order 205 mats at $4.80 apiece. 5 will be given away promotionally

and the other 200 will be sold to students, parents, faculty and alumni. Our $1,500 loan we will

receive will cover the cost of our 205 mats which is $984, our advertising budget of $165, our

mold fee of $100 and our application fee of $250. It will take 3 weeks from the time we place the

order to receive our mats. Once we place the order we will begin advertising in a variety of ways.

We will advertise with posters, flyers, a banner and also on social media. We can connect with

students and faculty on campus through the posters and the flyers and then reach out to the

parents and alumni through social media. We will also have the help of Wil Hampton who is the

director of the M-Club and he has agreed to help market our product to the parents and alumni of

Marian University. We have an excellent marketing strategy which is what is going to make this

business so successful. We also have Heather Bisher and Dr. Kyle Kellam to help us reach out to

faculty members. Heather Bisher is the director of Housing and Residence and has agreed to help

us market our product to other faculty members and incoming students. Dr. Kyle is our celebrity

on campus and will help market to his students and other faculty members. Dr. Kyle is a large

part of our marketing strategy because he is very personable and almost everyone on campus

knows and likes him. Dr. Kyle was featured in our commercial which we will posted on our

social media pages like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In the scenario analysis we made, we looked at a $15 selling price and also a $25 selling

price. We did not choose the $15 selling price due to the fact that if we had low sales of 100, we

would not be making a profit, and would instead be losing money. At our low sales on the $20

selling price we are still making $301 in profit. When we sell all 200 mats, we will make $2,301

in profit which we will then split equally. We will each also give a portion to the Holy Family

Shelter. Since we are buying the mats for $4.80 and selling them for $20 this gives us a gross

profit percentage of 75.54%. This shows that we are making a significant profit on each mat sold

which is another reason that our business will be successful. We want to encourage our

customers to purchase more than one mat so we created a $2.50 discount for purchasing more

than one mat. We incorporated these sales into our income statement along with the $95 in credit

card fees we anticipate having. We feel very confident in our product and already have 61 pre

orders before even opening our business. We can back up the need and demand for doormats

with survey results students have taken. We have event dates that we plan to sell at which

includes basketball games, freshman orientation, family visitation weekends and coffee house

events in Alumni Hall. We are going out and attacking the sales and not sitting around and

waiting for the sales to come to us. We also have an exit strategy for the end of the semester if

we have any mats left. We believe our product will be successful to market and sell.

Benefits to the Community

Our Marian themed doormat allows students, parents, faculty and alumni to show school

spirit. This benefits the community because it allows people to show that they are proud that they

attend/attended Marian University. It helps keep dorm rooms, houses, and apartments clean.

People who buy our product will also be supporting a local, student-run business instead of

helping a large chain business such as Target or Wal-Mart. When people buy our product and

help support our business and make it successful, it will serve as an example for other students

who want to start their business. It will show that people in the Marian Community believe in us

and will endorse other Marian products because they are proud of where they went to school.

Each group member is also donating a portion of their profit to a local charity.

Industry Analysis:

The doormat industry has been relatively constant without any major changes in the sales

or demand for doormats. The household industry is growing and with more houses, more

doormats will be needed. The general growth opportunities would be advertising and reaching

out to people to make them aware of a product that they wouldn’t typically think about

purchasing. Advertising will make the biggest difference for the alumni market because they are

not on campus and will not see our posters located by the cafe or in alumni hall. They may still

be interested in buying our product, so we definitely want to reach out to them. Our doormat

product would be considered a household item. Household industry items are rapidly growing.

According to PR Newswire on May 26, 2015, in 2010 the household product industry was an

estimated value of $170 billion and in 2015 it was estimated the household product industry was

an estimated value of $203 billion. In 2015 it is estimated to reach 324.5 billion. Of all the

segments in the household product industry, the “home comfort” which we consider our doormat

to be a part of, is likely to grow at the highest rate. Developing nations such as China, India and

the Middle East have been experiencing strong economic growth and are anticipated to boost the

industry. Doormats could also be considered part of the rubber product industry and despite the

recession and the rising cost of raw materials, the industry is experiencing a 2.7% annual growth

rate.

Competitive Analysis

We have no direct competition on-campus because no one else is selling a Marian themed

doormat. However, we do have indirect competition off campus. That competition is big name

stores such as Target, Wal-Mart, and Bed Bath and Beyond. These stores sell doormats that

would be similar in style to the type of mat we are looking into selling. The prices of our

competitor’s doormats vary in range from $10 to as high as $40 depending on the size and

materials used. The cheaper doormats are a lesser quality compared to the more expensive

models, we feel that our product will be in demand here at Marian based on the style and models

we are looking to invest in. The product we are looking at is not the cheapest quality, but it is not

the highest either. We are looking to be better rather than cheaper, this is because of the custom

Marian University logo that will be printed on our doormat. Our $20 selling price is around the

median price range as compared to our competitors. We believe that the Marian University logo

adds value to our doormat and that will be a strong reason people want to purchase our doormat.

Product Demand:

The demand for our product is not as high as it will be once we tell our consumers about

the product. In an on-campus survey, 93% of students said they did not have a doormat leaving

only 7% that said they did. Our next survey question asked if they would be interested in buying

a Marian themed doormat and an astounding 70% said they were interested in buying one again

leaving only 30% of people saying they would not be interested in our product. We also asked

students about the price point of $20 and whether or not they would purchase a doormat at that

price. Over 50% of people said they would be comfortable purchasing a doormat at the $20

price. Once we are able to show off a model of our stellar product, we feel the demand will rise

even more than we initially expected. Since our main consumer is full time college students,

there is not much time for jobs. Our average consumer income is between $14,400 a year

according to the National Center of Education Statistics. Research also showed that college

students, on average, spend about $907 a year on dorm room decorations. This shows that most

college students do have a little bit of money to spend, since our consumers are college students,

they want to show school spirit.

Target Market:

We have three different categories in our target market and they consist of students

(living on and off campus) faculty/staff, and alumni. Different marketing techniques have been

set in place to insure that we reach our target market. We believe the target market of

faculty/staff and alumni will be the hardest to reach but this is also one of the most important for

our product. The difference between our faculty/staff, alumni and the students is the faculty/staff

and alumni have houses and are more likely to want one for their door. Students don’t always

think to put a doormat in their dorm room. The qualities of our target market include customers

who would like to show their Marian pride while keeping their house or dorm room clear of dirt.

Through our research of the student body, we reached a number of 265 mats that we believe we

can sell. This number was estimated by going around to different areas on campus and asking

people to take our survey. We broke up our 265 mats into traditional and nontraditional students.

We further broke down the traditional students into students that live on campus and students

that live off campus. .There are a total of 3,551 students that attend Marian. This consists of

adults doing the MAPS program, online, commuters, traditional and nontraditional students. 6%

of all students = 213 mats (169 +44) - 1,686 traditional (undergraduate) students 10% = 169 mats

(135 +34)753 students live on campus 18% = 135 mats 933 students live off campus/ commute.

4% = 34 mats- 1,865 nontraditional (graduate/maps/online) 2% = 44 mats)

1% of parents of traditional students =16 mats

1,686 traditional students 5% of faculty/ staff members= 28 mats. 571 full and part time staff

members

Management Team:

We have all put an incredible amount of time and effort into this product. We have

divided up the tasks into what suits each of our skills. Cody Bauer is involved in the Marian

community because he is a former member of the football team, involved in International club,

and SHRM (Society for Human Resources and Development). Cody is in charge of pre-order

organization, reaching out and setting meetings with directors within staff and faculty, and our

social media. Emily Boxler is very active in attending MU sporting events and is our marketing

wiz. She is in charge of designing our posters, flyers, and banner. Emily organizes the plans and

dates to sell at events and created our Gantt chart. Jason Chandler is also very active in attending

Marian University sporting and theater events. Jason is in charge of economic research for our

product, Jason is in charge of taking our survey data and interpreting the data. Jason also is in

charge of finding our target market and which groups we can sell to. Laurel Rathbun is active in

the Marian community because she is on the cycling team and a member of SHRM. Laurel is in

charge of all financial statements including the scenario analysis and directing the commercial

with Dr. Kyle. She is also in charge of communication with the supplier. Since we are all doing

equal work, we are splitting the profit equally.

Marketing:

To advertise our product we plan to use strategies that will stand out to our customer and

make them want to purchase our mat. Our strategies consist of posters, flyers, a banner, candy,

napkin holders, on campus celebrity, social media, M-club, and sponsoring two basketball

games. We plan to purchase ten posters. We buy the posters and the banner from Staples. The

posters cost $10 each and the banner costs $25. The location of the posters consists of two in

Alumni; one by Papa Johns and Grille Works and the other by Starbucks fireplace. Three will be

located in Marian Hall on each floor stairwell. One poster will be located in each of the

following residence halls, Doyle, Drew, University and Clare Hall. The last poster will be

located in Ruth Lilly Student Center. We chose these locations because these areas have a heavy

flow of traffic by students and staff/faculty. Displayed on the poster is our group name, a picture

of our product, the price, our email, and a brief description of our product. Our poster is meant to

catch the eye and not overcrowd the poster so our customer will maintain interest.

The banner will be used to help sell during events on campus. The banner simply has a blue

border with our group name, a picture of our product and the price. We went with the same idea

for the banner as we did the poster, short and simple. We are sponsoring two basketball games

and during halftime of each game we will be playing a game of knockout and the winner will

receive a free mat. After the game is over we will have a table to sell outside the gymnasium

with our banner to reach out to our customers. Our banner will also be used when we sell our

mats in Alumni Hall during coffee houses. A coffee house is a great way to reach out to the

students at Marian. Coffee houses occur Friday nights and it’s a time for students to enjoy music

and light refreshments. The other events we will be selling at in alumni are SOAR and Kids n’

Sibs. SOAR is a freshman orientation for new freshman coming into Marian. We believe we can

reach two of our target markets which would be parents and students. SOAR is also a way for us

to reach students before they even move on to campus so they can already have their mats ready

to go for their dorm rooms. Kids n’ Sibs is a weekend where siblings stay the weekend on

campus with their college siblings. We believe this is a great way to reach our parent market as

the parents will be dropping off their kids on campus.

Along with our banner at the basketball games and selling in Alumni, on our table we will

have a bowl of candy. Candy is a way to grab attention of our customers. The bowl our candy is

in will represent Marian Mats by having our business name printed clearly so customers know

who we are. As we were taking surveys we found students were instantly more drawn in to take

our survey when we mentioned we had cookies and this is how the idea of the candy bowl came

to be.

Our intention with the flyers is to pass them out to students, faculty/staff, and alumni

around campus or during events to make them aware of our product. Our flyers have our team

name, the price and multiple choices on how to contact us to purchase a mat. We also plan to put

flyers in mailboxes in all of the residence halls. Every student has a mailbox in the residence

halls and this is a way to reach out to our target market of students living on campus

Our celebrity on campus is a communications professor, Dr. Kyle. Many students know

Dr. Kyle as a funny, energetic, friendly professor. Dr. Kyle is helping promote our product by

starring in a commercial that shows the use and pride that comes with having a Marian Mat. Dr.

Kyle is also helping promote another of our target markets which is the faculty and staff here at

Marian.

Located in the cafeteria on every table are napkin holders. In every napkin holder there is

an area to put advertisements. We plan to put an advertisement in the napkin holder to generate

awareness about our product. The napkin holder advertisement will be similar to the way our

flyers look, just smaller.

One of our biggest marketing strategies will be social media. We have created an account

for our Marian Mats on the following, Facebook (Marian Mats), Instagram (@marianmats),

Twitter (@marianmats) and also an email (marianmats@gmail.com). By making these accounts

we are reaching out to our customers and promoting our product. We plan to reach many alumni

and parents through our social media.

The M-Club is an organization for parents and alumni to help support athletics. The M-

Club has offered to let us sell our Marian Mats at their golf outing later in the semester and also

at other M-Club events throughout the year. Our product would be promoted on their weekly

show. The M-Club is an opportunity for us to reach out to the parents and alumni which is one of

the more difficult to reach on campus. Now that we have M-Club helping us we are confident we

are able to reach out to the parents and alumni market the director of M-Club, Wil Hampton, will

also help generate awareness of our product within the faculty and staff.

Our budget for advertising is $165.00. Breaking the cost down the posters cost $10 each

and we are purchasing 10. The banner is $25 and we will be purchasing 1. $15 will go towards

candy and the final $25 is giving away 5 free mats. The free mats being given away, 2 of them

will go to the basketball games on February 3rd and 9th and the last 3 will be given to Dr. Kyle,

Heather Bisher and Wil Hampton as they have all been a huge help supporting our product.

Operations Plan

Our operations plan will include the different ways we will plan on reaching our target

market in order to sell our product to them, these ideas include advertising with posters, napkin

holders, selling in Alumni, banners, flyers & candy, celebrity Dr. Kyle, selling via social media.

Advertising with posters will allow our consumers to see our product and know when and where

they can find us to buy or pre order the product. Napkin holders in the cafe is another way for us

to reach our target market. When they least expect it, our customers will see our product when

eating in the cafe, a napkin holder on every table allows us to advertise to anyone who sits down

at a table. Selling in Alumni hall at different events has already been approved and is another

opportunity for us to reach more potential customers who attend the event. Dr. Kyle is a

communications professor who has agreed to help endorse our product, his popularity around

campus will allow us to draw in our potential student market. At all the events we sell at

including SOAR (April 22nd), Kids N Sibs weekend (February 12-14th), basketball games

(February 3rd and 9th), and Coffee House (Dates TBD) we will have one girl and one guy

pairing up to conquer sales at the events. We will then alternate pairs for every event.

Financial Statements:

For our income statement our revenue starts out at $4,000.00 due to our selling price of

$20.00 and the quantity of 200 we are planning on selling. We then anticipate that 15% of our

sales will be with the $2.50 discount so 30 mats will be sold at $17.50 instead of $20.00 which

gives us $75.00 in discounts that we must subtract from the sales. So, our revenue is now

$3,925.00. Next, we subtract our cost of merchandise which is $984.00 because we are buying

205 mats that each cost $4.80. We subtract our advertising expense of $165.00 which is made up

of 10 posters that cost $10.00 each, a banner that costs $25.00, $25.00 worth of mats we plan to

give away, and $15.00 worth of candy to attract customers to our table. Our interest expense is

$30.00 because our notes payable is $1,500.00 and we only expect to pay 2% interest over 4

months (6% per year). The next expense we subtract is $95.00 because we expect that 85% of

our sales will be made using a credit or debit card on which we will have to pay 2.75% fee to

Square, which is a credit card reader that we can plug into our phones, on each transaction. We

also have to subtract $100.00 for a mold fee to make the silkscreen for our mat and a $250.00

application fee as well to use the Marian Knights logo. With our revenue of $4,000.00 minus our

expenses which is $1,624.00, our net income is $2,301.00.

Our retained earnings statement is very short because we do not have any retained

earnings to start since this is a new business. We are paying $3.00 dividends to each of the four

owners giving us a total of $12.00 in dividends. Subtracting the $12.00 from our net income of

$2,301.00 gives us our increase in retained earnings of $2,289.00. Since we don’t have any

previous retained earnings, our total retained earnings is $2,289.00.

On our statement of cash flows, our total cash balance as of May 6th, 2016 is $3,859.00.

We get this number by adding our net cash flow from operating activities, $2,331.00, our net

cash flow from investing activities, $0.00, and our net cash flow from financing activities,

$1,528.00. Our net cash flow from operating activities is $2,331.00 because our cash received

from customers is $3,925.00 and then we subtract our cash for expenses which is $1,594.00. Our

cash received from customers is $3,925.00 because we take the 200 mats sold at $20 which is

$4,000 less the $2.50 discount we expect 15% of our customers will get for buying more than

one mat. Our cash deducted for expenses is $1,594.00 because we include our cost of

merchandise which is $960.00, our advertising expense which is $165, our credit card fee of

$95.00, our mold fee of $100, and our $250 application fee. We do not include our interest

expense. We have no net cash flow from investing activities because we are not purchasing any

equipment since we already have all the materials necessary which are a table and a cash box.

Finally, our net cash flow from financing activities is $1,528.00. To get this number we added

our cash receipts from notes payable, $1,500, and our cash received from common stock, $40.00,

and then we must subtract our cash for dividends, $12.00. Our cash receipts for notes payable is

$1,500.00 because this is the amount we are borrowing from the sharks. Our cash received from

common stock is $40.00 because each of the four team member is buying into the company at

$10.00 a share. Our cash for dividends is $12.00 because each of the four shareholders will

receive $3.00 from the company. Our net increase in cash is $3,859.00 because we have to add

our net cash flow from operating activities, $2,331.00, and our net cash flow from financing

activities, $1,528.00. Since we don’t have a cash balance at the beginning, our total cash balance

on May 6, 2016 is $3,859.00.

On our balance sheet, under the assets, we have cash as $3,859.00 because that was our

ending cash balance on May 6th, 2016. We have no property, plant, or equipment to list under

assets because we already owned the table and cashbox we are going to use to sell our mats and,

therefore, did not need to purchase one. Under our liabilities we have our notes payable of

$1,500.00 because that is the amount of money we will need to cover all our expenses minus the

credit card expense and the interest expense and purchase our 205 mats. We have $30.00 in

interest we will have to pay back on our $1,500.00 and that is also under the liabilities. The notes

payable and interest payable give us a total liabilities of $1,530.00. Under our stockholder’s

equity section, we have common stock and retained earnings. We have a common stock of

$40.00 because each of our four group members are going to pay $10.00 towards ownership

interest. We also have our retained earnings of $2,289.00 from the retained earnings statement.

The retained earnings and common stock amounts to a total stockholder’s equity of $2,329.00.

Our total liabilities and stockholder’s equity is $3,859.00 which is the same as our total assets.

Our analytical measure is gross profit percentage. We calculated this by taking our sales

of $3,925.00 and subtracting our cost of merchandise which is $960.00 to get $2,965.00 gross

profit. We then divide our gross profit by our sales to get .7554. We multiplied by 100 to get our

percentage which was 75.54%.

GDP

GDP: Gross Domestic Product is one of the primary indicators that gauges the health of

the country's economy. It represents the total dollar value of goods and services produced within

the country borders over one year. As shown in the graph above, the shaded area indicates the

US recession which hit in 2008 and remained at a low point until around 2010 before it started to

steadily pick back up from 2011 to 2014.

GDP is a very important economic indicator along with unemployment rate and

consumer sentiment. However we find it to be much more useful for policy makers and banks to

judge how the economy is doing - whether it is contracting or expanding. Then, they can decide

whether it needs to be boosted or restrained. The health of our U.S. economy and the way people

spend their money is a critical component for our small, student-owned business. If the economy

is healthy and people have more disposable income to spend on luxury items that they weren't

necessarily buying before, that's a positive and encouraging sign for our business growth

potential.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

Unemployment rate is the percentage of the total number of unemployed people actively

seeking a job divided by the total number in labor force (including the unemployed). The graph

is from 2004 to a projected 2020. It shows the unemployment activity and rate from the past to

the present. From 2015 to 2020, it is all projected. The shaded area indicated the U.S. recession

that started in 2009. The government calculates the unemployment rate to measure unproductive

resources in the economy. When individuals want and are willing to work, but there are no job

opportunities available for them, then, the production possibilities of the economy are not being

fully utilized.

For our small business we did not feel that the unemployment rate indicator was the best

match for us based on a few different elements. Our business already has employees which is the

four of us who make up the group, Laurel, Emily, Cody and Jason. For our company we have a

supplier who we will be paying to make the product and they already have their own workers, so

we will not be hiring anyone. Therefore the unemployment rate data is insignificant for us and

our macroeconomic indicator.

CONSUMER INCOME

Consumer income is money earned from work or investments, such as dividends

distributed by companies to its stockholders and the gain realized on the sale of one’s asset, such

as a house. When you combine these income sources, it's often referred to as aggregate income.

Consumer income becomes important to us as a small business because it shows the

amount of money people are bringing in, the more disposable income that people have, the more

they are willing to spend. The more money people have left over, they are usually more willing

to spend. This might not always be the case because some consumers would rather use their extra

disposable income as a security blanket and put it in the bank to save for future purchases that

may be more important and demanding.

CONSUMER SENTIMENT

We believe that consumer sentiment is the best indicator to determine the price to sell our

product. Consumer sentiment graph shows how the people (consumers) feel about the economy.

It is very helpful for predicting the future of the economy and since the graph is on the upward

trend, but the economy numbers are not what they used to be before the stock market crash,

which is indicated in the grey area of our graph. The 18 month recession started December 2007

and officially ended June 2009 though the economy still continued to feel the effects of the

economic downturn in 2010 and also 2011.

We want to sell our product at a medium price of $20 which is $15.20 more than we

purchase it for. If the consumers in our market feel confident in the steady growth of our

economy then they are more willing to spend money on our product, which is good for the

potential growth and profit for our small business. In 2007 the index of consumer sentiment was

85.6, in 2008 it dropped to 63.7 and in 2009 it was at 66.3. In 2010 the index rose to 71.8 then

dropped again in 2011 to 67.3. The index has slowly risen over the past few years and for 2015

the number is at 93.5. The numbers in the index equal the degree of optimism about the

economy.

Wages

The $2,301 profit will be divided equally by the four team members. The profit each

team member will receive equals out to $575 per person. We have decided to split the profits

evenly because of all the work we have each individually put into making our product, from

marketing to coming up with the design of our mat, to all the financial statements.

Charity

Each member has agreed that we will contribute $75 of our individual profit to the Holy

Family Shelter. This will be a donation of $300 all going to The Holy Family Shelter. The Holy

Family Shelter is located in Indianapolis on Holmes Ave which is two miles from Marian’s

campus. The Holy Family Shelter houses families and helps them get back on their feet. They

help families by providing food, shelter, basic material needs and a safe place for families to be.

The Holy Family Shelter runs just on donations and we believe this would be a good cause for

our monetary donation.

Exit Strategy

In a last case scenario, our exit strategy will consist of any mats not sold after April 23,

2016 will be 50% off. This drops the price to $10. If we still have inventory after April 29, 2016

the price will then be marked down to 75% which drops the price to $5. We believe that we will

already have hit our breakeven point of 85 by this time. Since the breakeven point will have

already been reached we will still be making profit with 50% and 75% off if we get to that point.

This exit strategy will only be put into place if our inventory of 205 items have not been sold by

April 23, 2016.

Critical Risks and Assumptions

Every business comes with some bumps in the road and our company, Marian Mats,

plans to deal with them to the best of our ability. Before running our business we ran into a few

complications with our supplier not being able to get our mat here for important dates. This was

due to their warehouse being shut down for a week due to cold weather. This delayed getting our

sample mat until after our first round of presentations. Luckily, we had the pictures of our mat.

With the pre sales we made, we may run into some students that were just interested in helping

out fellow students and were not fully committed to purchasing the product. This affects

reaching our breakeven point for sales. Another problem that may arise is if customers are not

happy with the mat. This could be due to quality or if it gets ruined after being put in the washer.

We would offer a 30 day money back guarantee for people, but obviously if people are returning

their mat, this is not good for our business. If other problems arise throughout our business, our

team plans to communicate with each other to come up with what we think will be the best way

to handle the situation.

Conclusion

Our product will be a successful business here on the Marian campus for many reasons.

We have an extremely high gross profit percentage of 75.54% while still offering a fair price to

our customers. High gross profit percentage shows our business will make a significant profit on

every mat sold. Our marketing plan is exceptional and very well thought out. We have a

marketing plan that reaches out to students, parents, faculty and alumni. We have different

marketing strategies to reach every single group. Not only are we reaching every group in our

target market, but we are doing it effectively and efficiently. By reaching out to all our target

markets, we are boosting our chances of reaching our breakeven and then making profit. We feel

very confident that we will have no problem reaching our breakeven considering that we already

have 61 pre-sales as of December 15, 2015 and our breakeven is only 85 units. Our financial

statements represent how profitable our business will be, and how we will easily be able to pay

back our $1,500 loan plus $30 interest. We are very concerned with being a profitable business,

but that is not the only thing we care about. Our team is dedicated to bettering the community

around us as well and that’s why our group is donating almost 15% of our profits to the Holy

Family Shelter Charity. Our team has worked all semester to make this the best business it can

be. Our team has confidence that with our excellent strategies we have used all semester our

business would be very successful.

Appendix:

The first picture is the design that we sent to our Supplier, Shezhen Dotcom Warehouse

Products, to make the prototype mat. The second is a picture of what the actual prototype mat

looks like. We asked them not to remove the trademark ® because this adds value to the Marian

Knights logo. Samples of the posters, banner, and flyers we are going to use for our advertising

are also listed. Below that, we have our market research and survey questions. The very last

thing we have listed is the Gantt chart. This shows the steps we will take towards making our

business run smoothly and efficiently. As soon as we get the money to start our business, we

want to make sure we have a plan that shows the dates of when we will begin advertising, when

we will begin selling, and what dates we are planning on selling.

Mat Design:

.

Actual Mat:

Posters:

Banner:

Flyer:

Market Research

To find out if our product had an interest here on campus we surveyed 100 students. We

asked each student the following six questions.

● What is your gender?

● Do you live on campus?

● What year are you?

● Do you own a doormat?

● Would you be interested in buying a Marian doormat that fits under your door?

● How much would you be willing to spend for a Marian doormat?

From these results we looked at three questions that would give us the most useful

information. Do you own a doormat was the first question and 93% of students said no and 7%

said yes. The second question, would you buy a Marian doormat, 70% said yes and only 30%

said no. The last question, how much would you be willing to spend helped us decide our price

point, the results were, 54% said $20, 9% said $25, 7% said other, and 30% were not interested.

We found these three to be the most important questions because they told us if they would be

interested in a Marian Mat, the price point they would be willing to spend, and if they already

own a doormat as this would be the percentage of people it would be harder to target. The survey

helped make some important decisions in our business and also helped prove our product would

be of interest on campus.

Gantt chart:

Survey results shown in pie charts: