THE END

Hey guys,

So everything is now posted for the Final Business Model Package...I hope. SOOOOO GLAD TO BE DONE! Have a great Christmas and good luck on all your exams!

5 Year Plan

I am stuck on how to move forwrd with the 5 year plan...I am gonna email what I have to everyone and maybe one of your guys will have an idea to move it forward?

Thanks!

Lane

5-7 Page Report

I just added customer relations and key activities. I kept my parts short because we are already at 5 pages without Jared's parts.

I can extend mine if need be.

What we need to have done:

Hey boys, as you know we need to have our sections ready for the business model canvas hand in thing. Here is how we've broken it up:

• Key Resources - Jared
• Key Partners - Jared
• Key Activities - Pat
• Value Proposition - Madeline
• Customer Relations - Pat
• Customer Segments - Madeline
• Channels  - Madeline
• Cost - Lane
• Revenue - Lane

Prototype Hand-In

I just added a page called "PROTOTYPE HAND-IN"

Look at it and let me know what you think of the content. The formatting is off because I copied and pasted it from word.

Almost Done!

Last night went quite well. I am proud of His Man Friday, because we started this concept from scratch at the beginning of the semester. It's interesting to compete against ventures that have been in the works for over a year, and it's satisfying to be in the top 3 among those types of ventures.

Now that we are wrapping up, we have to finish our 5-7 page hand-in by the 14th. Also, We have to compile a hand-in with all the relevant numbers about our prototype. Hopefully we can have this done soon as well so that we can get our marks back soon.

Almost done team, lets finish strong!

Congrats to Mido and NYX, both pitches were extremely well done. Peter came right out of the gates with a tug at the heartstrings, then moved to literal examples of customer segments with his use of "Jessica" and her "boyfriend" and their buying patterns. It was well explained, and I think he did an outstanding job getting his concept across to the crowd in 6 minutes. Ian and the NYX team used great visuals and I loved the short video that began the pitch - it really set the stage for the brand's identity. Ian is a great pitcher as well, and followed the video with a well thought through pitch that addressed all the necessary points. This, backed up with Matt's visuals on the slides, really captured the brand.

Great job everyone!

Men's Grooming Lounge

www.groominglounge.com

This place is an extremely similar offering to our. Check it out!

Awesome!!!!

WOW! - This looks fantastic you guys. It's come a long way since the inception and orginal vision. All of you should be very proud of what you have accomplished is such a short period of time. I can't get over how well you all work together and support one another in this great venture. All the best to you when you present your pitch. I was hoping that I might get an invite to see you all in action. Once again . . . job well done.

Cheers,
Monica

Prototype

For Tuesday morning (9AM), when we meet with Evan, are we supposed to have the Sketchup, building costs, and calculations in one hand in? Or is it okay if we reference to the blog for the building costs and calculations? He never specified how he wanted it handed in to him, so I assume its okay if we show him the Sketchup on Jared's computer, then refer to the building costs and calculations on the blog...

What do you think?

Also, is everyone able to come in the morning? I know Madeline and Lane said they could last week in class, but I never heard from Jared - can you make it?????

One Page Investor Summary

His Man Friday Team

Patrick Bruns, Madeline Dowhaniuk, Lane Kinas, Jared Rasmussen

The Problem

Real men need to be pampered. Men are interested in their visual appearance, and society is as well. Making a first impression on an employer, a complete stranger, or the opposite sex, can oftentimes make or break a person. People are quick to judge on appearance, but why even give them a reason in the first place? The key is to look sharp and always put your best face forward. The problem is, men can lack knowledge in how to groom, don’t know enough about products in the market to try them, or are simply overwhelmed with the array of products in an aisle of the local drug store.

The Solution (Value Proposition)

To solve this issue, men need a source to get an education of grooming and hygiene products and how they can utilize them for their benefit. Introduction of the His Man Friday store could be of great assistance to enhance your natural man. This store caters to men who upkeep their appearance, present themselves appropriately, and stay well-groomed. His Man Friday can be the sidekick for everyman to utilize; body, fragrance, skin, hair, and shaving products are all chosen based on personal needs.

Customer

• Men – Primary User and Buyer
• Women – Secondary Buyer

Marketing & Sales Approach

• Social Media:
• Facebook and Twitter accounts – updates, photos, contests
• Website – pages that included: who we are/what we represent, in-store promotions, contact information
• Print Ads – posters with QR codes and magazine ads

Key Resources

• Suppliers – white labeling manufacturer/supplier (key milestone: completion date by July 2012)
• Store Design – unique store to offer specialized products and services 

The Competition

• Men specific brands (i.e. Axe or Dove Men Care) and the retail locations that carry them (i.e. Shoppers, Wal-mart, etc.)

Financial Projections

Total monthly income: $69,000                 Annual income: $828,000

	Products	Services
Avg Price:	$8	$40
Avg Daily Sales in Units:	200	15 – 20
Avg Daily Revenue:	$1600 x 30 = $48,000/month	$700 x 30 = $21,000/month

The Close

We are solving the problem of under-groomed and under-pampered men. With our team and your investment, we can solve this problem in the emerging and growing market. We are looking for $250,000 for initials building renovations/materials, inventory, and first six months rent.

Final Prototype Completed 1/2

Hey everyone! So I have completed the final version of the prototype in Google Sketchup. Here are a selection of screenshots depicting the store layout. Please let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Jared R

Final Prototype Completed 2/2

Here are some more screen shots

Revised Floor Space...Again

Revised from "How to Utilize Floor Space to Gain Maximum Sales" post.

His Man Friday has decided to dedicate floor space to respective offerings based on their projected revenue contributions:

1. Cologne Bar will have 12.5% of the floor space (150sq ft/15ftx10ft space in back left of store)

2. Shave Cave will have 20% of the floor space (240sq ft/20ftx12ft space in back right of store)

3. Product Shelves will have 6% of the floor space (74sq ft/displayed throughout the store)

5. The Lounge (including sofas and TV's, will have 12.5% of the floor space (150sq ft/15ftx10ft space in the center right of the store)

4. The remaining 51% of the floor space (612sq ft) is left for walking space to ensure that our customers don't feel crowded.

I previously forgot to include the amount dedicated to the lounge area, and after revising the shelf space, I had to recrunch the numbers to account for the drastic reduction in sq ft of shelf space.

This looks much better, and we now have 51% of the space open for walking, standing, etc. That seems much more realistic.

Revised Shelf Space

Revised from "Shelf Space Utilization" post

As explained earlier, we have changed our shelf space to be 74sq ft. After trying to place the desired amount of shelving into our prototype, we realized that they will not fit, and we have to drastically reduce the amount.

74sq ft of shelf space will allow us to have:

• 4, 10ft x 1ft 3 sided shelving units (40sq ft). These will rest against the west wall. They will each be 10ft long, 1 ft deep, and 6ft tall (including the lower 3ft tall locked cabinet). 1 ft deep ensures that we don't store an excessive amount of rows of product on our shelves, and since we have the locked storage cabinets below, storing respective products, we won't run out of a product on shelf.
• 2, 3ft x 3ft 4 sided shelves (18sq ft). These will be placed behind the lounge, east of the 3 sided shelving units, where our customers can comfortably access all 4 sides. They will be 3ft wide on all 4 sides, and 6ft tall (including the lower 3ft tall locked cabinet).
• 1, 4ft x 4ft table (16sq ft). This table will be placed in the southeast corner of the store - specifically focussing on product specials and promotional products. It will be just over 3ft tall since the table top will simply be resting on the 3ft tall locked cabinet.

With our average product taking up 9sq inches of space, we can comfortably conclude that we can fit 99 products on our shelves/tables at one time ({12inches/9inches}x74sq ft).

With our average product price of $8, we will be looking at having $792 in product available on our shelves at one time. That's $10.70/sq ft of shelf space. This ratio will be extremely useful when debating more or less shelf space. It will allow us to calculate the cost or benefit, in available product dollars, of adding or removing shelves.

Revised Locked Cabinet Space

Revised from "Locked Cabinet Space" post.

Here are the revised locked cabinet space calculations:

• In the 4, 10ft x 1ft 3 sided shelving units (40sq ft), we will have a 3ft tall locked cabinet underneath that will have a volume of 30 cubic feet available, per shelving unit, for product storage. If we assume the average product is 3"long x 3"tall x 3"wide, we can conclude that each product will take up 27 cubic inches. 27 cubic inches is 0.0156 cubic feet. 30 cubic ft/0.0156 cubic feet = 1923 products that can be stored in the 3 sided shelving unit's locked cabinet. That's a total of 7,692 stored products in the locked cabinets of the 4, 3 sided shelves.
• In the 2, 3ft x 3ft 4 sided shelving units (18sq ft), we will have a 3ft tall locked cabinet underneath that will have a volume of 27 cubic feet available, per shelving unit, for product storage. If we assume the average product is 3"long x 3"tall x 3"wide, we can conclude that each product will take up 27 cubic inches. 27 cubic inches is 0.0156 cubic feet. 27 cubic feet/0.0156 cubic feet = 1730 products that can be stored in the 4 sided shelf's locked cabinet. That's a total of 3,460 stored products in the locked cabinets of the 2, 4 sided shelves.
• In the 1, 4ft x 4ft table (16sq ft), we will have a 3ft tall locked cabinet underneath, that will have a volume of 48 cubic feet. If we assume the average product is 3"long x 3"tall x 3"wide, we can conclude that each product will take up 27 cubic inches. 27 cubic inches is 0.0156 cubic feet. 48 cubic feet/0.0156 cubic feet = a total of 3077 products that can be stored in the table's locked cabinet.

That's a grand total of 14,229 products stored in our 105 cubic feet of locked cabinets.

The Six Minute Pitch

Pitch:

#1 The Intro - Your "Ah ha!" moment

#2 What you do (in a few repeatable sentences):
We created _____ that does ______ which solves _______ for ______.

#3 Problem Solver - What problem are you solving? For who? Are you making lives easier? (if you can make this a human story - do)

#4 Target Customer - who are your customers and how are you going after them? (keep it simple, don't go too deep)

#5 Business Model - who are your customers? how are you going after them? how are you going to get money from them? why are they willing to pay? how can you change their behaviour?

#6 Differentiator - why you'll win over the others. your sustainable, competitive edge. what are you doing different? we do XYZ that our competitors doesn't do - and we have usable products/talent to back it up

#7 Traction/Growth - proof is in the pudding. what growth thus far? projected growth. can you mention potential customers/clients that you've talked to? use logos

#8 Winning Team - why your team is THE team to make this happen. promote yourself and your team - headshots?

#9 The Ask - advice, partnership, money (your skin in the game as well)? what value do your advisors bring and would they give you money? what does that person in front of you have that you need? it is connections or a network? seed funds to accomplish XYZ? distribution companies like ABC?

Know your audience and who is best to pitch to them:

• Stephen Kenny
• Brad Johnz
• Terry Sydorick
• Alice Reimer

Slides:

• Less is more - less words and more images that reinforce what you're talking about (before and after)
• Pie charts, bar graphs - support your pitch
• screen shots and photos of what your building - prototype and products
• Clean images
• Equation for The Ask - this is the money that's in there right now and this is what we want

Appearance:

• Dress for your audience and representing your brand - don't dress in anything makes you uncomfortable in or that would make your audience uncomfortable

Body Language:

• Be open, don't talk with your hands too much, eye contact with audience

Big Boom Times

As a retail store, we are most likley going to be faced with the same types of boom and bust much like other retail stores...Sales explode near Christmas time, but during other dryer times of the season (summer time) we will mostly likely see sales that are considerable lower than those of Christmas and other holiday shopping times of year.

I think we need to determine how we are going to deal with this bust time. How do other retail stores do it? do they use coupons? large sale days? cut prices? shorten store hours?

Any ideas that people have are much appreciated...any one with retail experience might be of huge help

Chinook New Stores

I was recently in the new section of Chinook Center mall and was taking a look at what stores were available within the mall. As of right now (and from what I could see) there is only one store front that we would be interested in perusing as His Man Friday. It is located on the second floor next to the elevators/Eddie Bauer in the new section. It is a little bit bigger than what we are looking for for our store, but this store can be sectioned off into two store. This would cost a little bit more money innitially because we would have to pay for the sectioning off of the two store, but this would help us because we wouldnt be paying as much rent for more floor space than we actually need.

This leads to my thoughts about rent....for a store size like His Man Friday's, we are looking at approximately $180,000/ year to rent out the size of space we need. It would be interesting however to figure out if they offer some sort of discount for brand new stores coming into the mall...I am not sure what Chinook's protocol is on this sort of thing, but it would be interesting to see if they offer something like that or if they are flexible on the rent price depending on what kind of store it is...

White Labeling Continued...

Just to add a point to Madeline's prior post about white label producers...

I wonder to what extent they can customize our products so that they are a "His Man Friday" brand, and different from other companies who use this producer for their products. I guess what I am trying to get at is, how much will it cost to customize our brand so that it is His Man Friday quality and style. Is there a certain extent as to what you can do to change to product or is there a set style and brand that you just have to choose from.

White Labeling

Check out these links! And any other pages you feel inclined to...

Men's Line - http://www.naturalskincare.com/c-11-private-label-mens.aspx

Steps to Your Own Brand - http://www.naturalskincare.com/t-private-label-skin-care.aspx

Prototype Changes

My calculations and Jared's store model were not aligned. We had differing amounts and types of shelving. He has decided to add a couple 4 sided shelve and a table into his model, and I will change our amount of shelving space in my calculations. After seeing the newest model, 462sq ft of shelving seems like way too much for our floor plan. I will decrease it accordingly, and probably end up with 200-300sq ft.

We have decided to have:

• 4, 3 sided shelves along the east wall
• 2, 4 sided shelving pillars behind the couches
• 1 table in the southwest corner of the store

What to do now...

Hey guys,

So we are no longer required to do the 20 page business plan (good to know after we've wasted valuable time on it). Instead we are to do the following:

A One Page Investor Summary: (Due Sunday, Dec 4th!)

• The problem
• Value Proposition and Solution
• The customer and the marketing/sales approach taken
• Key resources - the underlying "magic/technology"
• The competition
• Our team
• Final Projections - highlights with emphasis on key milestones
• Closing - "We are solving a problem in an emerging and growing market with team that can execute a business model that can take us to $$$X. We need $$$Y  to reach Z value event or we need you to help us achieve this success."

Final Business Model Package: (Due Wednesday, Dec 14th!)

• Final up to date BMC diagram
• 5 - 7 page document that summarizes the 9 elements of the BMC
• 5 year financial projection sheet with rationale
• Final valuation spreadsheet based on the 5 year financial projection spreadsheet
• Where appropriate, link to the prototype efforts

Meeting Minutes

Evan,

Meeting minutes from the fourth Advisor meeting were posted on Nov 18th. Please find them under the Meeting Minutes tab on the right hand side of the blog.

Group Meeting

As Madeline said, we need to get together to discuss a few things and clear some things up before the end of the sememster.

What times work well for everyone?


I personally am free M&W: after 2pm and T&R: after 11am

Leave a comment or edit this post to lets everyone know what works for them

Locked Cabinet Space

As Madeline pointed out in a comment on my posting "Shelf Space Utilization", we have to determine how much product we can store in the locked cabinets. This will give us a better idea of how much we can have on hand and it will also confirm the hope that we will not need to store any product in the back room.

Here we go:

• In the 12, 10ft x 1ft 3 sided shelves (360sq ft), we will have a 3ft tall locked cabinet underneath, that will have a volume of 30 cubic feet available for product storage. If we assume the average product is 3"long x 3"tall x 3"wide, we can conclude that each product will take up 27 cubic inches. 27 cubic inches is 0.0156 cubic feet. 30 cubic ft/0.0156 cubic feet = 1923 products that can be stored in the 3 sided shelf's locked cabinet. That's a total of 23,076 stored products in the locked cabinets of the 12, 3 sided shelves.
• In the 6, 3ft x 3ft 4 sided shelves (54sq ft), we will have a 3ft tall locked cabinet underneath, that will have a volume of 27 cubic feet available for product storage. If we assume the average product is 3"long x 3"tall x 3"wide, we can conclude that each product will take up 27 cubic inches. 27 cubic inches is 0.0156 cubic feet. 27 cubic feet/0.0156 cubic feet = 1730 products that can be stored in the 4 sided shelf's locked cabinet. That's a total of 10,380 stored products in the locked cabinets of the 6, 4 sided shelves.
• In the 3, 4ft x 4ft tables (48sq ft), we will have a 3ft tall locked cabinet underneath, that will have a volume of 48 cubic feet. If we assume the average product is 3"long x 3"tall x 3"wide, we can conclude that each product will take up 27 cubic inches. 27 cubic inches is 0.0156 cubic feet. 48 cubic feet/0.0156 cubic feet = 3077 products that can be stored in the 4 sided shelf's locked cabinet. That's a total of 9231 stored products in the locked cabinets of the 3 tables.

All together, we can store 36,533 products in the locked cabinets among our store. WOW. I triple checked the math, and I am quite sure that I'm right. Does it seem right to you guys?

I think it's fair to say that we don't need to store any product in the backroom....

Venture Progress Review #2

Blog Review and Feedback

* General organization and layout, overall UX, use of tools (labels,
menus, archive)
* BMC < Recent update that reflects your venture changes>
* Advisory Board Profile < Complet with who they are, what have then
done and why they are relevant. >
* Advisory Board Minutes
* MVP
* Identify your key partners and blog the following:
*which partners and suppliers leverage your model?
* who do you need to rely on?

* Identify your key resources and blog the following:
*which resources underpin your business model?
*which assets are essential?

* Identify your key activities; create one-page project manager plan
* Mockup of Venture Website
* Cash Flow Pro Forma
* SWOT

General Comments
< jpeg of floor plans to should show more of build out as it is a CSF.
Blog updates are relevant and but not consistently posted or followed
through. Need to start discussing key metrics for success e.g. sales per
square foot, sales per station. Not seeing many comments from other
teams!>

Yet Another Mark Allocation Summary.

I took this from the email that Evan just sent out. I just want it to be on our blog for reference and so we can really make sure we know what's going on. I REALLY hope this is the LAST mark allocation summary.

Summary of Mark Allocation and Assessment Schedule Remaining

Final Pitch (Team) 10% - Presented Thursday Dec. 8

• I think we are in good shape for the final pitch - all of us could chat about this venture for hours. Also, since all of us were involved in the pitching for our ventures last semester, we have some seasoned vets!

The Package (Team) 20% - Business Plan (Word DOC and Appendices that include completed Pro Forma and Valuation Spreadsheets (XLS). Due Wed Dec 14. Attach to team blog.

• We have almost all of this on our blog, it's just a matter of organizing it into a business plan. We will refer to the google doc that Madeline set up.

Venture Website (Team) 5% - Due Wed Dec. 14

• Our website is awesome, thanks again Jared! We should be given the whole 5% for that...

Individual Blog Posting 20% - Cut off Sunday Dec. 11

• Make sure you guys are on track for the 13 weeks of individual blog postings. Info bits, comments, significant postings, etc. 20% is SO HEAVY!

Team Blog Posting Assignments 10%. As per weekly assignments. Last assignment is completing Valuation Spreadsheet.

• As for team blog postings, I think we have been doing a great job! Let's refer to his comments in previous blog reviews to be sure...

Prototype Bonus. As per team assignment, review meeting to be mutually scheduled.

• Madeline has this under control, and our prototype is amazing. So as long as we address the actual building costs, and the shelf space utilization like he said last week then we should be able to get the full 10% bonus that we proposed!

We should refer to the previous blog review to make sure we are on track. I will post the previous one so that we have it here for quick and easy reference.

Business Plan

Hey boys,

Just wanted to update you - I've been working on the business plan and putting on it what I can, have a look at it and add anything to the executive summary that you can think of. I don't want to leave it to the last minute.

We should all be working on this...be aware it's due Dec 14th. Even if you put 20 minutes into it each day that would be great and we can discuss this at our next meeting. I know everyone is busy with other classes other than this one, believe me, but if we break it down it won't be so overwhelming.

Supply Chain Management - Due Tonight

Hey everyone,

I was just reading through our blog and was reminded about the SWOT and ProForma assignment that is due tonight. I really don't understand what he is expecting - does anyone else?

He wants us to re-do our ProForma through a SCM lens...?

AND SWOT through a SCM lens...?

This class is so overwhelming.

Small Changes

After Jordan mentioned the need to allocate some floor space to the cashier desk, I revised the floor space allocation numbers.

Once I had those numbers, I was able to look at $/sq ft of shelf space. In doing so, I realized that we had an excessive amount of shelf space. It used to be 600sq ft that was designated to shelving, but after playing with the numbers while doing $/sq ft of shelving, I changed it to 462sq ft, and increased the sq ft of free space. It seems like a much more efficient use of our space.

Check out my infobit called "Walmart Begins selling Square Processor", and let me know what you guys think of maybe implementing this system into our store. By using the Square Processing service, we could further decrease the size of the cashier desk since it would only be taking debit and cash transactions.

Shelf Space Utilization

Let's get even more specific when it comes to utilizing floor space to drive revenue. We have a great layout that will help us to push our biggest revenue drivers, but we have to look at how our shelves will by designed and laid out to further utilize our space.

How can we best utilize our shelf space in His Man Friday to drive revenue?

As explained earlier, we will designate 462sq ft to product exclusive shelf space. This includes 3 sided shelves, 4 sided shelves, and tables.

• 3 sided shelves are those that are rested against the wall (creating a front side, and 2 ends). This shelving style allows us to efficiently use our wall space, but only provides us with 3 sides of product. The 2 ends are quite insufficient since they are only 1ft wide, but is available if needed.
• 4 sided shelves are those that are self-standing away from any walls (creating a front side, back side, and 2 ends). This shelving style allows us to offer 4 sides of displayed product to our customers - making extremely efficient use of available floor space.
• Tables will be placed around the store to further display our products. Tables are great because they allow you to creatively display products, but they don't allow you to store as many as shelving units do. We will focus on using tables to display featured or special products so that we can strategically display them, without the space limits that come with shelving units.

Each type will be rested on 3 ft high locked cabinet space where we will store the respective product inventory. This will allow us to restock quicker, which will ensure we always have product available and well-presented. Also, by having our product inventory stored in the front, we have more space available in the back.

462sq ft of shelf space will allow us to have:

• 12, 10ft x 1ft 3 sided shelves (360sq ft). These will rest, accordingly, against all 4 walls. They will each be 10ft long, 1 ft deep, and 6ft tall (including the lower 3ft tall locked cabinet). 1 ft deep ensures that we don't store an excessive amount of rows of product on our shelves, and since we have the locked storage cabinets below, storing respective products, we won't run out of a product on shelf.
• 6, 3ft x 3ft 4 sided shelves (54sq ft). These will be placed in strategic locations around the store where our customers can comfortably access all 4 sides. They will be 3ft wide on all 4 sides, and 6ft tall (including the lower 3ft tall locked cabinet).
• 3, 4ft x 4ft tables (48sq ft). These tables will be placed in strategic locations around the store - specifically focussing on product specials and promotional products. They will be 3ft tall since the table top will simply be resting on the 3ft tall locked cabinet.

With our average product taking up 9sq inches of space, we can comfortably conclude that we can fit 616 products on our shelves/tables at one time ({12inches/9inches}x462sq ft).

With our average product price of $8, we will be looking at having $4928 in product available on our shelves at one time. That's $10.67/sq ft of shelf space. This ratio will be extremely useful when debating more or less shelf space. It will allow us to calculate the cost or benefit, in available product dollars, of adding or removing shelves.

Revised Floor Space Plan

After some feedback from fellow students, I have revised the floor space plan a little bit - adding the amount needed for the cashier desk, and explaining what the back space is for and how we will use it. Let me know if this sounds better!

His Man Friday is currently looking into a rectangular floor space with 2169sq ft, in Chinook Centre. With our projected annual sales of $898,000, we are looking at sales of $414/sq ft in our first year.

969sq ft of this location is dedicated to unseen storage and backspace. It will be a generally open space that we will use this space for storage of cleaning supplies, excess inventory that can't be stored in the front, promotional materials, a small open break room, a private office for management, and a safe for cash.

969 sq ft backspace:

1. Office - 400sq ft (20ft x 20ft). The office will include a work desk, computer, and the store's safe.

2. Shelving - 20 sq ft of shelf space for excess inventory (10ft x 2ft). Most of the inventory will be held up front in locked cabinets underneath the shelving. This will be used to store excess product, especially product that we need extra inventory of. For example, storage of product that we may have on sale during a specific period.

3. Cleaning closet - 25sq ft (5ft x 5ft). Here, we will store brooms, mops, cleaning solutions, and any other materials needed for general cleaning of the store.

4. Break room - 400sq ft (20ft x 20ft). This will be an open space in the back room where we will have a table and chairs for our staff to sit during their break.

5. Free space - 124sq ft. Walking room, and extra storage for promotional materials.

With 969sq ft of this location dedicated to the back, we have 1200sq ft of usable customer-friendly space to play with.

Cologne Bar - Revenue will come from sales of cologne. Note that cologne has the highest margin among all His Man Friday products, and it is crucial to create the experience of the store - tv's, stools and overall comfort and escape.

Cologne sales are projected to be responsible for 15% of annual sales ($134,700)

Shave Cave - Revenue will come from shaving services and hair cuts. Important to remember that these services, while only being responsible for a small portion of our sales, will be KEY in creating the experience that His Man Friday wants to give to it's customers.

The Shave Cave's services are projected to be responsible for 30% of annual sales ($269,400)

His Man Friday Products - Revenue will come from sales of His Man Friday's main product line: Mug Scrub Facial Cleanser, Buff Your Bod Body Wash, Maintain Your Mane Shampoo and Conditioner, Smooth Operator After Shave, TLC Face Hydrator, and Keep It Up Wax.

The main product line is projected to be responsible for 55% of annual sales ($493,900)

****Sales assumptions are based on those outlined in the Pro Forma****

With this information, His Man Friday has decided to dedicate floor space to respective offerings based on their projected revenue contributions:

1. Cologne Bar will have 12.5% of the front floor space (150sq ft/15ftx10ft space in back left of store)

2. Shave Cave will have 25% of the front floor space (300sq ft/20ftx15ft space in back right of store)

3. Product Shelves will have 39% of the front floor space (462sq ft/displayed throughout the store)

4. Cashier desk will have 3% of the front floor space (36sq ft/6ft x 6ft space in the middle left of the store)

5. The remaining 20.5% of the front floor space (246sq ft) is left for walking space to ensure that our customers don't feel crowded.

Inventory Management - Update

RetailPro!

http://www.retailpro.com/

Hardgoods Brochure

This is a great system - There are over 52,000 retailers using it today.

It seems to be the best option for us out of the ones I have been researching. This one will keep track of our inventory at point of purchase (as discussed before), it tracks and presents any customers purchase history from any His Man Friday store worldwide, is simple to install, is priced right, and is extremely user-friendly. My girlfriend worked at Betsey Johnson, a very high-end and well-known clothing retailer with hundreds of locations - They use this system in all of their locations and after trying it myself at the store, I strongly believe that this is the system for His Man Friday!

They offer different packages based on our needs. There are different options for franchises, apparel, footwear, gifts and toys, home furnishings, jewelry, sporting goods, and most importantly hardgoods. Looking into their hardgoods offering, they meet the important needs that would be critical for a store like His Man Friday - including:

1. The ability to track a large number of products

2. Organize them based on style, color, size, or season.

3. Place items on backorder

4. Automate inventory replenishment based on restock levels that we set.

5. Create purchase orders based on current information.

6. Organize and present customer demographics right at the POS

7. The ability to suggest relevant up-sells and cross-sells to a select group of customers based on their purchase history or demographic

8. Automated, targetted mailing

9. The system has the ability to handle sales related transactions even when the network is down.

Weekend Check List

Hey gang, here are some of the key things that we need to get done before our next class on Tuesday:

Jared:

- Add in the additional back of store space for office and small supply store room
 - Add the product storage units to the bottom of the existing shelves

Madeline:
- Add the additional information and work into the prototype proposal

Pat:
- Look into seeing how much we will be making per shelf square foot. Use the cost of our products and an estimate of how many products we will be able to fit onto a single shelf

Lane:
- Figure out how much it will cost to build our store exactly and break it down per cost

In addition, I think it might be benificial if everyone looks at the spreadsheet we went over today in class just to become familauar with it. Its not due this Sunday, but it can help us prepare some numbers for our final pitch. If we all look at it, we can combine our results on tuesday and get something solid put together

Thanks team, and keep up the great work!! only a few more weeks and we'll be on Christmas break so lets give er all we got!!

LK

Supply Chain Continued

We also have an updated assignment with regards to supply chain management as follows: (taken directly from the slides shown in class)

-Model your venture supply chain in a diagram. Create a minimum of 8 KPI and comment. Post to blog

-Complete a SWOT Analysis of your Supply Chain; post and comment in your team blog

-Review and revise your financial Pro Forma through a SCM lens; post and comment in your team blog

-Due Sunday Nov. 27 Midnight

Managing Our Supply Chain

In class we are discussing supply chain management and how it impacts our business. It will be imperative that we determine what this is going to look like for HMF, especially if we plan on carrying our own brand of products, not to mention other suppliers we will need to build relationships with in terms of the tools used in the store such as hair clippers, razors, and such.

One thing that Evan suggested that we do is to perform a SWOT analysis on our supply chain once we have it hammered out and to also do a SWOT analysis on similar businesses in our market and to look for what might give us a competitive advantage as well as what might need to be tweaked and tuned up in order to strengthen the foundation of our business model.

One last thing that we really need to be aware of with regards to our products is what kind of taxes and tariffs we are looking at if certain products need to be imported. An example given was cheese imported from Europe typically has a import tax of approximately 298% in order to bring it in to the country, meaning that markup would have to be greater than that in order to turn any sort of profit on the product.

Inventory Management

I am currently looking into active inventory management systems that can be integrated into our POS system. They will allow us to keep track of store inventory based on purchases and returns.

Ex: When someone buys a bottle of Mug Scrub, our POS system communicates with the active inventory management system to decrease our Mug Scrub inventory by 1 unit. When someone returns a bottle of Mug Scrub (I don't know why anyone would!..), our POS system tells our active inventory management system to increase our Mug Scrub inventory level by 1 unit.

Here is one that I am learning more about right now...

http://www.ricssoftware.com/default.aspx

Ill keep you posted!

How to Utilize Floor Space to Gain Maximum Sales

It's time to look into some key metrics!

We need to look at sales per sq ft, and sales per station. This will be crucial to determine how much of our floor space we will allocate to each service and product line. Also, calculating our sales per sq ft will help us to project sales in different sized locations.

His Man Friday is currently looking into a floor space with 2169sq ft, in Chinook Centre. With our projected annual sales of $898,000, we are looking at sales of $414/sq ft in our first year.

To calculate floor space utilization, we must use the amount dedicated to sales, and exclude the amount dedicated to storage. Since 969sq ft of this location is dedicated to unseen storage and backspace, we have 1200sq ft of usable customer-friendly space to play with.

To do this, we must calculate how much revenue will be created through each service/product offering. Doing this will allow you to accurately allocate specific amounts of floor space to specific offerings based on the amount of revenue they can bring in.

Cologne Bar - Revenue will come from sales of cologne. Note that cologne has the highest margin among all His Man Friday products, and it is crucial to create the experience of the store - tv's, stools and overall comfort and escape.

Cologne sales are projected to be responsible for 15% of annual sales ($134,700)

Shave Cave - Revenue will come from shaving services and hair cuts. Important to remember that these services, while only being responsible for a small portion of our sales, will be KEY in creating the experience that His Man Friday wants to give to it's customers.

The Shave Cave's services are projected to be responsible for 30% of annual sales ($269,400)

His Man Friday Products - Revenue will come from sales of His Man Friday's main product line: Mug Scrub Facial Cleanser, Buff Your Bod Body Wash, Maintain Your Mane Shampoo and Conditioner, Smooth Operator After Shave, TLC Face Hydrator, and Keep It Up Wax.

The main product line is projected to be responsible for 55% of annual sales ($493,900)

****Sales assumptions are based on those outlined in the Pro Forma****

With this information, His Man Friday has decided to dedicate floor space to respective offerings based on their projected revenue contributions:

1. Cologne Bar will have 12.5% of the floor space (150sq ft/15ftx10ft space in back left of store)

2. Shave Cave will have 25% of the floor space (300sq ft/20ftx15ft space in back right of store)

3. Product Shelves will have 45% of the floor space (600sq ft/displayed throughout the store)

4. The remaining 17.5% of the floor space (210sq ft) is left for walking space to ensure that our customers don't feel crowded.

Lets Launch!

Services and Appointments

How do you book an appointment for one of the grooming services that His Man Friday Offers?

There are a four different methods to schedule an appointment which include:

• Booking online - this can be done through the His Man Friday website; a new tab would be created where people can see the appointment schedule with the remaining times available and they can enter their personal information in the corresponding lines
• A service schedule will be updated and posted online (under the services tab) after every appointment is booked, so there will always be current information to view and to avoid double bookings
• Calling in - via the phone number on our website or through a resource like the yellow pages, people can call the store and directly speak to a His Man Friday crew member to schedule an appointment of their choosing with the times we have available. 
• In-Store - clients can book an appointment while they are in-store by talking to one of the appropriate crew members at the reception/cash area. Available appointment times will be relayed to the customer and they can choose what works best for them. 
• Walk-Ins - if customers are more of the spontaneous nature, they have the opportunity of doing a walk-in appointment. Clients who book an appointment online or call ahead of time will be granted first priority, but if space is available we will be able to accommodate the customer
• For each different method (aside from walk-ins), all personal information will be collected such as first/last name, phone number, what service they are booking, the time of the appointment, and any special requests or comments that they may have
• If required, people also have the opportunity to email His Man Friday about questions, concerns, or requests that they had regarding services and/or products

• Two days before the client's scheduled appointment, a His Man Friday crew member will call the client to confirm with them of the service they booked, what time it is at, and who will be conducting their appointment. If unable to get a hold of them, the crew member who calls will leave a voice mail message and also send the client an email with a read receipt to make sure they they get the information one way or another.

Individual Pitch Videos

I just created an Individual Pitch Videos page. Just to help keep our blog clean, organized, and efficient.

Let me know what you think of mine!

A Round of Applause to Our Advisory Board

We would like to take a moment to thank the following people for their contributions to His Man Friday over this 2011 Fall semester:

• Monica Dowhaniuk
• Grant Kelba
• Jenna Gaetz 

All of the comments, feedback, and support that you have given us has developed, transformed, and progressed our venture into what it currently is right now. Even though we may not have any more sit down meetings together, we encourage you to frequent our blog and provide any insights that you wish to contribute. Hopefully our contact with one another extends beyond this course; it's always a bonus to have useful business contacts.

If you are interested, our class will be pitching our ventures on Dec 8th at MRU. Not too clear on all the details yet, but I'm sure you would be able to come and listen to them. I'll post some more information at a later date.

Action Items This Week!!!

Everyone is responsible for adding information to the Business Plan that is set up on Google Docs (like is under website tab).  Comment on posts and post your progress of your action items - any issues you encounter, insights you have, or when they have been completed. These are the following action items that need to be completed this week. Lets get this done in a reasonable amount of time - get as much done by Tuesday's class:

Jared:

• Make the following changes to the prototype:
• import barber chairs and mirrors
• hang paintings in the walls - get pictures from Madeline
• put some product on the shelves - use ours if it's not too complex
• move reception area back a bit so there is more room at the front for tables and so that people see the product through the glass front and not the cashier
• import promotional tables
• MAKE IT LOOK GREAT!!! We know you will

Lane:

• Revise the One Page Project Plan
• change the dates, insert more items, make it look more like the pdf version that is on the topic schedule
• provide comments and rationale
• Pro Forma 
• provide comments and rationale
• fix numbers, look at the 5 year plan

Pat:

• Posts to go on blog - be descriptive for Evan to understand:
• Sales per sq ft - use the pricing for our products that is on the website
• Inventory Management - how do we keep track of our inventory, how is it controlled, what do we use to control it, etc.
• Work with Lane on the One Page Project Plan and the Pro Forma

Madeline:

• Email pictures to Jared to hang as 'paintings' on the walls of the store
• Create a draft of the prototype proposal and present it to the HMF team - discuss and revise if needed
• Set a date to talk to Evan
• Service/Consultation Appointments - what different methods can people use to book services? how or where can they do this? be descriptive

"Ideal Candidates"

Here are our ideal candidates at a first glance....

Hair Stylists:

Young, experienced, attractive females.

Customer Service and Shaving Staff:

Handsome, well-groomed, stylish males.

Shaving Crew:

Handsome, well-groomed, experienced males.

Consultation Team:

Attractive, stylish, well-informed and groomed males and females.

But how do we go about hiring these "ideal candidates", without coming across as prejudice or offensive?

We have decided to strategically place our ads in universities, malls and Facebook. These, among other places will ensure that we get quality responses from good candidates. Also, we will use the term "ideal candidates" on our ads to ensure that we have high quality applicants. Also, we will head hunt for those great candidates at other jobs!

Dollar Signs?

Many high end restaurants have decided to remove the dollar sign from their menus. This has been shown to be a more welcoming strategy. Dollar signs have the tendency to scare off customers because it creates the worry and stress that is related to spending money. By removing them, our customers will be more comfortable when making purchasing decisions at His Man Friday.

Jared learned about this strategy in one of his marketing classes last year, and we have decided to utilize it.

One More Quick Snapshot

I neglected to add this photo in the previous post, so here it is from the inside facing the product wall and front door from behind the reception counter.

Prototype Progress

A couple of quick snapshots of progress on the prototype for HMF's floor plan.

Top 5 Video Votes from HMF

The following are the top 5 videos we chose to vote for:

• Ian (NYX)
• A lot of work went into this video, it was comical
• Told us about the product, what it does, and who would use it
• Tanner (Fore Seasons Golf)
• Visuals were strong - what the actual simulator looks like
• Explained what they offered and for what price compared to what you would pay at a regular golf course
• Engaging and comical 
• Adrian (mido)
• Explained mido's offering in a simple, but informative way.
• Upbeat, with a strong voice - believes in the venture
• Packed a lot of information into a short amount of time - great use of statistics
• Visuals worked well and were a good representation of the venture
• Liked that he showed the sign up page for mido's site
• Matt (NYX)
• Video was inspiring, innovative and educational - that seems to be what NYX is trying to create for their brand image, and this video was a great example of that
• Very motivational and descriptive, great use of visuals 
• Showed the product components
• Christa (NYX) 
• Simple, yet very informative and professional
• Explained what the product was and how it would be used by athletes

For these reasons, we feel that these are the top 5 videos that should be awarded the extra 1% bonus mark. Overall the videos were very well done, great job from everyone that posted!

Business Plan

We have a LOT of work ahead of us - Madeline took some great notes on what is expected of us for the business plan, and posted them on the blog a few days ago. I would really like to work on this as a group, to make sure that our facts and figures are succinct. When is everyone able to meet? I know that we could work on it a little bit this Thursday during our advisor meeting, but another meeting wouldn't hurt.

Let me know!

Progress on Final Prototype

So I have started to hammer out a final mockup of our prototype floor plan for HMF - it's still fairly rough, (and you wouldn't believe how long it took to figure out how to import an image onto a transparent object without having a white border...) but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. At the moment, only the rough shape of the store is complete as well as a near finished rendering of the store front, but I wanted to get some feedback - I will continue to post pictures as I progress through Google Sketchup.

Madeline's Video Pitch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIlo71qVahI

Check out my video pitch for His Man Friday!!! I had A LOT of trouble up loading this to say the least...the sound is off of the picture animations but it's as good as I could get it.

Personal Pitch Video

Here is my personal pitch video...I tried to use the same short and sweet approach as companies such as Drop Box and CommonCraft have used before

Here is the video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozUWOXxIpjI

Just to Clarify...

Three things are due this week:

• Individual video pitches - Due Sunday Nov 13
• SWOT Analysis - Due before class on Tuesday Nov 15th
• 5 year financial plan - Due before class on Tuesday Nov 15th

Rough Draft Floor Plans

These are some of the floor plan concepts that we have been considering for our business. The top and bottom left figures are representative of a lease space that we looked into at Chinook Centre Mall. The remaining diagram is that of a typical rectangular space that may be more commonly leased at Chinook Centre and other locations.

Notes From Class on Nov 8

This is just to catch you guys up who missed class today so everyone is on the same page:

• Individual video pitches are due this Sunday Nov 13 at midnight


• The date for the final pitch is set for Dec 8 (4:30-6:30)


• Please go through the powerpoint from today's class (Evan hasn't posted yet)


• One submission from the team on the prototype: what you wanna do for your prototype and how much percentage of your grade it will be worth (one page proposal)


• Final Business Plan needs to be generated and complete by the end of the semester


• Consider doing financials June to July instead of January to December


• Create pro forma financials to gain an in depth understanding of your venture, common point of reference to make team decision from, and they are a living document (has to be defendable)


• Download the pro forma spreadsheet templates on the topic schedule; first year should be done in detail by month for the first 12 months (realistic) and then the next 4 years will be done by year (these are 'wild ass guesses')


• This should be posted to our blog with key assumptions and Evan will discuss at our next venture progress review; it does NOT have to be perfect but take a stab at it


• Complete SWOT Analysis spreadsheet and post to blog, it will be reviewed at the next venture progress review (should not take a lot of time); provide a few comments about what you did or why you decided on things

NEXT VENTURE REVIEW IS TUESDAY NOVEMBER 15!!!

~20 PAGE BUSINESS PLAN:

• Combination of all information we've done over the semester - most of it will come from the blog


• Should document venture's goals, reasons why they are attainable, and the plan to reach those goals


• Has to look nice, any investor should be able to read it, less is more, pictures are nice

FYI - I have set up a google doc to compile the business plan on and sent everyone the link. The link has also been posted under the Website Tab incase you delete the email. There is already an outline of the components we need to have on there so we can start anytime!

Website Completed

Hey team,

The website is completed and ready to go - there is still room for feedback and improvement however, so please voice any opinions or ideas that you have to make it that much better! One of the little things that I did from a marketing standpoint that you might notice is the lack of '$' signs in front of prices. From some of the marketing classes that I have participated in, they mentioned that many upscale businesses and restaurants omit the dollar sign as studies have shown that seeing the $ symbol in front of prices of goods and services causes consumers to spend less, therefore removing the sign leads to an increase in sales. Food for thought.

Here is the URL again for the website:

http://web.me.com/jrasm719/His_Man_Friday/Home.html

Cheers,

Jared

Advisory Board Meeting #3

After our second last advisor meeting, I feel very confident in our progress and current offering. Our advisors have shown excitement about our progress, and have continued to assist us by asking questions that force us to think about things from different perspectives.

We have come a long way, and seem to be on track!

Great Work This Week

We're staying strong and getting through everything that we need to. Check out the updated pages that we've been over in the past couple weeks rewriting to more align with who His Man Friday is and what it does. A few more updates need to me made to the BMC. Meeting minutes are posted from the Advisory Board Meeting on Nov 3rd - we need to generate an agenda for the last and final meeting. By Sunday, the website should be completed and the 6 month plan should be posted.

Jared, I will get the products to you very soon!

Alawys A Pleasure

As usual today was another informative group meeting. It's always impressive to see what your group has collaboratively accomplished from the last time met as a group. The latest blog, and FB additions and enhancements are looking great, and it will be fun to see the next version with the revised edits. The "scrum" for the floor plan and product development seem to be shaping up into a platform that you can focus and work on over the next few weeks. It's great to come into a meeting with an agenda to follow, someone present to chair the meeting and over see that all items are covered off. We are all busy, so I just want to reiterate how much I appreciate time well spent.

Motivation is contagious!

Monica Dowhaniuk