Just Some Thoughts and Ideas...

I recently came upon a venture that I am pursuing outside of school - maybe we can build off of it in class and get inspired?

Mr. Ling is a Korean holistic healer, massage guru, martial arts expert, and very spiritual individual. He currently lives in Mexico and his main goal is to "help people". He helps people however he feels is most beneficial to them - whether it be massage, meditation practice, etc. He has become sought after in the Mexican upper-class. His clients include those who run the biggest companies in Mexico, whether native to the country or not. He wants to come to Calgary to further "help people" and my partner and I have become his connection to Calgary. We plan to support him by finding him a place to live, and a studio to offer his services at. We will take care off all the business aspects of his practice.

I think we could build off of this opportunity and create some real, feasible value for this class. Maybe Madeline would be interested because it ties in with her passion for Yoga and therapy.

*He brought in $3000 in one weekend in Toronto. He only had 1 client booked, the rest was from word of mouth - IN 2 DAYS!! All this, and he doesn't even speak english....*

Just throwing it out there, as we still haven't nailed down an idea to run with for the whole semester.

Patrick Bruns' InfoBits!

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Everybody's doing it...

D. Advocate - Types or Brands?

What is Kozmetika? How will we be able to differentiate ourselves from the other cosmetic stores available? We have decided to provide cosmetic products that are not available in Canada, that we can get from Europe and Asia (who tend to be the leaders in this industry). What we have to do is figure out if we are going to provide unavailable types of products or unavailable brands of products.

I say this because if we are going to provide unavailable types of products, we will have to gain a thorough understanding of the cosmetic industry that is across the world so that we can find a key product before our competitors, and be the first to offer it in Canada - this is something that I am sure all current cosmetic companies are trying to do to stay competitive here, therefore we will be directly competing with all other cosmetic companies who have already built brands and created strong customer bases.

If we are going to provide unavailable brands, then we will have to figure out a way to create customer loyalty without having our own brand. If we are providing numerous brands from the European and Asian cosmetic markets, we are essentially distributors of someone else's product and brand, and therefore have no brand or customer loyalty of our own. There is a reason why all companies brand their products, and without that, we are shooting ourselves in the foot right out of the gate.

It is essential to be critical of an idea before deciding to go further with it. We must nail down a real offering that has a bright future.

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Be Personable!

The cosmetic industry is over a billion dollar business every year – mostly due to women. Do we need cosmetics? No. Wanting them on the other hand is a whole different story. People are always looking for a new trend, the latest and greatest gadget, or something with a high perceived value. By making our store exclusive to members (customers) it would create a sense of want and prestige, much like a Platinum Visa Card for example. Having a membership based fee – similar to Costco – would be one way to do this. This would also be another source of revenue.

Think of reasons people love a company like Apple. Yes everyone loves them for their innovative products and they’re a leader in the industry, but they also have talented and knowledgeable people in the store who personally work with customers when they come in the store. Creating this same atmosphere within Kozmetika could be very beneficial. When members enter the store they could step over to a computer based survey (whether that actually is on a computer or an iPad I don’t know) and answer some quick multiple choice questions on skin type, eye color, face shape, allergies, preferences, dislikes, etc. and retrieve the list of an array of products that will work personally for them based on the criteria entered. This creates interaction with the products even before members can physically get their hands on them. Members can then seek out these items on their own or with the help of our experts. Plenty of cosmetic experts and makeup artists would be available throughout the store so that the vast majority of members would get one on one attention while they shop. We shouldn’t try to market this as a store full of cosmetics and beauty products, but rather an experience that people won’t get from any other makeup based store.

How to Get Men Interested In Kozmetika

If you look around at all the cosmetic stores in Canada and the United States, there is a common theme among all of them...the lack of male presence. I believe that Kozmetika should look at addressing this issue. I know cosmetics isn't a "top of the list" priority for most males, but I do believe that every guy deep down does want to look good for a number of reasons (ex. ladies, ladies, ladies etc.). If Kozmetika could make it fun and interesting for men to come into our store, men would be less reluctant to be dragged into the store by their girlfriend of wife. Here are a few ideas to attract men to come to our store and have them WANT to come inside:

1. Offer professional shaving experiences for the guys while they wait for their significant other to look around the store. This would take place in a "Man Cave" like atmosphere and would be done by professional barbers that can teach men how to shave properly and in doing so, promote the products they use (ex. The Art of Shaving product line). This would generate revenue for the store from the cost of shaving as well as potential revenue from male product purchases.

2. If the men don't want to get a shave, there should be an area more comfortable then the bench outside the store to wait at. In Kozmetika's store, there would be comfortable couches with big TVs to watch sports at in an environment that is more male friendly.

This "Man Cave" like setting would not take away from the main purpose of Kozmetika, since 90% of the store would be more inclined towards women's needs, but I believe that by having this 10% dedicated towards male interests, we can draw in a whole new customer segment that can differentiate us from other cosmetic stores.

Type of Business

After participating in Alison Smith's discussion in class today about the differences between various business types such as general partnerships, LLPs and corporations, I feel that going forward we should look at determining where we want to fall in terms of those categories.

My personal opinion is that at the present, with the direction that we seem to want to take with our venture, the best solution would be to incorporate, as we would likely be doing a substantial amount of business with not only other provides, but other countries as well - both in terms of importing as well as exporting. Some of the other advantages as well of incorporating include having limited liability among our board of directors and right along with that, protection of our personal assets due to the corporation being its own separate legal entity. If we also were to become a publicly traded company as well, it would make raising capital easier as we would have the ability to issue shares.

Some of the drawbacks would include a higher need for startup capital as the cost to incorporate is greater than forming a partnership as well as a great deal more paperwork to keep on top of and organized on a frequent basis. The issue also occasionally arises where there is a conflict of opinion between directors and shareholders as to how the business should be run, but all in all, I feel that the benefits outweigh any negative aspects of incorporating.

Lane Kinas InfoBits

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Advisory Meeting #1

Our first advisor meeting is on Thursday, October 6 and we are in need of three to four advisors. These can be anyone who could contribute by giving advice, voicing opinions, and have the ability to consult with us four different times over the semester.

Does anyone have any thoughts, opinions, or ideas on who we can use as an advisor for our team meetings? I have two women in mind that could be used for this. One is Laura Lenik, who owns two flower stores here in Calgary – Best of Buds in Cambrian Heights and Kensington Florist in Kensington. She has been in this business for a little over six years if I remember correctly and knows the ups and downs of running a business.

The other woman is Zahra Al-Harazi. You may recognize her name since she attended our Sweatbox Challenge night last year. Zahra is a creative director and owner at Foundry Communications Inc. and she was also included in Calgary’s Top 40 under 40 a year or two ago.

The only problem is that I don’t know whether or not they would have the time to be able to come to these types of meetings seeing as they have their own businesses to run, which obviously takes up a large portion of their time. We should try to nail down a few people this week that we might be able to use for next week. If everyone could think of a person they could bring to the table we could narrow it down from there and start setting up a team.

Business Model Canvas Now Posted!

You can view Kozmetika's Business Model Canvas by clicking on the link on the left hand side. Please feel free to comment and if you would like the Word Document so that you can make changes to it, please let me know and I will email you the document.

Finding Balance

One thing that we are going to want to determine right out of the gate is the breadth and depth of the products that we carry. Whether we stick mainly to cosmetics and beauty products or whether we branch out to include such items as colognes/perfumes, body wash, and other personal hygiene items as well as what variety of brands we will stock of each of those items will be a big factor in determine what type of business we are and who our target market is.

In deciding this, we need to take in consideration that while the more products and varieties we carry may increase demand for our services and attract a larger consumer base, it will also drive up our operation costs. Perhaps it would be wise to start small and focus on a few items and expand out from there as the firm grows?

Another thought is to perhaps carry specialty brands that perhaps are not common to Canada but are popular in other countries. This may attract consumers that want to stand out from the average consumer and have that "something that nobody else has." Determining whether we want to carry premium products such as this or if we want to carry the typical products that you might find at a drugstore or some mix of the two should be on the top of our priority list.

Next Level Kozmetika

Three more ideas to bring to the drawing board:

1. Posting Youtube videos on how to use certain products correctly by cosmetics experts. These videos would demonstrate to proper use of beauty products while at the same time advertising potential featured "products of the month".

2. Samples of hair products. These types of products are rarely sampled in department stores and are a large market to just pass over. By allowing women and men to sample these products, we would be opening up a whole new sub-market of the beauty industry to effective sampling. 

3. Having on sight staff that can help men pick out gifts for their special somebody. Men find shopping for cosmetics and beauty products (such as perfume and other care products) overwhelming and are lost when trying to make the right choice. With our in-house experts, picking out that perfect gift would be easy and would allow men to feel more comfortable knowing they were given expert help when deciding upon a gift.

A Look at Kozmetika's Future...

Kozmetika needs to find a way to differentiate itself from other cosmetic companies. One way we can do this is by introducing a form of "sanitary sampling". Currently at most cosmetic stores they offer a way of sampling their lip glosses and lip balms by allowing you to rub it on your wrist or finger first, and then apply it to your lips. This way of sampling has major potential for sanitary health concerns and as a result, many women end up not trying the product because of these concerns. Kozmetika is a way of providing women with a sanitary solution to testing cosmetic products by allowing women to take home their own individual larger/fullsize samples of products to use personally instead of from a "communal source".

Any other ideas on how we can differentiate from our competition? Possibly a membership based store such as Costco?