simple example of a bookstore business plan by Oyegunle John

Executive Summary
DOT Books is a new bookstore in Abeokuta, Ogun State. It is the goal of the company management to acquire local market share from the various publishers in the South west region of the country at agreed prices, sell academic institution and interested individuals. Taking Evans publishing house, Macmillan and University Press as major suppliers of the books.
Description of Business
This section gives vivid description of the organization detailing its mission and goals, management, company structure and size with the location.

Categorization
DOT Books will be a partnership business registered in Ogun state. The company will be jointly owned by Mr. Oyegunle John and his friend Miss Dasaolu Olusola. Mr. John is the dominant partner and the brain behind the business while Miss Dasaolu is just a financial supporter.

History
Mr. John is establishing this firm as a growth oriented endeavor in order to supplement is casual work as a librarian at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, provides recommended books for students at the university, supply the university library books, continue meeting people with similar interest and leave a viable business for his children.

Business Location and Size
DOT Books will be establishing its store at Obantoko, one of the busiest areas in Abeokuta holding a very large number of students in the University. Our facility is a former 10,000 square ft. furniture store which allows the company to stock a large amount of inventory.

Missions and Goals
DOT Books’ mission is to provide the recommended books by the university and lecturers to the student at ease, provision of various research materials to interested researchers in the academic area. We also intend to provide a comfortable atmosphere for clients to relax and browse at affordable prices. Lastly, we intend to be the biggest bookstore in the state after 20years of establishment.

Description of product and services
DOT Books will offer a wide range of books, magazines and music collections. This will majorly consist of textbooks recommended by the university, and fiction and non-fiction books, science, art, and business categories. The music collection will contain music from students of the university, hip-hop music and other related songs. We will also be offering a search and order service for customers seeking to find hard to get items. A mini reading room will be provided inside the store for readers who intend to read through some books.

Market Analysis
As it has been noticed that the state has recorded a very few establishment of bookstores, DOT Books have decided to take advantage of this business opportunity to meet the targeted audience of the entirety of the students in the university.
Bookstores in the state have recorded low rate of sales due to the fact that they acquire general subject materials which residents in the area are most likely not interested in.

Target Market
DOT Books decided to target the students, researchers and staffs mainly which in the process other individuals can come in to purchase their needs.

Marketing Plan
The firm intends to market its services through various methods. The firm intends to use the advertising medium to draw in customers i.e. the use of radio jingles and television advert.. But before this, the management has brought the idea that the first year will be used to distribute fliers and paste postal around the town. Creation of a Facebook page has been regarded as essential in the marketing strategy.
During the move to promote sales in the first year, any customer that buys more than a book will be given a free book. This attempt will tend to attract more customers due to the promotion. The firm also intends to give discount on some very expensive book materials by reducing the price of some materials.

Operational Plan
Hours of operation
The bookstore will be opened by 9am every day of the week except on Sundays and will close by 5pm every day.

Staffing
From the outset all staff will have job descriptions, a career and training history file, and a record of employee reviews. New staffs must have school certificates while the administrative staffs must have degrees in any information course. They will also undergo training before they are allowed to carry out any activity in the library. Indecent dressing by members of the firm will not be tolerated. The management intends to employ not more than ten staffs in the first year of business.

Financial Plan
The firm is intending to start up business with the sum of N2 million gotten from personal savings of Mr. John and support from Miss Dasaolu. It has been noted that for the first couple of months, loss will be recorded before advertising begin to take effect and draw in more customers. DOT Books intends to get a loan of N1.5 million from the Guarantee Trust Bank to pay the publishers that might have been owned and increase the quantity of products acquired. With tis, we do not anticipate any cash flow problems over the next three years.

Risk Analysis and Contingency Planning
The management during its meeting has planned ahead for risk which may come in the nearest future. The risk might be in form of loss i.e. not making profit. We intend to make provisions for bad debt in every of our financial plan. There are provisions for extra savings of  some percentage of the profit gained every year in case of any unexpected contingency.




Dedicated to Dasaolu Olusola Toluwanimi