Bridal Gown Shop Business Plan

Recycled Dreams will meet Portland’s latent demand for bridal wear rentals. Currently, there are no stores that allow people to rent dresses and shoes for wedding parties, you are forced to buy them, use them once, and then let them sit in the closet. Recycled Dreams will supply this service with incredible attention to detail regarding customer service. Connie recognizes that the success of a business is totally dependant on customer service and will train her employees accordingly.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Recycled Dreams’ competitive edge is a service offering that has been so far shunned by the Portland market. As indicated before, it is the business owners, or entrepreneurs, that are shunning the concept, not the consumers. For this reason, having a service offering that supports a latent demand is truly a competitive advantage.

Recycled Dreams’ other competitive advantage is their recognition that superior customer attention is required to succeed. This holds true for two fundamental reasons, a business can only succeed if it meets or exceeds their customers needs. A company might offer the most wonderful service in the world, but if it does not meet their customer’s needs, they will not succeed. The other fundamental reason particular to the bridal industry is more often than not, people only get married once so traditional repeat customers is unusual. Recycled Dreams is hoping that positive word-of-mouth referrals will continue to bring customers in the door. With this in mind, a lot of business will be based in referrals from already married friends. Offering the highest customer service will ensure a steady stream of referrals.

5.2 Sales Strategy

Recycled Dreams’ sales strategy will be based on their ability to convince prospective clients on the economies of rentals as well as the misnomer regarding the fashion faux pas of rental dresses. Typically people will call in and request information regarding rentals. While many stores will attempt to make the phone inquiry as short as possible, Connie believes that this is the best opportunity to turn an information seeker into a customer. This can get time consuming because a large number of people will call seeking information, however, Connie recognizes that the time spent now will pay off significantly in the future. For this reason, employees will not receive commissions on sales, instead employees will receive bonuses for positive feedback that Recycled Dreams receives from customers.

5.2.1 Sales Forecast

The first month will be used to set up the store front, interview and hire employees and start up a media campaign to build awareness. Month two will see limited sales activity as people are just becoming aware of Recycled Dreams. Month four will see an increase in sales and subsequent months will build off of month four sales.

5.3 Milestones

Recycled Dreams will have several milestones early on including:

1. Business plan completion. This will be done as a roadmap for the organization. This will be an indispensable tool for the ongoing performance and improvement of the company.
2. Set up of the store front.
3. The first month of profitability.
4. Revenues exceeding $100,000.