South Melbourne Licence Application – Business Plan
Contents
Background
Market Mix Policy
Business Plan
BUSINESS PLAN
BUSINESS BACKGROUND
PRODUCT / SERVICE
BUSINESS STRATEGY
MARKETING STRATEGY
LICENCE REQUIREMENTS
MAINTENANCE & OPERATIONS
COMPLIANCE
SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT SUMMARY
APPENDICES
Appendix 1a: SMM Demographic information
Appendix 1b: City of Port Phillip Demographic information
Background
In 2017, the Section 86 Committee endorsed a Market Mix Policy and 5 Year Strategy for South Melbourne Market (SMM).
This SMM Market Mix Policy and 5 Year Market Mix Strategy have been developed to ensure that the Market stays relevant to the community and remains one of Melbourne’s favourite markets.
The SMM Market Mix Policy is an overarching guide to the principles for managing the best market retail mix at SMM. It draws particular attention to traders’ understanding of fundamental retail principles.
Future traders’ understanding of these principles will be reviewed by Market management during the Expression of Interest(EOI) process.
Market Mix Policy
Potential traders at South Melbourne Market need to be able to demonstrate their understanding of their own retail mix and how and why it fits within the Market mix now and into the future as part of the EOI process.
The following factors are relevant to all Market retailers, and current and future traders at the Market must understand these aspects of their business and the importance of each factor in the success of their business. Market management uses these guidelines to help ascertain the suitability of current and new stallholders in the Market mix, and help guide the operation, marketing and future direction of SMM.
Product: Identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs & desires. Retailers need to ensure that their products and services are focused to meet the customer’s expectations. Being leaders and innovators or evolving as trends change.
Promotion: Advertising, social media, point of sale promotion, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing, communication are elements that encapsulate promotion. The retailer needs to understand the promotional tools that trigger their target market to find out about their product.
Place: Correct channels for reaching the customers e.g. locations, sites, space and opening hours to achieve the objective. Determine if the Market is the best location for this business, and then, within the Market, determine the best site. Do our opening hours serve our/their customers?
Pricing: Price is an important element of the retail mix. Approaches to the pricing model are based on market, competition, margins and brands and should be reviewed on a regular basis with comparisons and market research.
Presentation: It is the physical evidence that portrays the image of the business and key drivers. Presentation of the store, websites, premises, signage, storage facilities, uniforms etc play a crucial role in associating the customer with your brand. It is very important to ensure that the image portrayed is consistent with the product and services being offered and expectations of the Market.
Personnel: It is the people working for you that determine the level of service or value you provide to your customer. Be it selling, servicing, supporting or communication, these are the people that are the differentiators compared with the competition. This applies to pre-sales, sales or post-sales activities.
It is also necessary for the Market to review stalls through the following filters:
Local: Embracing and curating all that is local – including small businesses, product, designers, suppliers and reduced food miles. Local produce content is measured by our Trader Survey to gauge the value of stock grown or made in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia or overseas.
Sustainable: Creating an environmentally, physically and financially enduring business as measured by the B Corp survey to be undertaken by each trader.
Inclusive: Accessible to everyone in the community from a price and product mix perspective.
Trusted: Shoppers can believe in the reliability of the produce, labelling and trader claims. A trusted destination for fresh, organic, free range and whole food. Loved: Market shoppers have a strong feeling of affection for this Market as their shopping, meeting and dining place. Remaining a loved, happy, quirky and experiential destination - full of moments of surprise and wonder.
We also need to ensure our market mix decisions reflect the following areas of our Market Charter:
Market Charter #3: Attract new shoppers to the Market and retain existing customers, ensuring the Market is accessible to the entire Port Phillip community.
Market Charter #6: Attract and retain a diverse range of appropriate stalls that offer products and services that meet the needs and expectations of shoppers.
Finally, the desirable attributes that the Market will be looking for will also include:
Best in class (for business type)
Pedigree or experience
Alignment with the preferred retail mix
Customer focus
Owner active and present in the stall on most market days
Operational and product standards that elevate sustainability, ethical practices, artisanal activity and local and fresh
Viability – a thriving profitable business
Pricing – inclusive, competitive and value for money
Visual merchandising best practices
Online presence (must have a website and be demonstrably active on social media)
Business Plan
If you run a small business, it is important to have a plan, a roadmap for your business’ future and a benchmark to look back on.
The following business plan template will guide you, step-by-step, through a series of easy to answer questions.
BUSINESS PLAN
BUSINESS DETAILS
Business NameEstablished
ABN
# Employees
CONTACT DETAILS
NameMobile
Email*
Postal Address
Date
ONLINE / SOCIAL MEDIA
WebsiteOther
* (Note: Every stallholder MUST have an active, monitored email address as this will be the MAIN form of regular correspondence).
BUSINESS BACKGROUND
History
/ This section is about the history of your business and its track record.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
PRODUCT / SERVICE
Range
/ Outline the products / services that your business will offer.We’re looking to get a snapshot of what you’re intending on selling, so please list product categories. Finer details are not required here; we’ll ask you for more details if we need them from you.
Please also outline any proposed changes to your product mix/range/service over the next three years and why. For example:
a. Sourcing more local products.
b. Sourcing more sustainable / ethically produced items.
c. Moving to new ranges based on demographic changes in the local area.
d. Expanding your current range.
<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Product source
/ Outline the proportion of your product that will be local (Melbourne), State (Victorian), National (Australian) or International (from overseas).<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Sustainability
/ Please outline your strategy for implementing sustainable / ethical business practices into your stall (including products / services / business practices).<INSERT TEXT HERE>
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Locations / Outlets
/ Please list any other retail outlets you have and where they are located<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Competitor Analysis
/ What is your current competition both within South Melbourne Market and the local area for your products/services?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Unique Selling Proposition
/ How do you differentiate your business from your competitors, and why do people buy from you over your competitors?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Stall Location
/ Let us know why think South Melbourne Market is the most suitable location for your business.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Business Growth
/ Please outline any growth plans that you have for your business. Are you planning on opening more stores / businesses / expanding your existing business?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Stock Control
/ How do you manage stock turnover in your business?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Personnel
/ Please outline the following information:· How many staff will you employ in your SMM stall?
· What training will you give your staff when they first start?
· Will your employees receive ongoing training?
· How many days a week will the owner of the business at the stall?
· Please confirm that your staff will be paid at least minimum award wage. / Find out more about the minimum employee pay rates and conditions are:
<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Payment processes
/ Will you accept credit card payments? Will you you have tap & go technology available to your customers? Will you charge a fee for credit card and/or EFTPOS payments? Will your registers facing the customers to show weights and measures (as appropriate)? / Find out more about credit card and EFTPOS fee regulations:Find out what is required under Australian law regarding weights and measures:
<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Labelling
/ Outline your labelling strategy to cover: Country of Origin labelling laws; your obligations regarding SMM requirements for signage / labelling on produce ; where you’re up to with the new ACCC Food Labelling Regulations. Will all of your goods be priced per kg (of sold by weight) or by unit (if not sold by weight)? Will the prices clearly labelled and easy to read? / Find out about ACCC food labelling requirements:Find out about Country of Origin labelling laws:
<INSERT TEXT HERE>
MARKETING STRATEGY
Target Market
/ Who will be buying your product, using general information such gender, age, nationality, socio-economic factors and more?South Melbourne Market and City of Port Phillip demographic information is attached in Appendix 1. Please review and outline any plans for attracting new demographic groups to your store.
<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Marketing Plan
/ If you have a marketing plan please provide a copy, and summarise the main points here. If you do not, please outline what your current marketing practices are.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Loyalty
/ How will you gauge how much customers love your stall?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Retention
/ How will you encourage shoppers to keep coming back to your stall?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Promotion
/ How will you attract new customers to your stall? Will you currently undertake any promotional activities? This could include advertising, social media, e-newsletters, on-site promotion (special deal flyers etc), participating in SMM promotions (Father’s Day, Christmas etc).<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Social Media
/ What will your Social Media presence be?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Website
/ Will you have a website for your business? If so, what will the purpose of your website be? How often will you update it? If you don’t have a website, please let us know why not.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Pricing
/ The Market is under continual pressure about pricing, so we are looking to find out your pricing strategy. How will you set your prices? Will you conduct regular pricing reviews and competitor comparisons?How will you keep your prices competitive (and why)?<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Visual Merchandising
/ Please describe the merchandising (presentation of products) in your stall:· Will your products be displayed according to current trends/expectations in your industry?
· Will your stall easily accessible for people of all abilities?
<INSERT TEXT HERE>
LICENCE REQUIREMENTS
Licence fees
/ Are you happy to have direct debit set up for processing your monthly (and other) fees? (Note that being set up for direct debit is a requirement of the SMM licence)<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Financial Statements
/ It is important for us to get an idea of the financial health of all businesses in the Market. If you have already run a similar business elsewhere, please provide 3 years of financial profit and loss statements as required in the Licence (2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17). / Find out more about developing a profit and loss statement:Please attach financial profit and loss statements to this document
Communication
/ Please outline if you have any concerns regarding email being the primary method of communication between Market management and stallholders.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
MAINTENANCE & OPERATIONS
Cleaning
/ Please outline your proposed stall cleaning program.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
Maintenance & Operations
/ Please outline your proposed stall maintenance program.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
COMPLIANCE
OH&S Risks
/ Market management performs a full OH&S inspection of your stall as part of every licence renewal, and Stallholders are required to perform their own inspection and submit a completed checklist to Market management every six months. This is in addition to City of Port Phillip Health Services / PrimeSafe requirements. Please indicate if you have any issues with this requirement / Please see the SMM Stallholder Health and Safety Checklist in Appendix 2.<INSERT TEXT HERE>
SWOT ANALYSIS
Thinking about your business, what do you see as your core strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats.
STRENGTHS
/ I will maximise them by…<INSERT TEXT HERE> / <INSERT TEXT HERE>
WEAKNESSES
/ I will minimise them by…OPPORTUNITIES
/ I will maximise them by…THREATS
/ I will minimise them by….SWOT SUMMARY
The outcomes of this should give you some short and long term goals for the future of your business (refer to Part 2)
Short Term Goals (1-12 months)
(Outline your business short term goals and target dates based on the SWOT Analysis above)
Short Term Goal
/ Target Date<INSERT TEXT HERE> / <INSERT TEXT HERE>
Long Term Goals (2-3 years)
(Outline your business long term goals and target dates based on the SWOT analysis above)
Long Term Goal
/ Target Date<INSERT TEXT HERE> / <INSERT TEXT HERE>
APPENDICES
Appendix 1a: SMM Demographic information
Appendix 1b: City of Port PhillipDemographic information
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