Develop an operating budget to fund the strategic plan. Indicate the resources required and their cost ?Indicate how the plan will be monitored and evaluated. ? 3

Strategic Plan: Elbee’s Paw Spa

Alexsis LaBrake, Devon Charles, Elliott Lammers, & Kelli Denton

MGMT 479ADE- Strategic Management

Dr. Garry Massey

April 9, 2023

Strategic Plan: Elbee’s Paw Spa

Elbee’s Paw Spa Mission Statement

Elbee’s Paw Spa and Hotel is every pet owner’s dream. We are committed to providing quality care at affordable prices. We offer our pet owners a piece of mind when they leave their furry best friends with us because our establishment is comfortable, clean, and staffed with trained personnel to meet every pet’s needs. We establish trust and show transparency throughout your pet’s entire stay with a 24/7 live camera where owners can log in any time and see exactly what their pets are doing. When your furry friend is spending the day at our spa, they are cared for by groomers that have had over 20 years’ experience. At our Paw Spa and Hotel, you will notice that our staff far outshines any of our competition with their dedication to caring for your pets. Our rates are affordable, and our overnight stays will make your pet feel like they are in the comfort of their own home. Each hotel room is fully furnished with a bed, tv, as well as access to a private run where pets are able to get fresh air and use the restroom at any time. At Elbee’s Paw Spa it is our mission to maintain the highest customer satisfaction possible.

Elbee’s Paw Spa Vision Statement

Elbee’s Paw Spa and Hotel is dedicated to providing pet owners a piece of mind when they need to board, groom, or train their furry best friends. At our hotel and spa, you can feel at ease knowing that our expert staff is committed to enriching the lives of pets through love, companionship, and respect. Whether you are dropping your pet off for a spa experience, or leaving them with us for an overnight stay, we provide you and your pet with a sense of security and peace when they are in our hands. When you leave your furry best friend with us, you can rest assured knowing that they are in good hands and cared for just as they would be in the comfort of their own home. If you are missing your pets at any point, we encourage you to log onto our live streaming and watch them having the time of their lives. We have created an ideal environment for your pet to feel comfort in their home away from home.

Elbee’s Paw Spa Values Statement

At Elbee’s Paw Spa we are committed to providing your pets happiness and safety. We uphold the highest standards of integrity and pride ourselves in building lasting relationships between our team and your furry loved ones. We only use all natural, veterinary approved products because we value the health of your pet from the inside out. Our employees feel comfortable in our workspace and our open communication empowers them to continuously provide innovative ideas that will only help us grow as a company. We hold various training sessions throughout the year to ensure all our employees are trained in all policies and procedures, as well as any changes that have been made. Our company is led by its core values of integrity, quality, accountability, and passion and this bleeds through to our customer service, which continuously exceeds expectations.

Analyze the external environment that includes various aspects, such as political and economic trends. For example, the economy is currently in a recession. (PESTEL analysis)

The first environmental factor that the pet boarding industry faces is economical. In times of economic insecurity, people will see this industry as unnecessary. Currently, Americans are looking for ways to cut down on spending. This could impact business for Elbee’s. In order to stay competitive, Elbee’s will need to adjust its offerings to ensure people don’t cut this cost. While training will most likely continue to be a necessity, the grooming and boarding piece may not be as important as people can groom their pets themselves and may not be traveling as much, requiring less boarding. In this instance, Elbee’s could decide to offer day care for pets in addition to boarding. They could also decide to partner with vets to include treatment with their grooming.

Another external factor could be legal. Elbee’s needs to ensure that they are in compliance with Missouri’s Animal Care Facility Program. “Missouri’s Animal Care Facility Program regulates breeders, dealers, boarders, shelters and pet stores to ensure that they meet state standards regarding feed, water, shelter, veterinary care, building maintenance, socialization, identification and recordkeeping requirements” (Missouri Department of Agriculture). Failure to comply with these regulations could lead to legal action being taken.

The next external factor is technological. Companies are relying more heavily on technology to maintain competitive advantage. By developing apps for customers to track the progress of their pet’s grooming, Elbee’s could be competitive. They could also develop technology that allows customers to check in on their pets while they are being boarded. This technology could include a messaging system so customers could ask questions of their pet services providers.

Social factors also influence the pet care industry. With a society that focuses on high quality care for pets, the pet care industry will continue to be successful. If a shift from this social mentality occurs, Elbee’s could be affected. This focus on superior pet care has not shifted in recent history, but it will be something for Elbee’s to keep a close eye on.

Perform a SWOT analysis.

· Provide pet owners with a one stop shop for all their pet’s needs. When customers book a stay at the Paw Spa, they can add additional services such as grooming or training to take place during their stay to provide convenience for the pet and their owner.

· Between all our team members, we have over 20 years’ experience in the pet grooming and boarding business.

· We will offer various discounts to attract new customers as well as returning customers. For example, when booking an extended stay the customer will receive 10% off all additional services. This will entice the customer to purchase several services during the duration of the pet’s stay.

· We are dedicated to our employees and offer competitive pay and benefits.

· Lack of brand awareness. We are a new business who has not built up their customer relationships yet.

· We have a limited budget because we are a start-up, and our overhead costs are high.

· Pet Spas charge higher prices than most boarding locations due to the luxury experience that we provide. During a time of inflation some pet owners may not have the extra funds to pay for the luxury experience.

· There will be low initial cash flow because and several high expenses such as insurance and building rent.

Document potential immediate and long-term issues. For example, few qualified applicants for staff, limited sources of input (value chain issue), cost effective marketing, capital funding, etc.

One potential immediate issue facing Elbee’s is staffing concerns. Finding qualified candidates could be a potential problem. The right employee would need experience with animals and patience. Elbee’s would also need to ensure that they have employees available to work nights and weekends for boarding animals. This could be harder to find.

Another immediate issue would be concerns for health and safety. We mentioned above the need to follow government regulations, but there are concerns that are out of our control as well. An outbreak of a virus like parvo could have potential long-lasting effects. This could cause Elbee’s to face lawsuits or even lose business. We would need a team that understands the importance of sanitizing and that is trained in detecting these illnesses before they come into the facility.

A third issue that would be a consistent concern for our company could also be liability. As we will be taking care of our customers pets, we must be prepared for any and all outcomes. Even though this risk may be small as we will have highly trained individuals at our facility, we must be prepared for the possibility that an animal could be injured or potentially die while under our care. Since this is a possibility, we will have adequate liability insurance that could protect us from our clients potentially taking legal action.

Cost could be an immediate issue as well. The overhead for a place like Elbee’s could potentially be very high. If Elbee’s rents the space, they could face high rent charges for a place large enough. If the property is owned, the cost of loan payments could be very high when there is acreage involved. These high overhead costs would lead to prices being high for customers which could result in lost business.

Marketing and advertising would be a long-term concern. There are a lot of pet boarding options and standing out could prove to be difficult. It would be important for the marketing team to know how to brand Elbee’s to stand out. It may be something that Elbee’s would need to hire a firm for and could lead to additional costs.

Another long-term concern that goes along with the marketing and advertising would be increased competition. With so many new entrants in the industry, competition could be a major concern. Elbee’s needs to work with marketers to make themselves stand out. Elbee’s will also need to make sure that they can keep costs low to maintain their current client base.

Determine strategic goals. Where do you want to be in 1 year, 3, 5, 10 years? (sales, size, growth, etc.)

Sales Forecast

Year 3 Year 5 Year 10

Dog Owners – $20,000 $25,000 $50,000

Cat Owners – $3,000 $5,000 $10,000

Other – $1,000 $3,000 $5,000

Total Sales $24,000 $33,000 $65,000

By the end of year 1 we hope to have the projected sales above. In terms of size, we hope to have brought in 10 highly qualified employees that will be able to meet and satisfy the needs of all our pet owners and the pets themselves. Regarding a potential expansion and the opening of a second facility, I predict this to be unlikely within our first 10 years. However, if all goes to plan, I could see this being at the forefront of our minds once our initial decade is behind us. The desired growth is largely depicted above in the sales projections for our first ten years. Another goal of ours is to, by the end of year three, be consistently reaching full capacity every weekend. Furthermore, by the end of year 10, the aim is to be hitting full capacity during all hours that our doors are open, weekdays and weekends included. We also hope to have around 50 loyal customers by the end of year three that we can reliably count on for consistent business.

Establish approaches to reaching strategic goals. For example, if a goal is to double sales in the next year, indicate that the sales force will be increased by _____% by the end of the next year.

Reaching and achieving all of these strategic goals will not be easy, but we do have some ways in which we hope to better ourselves over the years. One of these that we expect to play a large role is our customer survey responses. At the end of each visit, we will ask our customers to fill out a brief survey on how the experience was, what they enjoyed, what they did not, and how they think we could approve. We will incentivize customers to fill out those surveys by giving them a 5% discount for their next visit upon completion. This direct consumer feedback will help us learn our weaknesses and overtime will help shape our company into the best version of itself possible. Next, regarding how we will increase our sales each year, this will be done through a robust marketing campaign. The crux of this marketing campaign will be our social media efforts. As the younger generations who are so prone to social media use are becoming adults, our social media pages will be tailored for these individuals. We will have a presence on as many of the social media apps as possible, especially TikTok, where animal lovers often go to find content of their favorite furry friends. Year after year our aim is to pour more resources into our marketing efforts. I project that for our first ten years, we will steadily increase our sales force by 10% year after year.

Determine staffing requirements. How many employees will you need, and what will they do?

There will be multiple positions required to run Elbee’s. We would need at least one receptionist. The receptionist will be in charge of scheduling and contact with customers. Because there will be space requirements for boarding, the receptionist will need to be able to maintain documents or work with software to determine how many spots are available. They will also need to schedule for the grooming side. This will need to take time requirements into consideration. The length of the grooming will depend on the services requested and probably the size of the pet.

We would want at least two groomers and a bather. This would allow us to groom two to three pets at a time and keep customers from waiting for long periods of time. The groomers need to be trained in different techniques and have experience working with animals. The bather will need experience with animals as well but could be a less specialized position because of the nature of the job.

We would also need to have cleaners on staff. This would include cleaning for the grooming areas as well as the boarding areas. This person will need to have knowledge of sanitization techniques that can prevent the spread of viruses while being safe for the animals to be around. We would most likely want to have more than one cleaner because the boarding areas will need to be cleaned over the weekend as well.

Because of the boarding side, we would need to have staff available to take the dogs out over the weekend and in the evenings. They would also need to provide food and water for the animals after hours. I imagine this position could be combined with the evening and weekend cleaner position to cut down on wage expenses.

A manager will also be required for Elbee’s. Because of the other staff requirements, a manager would be necessary to schedule workers for day, night, and weekends. Our manager needs to have experience with the pet care industry because they will need to assist in keeping up with standards and regulations. They would also need to ensure that we have the correct products on hand and that our licenses are up to date. The manager will need to work with the accountant to provide receipts and help build budgets.

The last position is that of the accountant or bookkeeper. To ensure that we are within budget and profitable, the bookkeeper will work with managers and other staff to provide documentation on spending and inventory needs. It would be possible to combine this position with that of the receptionist if the right candidate is available. This would help cut down on wage costs as well.

Develop action plan to support the strategic plan. For example, determine what needs to be done first, second, etc., and who is responsible for doing what, within a specified timetable.

The action plan that will support our strategic plan would involve many steps leading up to our opening day. First, the owner/owners of the store will need to purchase an existing pet boarding facility or a suitable property where they could build a new one. After buying an existing facility or building a new one, the next step would be to acquire any and all inventory that will be needed for the operation. Third, the owners will need to hire qualified staff to fill all necessary positions. Next, the marketing campaign will be undertaken to spread the news of the arrival of the business in hopes of creating excitement among potential customers. After these steps have been completed the store will be opened for business. In order to increase our sales each year, as mentioned above, an increasing number of resources will be put into our marketing efforts to reach new customers each year. Another tactic that will be utilized to ensure that we achieve our goals will be our customer surveys. With customer feedback, we will be able to focus on the things that our customers want to be improved upon. These surveys will greatly help us in our efforts of customer retention as well as building customer loyalty. The actions that need to be taken above will all be conducted by our head of marketing.

Develop an operating budget to fund the strategic plan. Indicate the resources required and their cost.

Indicate how the plan will be monitored and evaluated.

Determine how the plan will be communicated to internal and external parties.

ELBEE’S PAW SPA 2

ELBEES PAW SPA 2