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Business Plan

Tuhin Sarkar, Kumar Rajan & Anupam Biswal

PRAYAS

Xavier Institute Of Social Service

Dr. Camil Bulke Path

Ranchi - 834001

+91-9006813662

anupambiswal2001@gmail.com

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I. Table of Contents

I. Table of Contents 2

II. Executive Summary 3

III. PRAYAS 5

IV. Products and Services 9

V. Marketing Plan 10

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II. Executive Summary

The PRAYAS is certainly a new face lift given to the age old Ghandhian idea of

‘Swadeshi’.Through this we intend to fuse the Corporate Social Responsibility with the core

strategy of the company by keeping in mind the civil society. With the advent of Dr. C.K

Pralhad’s idea of consumers at the ‘bottom of pyramid’ and eradicating poverty through

profit,We hereby stand in favour of putting the last first and paving a way for the long forgotten

‘Khadi’ industry.

Khadi-In the present context

In today’s context the globalized generation has literally forgotten about ‘khadi’. A cascading

effect of this change has brought about the change even in the dressing style of the older

generation; which hitherto has always been seen as the main proponent of this fabric. The only

people with whom this fabric is associated today are the politicians, most of whom see more as a

ideological baggage that is a compulsion.

The two main reasons for this situation are;

1. Lack of adaptability: Khadi clothes are generally hard to maintain, however newer

variants of this fabric not only is more fine and hence comfortable but relatively easy to

maintain.

2. Limited range which in turn has limited its appeal to just the older generation.

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ACTIVITIES

The following are the major activities;

- To involve the Microfinance institutions and NGO’s in providing the requisite resources

like training, loans etc for capacity building.

- Textile firms can closely work with Microfinance institutions and NGO’s and provide the

necessary resources to the weaver’s and farmers.

- The product offering needs to be a varied and contemporary with variety of garments like

cargos, kurtas etc.

- The textile companies can assure, at least initially, to take up the entire produce produced

at market rate (for eg. In case of ITC’s e-choupal)

- Promoting Khadi extensively in own organisation. (For eg. Uniforms given to employees

could be procured from these producers)

- Proper promoting and branding of this product by engaging icons like Kiran Bedi, Mohd.

Yunus, Rahul Bose etc

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III. PRAYAS.

The PRAYAS is certainly a new face lift given to the age old Ghandhian idea

of ‘Swadeshi’. Through this we intend to fuse the Corporate Social

Responsibility with the core strategy of the company by keeping in mind the

civil society. With the advent of Dr. C.K Pralhad’s idea of consumers at the

‘bottom of the pyramid’ and eradicating poverty through profit we hereby

stand in favor of putting the last first and paving a way for the long

forgotten ‘Khadi’ industry.

We hereby propose to link the CSR of any textile industry (feasible) with its

core strategies by introducing the Khadi industry in its activities. We will

liaise with the NGOs/ Microfinance (local) to provide financial support along

with the necessary training to the artisans. The training would be under the

oversight of the CSR activities of the company/ industry. Through this we

will be acting as the service provider by providing our intellectual

ideas to link the dying Khadi industry with the very vibrant and

discussed CSR and the fast growing Microfinance working at its

backdrop. This business would be driven by the CSR and majorly

supported by the Microfinance.

Mission Statement:

Improve the status of Khadi and increase its overall demand in order

to carve a niche in the textile industry along with the upliftment of

the rural artisans.

Company Goals and Objectives:

To help position Khadi garments as garments of choice across

various age-groups and to satisfy the growing demand for Khadi.

According to a recent survey there is a strong demand for Khadi products in

both the domestic and international market. Therefore, alleviating this

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industry to the next level- by increasing its supply as per the new

demands, and catering for the needs of both national and

international markets.

Business Philosophy:

The most important consideration in our business plan is that we are

successfully able to sell our idea regarding the possible venture in Khadi,

i.e., to produce the quality products which in turn would be collected by the

textile industry from the Khadi Bhandars. This would further require the

marketing and distribution in the markets. The finished products made

should be of the required quality standards; further ensuring that the entire

products to be bought by the industry in order to sustain the entire model.

The Microfinance plays a crucial role by providing the initial financial

support and also providing the necessary training in coherence with the

CSR of the industry.

The basic idea is to offer a better and a varied product offering that can

fulfill the requirements of the age-group of 20 years- 40 years and thus be in

a position to be “the garment of choice”. Our proposal is to offer the

target audience a wider and better variety of clothes by adapting

contemporary designs and making the garment more comfortable. The Fab-

India model can be emulated and direct outlets can be opened to cater to

the tier-II and Tier –III cities in the later stage.

The industry to be ventured is certainly not new nor is the product. As this

entire idea is linked to three major fields of works, we would be related to

all of them. These are as follows:

KHADI INDUSTRY: this industry is now long forgotten and only seen in

few election campaigns else in national/international ramps (fashion).

Clearly it stands to get the required attention as more and more demands

are being felt for the Khadi, just that we don’t have the right service

provider. We can easily revamp it to the next level and it can address the

growing fashion demands of the youth, comfort statements of the middle

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aged and of course an always dear product for the aged ones. We can thus

be a pioneer in getting this notion started and thus take the first movers

advantage.

CSR: this concept is often criticized for its approach which is seen to be an

eye wash. This is a relatively new concept and here we are foreseeing a new

style of business ethics through linking the CSR with the company’s core

competency and eradicating poverty through profits. Certainly there lies

wider scopes and future for CSR. In short term more and more companies

to get involved in these kinds of operations to work in the direction of rural

marketing and development activities. In the long term we foresee this to be

a tool to address various problems of the nation as a whole.

MICROFINANCE: it’s a totally virgin industry just occupied by only 5% of

the entire available market. Its main strategy is to work on profits by

financing the non bankable people and make them free of the clutches of

poverty. Its growth avenues lie in its successful outreach, making products

and services as per the demand (flexible) and the best possible recovery.

Many more such organizations would be soon seen in the Indian Rural

Market and the best use of them can be made by showcasing the potential

customers and areas of development.

In order to keep our services workable and sustainable, we will be

continuously providing the new avenues of work for the Microfinance,

linking more and more textile industries with the Khadi.

SWOT

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Strengths

Eco-Friendly

Reflects Indian Culture

Versatility of Khadi

Tax Exemptions

Economic Growth

Low cost

Employment generation

Fashion

Weaknesses

Lack Of Appreciation

Labor-Intensive

Lack of infrastructure

Lack of training in business methodologies

Lack of awareness

Opportunities

Potential for exports

Emerging trend

Capturing an untapped markets

Generation of employment

Growing consumer preference

Threats

Competition

Survival in fast-growing technology

Legislative impact

One of the important strengths inherent in ‘Khadi’ is that it can be worn during all

seasons as it stays warm during the winters and is equally comfortable during the

summers. It provides more desired comfort with the quality rising. It will provide

more employment opportunities in the rural front, thus a economic growth in the

small scale industry sector. This addresses the burning topic of GREEN

ENVIRONMENT at the global front. This will be a fashion revolution and a boon to

young generation and pleasant surprise to the old at a very affordable cost.

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One way of doing away with the coarseness of the cloth and give it a more

appealing look can be by mixing varying degrees of silk at the making level by

providing proper skills to the artisans and bringing in the fashion statements from

the students and alumni of NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology: as

interns and fests). The Microfinance will cater for the major financing for the

machine- tools, training and making of better quality Khadi. The marketing part

will be covered initially by the textile industry itself along with its major line of

products. The CSR will also focus on the advocacy part including the training and

making policies for the use of the finished products, also in its own industry

employees.

The major opportunity which lies within the perceived idea is that we have better

market at low cost and the best part is that it’s novice. As we can also plan in

future for the Public Private Partnership, it can be tax exempted. There lie

immense foreign trade opportunities as per the ever growing international

demands.

The immediate competition would be with the fashionable- existent apparel

industry. The first mover advantage and the low cost, fashionable, and all user

products will mitigate major challenges imposed. The government’s interest in

Khadi, Rural and Handloom (Small Scale) will be aiding to keep up with the

legislative issues.

The dynamic and fast developing service industry along with the three major

sectors (previously discussed) provides numerous avenues of business. But, all

these being already existent and functional, we just need to congregate all of these

to make a profitable venture. We personally having the management skills in all

the core departments of marketing, development and human resourcing should

make a perfect match for the outset.

Legal form of ownership

As this will be a service venture, we would start with the Sole proprietor form of

ownership i.e., we will be the intellectual service provider for all the three sectors

(CSR- textile, Khadi and Microfinance- Joint Liability Group model) and getting

them for a common cause. In future as we foresee this venture will grow rapidly,

we propose to make direct outlets through the Franchising model.

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IV. Products and Services

The services provided by us would be in the form of ideas, liaison, and proper

marketing through the textiles. We would harp on the fact that the success of our

venture would lie on the quality products and their sale ability. The products

would contain apparels (Indian formals/ traditional, casuals, etc.) in the form of

Kurtas, Shalwars Suit, shirts, trousers, jackets, etc.

Creating a consistent pull for the product by tying up with the various retail and

fashion houses would be necessary. Eg- Megamart is an Arvind Mills initiative with

pan-India presence. As Arvind Mills is a mill it can be involved in the above-

mentioned way along with providing the required shelf-space to these products.

The charges for the services provided by us would be based on the quality services

provided to the CSR (textile) and the Microfinance for providing each of them the

underlying scope to better their business profitably. These would be basically on

the line of existing consultancy market.

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V. Marketing Plan

Market research

No matter how good your product and your service, the venture cannot succeed

without effective marketing. And this begins with careful, systematic research. It is

very dangerous to assume that we already know about our intended market. We

need to do market research to make sure we’re on track.

As this business model is all about the present textile industry (Khadi Related), we

would make efforts to find the existing demand and provided supply. Also the

quality of goods present, along with the detailed analysis of the interests of the

CSR and Microfinance.

Market research

There are two kinds of market research: primary and secondary.

A present scenario Secondary research is carried out through the published

information such as industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines,

census data, and demographic profiles. This type of information is available in

public libraries, industry associations, chambers of commerce, from the present

microfinance industry, and from government agencies. E.g. KVIC portals,

Microfinance.com, Ethical Performance.com, documentaries of C K Prahalad, Rural

Journals like Yojana, Kurukshetra, Karmayog.

[Ref: www.fibre2fashion.com, www.kvic.org.in, www.articlebase.com. etc.]

Primary research means gathering our own data. For example, we could do our

own traffic count at a proposed location, use the yellow pages to identify

competitors, and do surveys or focus-group interviews to learn about consumer

preferences. Professional market research can be very costly, but there are many

books that show small business owners how to do effective research themselves.

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The surveys can be carried out on different stakeholders like the Khadi Bhandars,

Microfinance institute (present), customer surveys, CSR team (management),

fashion designers and the artisans.

Economicso The capital investment in this venture would be basically with the

infrastructure for building the office, along with the charges for legal entity. The initial funding for meeting these can be through procurement of loans from the banks (as appropriate). The personal systems can be used for the initial computing work.

The exclusive database of the customers would be maintained along with web blog

provision for different marketing ideas, advertisement of new products, online

complaints, etc. for the other customers we would provide with book post

pamphlets (no charges – also for post) to write their reviews, suggestions and

complaints.

PromotionThe initial promotion will be the baby of the textile industry and will be done as a

part of their usual promotion strategy. Basic advertisements through low cost

media (print and visual), radio propaganda, CSR advocacy, Government’s

promotion of new Khadi etc.

Also as the shelves will be provided next to the existing apparel selling counters,

the very visibility will always be there.

Promotional BudgetThe budget will be covered as per the textile industry’s strategies and not much

needed to be allotted separately.

Before startup- About 1% more than the usual expenditure on promotions shall be

required.

Ongoing- Will become negligible and will only be required on launch of new

products.

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Proposed LocationThe proposed location initially will be the Tier II and Tier III cities and towns in/

around the textile industry. This can be extended depending on the demands and

feasibility.

Distribution Channels This will be same as that of the textile industry. Future needs can be catered with

new franchise.