Victoria Ritchie

Eagle, ID (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal

Spoons Kitchen Store

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Location: Eagle
Industry: Education
Year Founded: 2008
Number Employees: 1-10 people
Description: Spoons Kitchen Store Business Plan 2008 Spoons Kitchen Store is a Limited Liability Company owned and operated by the founders Victoria and Jason Ritchie. It is a new upscale kitchen store that will be located in Eagle, ID on the main street. We are close to several banks, dry cleaners, restaurants and a grocery store. Just south of the property Walgreens is planning on building a new store. According to the city census recorded in 2005 there were 23,000 cars that traveled by everyday. Eagle is a well-desired location with the average household income of $120,000.00 a year. Victoria and Jason are planning on building a new store on a property they currently have a mortgage on. It will be an open space with storefront windows. The main eyepiece of the store will be a very appealing test kitchen. The kitchen and retail will be visible from the street so that customers will see what is going on inside and will want to stop. There will be plenty of parking in the back of the store; it will be very easy to get in and out of. Attached is the approved plan with a detailed bid from a highly reputable building company in Eagle. Spoons will be a desired store with a great reputation. Every customer visiting our store will want to return and will recommend us to their friends and family. Superior Customer Service will be of the utmost importance. Knowledge of product and function can give the buyer confidence that what there are buying is right for them. Keeping a good working relationship with repeat customers will be one of the main goals for Victoria and Spoons. Word of mouth marketing will be a powerful ally for our business. Our customers will know that they can get what they need at our store for a fair price. This will reduce their need to travel to get desired items or order them online. Having a wide variety of things at a fair price and good quality will make Spoons unique. Currently in the treasure valley there is a very limited market to find good quality kitchen supplies. This is a list of the twelve different departments in spoons. Electrics, Cookware, Bake Ware, Cutlery, Wine Accessories, Coffee & Tea, Gadgets, Canning, BBQ, Linens, Dishes and Cleaning supplies. Please see the attached marked “List of Stories” for a more detailed breakdown. With health problems raising in the U.S the cost of living and oil prices rising to record highs, more families are becoming a wear of what they eat and how much it costs. Part of the problem with the drive through and quick dining is that we do not know how to cook. Eating out of boxes and bags has become a way of life. Bringing people back to the kitchen and teaching them how to cook, is the backbone of Spoons Kitchen Store. We have weekly and sometimes daily class in all different genres. Victoria has already networked with Jared Coach of Six One Six (a top new restaurant Chef), with the owners of Ahi Sushi, and many more to come and make these classes possible. There will be a charge for the class and a percentage will go to the chef and the other will be facility cost and profit for spoons. We will also have down to earth cooking classes; these will be healthy meals, easy to fix, focusing on families. We will also offer a discount on product if they buy at the time of the class. When you are cooking it is a lot easier and more enjoyable with the right tools. Classes will also give the customer a chance to use some of the products in the store and fall in love with them before they buy. By demonstrating different items and new product during classes the customer will always have something new they need for their kitchen. Victoria has also networked with Channel 12 to broadcast a cooking show out of her store. They will have a chance to use a fully equipped kitchen with out having to set up or have an empty studio during off air times. In return Spoons will get some airtime and exposure in television. Victoria also plans on doing a service project of helping lower income parents learn to feed their families on a budget. This will bring families together and help them become healthier by cooking the right types of food. Their children will be welcome to come the learn as well this way it will be more likely to succeed. Victoria has also talked with some local grocers and will be networking with one to sponsor the supplies for the classes. This will be a great out reach to people on all levels. Victoria is planning on being very aggressive in opening with the 6-month start up time. Spoons will need $620,000.00 to start the business. This will include the property and building, inventory, fixtures, supplies. By injecting 10% (62,000.00) of 620,000.00 we are applying for a $360,000.00 loan from SBA. We will have a twenty-year pay back period with monthly payments. Jason Ritchie does not plan on quite his job and will be making the same amount and paying the household bills as he has done for the last ten years. He has been very successful at his carrier as an engineer and will continue to support his wife to make her dreams come true. Victoria Ritchie is not planning on taking an income for the first year. When the company can show positive cash flow, the owners will then draw out a payroll. Please see the additional financials and if you have any questions or if you need more information please let me know. Victoria has worked very closely with the local SBA office and Score for the last nine months. Class Schedule: Spoons will have a Tuesday, Thursday morning class, a Wednesday afternoon class, a Friday evening class, a Saturday morning and evening class and closed on Sunday and Monday. This is an average of 24 classes per month and on a cross-market comparison spoons will profit an average of $38.00 per person. With seating for fifteen that will be 420 students per month with an average of 70% capacity. There is potential to gross $9,576.00 per month and 114,912.00 per year Up Stairs Space: The new building will be a two-story building. The Spoons Kitchen will be located down stairs in the 2100 Sq Ft. The additional 850 SQ Ft will be leased out as office space at 21.00 a Sq Ft. This will generate an additional $20,000.00 a year to help keep the profit margin in the black. By leasing to an insurance or engineering firm this will bring in clients to the space. This will bring new customers to the store that may not have come otherwise. City Art Project: Victoria has worked with the city Arts Commission during the designing of the space. The City has approved a $25,000.00 City Art Project for the south facing wall of the new building. They will put out a call to artist, and as a community they will decide what would be best suited for the city and the store. This will become a city icon and will bring customers inside the building, it will also stand out from the other store in the area. Also it will bring Spoons Kitchen stores name and location to the people without little to no cost for advertising. We are very excited about this and feel that it is an opportunity to become even more successful. Competitive Comparison: The competition facing Spoons Kitchen Store includes all the other kitchen stores and department stores with house wares in the Boise area. This area has only two specialty kitchen stores and two restaurant supply stores. Easy Cook’n in located on the opposite side of town from Spoons Kitchen Store. They have a good variety of kitchen supplies and cooking classes. Their cooking area is smaller than what we have planned and they have different brands than what we will be carrying. William Sonoma is another kitchen store in town and it is located in the Boise Town Square mall. They have a limited variety of cookware and they focus on their signature products. They do not provide cooking classes and are not planning on it in the future. The restaurant supply stores have a different focus on who they are marketing. They sell big quantities of base line products to business owners. The Internet is one of our biggest competitors. With Internet sales becoming so big it is hard to compete. Most of the products Spoons will sell have strict Internet sales and are only available through private sites. This is why having a well-designed and easy to search web site for the store is and important part of our business. There are also several department stores in the area. These include Macy’s, Penny’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Linen’s & Things and several others. Their focus is on low to mid range of quality products. They do not carry any of the high quality cookware, mostly they have kitchen in a box deals. They do not have a personal or warm feeling and it is a hassle to find someone to help you and they are not educated on the product. We consider the majority of the above establishments to be indirect competition, due to the vast differences in quality of product and combination of services. Our direct competitors are Easy Cook’n and William Sonoma. Each one of these competitors has a component similar to what Spoons Kitchen Store is proposing, but does not offer the same combination of services with healthy living emphasis. We believe our mix of quality cookware, informative classes and high-quality services, combined with our pleasant atmosphere, will help us compete with the existing small businesses. As for the larger department stores, we will compete by providing a more intimate and educational shopping experience with quality products they do not carry.