Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
A Proposal
for Marys
Books
Y
Table of Contents
Marys Books Current Situation..2
The Issues..3
Marys Books Needs...4
Objectives..4
Methods.5
Qualifications...7
The Budget....8
The Benefits......8
Appendix A: Timeline...10
Appendix B: The Budget..11
their employees could result in unfavorable work opportunities in Oak Park that
disrupt community life.
Along with the strong values you hold to your employees, you also give your
customers high quality service that keeps them returning. Marys Books offer customers
a variety of books to choose from that include: local authors, childrens books, rare
books, college text books, historical books and virtually any books can be available
upon request. Your dedication to promoting literacy has never been more evident. The
local college students benefit from getting their school books at a 5% discount and the
generous textbook buyback option offered by Marys Books. In addition to providing
books to ensure the community members of Oak Park have access to good uncensored
education material, Marys Books also offers a reliable space for members of the
community to have group meetings. Marys Books uplifts the Oak Park community in
many ways and at the base of it all are the strong values of the owner, Mary.
You have enlisted the help of six local consulting firms, including Helping Hands Inc.,
to better understand Marys Books situation and to determine whether Borders Books
new location presents reason for concern. Helping Hands Inc. recognizes the need to
obtain results in a timely manner in order to prepare for your busiest time of year,
Christmas season. We will take the necessary steps to help Marys books continue to be
an integral part of the Oak Park community. The issues Borders Books new location
may inflict on Marys Books will be fully evaluated to ensure the best plan of action is
developed.
The Issues
After assessing Marys Books situation, Helping Hands Inc. has uncovered several areas
to concentrate our research efforts. The research to be conducted will be community
orientated in order to benefit not only Marys Books, but also the larger Oak Park
community.
Is Borders Books new location, across from the historic Marshall Fields
building, competition for local businesses, specifically Marys Books?
How will Oak Park residents respond to this change within the
community?
How might working with other local businesses benefit Marys Books and
the community?
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Objectives
Community life is one of Oak Parks defining characteristics. Marys Books has become
embedded in the community through providing educational material, uncensored
books, promoting literacy and diversity, and ultimately advocating for the Oak Park
community so dear to Mary. We believe that small businesses are fundamental to Oak
Parks rich community, and have developed a timely four week plan to ensure the
continued success of Marys Books.
We Plan to:
Objective 1: Survey customers and local residents on book preferences
and aspects relevant to Marys Books
When the objectives listed have been completed, the situation with Marys Books will
be better understood and you will have the resources necessary to knowledgably plan
for the future. Helping Hands Inc. will provide you with reports of all findings and
customized recommendations based on research. To ensure the most accurate data, the
methods used to accomplish the objectives have been tested for reliability and validity.
To accomplish these objectives our teams methods will be thorough and provide
accurate results.
Methods
Objective 1: Survey Customers and Local Residents
Helping Hand Inc. will gain a thorough understanding of the community's preferences
and opinions of Mary's Books and their perception of what Borders Books will bring to
Oak Park. Local customers, as well as residents will be surveyed by our team to help
Marys Books continue to be an integral part of Oak Park community life and
understand the impact Borders Books new location will have. A Helping Hands Inc.
staff member will ask customers to fill out a brief survey upon them entering the store.
To survey local residents Helping Hands Inc. staff will use advanced software to
randomly select households in Oak Park to be included. A random sample design will
provide us with a representative sample and better allows us to generalize our findings
to the entire Oak Park community. Household members age 13 and up will be included
in the sample, however not all projected households will result in a survey completion
by any or all household members due to availability during the duration of the study.
The survey will be a combination of open-ended and Likert scale questions that ask
about how they perceive Marys Books atmosphere, inventory, importance to the
community, and general attitudes toward Marys Books. Local residents and customers
will also have a chance to point out things that they perceive to be positive and things
that could be changed to better the store. Finally, the survey will provide insight on
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how the community perceives the arrival of Borders Books. Helping Hands Inc. has
designed this customized survey to facilitate the communitys involvement in planning
the future of Marys Books.
businesses may combat the recent trend of big business growth and increase profits by
working together to expand one or both businesses inventory. Helping hands Inc. will
also use the surveys taken by selected local households and Marys Books customers to
generate other collaboration efforts to investigate. Our research team will also contact
local businesses in the area and inquire about their willingness to work with Marys
Books and also provide them a report of our findings detailing the advantages of
collaborating. The businesses interested in collaborating will be asked to provide us
with financial information's that we allow us to formulate profit margins for Marys
Books. Our team will provide insight into the best opportunities to increase Marys
Books profit and improve Oak Parks local businesses. Helping Hands Inc. is the best
qualified to conduct the necessary research in a community-orientated timely fashion.
Qualifications
Helping Hands Inc. has a background flooded with experience to support the level of
expertise that is demonstrated within the proposal. As a company, we are devoted to
our clients and make it our personal goal to preserve historical aspects as well as
support small business in hopes of maintaining the wonderful community of Oak Park.
We make it our mission to enhance the community through research and development
by giving small business owners the opportunity to take advantage of the resources
available. As previously mentioned, Helping Hands Inc. has had a great amount of
experience with situations similar to Marys, not to mention highly qualified owners
and employees.
Helping Hands Inc. was founded in 1998, giving the company an unimaginable amount
of proficiency. The company began when three graduates of North Dakota State
University joined together in hopes of preserving the rich historical background Oak
Park possesses. After 16 years in the business, Helping Hands Inc. has not only become
a progressively successful company but also helped multiple other small businesses
achieve greatness.
Just four years ago, in 2010, Helping Hands Inc. was faced with their most challenging
project to date, a situation extremely similar to Marys Books but not surprising
considering the constant modernization society is encouraging. Pans Food Center is a
grocery store also located in Oak Park and was the first in the city and therefore, very
profitable. However, that success was put to a test as Trader Joes grocery store placed a
bid on a local building previously being leased for different events in the community.
Through extensive research and company dedication, Helping Hands Inc. created an
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informational report, based on the data collected and established an efficient yet
detailed business plan for the locally owned grocery store. The proposal was later
accepted and the company claims the strategy Helping Hands Inc. developed saved the
store and aided in its future successes.
Helping Hands Inc. is committed to saving the small businesses established in the Oak
Park community and feels the next step in is to provide assistance to Marys Books.
Mary has made known her interest in maintaining Oak Parks history and Helping
Hands Inc. feels it is important to collaborate with small business owners to ensure a
future filled with the comforts of historical preservation and community togetherness.
With the skills and dedication the company has to offer, Marys books will be in good
hands, more specifically, Helping Hands Inc.
Budget
Helping Hands Inc. will provide a timely, cost effective plan that includes the most
comprehensive research and feedback to better understand Marys Books situation. The
details can be found in appendix B.
Benefits
Helping Hands Inc. is dedicated to providing superior service to assist local businesses
and the surrounding community. If provided the opportunity to work hand-in-hand
with Mary to better understand whether Border Books is competition, our assurance to
you is: to provide timely service, collect data from various sources with community in
mind, provide recommendations to best benefit Marys Books based on data collected,
and provide comprehensive reports of all findings.
Helping Hand Inc. was established in 1998 by three North Dakota State University
graduates. The fundamental values that are engrained in Oak Park led us to the
beginning of our journey to help preserve and promote the local businesses and historic
architecture that are fundamental to the community. Currently, modern trends are
disrupting the Oak Park community. Helping hands Inc. is dedicated to helping sustain
the traditional community values during this time of change. Through our advanced
research technology and community approach, you are assured the most inclusive data
reports and recommendations.
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The Christmas season brings increased business for retail businesses, and we
understand that it is important to be provided with results prior to help enable the most
effective outcome. We guarantee to provide data in a timely manner, in addition to
being thorough and accurate. Therefore, we propose a four week period of time to
conduct research and provide funding reports. During the four week research period:
we will survey customers and local residents, review Marys Books and Border Books
inventory, and analyze potential profits gained by teaming-up with other small
business to provide additional products to customers.
The Oak Park community has been our focus since establishing our business. Over the
past several years of big business growth, our services have been treasured by local
business owners more than ever. Those that have utilized our amenities have flourished
during these difficult times and increased profits. Our proven methods of collecting
data are sensitive to community interests and will best provide you with valuable
information to continue to serve Oak Park residents. The Helping Hands staff is excited
to have an opportunity to continue assisting Oak Park through collaboration with
Marys Books.
Appendix A
Helping Hands Inc. would like to further reassure Mary that her needs will be met in a
timely fashion. The objectives are custom to the unique situation of Marys Books and
the execution of these objectives will be conducted in a community oriented manner.
Below is a table that provides a good visual representation of when objectives are to be
completed and when the projects findings are to be reported back to you.
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
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Appendix B
The budget outline for Marys Books would be included here.
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