I'm planning to start a sanitary napkins business.

What
should be my strategy to be able to sell these napkins
when there are brands like stayfree, whispers?

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18 Answers

Rhea Gaur, Author, Freelance Business Writer, Former Banker

Answered Jul 5, 2017

Hi

Thank you for contacting me.

I see that you posted this question several months ago and received more than a few
valuable responses.

If you are still struggling, it indicates to me that you have yet to write out your business
plan.

A business plan is a 360-degree assessment of your business. It documents every aspect

of your business from defining your product, industry, customers, and competition, to
listing your marketing and distribution strategy, sales targets, and business expenses.

Almost everyone who intends to start a business, or wants to make major changes to an
existing business (e.g. launching a new product or implementation of a new technology),
must write a business plan. The level of detailing will depend on the size of your
business, as well as the end purpose of drafting the plan. Therefore, the length of a
business plan can vary from a few pages to more than a hundred pages. For most small
businesses, a business plan of 10- 20 pages is sufficient to draft a working plan.

Here are the essential components of a small business plan.

1. Your mission statement: If you are searching for answers to this one, ask the following
questions -
What is your prime motivation behind starting the business?

Who are your customers and what solution will your business offer them?

How does your business stand out from the competition?

2. Define your product/ service:

Define the service/ product your business offers

Which market segment do you cater to?

3. Evaluate the market

What is the size of the demand for your product /service, or, is there a need for another
business doing what you are doing? This is important especially if you intend to sell in
your local area. If data is not available, do a survey of at least 30 people who are your
target customers. This will help you get lots of feedback on the gaps in products/services
offerd by existing sellers, which you can exploit to the benefit of your business.

Who are the local competitors of your business? Also, what business promotion
strategies are they using?

What edge does your competition have over your business proposition?

4. Operational strategy

Where will you actually create the product? Does it make sense to outsource it? or do
you have adequate space to do it at home?

What are the potential threats to your production/ procurement cycle?

Will your charge customers upfront?

What modes of payment will you accept?

5. Marketing strategy

List down all the possible promotion strategies for your business. Identify the top four or
five strategies that you want to implement right away. As you look at new age marketing
tools such as online sales, creating a blog, and mobile and social media marketing, don't
forget that old fashioned promotional techniques such as newspaper inserts, posters
(placed at shops and other areas frequented by your target audience), and a customer
referral scheme, may be more effective for your business. On the other hand, not
creating a basic website, may cause internet savvy customers to doubt the genuineness
of your business.

6. SWOT analysis
List the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business. If you are a
one-person army, the SWOT analysis pretty much boils down to an assessment of your
experience, capabilities, risk appetite, and available resources ( time, money, place, and
people network). Also, list the number of competitors in your area, your competitiveness,
and the ability to expand the business (for example - by hiring more people, or by
outsourcing an activity, or adding a distribution channel to reach more customers).

7. Financials

Determine the amount of investment you will need to get your business off the ground,
and if you need a substantial investment, from where can you raise the funds - a bank
loan or a loan from friends/ family?

List your monthly recurring expenses on the business, and how you will meet those at
least for the first six months.

How much revenue do you hope to generate from your business?

Hope the above helps you in getting an overall view of your business.

All the best.

____________________________________________________________________________

FINALLY - From a personal perspective, let me tell you that women are always willing
to try another product because the existing products fail to meet the mark on ‘comfort’
and ‘odour’.

A new brand that has come is ‘ Sofy’. It claims to be anti-bacterial. What I like most
about this product is that it’s claim of ‘perfume free fragrance’ holds good.