The Business Plan 165Business Plan Executive Summary
Babyyourway.com
13310 Grouse Point Trail
Carmel, IN 46033
Ph: (555-555-8666)
http://www.babyyourway.com
Contact: Matt Sifferlen
Type of Business: Babyyourway.com is a
retailer of customized children’s merchandise.
Company Summary: Babyyourway.com
aims to provide a unique shopping experi-
ence that allows customers to quickly and
effortlessly purchase personalized keepsakes
for the special children in their lives via a
user-friendly Web site that truly puts the cus-
tomer in control of the shopping experience.
Babyyourway.com taps into the convergence
of two market forces: (a) Increasing populari-
ty of shopping for unique and boutique items
via the Internet and (b) The fact that the
fastest growth in U.S. population in the next 5
years will be in the 45-64 age group. Parents
and grandparents are spending increasing
amounts of money on apparel and merchan-
dise for their newborn, infant, and toddler
children and grandchildren. As boomers
become grandparents at a rapid clip they will
continue to use their disposable income to
shower their grandkids with gifts. Bibs and
other related children’s merchandise are fun
and inexpensive gifts.
Management: Babyyourway.com is managed
by the four primary partners. Each partner
brings an extremely valuable set of expertise
and experiences that will allow the group to
successfully oversee this new venture. The
team has a combined 45+ years of experi-
ence in consumer and technology product
development, brand and product manage-
ment, marketing, operations management,
information systems, and commercial bank-
ing. Each member has an MBA from the
Indiana University Kelley School of Business,
one of the top 20 MBA programs in the
nation.
Product and Competition: Boomer spend-
ing has already fueled the success of chil-
dren’s apparel retailers like Babies-R-Us,
Children’s Place, Baby Gap, and Gymboree.
However, while all of these retailers have
been successful at marketing mainstream,
mass-produced, off-the-shelf products provid-
ed by their own large suppliers, none of them
offers a personalized shopping experience.
And while some of them dedicate limited
online resources to customized products,
these efforts are low-profile and ineffective
because low volume transactions are out of
favor with corporate behemoths that want to
be all things to all people. Unlike our com-
petitors, babyyourway.com embraces cus-
tomization, offers a service that does not just
embroider a baby’s name on an item, and
markets that as “personalized.” Instead, we
will offer a unique opportunity for shoppers to
truly customize their bibs and other apparel
purchases using a variety of online tools to
select color scheme, text, materials, and
licensed content. This puts customers in con-
trol of the purchasing experience and allows
them to add the personal touches that
today’s shoppers value.
Funds Requested: It’s anticipated that we
will need an initial cash injection of $300,000.
We would prefer debt financing, but we are
open to other financing alternatives, including
offering an equity stake to investors.
Use of Proceeds: We need the proceeds to
purchase a DuPont Artistri digital printer, to
assist in funding our substantial year-one
advertising expenses, and to purchase our
initial inventory.STREET STORY 5.2