The Fifth Scents a store by Southern Scents
General Company Description

Our products are to be used in households to liven up a room or for the body’s health. When you think of scented products, you usually think of big names such as “Bath and Body
Works,” “Yankee Candle Company,” or “Avon.” You hardly see independent scent stores in developing areas. Even then, these companies don’t offer the complete variety that our company would offer. A developing area such as Travelers Rest, South Carolina is a good fit for our company because Travelers Rest is an upcoming, modern city. We would be an independent company, in the beginning at least, who is willing to partner-up with other companies that suit our needs in later years once our business takes off. Our company will be both internet bases and sit based so we could reach out to both locals and those who have heard about our company. Our mission is to bring back the scents of childhood and Southern roots to in turn bring comfort and pleasure to our customers. Some of our strengths come from the location of our shop. The community of Travelers Rest is very open-minded and has welcomed changes and new businesses. There is a lot of tourism in because of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, located on Main Street, Travelers Rest. This trail, brought by the Greenville Health System, has attracted many entrepreneurs and many tourists as the city has been voted as one of America’s coolest small towns. There’s also no competition in this area for a company like “The Fifth Scents.” There will be some challenges like getting started and gaining attention from the community. We also need to make sure that our products are what the people want. One of our main goals is to pleasure our customers.

Services Overview & Industry Analysis
Everybody smells things differently. We offer a variety of scents to appeal to all kinds of customers. Anyone who walks into the store will have a scent, or more, that appeals to them. The Fifth Scents is a store Travelers Rest needs because it is something that this city doesn’t have yet. People always need their houses to smell good when guests come over, especially in the south with our southern hospitality, or just to remind them of an old memory. We do have a company that is offering the same things, in a way, but they are not that close to us. Even if they were close to us, they are a “Big Name” business and you can get their products anywhere. With Fifth Scents, it is a small town feel and it just makes you feel at home. You can only get our products in one place and that gives it a “scents” of rarity and makes it a little more special. “Scents” we are the only company like us in the TR area, we should be okay on competition. For the trends category, we will be selling essential oils and products to complement them and that is definitely something that has taken off recently. Candles are also a big ticket item and never go out of style. Studies show that every 7/10 households buy candles and scented goods. There are also a lot of new businesses coming into the area and will definitely bring a lot of foot traffic into our store. With TR growing as fast as it is, and those statistics, I “scents” that The Fifth Scents will take off.

Marketing Plan
To appeal to our customers, we researched market trends and found that the “seasonal scents” were the most popular. Based on the seasons, we would offer flower scents for the spring, citrus fruits and beachy for the summer, pumpkins and apples for the fall, and peppermint and Christmas cookies for the winter. If our business takes off well in Travelers Rest, we could open to extending our business to downtown Greenville. We “scents” that downtown Greenville would be a great location as it a center of cultural and modern style in South Carolina. Like all small companies, there are specific barriers that have to be overcome. For instance, renovating our location on Main Street will pose as a problem because it’s extra funds that we have to provide even after we rent the space. Liability is also an issue because with us being a store that provides scents, there are some issues with some scents that people are allergic to or are sensitive to. We must make sure that our labels are properly labeled so our customers can know exactly what went into our products so there won’t be any lawsuit on us if an accident does occur. Our store will need to go through the same regulations as most other stores such as an inspection by the fire department with them implementing fire alarms and a safety route. A pest inspection as well as a regular OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) inspection to make sure that our space is of proper regulations. We would be sure to have a security system checked by the local police department to ensure not only our safely but the safety of our customers. Our business would have a public bathroom that would be inspected by the South Carolina Health Department. By a competition standpoint, there is no competition to worry about in our area because there are no other scent stores in the Greater Travelers Rest area until you get to Greenville, South Carolina.

Marketing Strategy The store, “The Fifth Scents,” is owned by our brand of “Southern Scents”. The slogan represents the owner’s hometown roots, “Stop and Smell the South, y’all.” The owners are Natives of the Travelers Rest area and want to jar up all the scents of their favorite southern scents so others can enjoy the South, just as much as they do. To promote our business, we will have a special opening day sale where we will offer small free samples while supplies last. The sample products will showcase our products to our customers which will make them want to continue to come in to buy our goods. The advertising is very simple because it’s a local business. Full page advertisements in magazines, as well as a small advertisement in the local newspapers should be sufficient enough to get our name out there. It would have our logo and a small list of products and their prices to show off our goods and to stimulate the viewers’ senses. With the location of our building on Main Street, the Swamp Rabbit Trail runs right through our store so foot traffic is to our advantage. People on the trail would see our shop, along with others, and stop in if there is proper signs on the outside. A liberal arts college, Furman University, is located around 10 minutes away from Downtown Travelers Rest. It we advertise at Furman, then we would hopefully have college students visiting our shop as well as the local high school and middle school students.

Operational Plan Since we’re a locally owned business, we would hire those who in the community, most likely students, in need of a job. As the owners, we would work just as hard as the other employees; everybody works together as one team. We would have around 8 employees that would work both part-time and full-time. The owners would of course have one of them working all day every day and the other employees would work part-time to earn their money and do their job. Our job titles would include a cashier, 2 floor workers, and a stock room worker. Of course there would be a schedule sent out every week and employees wouldn’t have to work every single day because we understand that they have classes that the must attend; academics always come first. Although we wouldn’t have any business partners at first, we aren’t opposed to combining our efforts and products with a company for common profits. For example, we could partner up with the Carolina Honey Bee Company and use some of their bee wax for our lip balm products. This would benefit our company as we would have a source of wax for our lip balm, and it would benefit their company because we would share profits and help advertise with them. A timeline of our process to success with our business is shown in Figure 1 on page 7. The timeline shows each step we will take leading up to opening our business and continuing throughout our years. It’s crucial to maintain a clear concise timeline or even a general overview, to help track our progress and our success.

Financial Plan For the store to be fully operational, it will cost us a total $282,000. That includes the building itself ($270,000), power, water, cash register, shelves, sink, toilet, lotion bases, and candle supplies. We researched all the prices and pack deals to acquire the cheapest and most reliable products. The owners will get a loan from Wells Fargo for 300,000 to cover all of the cost and slowly pay it off. We are devoting $240 per year for water, $1,800 for electricity, $500 per 100 candles, $1,000 per 50 lotions, and $500 per 50 essential oils. We want to try and split up our money evenly, but still invest in what we believe will sell the best, candles. It will cost $1,700 per month to maintain our power, water, building, and our products. Our employees will be paid based on their hours, of an hourly wage of $9.00 per hour. They can only work 30 hours per week as to not give them benefits and so that they don’t overwork themselves. Per month, we expect to make $15,000 if we have an average of 75 people per day or 2,250 per month. Over the period of 3 years, we suspect an increase in both customers and profit (see Figure 2 on page 8). $34,000 is the bare minimum we need per year to keep our business afloat per year. That’s including our employee’s pay, our water, electricity, the lease, and our products.

Figure 1:

Figure 2: