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Business Plan Operations
Premises
It is vital that the travel business has both a
storefront facing onto the main street and a
visible separate entrance. The goal is for
clothing shop clients to be able to move between
the premises without going outside. We will be
renting 2000 square meters of fully serviced space
at a cost of $30,060 per year fully serviced. We
will need to spend $25,050 on internal
refurbishing. We plan to do some of this work
ourselves. An additional $4175 will be needed for
desks, chairs, and other office furnishings.
Choice of Location and Premises
We intend to locate within the existing Northwind
Traders shop, sinceas this is close to the city
center with a high density of both residential and
business premises. The pavement is wide, so people
can stand and look in the window without being in
the way of other pedestrians.
Opening Hours of Operation
The telephone lines will be staffed 24 hours a day
by live operators. During the period from 9 am to
6 pm, this will be done mostly by our staff.
However, overload calls during the day and
afterout-of-hours calls will go to our live
telemarketing bureau. People consider vacation
decisions at home in the evenings after discussion
with friends and partners. We want to be available
as their first point of contact with an informed,
friendly service.
We believe that since our clients will mostly be
busy professional people, off-peak- hours access
to our services is also a key way in which we can
differentiate ourselves from other travel
agencies.
Equipment
We will be renting an integrated
telephone/data-base system from the outset. This
will allow up to ten sales staff to answer calls
and have full on-screen data on clients and
products.
As service is one of our key components, it is
essential that we have full access to all relevant
data speedily and efficiently.
Staffing
From the outset all staff will have job
descriptions, a career and training history file,
and a record of employee reviews.
New staff will take the travel agency Psychometric
Aptitude Test, and then spend time with each
member of the Northwind Traders team.
All staff will undergo full product training, and
will spend at least four weeks a year on-site at
key travel destinations.
Our dress code will require us to look as though
we are on our way to one of our adventure
vacations. We plan to start with a staff of three
full-time employees, including the founder, and
one part-timer. We plan to be operating with a
staff of thirteen during the fifth year of
business. |
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