MERAKAY

BUSINESS PLAN

Presented

to

Cherielee A. Fabro

San Pablo City Integrated High School

Alarva, Angelo
Castro, Patrick Gabriel M.
Coloma, Melanie B.
Enriquez, Rhaiza
Guinto, Lovely Heart Angel S.
Hornilla, Leejen

Grade 12 ABM

June 2022
I. Company background

The Merakay Business is an apparel and clothing line that offers the public

customized pieces with painted motivational quotes focusing on feminism done

through a screen painting. The starting product of this business is a tote bag which

is used daily by everyone, especially teenagers.

This business embodies its close word’s definition “Meraki: something

done with one's soul, with creativity, effort, and a lot of love”. We wanted to create

unique pieces that were the outcome of the employee’s dedication, artistic ability,

and love for what they’re doing intending to make a change in this society,

specifically, empowering and uplifting the women more.

According to Katz (n.d.), fashionable garments and accessories are such

possessions that help people communicate who and what they are. With this

information taken into consideration, we came up with the idea of creating items

that would allow them to be fashionable while they are portraying an image of a

feminist and supporter of the women’s right.

For this business to grow, the founders have already planned the marketing

techniques and strategies that they would use for this business to reach their target

customers. After several thorough discussions with each member, they have

decided to focus more on social media marketing, as they believe how powerful

and influential it is in one’s purchasing decisions.

After years or just months of operating this business, founders are looking

forward to having and releasing more items under their creations.

II. Vision statement

Merakay business will ensure that all the people running and managing the

company will follow ethical standards and principles to provide an outstanding

business operation for consumers. With this, we can make long-term relationships

with them, pushing our stakeholders to continue working for our company's

betterment.

● Vision

Our vision is to become the fastest-growing local apparel and clothing

business in San Pablo City, Laguna, and contribute to promoting and

disseminating the importance of feminism and women empowerment to all.

● Mision

Our mission is to develop an apparel company that will exceed customers'

expectations of local products by offering them our creations which have

good quality and superior design.

III. A description of the good or service to be offered

Merakay is a clothing and apparel line. Initially, we will be releasing only

one product which is a tote bag. This product will be the first one to be available in

the market, but t-shirts and caps will be released after months of its successful

launch. We have decided to start with a Tote Bag as our starter gear because it is

currently in trend and in high demand.

 The Tote Bag will be painted with quotes about empowering women,

through “screen printing techniques”. Although our business is promoting

feminism, it is still applicable for male, we made the design unisex for so that our

customers will not only be limited for women.

IV. Target market of the product

The Merakay business' target customers are the gen z of any gender.

Surveys revealed that some women and men consider themselves feminists and

supporters of women's rights.

The feminist movement now is more varied than it has ever been. Feminism

has been increasingly open to the experiences of men, non-binary persons, and trans
people who are oppressed by gender standards and stereotypes. (Aune, 2018) That

is why we advocate feminism through our clothing and apparel business, Merakay.

V. Proposed location and reason for the choice of this location

Merakay business will be available on different social media platforms like

Facebook marketplace, Twitter and Instagram. We agreed to build our business on

these platforms as we also consider our current situation. We have also noticed that

people nowadays prefer online shopping over physical store shopping. We will be

shipping our products through the couriers of Ninjavan and J&T Express. Also,

with these, we would be able to market and sell our products not just in nearby

cities but all over the Philippines.

Nevertheless, to still offer same-day delivery and pick up, our warehouse

will be located at 096 Schetelig Avenue Brgy. 4-A, San Pablo City, Laguna, where

customers could visit. This property is owned by one of the founders as this would

also be a less expense for the business for not paying any rentals.

Having these set up would result in the best convenience for the owners and

the buyers.

VI. Long-term objectives of the business

● To widen customer’s range

As a starting business, Merakay really focuses on encouraging gen z to

purchase our products. However, it would be a big help for the growth of

the company if other generations would also purchase from us, may it be
 for personal use, or they would use it as a gift. Widening the customer range

as much as possible would allow this business to expand and release more

collections in the future.

● To produce quality local products

Ensuring that the products released by our company are of high quality

would be its top priority. Merakay Business’ goal is to show the customers

that local products are also worth trying and collecting. Also, if the buyers

have been amazed by the quality of our products, there is a bigger chance

that they would be repeat customers. That would result in good advertising

to other customers and more extensive sales for the company.

● To build a good image on social media and have it available on top shopping

platforms (Shopee and Lazada)

Having a good rating and reviews and chat performance is a significant

factor that helps the buyers to purchase from a shop on shopping platforms.

So ensuring that we would satisfy our buyers with our products and our

packaging would be this company’s top priority. If we maintain high

ratings, other customers would most likely be encouraged to purchase from

us.

VII. S.W.O.T analysis

Many organizations carry out SWOT analysis at a strategic planning stage,

identifying and examining the existing resources, both internally and externally,
and investigating their trends and patterns that may have either positive or negative

impacts on businesses. (GURL, 2017)

The S.W.O.T analysis of Merakay are the following:

STRENGTH:

● Unique and new business idea- Our apparel and clothing business is new

to everyone. Nevertheless, our strategy is to design our products with quotes

about feminism and women empowerment, attracting more customers as we

promote advocacy. By attracting more customers, this business will be more

profitable.

● Highly accessible raw material- The materials we will use in our products

are highly available; the suppliers are also from San Pablo City. We will not

need much fuel for transportation because suppliers are near our production

area.

● Strategic advertising- Our business has Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

accounts. We utilize these social media platforms to advertise our products,

advocacy, and brand name. Our IT’s are currently studying the algorithms

of these platforms for us to disseminate the information about our business

widely.

WEAKNESS:

● Changing fashion trends- The fashion and beauty industry is intensely

competitive, with many fashion firms vying to be the first to introduce new

trends to the market. All we must do now is to stay on top of the current
 fashion trends. We will eventually lose market share, revenue, and

profitability if not.

● Entering a new market- Starting a business in the fashion industry, we

always need to stay in line with the trend. However, as a beginner in this

field, it will be much harder for us to do such a thing.

● Low initial capital- The personal savings of the team will only fund the

initial capital of Merakay. With only a tiny amount of capital, the

company’s movement would be minimal

OPPORTUNITY:

● Online shopping- Online business has increased its growth dramatically

because of the COVID-19 lockdown. Merakay is a type of business that

does its operation online. This is a massive advantage to us as we are already

capable of handling and managing customers online.

● Reseller agreement- There are a lot of young entrepreneurs who are

operating their business through online live-streaming on Facebook. It will

serve as an opportunity for us to agree about reselling our products. This

will not only help us to be more profitable but can also make Merakay

discovered by many people.

● Improved lifestyle- In the past few years, the lifestyle of ordinary people

has increased mainly because of social media. This is a great opportunity in

the fashion industry because when people have extra money, then they

would go out shopping and buy fashionable products.

THREATS:

● High competition-We, Merakay owners, will enter the fashion industry,

which has many competitor businesses and is in high demand. Some of our

competitors have business designers that are very effective at predicting

future trends. They are the ones who always come up with unique and

innovative fashion products and take advantage of being the industry leader.

● Established Brands- Competing with the already established brands and

currently dominating the market is a risky thing to do. We need to start from

scratch for us to be able to cope and be as competitive as these brands in the

future.

VIII. Sources of the capital

According to the BDC website, there are seven start-up financing sources

that aspiring entrepreneurs can utilize: personal investment, love money, venture

capital, Angels, business incubators, government grants and subsidies, and bank

loans.

Regarding the Merakay company, the team has decided that the funds we

will be using as start-up capital are the founders' collective personal savings and

partly financial support from their parents. Since all of the founders are students, it

is the best source of capital they could rely on.

As a starting business, Merakay owners garnered Php 6,000 with an equal

distribution of Php 1,000 per person. Having these shares would allow them to also

have an easy distribution of their income or loss.

IX. Form of business organization

One of the first things business owners have to focus on is how they would

run their company and keep it afloat despite having many competitors. All

businesses must have a legal framework that outlines the rights and responsibilities

of everyone involved in the business's ownership. (SourceLink Admin, 2021)

The Merakay was an idea of 6 individuals who wanted to venture into the

field of the fashion industry. Technically, if more than two people partner together

to build a business, it is considered a corporation. However, with the resources and

capital we have, we cannot be considered a corporation, so basically, it is a

"Partnership" type of business organization.

Having partnership as a type of business organization will help Merakay

raise more funds than Sole proprietorship. Moreover, it will be easier to manage

the business as more heads are working together.

X. Suggested pricing for the product or service

 After computing all the possible expenses that this item might cost, the team

concluded that our main product, the tote bag, could be purchased at Php 300.00.

With this price range of our product to the market price, we believe that this will

attract more customers. Also, based on the financial computation, we concluded

that we would still be profitable with this affordable product price after we analyzed

the possible costs and sales ratio.

XI. Mode of promotion or advertising used

Facebook Name: Merakay

Link: https://www.facebook.com/Merakaybusiness1

Twitter Name: Merakay

Username: @Merakaybusiness
Link: https://twitter.com/mirakibusiness

Instagram Name: Merakay

Username: @Merakaybusiness01
Link: https: https://www.instagram.com/Merakaybusiness01/?hl=en
 Social media is prevalent in today's society. Many business owners use it as

a marketing tool to promote their products through posting and advertisements.

As stated by Krishnan Chatterjee in his blog 'How Can social media be used

as a Marketing Tool? Actively using social media is one of the easiest ways to reach

a large audience and get the company or brand name in the heads of existing or

potential customers. So Merakay Business makes sure that they have an account on

the current generation's top three social media platforms—Instagram, Facebook,

and Twitter.
XII. Technical requirements

The following are the materials, tools and equipment needed to operate Merakay.
XIII. Socio Economic Impact: Positive Effects of the Project and Negative

Effects of the Project

Positive effects of the Project

The success of this business would be an immense contribution to this country’s

economic growth as this can be a replacement for the businesses that closed due to

the pandemic.

Also, if this continues to rise, this would open more job opportunities as more

staffing and manpower will be needed.

Negative effects of the Project

There are more prominent and larger business entities in the market that are

currently dominating the fashion industry. If the project fails to compete, this might

cause business losses which may soon lead to bankruptcy. With that being said,

Merakay will be forced to stop its operation, leading to a rise in unemployment.

XIV. Appendices

The following images are the logo, the product, the team discussion, and

the future products. We documented all the current and future ideas for us to better

develop our project.

With our intention of supporting and uplifting women, we have decided to

create a logo that would really allow us to be known for such advocacy. Merakay’s
logo, branding, and first collection show the founder's eagerness to show how

passionate they are about making this business successful and contributing to a

change in our society.

June 5, 2022, the team had a brainstorming. We shared with each other ideas

about the development and improvement of the Merakay project. We managed to

finalize our project, and prepare for the next days’ presentation as we are also

motivated to venture into the field of business at a very young age.

 The team was very passionate and optimistic about this project to the point

that we already have a lineup of future products that we are going to release. After

the successful launch of the Tote Bag, we are planning to increase the variation of

products that we sell to the market; This includes a T-shirt and Caps.
 Reference

GURL, E. (2017). SWOT analysis: A theoretical review. Retrieved from

https://demo.dspacedirect.org/handle/10673/792

7 sources of start-up financing. (2020, September 12). Retrieved June 1, 2022,

from BDC.ca website: https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/start-buy-
business/start-business/start-up-financing-sources

SourceLink Admin. (2021, July 19). Forms of Business Organization - Baltimore

SourceLink. Retrieved June 1, 2022, from Baltimore SourceLink website:
https://www.baltimoresourcelink.com/forms-of-business-organization