The Birds Nest Final
The Birds Nest Final
The Birds Nest Final
Prepared by
Executive Summary.............................................................................................................. 3
1.0 Organization Background ..............................................................................................4
1.2 Vision..............................................................................................................................4
1.3 Mission...........................................................................................................................4
Executive Summary
The Birds Nest is an organization in Normal that specializes in Illinois State pride attire and custom
made apparel that helps students, organizations, faculty, and schools represent themselves with their
own creativity. The Birds Nest seeks to grow its business and create more than just apparel and
improve organization overall within their company.
This document presents a proposed plan for the 2020-2021 year to increase awareness and
organization to help become a more active apparel shop. The information below to improve the
Bird’s Nest current operations came from multiple interviews with the manager and owner, Brian
Martin. This plan was created after many meetings and research done to help the company grow. In
order to create reasonable growth and help reach the organization's goals, our team came up with
these objectives:
To increase social media awareness on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter among college
students in Bloomington-Normal by 15% by December 2020
To increase organizational structure at the Bird’s Nest by December 2020
To stabilize employee retention by 7% at the Bird’s Nest by December 2020.
To increase foot traffic by 5% by December 2020.
To increase sales by 5% by December 2020.
To increase positive attitudes towards sports amongst customers by 7% by December 2020.
The goal is to achieve each of these objectives and have the plan to be successful in the end. There
are benchmarks for each objective and tactics for specific things to be done to help make this
successful for the Bird’s Nest. Once improvements of the Birds Nest are increased, there will be
more opportunities for the organization to receive more orders and make their brand grow more.
Having organization and employee retention become better allows a more successful environment for
the organization and employees. All these objectives are hopeful of leading to the final one to
increase positive attitudes towards sports amongst customers by 7% by December 2020. More
positive attitudes about sports will increase foot traffic and sales within the organization and more
custom apparel to be made for the community.
1.0 Organization This section will provide various amounts of information within the
Background organization that is fundamental in helping the company’s success.
Below will be detail on its style of business, vision, mission, value
proposition, organizational structure, history and culture. This
information overall will help our team with further parts of our plan in
sections 2.0 and 3.0.
1.1 Business Definition The Bird’s Nest has been serving the Bloomington- Normal community
for three years since 2017. Their current location is 503 S. Main St., in
downtown normal. The Bird’s Nest is a custom shirt shop located in the
heart of Normal, IL on Illinois State University’s Campus. It continues
to provide services to express school spirit, promote organizations, and
customize the creativity of individuals on clothing or accessories. The
Bird’s nest relies on its employees, customers, and community to
operate productively.
1.3 Mission The Bird’s Nest mission of “Turn ideas into apparel” has remained the
same for the past three years.
1.4 Value Proposition The value proposition is a concise outline showing what sets apart the
Bird’s Nest from any other competitors in the area. The Bird’s Nest
prides themselves on having a quick, reliable service with excellent
customer service. The Bird’s Nest primary focus is to sell clothing to the
Illinois State community here in Bloomington-Normal.
1.5 Organization The Bird’s Nest organizational structure consists of a full-time manager.
Structure Below the manager are 11 part-time employees and a few family
volunteers. If short on staff, or need extra help, family relatives will
come to the store and spend their time where it’s needed. Family
relatives are needed due to a few full-time employees and employee
retention from the workers being mostly part-time college students.
Below is the name of the current full-time and part-time employees and
the position they currently hold.
1.6 History & Culture Before the Bird’s Nest opened in 2017, the manager and owner, Brian
Martin, ran an apparel shop out of his house. He started a business called
J and B apparel. Within a few years, he wanted to expand his business to
a retail shop where he could help the Illinois State University
community. As Brian explored the Bloomington-Normal community, he
came across a business owner who needed a subleaser to split the cost of
a space he owned. Brian thought this would be a great start to his career
and decided to take the space. Now, the Bird’s Nest has been open for
three years, where they rely on students, organizations, teams, and
Registered Student Organizations to continue the business.
The public views The Bird’s Nest as a business with outstanding service
and great prices. The Bird’s Nest performs above and beyond to help
with orders that need to be done quickly. The t-shirts that were made
were of great quality. While the public views The Bird’s Nest has a
place with great service and quality, there is a lack of awareness about it
in the community. The public perceives The Bird’s Nest as a reputable
business but they wish they knew more about it and it was advertised
more.
The Bird’s Nest values its employees with equal attentiveness without
promotions or competitions. Brian manages with understanding that his
employees are mainly college students, so he is flexible with schedule.
The schedule is run by employee availability and the manager works
around that. Shifts normally range from 4-6 hours for part-time.
2.0 Situation Analysis Analysis of The Bird’s Nest’s business situation is important because it
faces pressures from its internal and external environments. The current
internal environment has experienced varied scheduling due to reliance
on temporary student workers. This has resulted in a high rate of
turnover among employees. The Bird’s Nest also faces external
challenges as it withstands high competition from other apparel
businesses. This has resulted in customers choosing a different shop to
purchase clothes. The recent employee retention rate has been low due
to temporary student employees causing schedules to vary. The current
state external environment between employees and the community has a
limited social media presence affecting customers not to choose The
Bird’s Nest as their top custom apparel destination. This section lays out
background information on the business and critical internal and
external issues.
2.1 Definition & Scope of The Bird’s Nest is an organization that sells custom apparel (t-shirts,
Situation sweatshirts) throughout the Bloomington-Normal area. A lot of students,
alumni, faculty, and registered student organizations use this t-shirt to
shop for clothing. While the business has been up and running for three
years, each business will face some challenges that need addressing.
Some external issues that they are facing include marketing and sales.
Currently, they are not as active as they want to be on social media.
Additionally, they are facing internal issues such as employee retention
and internal coordination, which is causing disorganization among
employees in the business.
The Bird’s Nest has not achieved the sales that it wants to grow. One
key external issue that is important to recognize is by not being as active
on social media; the public is not aware of the business’ deals,
promotions, and services. Mainly, the Bird’s Nest is not reaching
potential customers. Since social media is a big part of our society
today, it will help give the Bird’s Nest an advantage over other local
custom apparel retailers. Foot traffic is partially also affected by this
because there is not enough reach spread across their social media. Foot
traffic is an essential part of running a successful business because it
leads to higher sales and revenue numbers.
2.2 Stakeholders The Bird’s Nest has multiple public's that work within the Bloomington-
Affected Normal area. The stakeholders involved with this business all have an
integral function that helps with the store’s success. The external
stakeholders include outside vendors that provide supplies to the store.
Along with vendors, Bird’s Nest relies on the community to help keep
business booming. This company needs to serve and appreciate its
external support systems. The internal stakeholders hold a more
responsible role in this company. The owner and manager, Brian Martin,
and his family are the sole owners of this company. They oversee
multiple employees and volunteers that act as internal stakeholders as
well. The volunteers are family members that express willingness to
help during busy hours. Employees and volunteers are essential to Bird’s
Nest because they help with customer services.
2.3 Competition The Bird’s Nest is unique because of its low prices and fast service in
the Bloomington-Normal area. However, low prices and fast service
does not eliminate potential competitors. This is not something The
Bird’s Nest can change, but it is important to discuss the possible
competitors in the nearby area. Below are different competitors in the
area that pose a threat to The Bird’s Nest.
ISU Barnes and Noble: The official ISU bookstore. This is a brand new
location in the Bone Center on campus. Not only does this store offer
high- quality spirit wear and accessories, but they have an entire
textbook section. This brings in a lot of foot traffic from students
looking to buy their new textbooks for the next semester.
Varsity Sportswear: Varsity Sportswear is located in the heart of
Normal. Varsity Sportswear offers an abundance of products from
apparel to custom blankets. Not only is the store available for people to
walk in, but they have an online shop for customers not to have to leave
their house to buy products.
University Tees: Online t-shirt shop that universities around the country
use for Greek life organizations. They create custom greek life apparel
with unique and updated designs. Their website is simple to navigate
through to create quotes and purchase in bulk.
Located below, our team put together a SWOT analysis that highlights
2.4 SWOT Analysis the Bird’s Nest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Strengths resemble what the Bird’s Nest does well internally, while the
weaknesses resemble what the Bird’s Nest could improve. The
opportunities portion resembles openings for something positive to
happen, and threats resemble things that could negatively affect the
Bird’s Nest externally. The SWOT also included aspects, implications,
and actions that will help make the company more successful overall.
2.5 Market Position The Birds Nest strives to “turn ideas into apparel,” which is why it
serves anyone who wants to bring life to their ideas in various types of
apparel. The Birds Nest provides exceptional customer service and
strives to give the best results. Due to a lack of employee retention, it’s
hard for the Birds Nest to maintain trained customer associates. The
Birds Nest represents a variety of Illinois State University college
students, parents, Alumni, and large registered student organizations or
organizations around campus. The Birds Nest continues to provide
affordable prices and deals for custom-made apparel and a well-
maintained image. The Birds Nest can grow and maintain its image by
following this proposed plan to improve overall company success.
3.0 The specific plan the organization must do this fiscal year to get it closer to
Implementation realizing its vision are specified and defined in this section. Use this paragraph to
Plan adequately foreground the substance of the following subsections.
3.1 Objectives, Below there is a table that outlines the objectives, strategies, and tactics that are
Strategies, & essential in the Bird’s Nest strategic plan. Objectives are important because they
Tactics focus on the desired effect while being supported by benchmarks and rationales.
Rationales are vital because it explains why the objective/ goal will help the
organization. Benchmarks are a point of reference for the desired goal. Strategies
narrow down the ways to help achieve objectives and perform them efficiently.
Tactics are the specific tasks our team has set out to help achieve the overall
success and objectives.
Benchmark: No current
benchmark.
The following table describes four categories of factors that could positively and
3.2 Critical negatively affect the Bird’s Nest when trying to fulfill its objectives.
Success Factors -Opportunities include occasions where the Bird’s Nest can capitalize the
situation to build its image and increase member support and engagement
-Barriers include ideological, attitudinal, or social opposition to the Bird’s Nest.
-Environment includes internal and external factors that could affect the Bird’s
Nest objectives and operations.
-Resources include the employee and materials necessary to fulfill business
objectives.
3.3 Key KPIs are measurable steps for the Bird’s Nest to take throughout the plan to
Performance ensure a successful result. The Bird’s Nest management should periodically use
Indicators the proposed meaturants and compare them to the benchmark, or the initial point
of comparison.
Benchmark: Facebook has 4,000 people who like their page. Instagram
has 285 followers. Twitter has 28 followers.
KPI:Increase social media postings and engagement statistics on social
media platforms.
o Utilize meltwater and monitor social media analytic.
3.4 Budget & The budget for this plan includes the Bird’s nest internal and external income for
Resource the 2020-2021fiscal year (refer to appendix B for 2020-2021 budget) and is
Allocations subject to change for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. The budget includes expenses
that are taken from the suggested plan’s tactics to create new structure and
marketing plans for The Bird’s Nest. These expenses will be applied in
Objectives 1- 4. The expenses are proposed and low compared to the income
because the changes that need to be made are costly.
3.6 Evaluation To evaluate the effectiveness of this plan, there must be measurements taken
Method & throughout and at the end of the plan in May 2020. The measurements to
Anticipated evaluate the plan’s effectiveness include: increasing social media postings and
Results engagement statistics on social media platforms, create monthly employee
evaluations to establish a stronger communication system between management
and employees, set deadlines for surveys to be completed two weeks after
distribution and hold employees accountable for completion, and the day after a
large event or promotional deal release track foot traffic in store through security
footage. These measurements are in correspondence with the KPIs that should be
measured throughout the duration of the plan. See Section 3.5 for KPIs and
benchmarks.