Business Development Plan: Herbal Salon in Birmingham, UK - Project

This project presents a comprehensive business development plan for establishing a herbal beauty salon in Birmingham, UK. The assignment begins with an introduction outlining the rationale for choosing this topic, emphasizing the growing demand for grooming services and herbal products. It defines the aim and objectives, including market share acquisition and the use of marketing tools. The project provides a detailed literature review of the salon industry in the UK, discussing the different types of salons, market trends, and consumer preferences for herbal products. The methodology section outlines the research approach, data collection methods, and analysis techniques. The data/result analysis chapter presents the findings from both qualitative and quantitative research. The discussion, conclusion, and recommendations chapter interprets the results, assesses the achievement of objectives, and provides suggestions for future improvements. The plan encompasses market analysis, competitive analysis, marketing strategies, and financial projections, offering a complete roadmap for launching and operating a successful herbal salon business.

Business Development Plan

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................3
Abstract........................................................................................................................................3
Rationale......................................................................................................................................3
Scenario chosen...........................................................................................................................3
Aim and Objectives.....................................................................................................................4
Background of the project...........................................................................................................4
Structure of the project................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................7
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY......................................................................................15
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA/RESULT ANALYSIS.......................................................................20
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................34
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................38

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Title: To prepare a business development plan for opening a herbal salon in Birmingham,
UK.
Abstract
This assignment is based on establishing a new business in Birmingham, UK. This report
will provide an insight into the core aims and objectives pertaining to the business idea and
analysing the idea through the appropriate literature and the secondary research data. It will
involve use of various marketing tools and techniques for further discussing the business idea. It
will state the research methodology which is being used for achieving the desired objectives. It
examines the various aspects of the business ideas and makes use of various sources of data in
order to gather relevant market related information on a current basis which will act as a support
system for effectively analysing the market and future prospects and potential of the market in
meeting up with the changing market conditions. In simple terms, it will provide a direction
through which the new salon business idea can be implemented in the Birmingham, UK. It is
recommended to analyse the market continuously and make use of high quality products.
Rationale
The rationale behind selecting this topic is nowadays, there is an increase in the demand
of the grooming services as people are more and more interested or concerned about their skin
and beauty. This has resulted into increase in the demand of the salon services. Apart from this
people are interested in herbal and organic products involving no chemicals and having no side
effects. This topic is important now as there is an increase in the awareness among the people in
relation to their well-being. Thus, this makes the selection of this topic important. There
researcher has analysed the data pertaining to it which will be made useful in effectively
developing the business plan. It will take into account the needs and preferences of the
consumers in the respected field in order to meet with their expectations and retaining them for
long and building a good relationship.
Scenario chosen
The scenario chosen for the purpose of introducing the new business idea in the market is
the herbal beauty salon which will be established in Birmingham, UK. This business scenario is
being selected because there is lack of herbal salons in the place which can pose as an
opportunity for meeting the needs and preferences of the customers in a better way. Along with

this, it will help in taking the first mover advantage and grabbing the greater portion of the
audience along with the larger marker share. This scenario is considered to appropriate as it is
having a huge potential in the selected marketplace. If the opportunities are rubbed and analysed
on an appropriate time then it will result into a huge business success.
Aim and Objectives
Aim:
The aim of the project so to create a business development plan for the purpose of
establishing a herbal beauty salon in Birmingham, UK.
Objectives:
 To understand the herbal salon market in Birmingham.
 To acquire the market share of 20% in first two years.
 To determine the marketing tools which can be useful in establishing the business idea.
 To discuss the issues of the business model.
Background of the project
The salon business has been growing at a higher pace which is mainly because of the
increase in the demand of it among the people irrespective of type and the age group. The
increase in the consumer awareness, hygiene and the personal grooming has further widened the
market for the salon services. But, apart from this, consumers have started understanding the
negative impact of the non-herbal beauty care products which has caused a rise in demand of the
herbal products among the consumers. There is an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who
are coming up with the attractive and innovative business ideas which helps in effectively grab
the opportunities being available. The idea of establishing a herbal beauty salon is that there are
very few in number or no such business in the chosen area. Therefore, the selected market is
considered to be full of potential for generating positive results for the new business
establishment.
Along with this, in order to generate the need for such herbal services among the
consumers will help in acquiring the more customer and creating a place in the prevailing
market. This report will provide an insight into the various factors or the elements which the
businesses are required to taken into account in order to identify the key factors having an impact
over the successful implementation of the business idea. This study will be helpful in
understanding the current market industry pertaining to the business idea and based on which

strategies that is available with the business would be identified which can be useful in
effectively identifying and implementing the right strategy. It incorporates making use of the
various sources for the purpose of collecting market and business related information which will
help in effectively accomplishing the desired business objectives. Apart from this, it will provide
the proper analysis and discussion of the project findings and based on which the relevant
recommendation is being provided.
Structure of the project
The structure of the project defines the procedure in which the project will be carried out.
It states the different chapter which will be incorporated in order to effectively complete the
project along with the attainment of the desired objectives.
Chapter one: Introduction
This chapter is discusses about the topic which is important for the reader to understand
the topic based on which the entire project is being done. It states about the rationale behind the
selection of the topic, describing the scenario selected and stating the aims and objectives of the
title chosen (Xiao and Watson, 2019). Along with this, this chapter provides information about
the key focus area and the scope of the topic and also conveys the important and relevance of the
topic. Through the way of aims and objectives, it highlights what this study aims at to derive and
how. At last, it also provides an overview of the structure of the projects which will be covered.
Chapter two: Literature Review
The literature review chapter accounts for studying the scholarly articles which assists in
providing current knowledge on the specific topic and identifying the relevant theories and
models and any gap in the current project (Cseh, 2020). Conduction literature review which
incorporate the gathering, evaluating and analysing the already published articles, books and
journals which will be related to the project objectives. It will provide a theory on the framework
of the business development plan pertaining to the different areas which is required to be taken
into account. This chapter is considered to be very important as it provides the theoretical
framework for completing the project.
Chapter three: Methodology
The key part of the project is the methodology which is sometimes correlated with the
method which they are different. The methodology conveys the wide philosophical underpinning
to the research or project methods. It involves determining the approach which will be used like

qualitative or quantitative methods or the mixture of both (Ramlaul, 2020). It states the ways
through which the data is being collected and how it is being analysed which assists the user in
evaluating the reliability and validity of the data sources. It also describes the ways through
which the collected data will be further analysed which will help in effectively accomplishing the
stated business objectives. This is essential as it provides with the tools which will be used for
undertaking the project.
Chapter four: Data/ result analysis
The data analysis chapter of the project is mainly the place which incorporates all the
research together and starts in the way of findings. Here the data of both quantitative and
qualitative research will be put and findings from the same will be explained. It refers to easy
representation of the data which can be clearly understood by the users of it and depicts how the
methodology has helped in generating the final outcomes. It will provide the clear explanation of
the results based upon which the further decisions are being made. This is an important step as it
involves proper analysis of the data collection from which useful and relevant information can be
determined leading to undertaking proper business related decisions.
Chapter five: Discussion, conclusion and recommendations
This chapter of the research, incorporates assessing the meaning of the outcome
generated through the way of evaluating and interpreting the same. This is considered to be the
hardest part as it accounts for the proper and appropriate evaluation of the results which helps in
determining whether the stated aims and objectives are being achieved or not. It answers each
and every question stated in chapter 1. Based on the discussion, the conclusion is drawn which
highlight the outcome of the entire and whether it is able to effectively meet with the defined
objectives. At last, recommendation is being provided which also based on the study which can
be either in the form of further study or implementing change or suggestion for further
improvement.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Understanding the market and industry pertaining to herbal salon
According to Barber (2020) the salon industry in Birmingham, UK is being expanding at
the higher pace which has resulted into expansion in the job opportunities. There are various
forms of salon in UK which requires relevant health and beauty skills and qualification which
could help in improvising the services and securing the larger market share. The beauty salon in
UK has expanded so widely that it has become difficult to keep track of the various types of
treatments which is being available. There are different separate and individualized salons
offering small range of treatment ranging from nail art to the tanning. Along with this, in the
Birmingham market even the in the big salon's there is no single staff who is specialized in
everything and for each service different staff is there. The range of salon services in the UK
market is expanding and is also rapidly changing.
In accordance to the Hair and Beauty Industry Authority (HABIA), there are
approximately 35704 hairs salons, 1512 nail bars along with 13 thousand beauty salons in the
entire salon industry in UK and this statistics mainly accounts for the high street salons. As
defined by Shendell and et.al., (2018) these salons tend to offer either hair, beauty or the
complementary health treatments. Another form is the Spa salons, which is hidden inside the
self-contained complexes like the hotels, clubs and it usually offers the upmarket service. The
main objective behind using this is the offering luxurious experience to the customers from the
moment they set their foot in. As per the report of HABIA, spa salons offers various
complementary and health care treatment and there are approximately 400 spas in the UK salon
industry. In UK, there is increase in number of the mobile salons and as per the HABIA there are
nearly 947 mobile beauty therapists and there are others as well but in a more informal way. The
beauty therapist or the other service provider used to travel to the clients homes for providing the
services. The author further added that the Hair and beauty industry has generated more than
£7.5bn in regard top the revenue in the year 2017 and there has been a higher growth in the hair
dressing, barbering and the beauty services which is by 45% in terms of numbers in the previous
5 years.
As stated by Ourahmoune and Jurdi (2020) the hair and beauty businesses is having a
higher survival rate after the 5 years which is higher than any other sector or industry. Based on
the 2019 industry statistics, more than 2/3rd of the hair and beauty salons in UK employs less

than 5 people while on an overall basis 94% employs less than 10 people. There are nearly 43
thousand hair and beauty businesses in the UK industry which is an increase in the 1000 in
comparison to the last year. In the year 2019, the more than half of the salon businesses were
having a yearly turnover of lower than £99k. Ruck (2018) emphasized that on an overall basis
from the respect to the UK there are approximately 250000 people being working in the
hairdressing, barbering and the beauty without taking into consideration, salon owners or the
managers. In the field of hairdressing and barbering, 54 per cent people work and are mainly
self-employed and on account of the beauty there is 57 per cent people working as self-
employed. In this number, 83 per cent in the hairdressing and barbering are female while in the
beauty segment there are 94 per cent.
It can be further added that the sum total of the entire businesses pertaining to the
hairdressing and other beauty treatments in the entire UK industry in 2018 turned to more than
4.5 bn British pounds which has decreased to more than a million taking 2017 as the base year.
As stated by Hanson (2019) in the UK, the older generations were having the tendency to spend
more on their beauty treatment while the people under the age of thirty years incurs the
expenditure of 2 British pounds every week. Along with that, the female customers spends more
in comparison to the male customers with a difference of nearly 11 British pounds. Author
further added that in the year 2018, the salon industry has made a contribution of nearly 3.4 bn
British pounds to the Gross Value Added (GVA) in respect to the UK's non-financial business
economy.
According to Kaur and Kumar (2020) the UK market in respect to the herbal or the
natural and organic personal care products in being rising at the higher and healthy rate. Based
on the report of Ecovia Intelligence, it has been shown that revenue has been grown by nearly
30% since the year 2012. The natural hair care products are the most popular having a total
market share of 5% in the entire hair care products. But the market growth was relatively
slowing down which is mainly due to the political and economic situations pertaining to Brexit.
The depreciation of Sterling has resulted into higher price of the imported natural personal care
products which has made retailers little cautious in expanding the natural and organic beauty
products. As per the view of Nazareno, Zhou and You (2019) the major competition is not the
salon businesses but the products or the brands being used inside a salon. In terms of the product,
the top beauty brands of UK which are Bee Good, Seams, Waterman, conscious skincare, Boots

etc. while in regard to the salon businesses or outlets the top competitors are the Hush hair and
Beauty and Urban roots.
The salon businesses comes under the personal care or the beauty industry which
involves the hair cutting and colouring and the other beauty treatments pertaining to the facials,
manicures and pedicures. The revenue under this industry has been continuously growing till the
past 5 years until the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic. The basic hair salons remained fairly
sheltered because of the falling economic conditions. In the five-year through 2020-21, the
industry was expected to grow revenue at the 0.1% amounting to £3.9 bn. However, with the
increase in awareness and the willing of the consumers to compare the prices has pressurized the
salon business operators to lower its prices which is negatively affecting its revenue and profits.
Theme 2: Marketing tools for successfully implementing the business idea
According to Camilleri (2018) in order to successfully implementing and establishing the
new business of herbal salon will require effectively analysing the business idea and explaining
the relevance of it and in what ways it can be done successfully. There are different types of
marketing tools which are required to be sued by the organization which helps in ensuring that
the business idea will be implemented rightly. One of the important marketing tool is
segmenting, targeting and positioning., in which the market is segment and the target market
segment is decided for which the business idea is, so that the company can formulate strategies
based on the same.
Market segmentation
As per Kalam (2020) under this, there four types of market segmentation. First is the
demographic segmentation which accounts for the statistical data pertaining to the group of
population. It involves the age, location, education, family situation, income and ethnicity. This
will help in grabbing larger customer base. Second is behavioural segmentation which
concentrates on how the consumers acts. For instance, the purchasing and spending habits, user
status and interaction with the brand. Author further added that the behavioural segmentation
states that the businesses requires to know about its customer's action which helps in determining
how the customer will interact with the other brands and activities. Pertaining to the new
business idea, the organization will analyse the consumer and behaviour like consumption,
lifestyle and so forth and based upon which decision is taken. The business will analyse the past
purchasing or the spending trends in this industry.

Fotiadis, Mombeuil and Valek (2018) emphasized that there is another type as well which
is psychographic segmentation, in this, the audience is categorized in respect to the factors
related to their personalities and characteristics. It incorporates personality traits, interests,
motivations, psychological influence, lifestyle, values, priorities beliefs, attitudes and so forth.
These factors little difficult to identify in comparison to others because they are subjective. It is
not data focused and requires the research to determine. Further, stated by Gengler and Mulvey
(2017) the last and final is the demographic segmentation and is very simple as in this, customers
are categorized on the basis of the geographic borders, for instance, city, country, climate, urban
or rural. In simple terms, it targets the needs of the particular audience living in a particular area.
Like the needs and expectations of the urban people would be different from that of rural people.
Market targeting
As per Dolnicar, Grün and Leisch (2018) the target market refers to the specific segment
which is being selected by the business. It involves answering of 5 W's pertaining to the potential
customers. The organizations might divide the target customers under various categories and age
groups. In other terms, it is basically a strategy in which the large market population is bifurcated
into small segments or the groups.
Market Positioning
This refers to strategic process with the objective of branding of product and services in
such a way in order to create and establish brand image in the mind of the customers in the target
market. The business can position it business idea by creating value proposition involving the
USP of it, other benefits, and the value added services offering to it customers which separates it
from the others and highlighting how it can be beneficial for the customers. This is required to be
maintained over the life of the business.
Marketing mix analysis
As defined by HERNANDEZ and ÇENGEL (2019) the marketing mix mainly accounts
for the set of actions and the tactics which the organizations make use of it in order to promote
its products and services. It is the strategies which is being utilized by the company in order to
reach the target audience. There are 7Ps of marketing mix. A marketing mix is initiated with the
sell of the product. In the starting stage of the product development, it is very crucial for the
organization to carry out an extensive research on the life cycle of the product along with the
growth phase and other respective phases. Once the product reaches the decline phase the

marketers are required to come up with the new ways and approaches in order to increase the
sales again. In addition to this, author stated that the product should meet with the needs and
expectations of the target consumers. This is an important factor which the businesses are
required to take into consideration in order to consideration. When the organizations market their
product, it requires to identify the key features and the benefits to will bring to the customers
which will help in satisfying their needs and wants. Second is place mix, this accounts for how
the product or service will be made available to the customers from where the target market or
the consumer group will find it feasibility and easy to access. This may involve offers products
or services at High Street, applying online, mail order and so forth. For example, the distribution
strategies involves intensive, exclusive, selective and the franchising strategies. The
organizations are required to position the product at the best possible place.
As per Thabit and Raewf (2018) the next element is price mix which is considered to be
the most crucial component in the marketing mix. This is important in regard to determining the
profits and the cost of each product or service. Any changes made to the price of the product or
service can have an implication over the entire marketing strategy and along with this, it is
having capability to affect the demand and sales of the product. The pricing of the product helps
in determining the perception of the product. As a new business in the market, it is tempting to
set the price higher if it is considered that the product is worth it and the customer will be willing
to pat that price. For instance, sometimes, higher price products are deemed to be luxurious while
lower price products or services taken as lower in quality and ability.
Another element is promotion mix, which involves the making use of the varied
promotional activities which will result into boosting of sales and enhancing and improving the
brand image of the organization. According to Kumar, Shankar and Aljohani (2020) it is crucial
to identify the marketing technique which will help in targeting the audience more effectively.
There are various tools which is being used by the businesses like the sales promotion, personal
selling, social media marketing etc. Author further added that under the people mix, the
organization is required to incorporate the people having the required skills and knowledge in
order to effectively manage the work. All the organizations are dependent upon the people ho run
the business from the front line sales staff to the managing director. Thus, it becomes essential to
have right set of skilled people because they are considered much equal to the products and
services.

The next element of marketing mix is process and as per the view of Mahmoud and et.al.,
(2017) effective delivery of the product and services to the end user is the core objective of every
business. The service is delivered mainly when the customer is present. Having good and reliable
process in place will help in ensuring that the repeatedly delivery of the same standard level of
services will result into increasing the proficiency and along with this, it is a time and money
saving process through the way of increasing efficiency. The last element is the physical
evidence and almost all the services will involve the physical element even if the consumer are
paying for is something intangible. For instance, the company would be making use of the
printed bills for the product sold or the services availed by the customer. It also includes the
companies physical structure, logo, it employees etc. which can highlight its physical presence. It
also involves branding, product packaging, staff, sales representatives and is not only connected
with the product or service. These are the key marketing tools which the organization is required
to analyse and implement in order to successfully implement and accomplish the success.
Theme 3: Determining the conceptual and theoretical issues relevant to the topic
For the purpose of effectively meeting up with the business idea it is considered to be
important to make use of the business model canvas which can be utilized by the organization for
the purpose of getting an insight of the business plan and its implementation process. As per the
view of Umar, Sasongko and Aguzman (2018) the business model canvas is a great tool which
provides support to the businesses in understanding the business model in a simple and a
structured way. This helps in offering better insight into the key customers the business is willing
to serve along with the value proposition which is being provided or offered through the desired
channels and the way through which the business will be creating money. Further, stated by Sort
and Nielsen (2018) this model can also be utilized in order to understand the business models of
the competitors as well.
This is also described as the shared language which results into describing, visualizing or
assessing and changing the business models. This describes about the rationale behind the
business model which helps in delivering how the organization creates, delivers or captures the
values. This model is bifurcated into 9 building blocks which was initially proposed by
Alexander Osterwalder. According to Sparviero (2019) it is basically the strategic management
and the lean start up chart which is useful for the purpose of developing new or expanding the