Pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy
The Health+ Pharmacy will operate from one store that will serve both mail
order customers and those who visit in person. We will thrive by employing
friendly and knowledgeable personnel, which, along with our great prices, will
drive the repeat business that we will rely upon. We only expect that as the price
of medication continues to skyrocket, The Health+ Pharmacy will appeal more
and more to the customer's sense of value and convenience.
Our advertising, mainly through ads in magazines, will be targeted at those who
are looking to save money on a pricey but necessary and regular expense.
Costs will be minimized by maintaining only one pharmacist and filling the
void with pharmaceutical techs. We expect to reach profitability by our second
year and will generate substantial sales by year three.
Health+ Pharmacys purpose is to create a vision in the hearts and minds of its
community as a company that cares about the welfare of its employees, the
quality of its products and services, and the honesty and integrity of its business
relationships.
OBJECTIVES
1
The objectives for the first three years include:
MISSION
The Health+ Pharmacy's mission is to provide our customers with the best
prices for their prescription medications. Our convenience and services will
exceed the expectations of our customers.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Inventory Management
Effective Operation
SUMMARY
2
Company Summary:
The Health+ Pharmacy will be located at Santacruz West, Mumbai and will
have branches all over India. It will offer prescription medications at discount
prices to our customers by mail order or at the store front.
Start-Up Summary:
The Health+ Pharmacy will incur the following start-up equipment costs:
Telecom system.
Storefront build-out.
Start-up inventory.
3
Business Structure
When hiring, we will look out for applicants that are not just qualified and
experienced, but honest, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build
a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders (the owners,
workforce, and customers). As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will
be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their
performance for a period of three years or more.
CEO will be
Managing vendor relations, market visits, and the ongoing education and
development of the organizations buying teams
Helping to ensure consistent quality of drugs and products on our rack
Responsible for the purchase of goods and products for the organizations
Responsible for planning sales, monitoring inventory, selecting the
merchandise, and writing and pricing orders to vendors
Ensuring that the organization operates within stipulated budget.
5
Managing external research and coordinate all the internal sources of
information to retain the organizations best customers and attract new ones
Sources for clients for the company
Responsible for promoting the companys image
Responsible for creating marketing and sales strategies, etc.
Represents the organization in some strategic business meetings
6
PRODUCTS
The Health+ Pharmacy will offer a wide range of prescription drugs to patients
based in Mumbai or nationally. Both generics and name brands will be offered.
In order for a customer to purchase medications mail order, they must first
contact The Health+ Pharmacy over the phone. The customer then needs to
either mail in the prescription, fax it, or email it. Once it is received and
payment arrangements are complete, the medicines will be sent out to the
customer through tie-ups with E-Commerce companies like Flipkart or Amazon.
Local customers may stop by the store front to pick up the medications.
The Health+ Pharmacy will only service customers who self pay. The self pay
customers will be attracted to The Health+ Pharmacy because of its superior
prices.
This model of saving costs by not providing unlimited access to the pharmacist
will be successful because the majority of customers will be customers who
have been taking said drug for awhile, as opposed to a new prescription, and
will not require their hand to be held during the transaction. They are interested
in The Pharmacy as an inexpensive source for their medication.
7
With each order a printout will accompany the medications providing directions
on how to take the medications, other drugs that should be avoided
concurrently, and other useful information. The Health+ Pharmacy will be using
computer print outs from industry software to reduce the cost of providing this
information.
Competitive Comparison:
Health+ Pharmacy will position itself as premium pharmacy that caters to those
customers who pay for their prescription medications themselves and upscale
clientele.
The top three reasons for customers to shop from Health+ Pharmacy are:
Knowledgeable pharmacist
Availability of medications
Fulfillment:
Technology:
8
Today, a lot of good retail businesses use technology to manage their business
better. The first area of concern is the Point Of Sale (POS) software. A good
Point Of Sale (POS) software allows the user to serve his customers quickly. It
allows the user to obtain specific reports like VAT returns, category & sub-
category sales, customer databases with customer information, purchases made
by the customer for a particular period, prescriptions of the customer and
average ticket price per customer.
MARKET ANALYSIS
9
Market Segmentation:
The Health+ Pharmacy's target market consists of two different groups, local
customers or walk-ins, and mail order customers.
The Health+ Pharmacy will employ two different strategies to reach these two
diverse market segments.
The Health+ Pharmacy's customers can be broken down into two different
groups, mail order customers and walk-in customers:
Walk-in customers. This group of customers are also looking for the
lowest prices for their medication. However, they tend to purchase
medications monthly at their local pharmacy, often at a higher price. There
is not a common demographic for this group of people, other than living in
the Portland metropolitan area. Some of these customers will pay for the
medications out of pocket and some will submit a claim to their insurance
company for reimbursement at a later date.
10
Market Analysis
The Health+ Pharmacy will seek to attract two different groups of customers
and will thus have two strategies to attract them.
We anticipate that by far our largest group of customers will be those who order
through the mail. These customers will be targeted through an advertising
campaign in magazines and newsletters that have an older (>55) audience who
regularly need medication and are aware in advance of their needs.
11
Chain pharmacies:- These are state or national chains. The advantages
to these chains are better prices through economies of scale, as well as
personalized service. The personalized service takes the form of the chain
having a record of your medication purchases as well as any allergies that
you have disclosed to them.
Local pharmacies:- These are the pharmacies where you typically know
the pharmacist and they know your medical history. This option is high in
personalized service and convenience, and high in price.
Mail order and Internet pharmacies:- These are similar to The Health+
Pharmacy.
Most customers buy medications & toiletries from places that are close to their
homes. Most business is generated through word of mouth. Multi-Chain stores
like Apollo and trust don't really have great advertising campaigns. Their
business is primarily through word of mouth. There are some other customers
who buy specialty medicines from specialty pharmacies like cash pharmacy in
Bangalore.
Market Needs:
The Health+ Pharmacy will be providing the market with a source of discounted
drugs. The Health+ Pharmacy will seek to fulfill the following benefits that are
important to their customers.
12
Accessibility: Products will be distributed through the conveniently-
located store front, or through E-Commerce companies like Flipkart or
Amazon.
The three basic needs that buyers look for in a pharmacy is:
Safety of medications
Hygiene
Availability of medications
Knowledgeable pharmacist
Market Trends
Today, there are not many players in the organized retail pharmacy market.
Most of the pharmacies are owned by independent mom & pop operations.
However things are changing now. Lot of big players are entering the market.
Huge companies get into the retail sector and start multiple store chains. And
they bypass the supply chain by buying directly from stockiest or even the
manufacturer. They cut out the distributor and thus can pass on the benefit to the
customer by offering a 10-15% discount. However it's difficult for the
13
independent retailer to offer such discounts as these margins go to the
distributor.
Another trend that is happening is that a lot of companies are trying to sell
consumer goods like shampoos, soaps and others through retail pharmacies. The
reason for doing that is because consumers tend to trust pharmacists more than
departmental stores and because pharmacies are more hygienic. This trend was
spotted by an article in the financial times.
14
SERVICE BUSINESS
Industry Participants
There are very few regional and national chains. Among the regional chains,
Wellness Forever, Apollo & Subiksha are some of the major players. Most of
the pharmacies do not offer discounts, however Subiksha offers a 10% discount
on all medications & a newly launched pharmacy chain Ayurvadulu offers a 4%
discount to all customers and 14% discount to senior citizens. Although they
offer a discount, their pharmacies are not very clean and hygienic.
15
Distribution Patterns
In prescription medications, the supply chain goes from the manufacturer to the
stockists to the distributor and then to the retailer. In FMCG products, the
products are sold from the manufacturer to the distributor and then to the
retailer.
16
STRATEGIES
Sales
Most of Health+ Pharmacys sales will come from its retail outlets. Each sales
associate will be trained to be a customer relationship associate using our sales
processes model. Home deliveries will be made to customers for extra
convenience. A database of customers with demographic information about
what they buy and when they buy will be maintained. Most likely Health+
Pharmacy will use salesforce.com as our database vendor.
Since discounts will be given to the customers, 1%-2% extra discount will be
given to the regular customers. With each order a printout will accompany the
medications providing directions on how to take the medications, other drugs
that should be avoided concurrently, and other useful information.
Pricing
17
back to its stores more often and develop a perception among customers that our
pricing is competitive.
Promotion
Sales Program
18
All Health+ Pharmacy sales associates will be extremely presentable. They will
wear uniforms at all times of work and present a consistent and professional
image of the company. They will be trained in its sales processes. Every new
hire has to be trained in its sales process before they get involved in any
interaction with the customer.
Competitive Edge
Finally, The Health+ Pharmacy is not designed to hold the patient's hand during their
purchase. We expect that the vast majority of our customers will already be informed
of how to take the medication, and any side effects or drug interactions that should be
avoided. We will simply provide each patient with a print out of all the relevant
information for consumption of the medication.
Sales Forecast
During the first month we will focus on setting up the store front and generating
both local and national visibility. Sales activity will begin in month two. Sales
during months three through five there will mainly consist of local business
through the store front. In month six we expect to see a jump in sales from mail
order. Sales will grow steadily from month six on.
19
MARKETING PLAN
The store interiors & store front should not have anything that is printed from
its computer on an A4 sheet or cut in pieces of paper as this makes its business
look extremely unprofessional. All communication material has to be finished
20
up by a good professional designer to give its business a strong professional
image.
Store staffs have to always wear uniforms and present a professional image of
the business. The core value proposition of Health+ Pharmacy is knowledgeable
staff, availability of medicines and the 'wow' factor - service, fun & refreshing
ambience.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
Good ambience: Our stores would very nicely designed & soothing
music will be played in the background to provide our customers a great
shopping experience.
Weaknesses
Opportunities
21
Threats
Strategy Pyramid
This will be done by portraying a professional image where all employees wear
a uniform and the store is neatly organized. Providing good customer service
where staff welcome them with a beautiful smile and even carry customer's bag
to the car.
Health+ Pharmacy will use consultative selling and relationship selling methods
to position itself as a pharmacy that customers trust.
All Health+ Pharmacy communication materials will be professionally designed
by exceptionally good graphic designers to portray a strong image of its
business.
Health+ Pharmacy will have banners in front of its stores that have a punch line
that says "Prescription medicines are our specialty. Health+ Pharmacy will
have a small 3 page brochure giving a brief description about its business.
Strategic Alliances
It may be beneficial to have tie-ups with doctors and clinics around the area
where doctors give Health+ Pharmacy customers a discount. This should help
22
the doctors as this will bring them more customers and will help Health+
Pharmacy customers as this will give them benefits to shop at Health+
Pharmacy stores. It also brings Health+ Pharmacy closer to doctors as this will
help Health+ Pharmacy promote its business in their clinics.
It may also be beneficial to have tie-ups with other brands where they give us
coupons and other incentives for customers to purchase their products. Health+
Pharmacy is still developing plans for co-marketing programs with its vendors.
FINANCIALS
Start-Up Capital
Personal savings
Investment by Partner
23
This is the key areas where we will spend our start up capital on;
The Total Fee for Registering the Business in Mumbai Rs.50000.
Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits- Rs.100000
Marketing promotion expenses as well as flyer printing Rs. 200000
Cost for hiring Consultant Rs.150000
Cost for Computer Software (Accounting Software, Payroll Software,
CRM Software, Microsoft Office, QuickBooks Pro, drug interaction software,
Physician Desk Reference software) Rs.350000
Insurance (general liability, workers compensation and property
casualty) coverage at a total premium Rs.250000
Cost for payment of rent for 12 month- Rs.2000000
Cost for Shop remodeling (construction of racks and shelves) Rs. 60000
Other start-up expenses including stationery and phone and utility
deposits- Rs.150000
Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments
of bills etc) Rs. 400000
The cost for Start-up inventory (stocking with a wide range of products)
Rs. 900000
Cost of purchase and installation of CCTVs: Rs. 350000
The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers,
Telephone, TVs, tables and chairs etc): Rs.300000
The cost of Launching a Website: Rs. 45000
Miscellaneous: Rs.100000-200000
24
CONCLUSION
Since there are many players in the market who provide discounts, Health+
Pharmacy will be providing the products at higher discounts than the other
retailers. Delivery services will be a lot quicker than the others since we
promise to deliver it within a day or 2. Apart from this we will also provide
prescription of medicines and how much dose to be taken at the time of
delivering the medicines to the customers which will make us a unique
pharmacy retailer.
It will benefit the human society as a whole and people will be able to access
medicines easily and at affordable prices and reducing their stress of
25
arranging funds for medicines as they will be self sufficient to buy the same.
We will ensure that people live a healthy life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.bplans.com/pharmacy_business_plan/financial_plan_fc.
php
http://www.mplans.com/pharmacy_marketing_plan/controls_fc.php
http://www.profitableventure.com/pharmacy-business-plan/
http://www.235268894-Business-Plan-Sample-Pharmacy.pdf
26
27