Anima fashion

Anima fashion employees 6 women. Ever since the beginning we have been continuously investi-gating the market. As the results we have come to the conclusion that every day more and more women in Bosnia and in abroad are interested in having one of our unique and hand made prod-ucts. In this era of mass production, hand-made designs are getting more and more value in the costumer’s eyes. Bosnia as our primarily market has, according to the official listing done by the Ministry for foreign affairs, 4 354 911 inhabitants. Among this number, there are 2 193 238 women (5% are considered rich). Anima fashion costumers are among these 217 745. Besides the domes-tic costumers additional and very important point is the number of around 500 000 foreign tourists who come to visit Bosnia every year. They are also fund of Anima fashion products. Taking in con-sideration that most of those tourists come from the Netherlands and Germany, and having in count the positive feedbacks from these countries on our web-site presentation, we are of the opin-ion that our products will find a good market in these two mentioned countries as well. As the ini-tiator of Anima fashion project, I have invested the following amounts of money: arrangement of the business premises 7 000 Euros; knitting machines : 1 800; sewing machines 2 300; iron 1200. The complete amount is 100% my own investment. In a case we get a financial support to expend the production, we plan to hire additional three women in years 1+2 which would increase our cos-tumer number from 1 050 to minimum 1500. In order to hire 3 more women, to purchase new sewing and knitting machine and to rent a bigger working place, we would need additionally 10 000 Euros. With this calculation, we predict that Anima fashion can generate profit in 1 year period of time.

Being aware of the fact that good products doesn’t mean much without a good marketing, Anima fashion invested significant amount of money in marketing the products. This includes the follow-ing:
- Label Anima fashion (is being sewed on every product) = 516 Euros
- Specifications (where we write the quality, price,..) = 200 Euros
- Catalogue (with new collections) = 500 Euros
- Visit cards (with contact phone numbers, address, web,..) = 50 Euros
- CD presentation (comes with catalogue) = 50 Euros
- Questionnaires (goes with product and help us understand the costumers) = 100 Euros
- Iron plate with logo on the road (entrance in Travnik from the east)= 150 Eoros
- Web site = 550 Euros
- Presentations/ fairs = 200 Euros
- Fashion shows = 250 Euros
- TV/Radio and news paper commercials = 300 Euros

Besides mentioned, every three months I prepare marketing plan which presents a good guide for the coming periods and valuable ground for success evaluation.
At this stage, we don’t have business partners.
The only competitor Anima fashion has at this point is handicraft ‘Bosanske rukotvorine’ from Sarajevo (BiH). Anima fashion is thankful for this positive and good competition, how-ever our products are a bit cheaper because of the cheaper labour.
The start-up funds we plan to use for purchasing new and up to date sewing and knitting ma-chines, to hire three more ladies, to fund the knitting seminars and to rent a bigger working place.

This is Anima fashion SWOT analyzes:

Strengths:
• Products are hand made and unique;
• Wide range of qualitative products;
• Original and innovative ideas;
• Good prices;
• Taking orders;
• Guarantee on products;
• Experience in hand production;

Weaknesses:
• Lack of up to date equipment/machines;
• Weak connection with foreign markets;
• cash-flow;

Possibilities:
• sale of products on Travnik mountain Vlasic (tourist attraction)
• reasonable chances for foreign mar-ket;
• employment of more women;
• purchasing new and up to date equip-ment.

Threats:
• globalization;
• grey market and lack of loyal competition
• lack of Development strategy for the com-munity/ regional and economical commu-nity;
• high interest rate on Bank loans.

At the moment and with available sources, Anima fashion employees 6 women. AS a good results achieved in the market, our main goal is to expend the production by engaging more women, pur-chasing more sewing and knitting machines, renting a bigger working place and educating young women giving them a chance to be a part of our project. Our business provides an income for 6 families, providing them with more qualitative living standards. Also, with our good example, we help others to realize that this country and people living here have a chance for better life. What is Anima fashion long-term goal is to engage more and more people by teaching them the working techniques as well as teaching them to help me run the business. Anima fashion in 10 years needs to be not just self maintained business but also a company with all relevant segments and depart-ments such are: Management, Finance, Marketing, Administration/Operation and of course the most important of all — Production.