Small business owners,

helping small business

owners achieve greatness.

A Proposal
for Marys
Books
Y

Submitted to Mary Adams

October 23, 2014
1001 Lake St. Oak Park, IL 60301
Brittany Nordick
Taylor Hoeschen
Katie Anderson

Table of Contents
Marys Books Current Situation..2
The Issues..3
Marys Books Needs...4
Objectives..4
Methods.5
Qualifications...7
The Budget....8
The Benefits......8
Appendix A: Timeline...10
Appendix B: The Budget..11

Marys Current Situation

Over the last 25 years Mary's Books has been an important member of the Oak Park
community. You have supported the Oak Park community by maintaining good
relations with other local businesses, providing good employment opportunities,
promoting uncensored literacy, donating space to local organizations, and you have
even partnered with a local university to provide text books to students at a discounted
price. Mary's Books has soared as a local business in Oak Park and will continue to be a
valuable asset to the community.
Recent events have led Borders Books, a large bookstore chain, to inhabit the
community of Oak Park. The historic Wiebolts store was demolished to incorporate an
oversized parking lot for the big box store. Demolishing the historic Wiebolts store is
upsetting to the vast number of community members that value Oak Parks unique
history and architecture. Additionally, Borders Books has demonstrated to the
community that big box stores are comfortable disregarding small communitys
structural integrity and values. Marys Books has maintained a tightknit connection
with the community for decades, and Helping Hands Inc. has prepared a plan unique
to your situation to ensure that the connection you have with the community will
endure the changes Borders Books will bring.
The historic Marshall Fields building that is Marys Books home is also home to other
local businesses. The local businesses sharing the Marshall Fields building have long
complied to a no-competition policy with each other. This agreement between the local
businesses created good relations and reduced stress for the owners. The new Borders
Books store has created uncertainty for Marys Books and the other businesses in regard
to the formation of unwanted completion. Borders Books has shown that the close knit
community of Oak Park and its local businesses are not of concern for big box
businesses.
At Marys Books, employee appreciation is commonplace. Mary is able to provide her
employees with a fair wage and great benefits that help them afford a comfortable life
in Oak Park. Borders Books employees are not given benefits or full time work
opportunities, which creates higher turnover rates within the company. Employee
standards such as those of Borders Books is likely to create job opportunities that will
not support the lifestyle that Oak Park offers, forcing those employees to live outside
Oak Park and commute to work. The lack of appreciation Border Books has shown for

their employees could result in unfavorable work opportunities in Oak Park that
disrupt community life.
Along with the strong values you hold to your employees, you also give your
customers high quality service that keeps them returning. Marys Books offer customers
a variety of books to choose from that include: local authors, childrens books, rare
books, college text books, historical books and virtually any books can be available
upon request. Your dedication to promoting literacy has never been more evident. The
local college students benefit from getting their school books at a 5% discount and the
generous textbook buyback option offered by Marys Books. In addition to providing
books to ensure the community members of Oak Park have access to good uncensored
education material, Marys Books also offers a reliable space for members of the
community to have group meetings. Marys Books uplifts the Oak Park community in
many ways and at the base of it all are the strong values of the owner, Mary.
You have enlisted the help of six local consulting firms, including Helping Hands Inc.,
to better understand Marys Books situation and to determine whether Borders Books
new location presents reason for concern. Helping Hands Inc. recognizes the need to
obtain results in a timely manner in order to prepare for your busiest time of year,
Christmas season. We will take the necessary steps to help Marys books continue to be
an integral part of the Oak Park community. The issues Borders Books new location
may inflict on Marys Books will be fully evaluated to ensure the best plan of action is
developed.

The Issues
After assessing Marys Books situation, Helping Hands Inc. has uncovered several areas
to concentrate our research efforts. The research to be conducted will be community
orientated in order to benefit not only Marys Books, but also the larger Oak Park
community.

Is Borders Books new location, across from the historic Marshall Fields
building, competition for local businesses, specifically Marys Books?
How will Oak Park residents respond to this change within the
community?
How might working with other local businesses benefit Marys Books and
the community?
3

Potential answers to these questions are to be provided by conducting thorough

research. We will outline the means for accomplishing this research in a timely manner
and include how the data recovered can be of benefit. Marys Books needs will be
evaluated next.

Marys Books Needs

Helping Hands Inc. is a local business working to better the Oak Park community
through thorough research and customized recommendations. Marys Books is an
invaluable asset to our community, routinely demonstrating high business standards
and enriching community life through literacy. We encourage small town business
practices that are fundamental to the values important to you and believe you have an
opportunity to serve as a leader to local businesses in an effort to stand up against big
businesses incompatible with the communitys values. Borders Books new location,
across from Marys Books, presents an immediate need to seek services that can provide
answers about where Marys Books future is headed.
We are dedicated to serving customers like you, and have developed a timely plan to
provide you with accurate answers and recommendations unique to your situation
through conducting various forms of research. In addition, we are experienced with the
community, being Oak Park residents ourselves we value local business, historic
architecture, and a rich diverse community life. Community and timeliness are
important factors when deciding what company will best suite Marys Books needs,
and we understand that. Helping Hands Inc. understands that a project well done has
many elements to consider, and we are confident that our plan will serve Marys Books
and the overall community above the rest. Borders Books presents an immediate need
to address what this means for local businesses and we are eager to begin uncovering a
solution to this predicament. Based on the needs of Marys Books, Helping Hands Inc.
formed several key objectives.

Objectives
Community life is one of Oak Parks defining characteristics. Marys Books has become
embedded in the community through providing educational material, uncensored
books, promoting literacy and diversity, and ultimately advocating for the Oak Park
community so dear to Mary. We believe that small businesses are fundamental to Oak
Parks rich community, and have developed a timely four week plan to ensure the
continued success of Marys Books.

We Plan to:
Objective 1: Survey customers and local residents on book preferences
and aspects relevant to Marys Books

Objective 2: Conduct inventory analyses of Borders Books and Marys

Books

Objective 3: Analyze potential for increasing profits through

collaboration with other local businesses

When the objectives listed have been completed, the situation with Marys Books will
be better understood and you will have the resources necessary to knowledgably plan
for the future. Helping Hands Inc. will provide you with reports of all findings and
customized recommendations based on research. To ensure the most accurate data, the
methods used to accomplish the objectives have been tested for reliability and validity.
To accomplish these objectives our teams methods will be thorough and provide
accurate results.

Methods
Objective 1: Survey Customers and Local Residents
Helping Hand Inc. will gain a thorough understanding of the community's preferences
and opinions of Mary's Books and their perception of what Borders Books will bring to
Oak Park. Local customers, as well as residents will be surveyed by our team to help
Marys Books continue to be an integral part of Oak Park community life and
understand the impact Borders Books new location will have. A Helping Hands Inc.
staff member will ask customers to fill out a brief survey upon them entering the store.
To survey local residents Helping Hands Inc. staff will use advanced software to
randomly select households in Oak Park to be included. A random sample design will
provide us with a representative sample and better allows us to generalize our findings
to the entire Oak Park community. Household members age 13 and up will be included
in the sample, however not all projected households will result in a survey completion
by any or all household members due to availability during the duration of the study.
The survey will be a combination of open-ended and Likert scale questions that ask
about how they perceive Marys Books atmosphere, inventory, importance to the
community, and general attitudes toward Marys Books. Local residents and customers
will also have a chance to point out things that they perceive to be positive and things
that could be changed to better the store. Finally, the survey will provide insight on
5

how the community perceives the arrival of Borders Books. Helping Hands Inc. has
designed this customized survey to facilitate the communitys involvement in planning
the future of Marys Books.

Objective 2: Conduct Inventory Analyses of Borders Books and Mary's Books

Helping Hands Inc. will conduct an inventory analyses comparison of Marys Books
and Borders books to highlight the similarities and differences between the bookstores.
Comparing the inventory of the two stores will allow you to better see which product
types may spur competition. Additionally, it will inform you on what products are
unique to Marys Books and provide our team the framework for developing a
customized recommendation to expand profits. Our analysis team will look at the
types of books and merchandise Borders sells and compare that to what Mary's Books
offers. We understand that you carry rare books, Oak Park historical books, architecture
books, and you can get almost any book upon request. From this we expect to find that
Marys Books provides many more books written by local authors and are distinctly
different from the inventory of Borders Books. However, text books and books directed
at college students are of particular interest to us. Marys Books assists college students
in their effort to become educated by offering a student discount program that gives
students a 5% discount. The inventory directed at college students that Borders Books
carries will provide you with a better picture of how your student customers may
respond to this change. Once our team has conducted an inventory analyses
comparison we will have another component necessary to determine how the new
Borders Books will impact our community and Marys Books. Charts highlighting
similarities and differences between each stores inventories will be included in our
reports and recommendations.

Objective 3: Analyze Potential for Increasing Profits through Collaboration

Helping Hands Inc. research team will look at potential profit increases for Marys
Books if collaboration with a local business occurs. This strategy can be used to stand
against big business growth and is community oriented, provided benefits for multiple
local businesses. Our team is particularly interested in how collaborating with local
artists to include art work in your books store may improve the atmosphere as well as
offer another type of product. This collaboration would benefit the arts community of
Oak Park by assisting the artists showcase and sell their artwork. The other
collaboration effort we are interested in is with Daves Donuts. We see an opportunity
to include a small caf in Marys Books in an effort to increase early morning business.
Timeliness is critical when working with businesses and we intend to develop the most
cost effective and timely, yet inclusive plan to make a caf possible in you store. Local
6

businesses may combat the recent trend of big business growth and increase profits by
working together to expand one or both businesses inventory. Helping hands Inc. will
also use the surveys taken by selected local households and Marys Books customers to
generate other collaboration efforts to investigate. Our research team will also contact
local businesses in the area and inquire about their willingness to work with Marys
Books and also provide them a report of our findings detailing the advantages of
collaborating. The businesses interested in collaborating will be asked to provide us
with financial information's that we allow us to formulate profit margins for Marys
Books. Our team will provide insight into the best opportunities to increase Marys
Books profit and improve Oak Parks local businesses. Helping Hands Inc. is the best
qualified to conduct the necessary research in a community-orientated timely fashion.

Qualifications
Helping Hands Inc. has a background flooded with experience to support the level of
expertise that is demonstrated within the proposal. As a company, we are devoted to
our clients and make it our personal goal to preserve historical aspects as well as
support small business in hopes of maintaining the wonderful community of Oak Park.
We make it our mission to enhance the community through research and development
by giving small business owners the opportunity to take advantage of the resources
available. As previously mentioned, Helping Hands Inc. has had a great amount of
experience with situations similar to Marys, not to mention highly qualified owners
and employees.
Helping Hands Inc. was founded in 1998, giving the company an unimaginable amount
of proficiency. The company began when three graduates of North Dakota State
University joined together in hopes of preserving the rich historical background Oak
Park possesses. After 16 years in the business, Helping Hands Inc. has not only become
a progressively successful company but also helped multiple other small businesses
achieve greatness.
Just four years ago, in 2010, Helping Hands Inc. was faced with their most challenging
project to date, a situation extremely similar to Marys Books but not surprising
considering the constant modernization society is encouraging. Pans Food Center is a
grocery store also located in Oak Park and was the first in the city and therefore, very
profitable. However, that success was put to a test as Trader Joes grocery store placed a
bid on a local building previously being leased for different events in the community.
Through extensive research and company dedication, Helping Hands Inc. created an
7

informational report, based on the data collected and established an efficient yet
detailed business plan for the locally owned grocery store. The proposal was later
accepted and the company claims the strategy Helping Hands Inc. developed saved the
store and aided in its future successes.
Helping Hands Inc. is committed to saving the small businesses established in the Oak
Park community and feels the next step in is to provide assistance to Marys Books.
Mary has made known her interest in maintaining Oak Parks history and Helping
Hands Inc. feels it is important to collaborate with small business owners to ensure a
future filled with the comforts of historical preservation and community togetherness.
With the skills and dedication the company has to offer, Marys books will be in good
hands, more specifically, Helping Hands Inc.

Budget
Helping Hands Inc. will provide a timely, cost effective plan that includes the most
comprehensive research and feedback to better understand Marys Books situation. The
details can be found in appendix B.

Benefits
Helping Hands Inc. is dedicated to providing superior service to assist local businesses
and the surrounding community. If provided the opportunity to work hand-in-hand
with Mary to better understand whether Border Books is competition, our assurance to
you is: to provide timely service, collect data from various sources with community in
mind, provide recommendations to best benefit Marys Books based on data collected,
and provide comprehensive reports of all findings.
Helping Hand Inc. was established in 1998 by three North Dakota State University
graduates. The fundamental values that are engrained in Oak Park led us to the
beginning of our journey to help preserve and promote the local businesses and historic
architecture that are fundamental to the community. Currently, modern trends are
disrupting the Oak Park community. Helping hands Inc. is dedicated to helping sustain
the traditional community values during this time of change. Through our advanced
research technology and community approach, you are assured the most inclusive data
reports and recommendations.
8

The Christmas season brings increased business for retail businesses, and we
understand that it is important to be provided with results prior to help enable the most
effective outcome. We guarantee to provide data in a timely manner, in addition to
being thorough and accurate. Therefore, we propose a four week period of time to
conduct research and provide funding reports. During the four week research period:
we will survey customers and local residents, review Marys Books and Border Books
inventory, and analyze potential profits gained by teaming-up with other small
business to provide additional products to customers.
The Oak Park community has been our focus since establishing our business. Over the
past several years of big business growth, our services have been treasured by local
business owners more than ever. Those that have utilized our amenities have flourished
during these difficult times and increased profits. Our proven methods of collecting
data are sensitive to community interests and will best provide you with valuable
information to continue to serve Oak Park residents. The Helping Hands staff is excited
to have an opportunity to continue assisting Oak Park through collaboration with
Marys Books.

Appendix A
Helping Hands Inc. would like to further reassure Mary that her needs will be met in a
timely fashion. The objectives are custom to the unique situation of Marys Books and
the execution of these objectives will be conducted in a community oriented manner.
Below is a table that provides a good visual representation of when objectives are to be
completed and when the projects findings are to be reported back to you.

Objective Completion Timeline

Survey
Inventory
Collaboration
Present Findings
Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

10

Appendix B
The budget outline for Marys Books would be included here.

11