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42) The following are three excerpts from a business plan for The Beautiful Dog, a food truck
that serves gourmet hot dogs (including vegetarian options) on a public thoroughfare near a
high-enrollment college campus. Identify which section of the business plan each excerpt comes
from, and explain your reasoning.
Excerpt #1:
The Beautiful Dog will be a welcome addition to the College Avenue community, which already
sees 8 to 10 food trucks lined up on a typical day, include Bodacious Burgers, Terrific Tacos,
Very Vegetarian, Tantalizing Thai, Perfect Pizza, and Champ’s Chunkalicious Chicken. The
Beautiful Dog will have a strong market position as the only food truck that serves hot dogs,
which national market research has shown is the third most popular fast food in the United
States. Our ideal customers are students, faculty members, and other members of the college
community who need a quick bite to eat in between classes and on their way to their other
responsibilities. Because our hot dogs are boiled, we will be able to serve people much more
quickly than our competitors who cook their food to order, such as Bodacious Burgers and
Tantalizing Thai.
Excerpt #2:
The Beautiful Dog has a very strong position with regard to pricing. The fast-food market
expects to pay higher prices for hamburgers and chicken; moderate prices for pizza; and low
prices for tacos and hot dogs. We will therefore be priced at the low end of the scale, making our
products more affordable to college students, who are often on tight budgets. We have already
begun tweeting at @TheBeautifulDog, and our Facebook page is up and running. We are gaining
hundreds of new followers per day, and we will use the Facebook page not only to advertise our
special “Dog of the Day” but also to reward our followers with special deals that they can get by
saying the “Magic Dog Word of the Day.”
Excerpt #3:
We expect that The Beautiful Dog will have an operating loss for the first three months as we
purchase equipment and get the food truck up and running. In months three to six, we expect to
break even as we pay off some of our start-up costs. By month seven, we expect to turn a profit
of $8,000 per month. Thereafter, we expect profits as follows: $9,000 per month during the
months that school in session full time (January through May, September through November);
$5,000 per month during the summer, when there are fewer students on campus (June through
August); and $2,000 in December, when the cold weather and the holiday break combine to
greatly lower foot traffic past the food truck.