Rustic Rose Gifts and Treasures LLC
Intro
My company will be a Souvenir Shop. Specializing in locally and Michigan-made artisan crafts, high-quality clothing, and a wide range of souvenirs and gifts.
My shop will be located on beautiful Beaver Island. It will be a woman-owned and locally-owned business. Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan just 30 miles off the shore of the mainland. Beaver Island is home to roughly 600 people year-round. However, we have a booming tourist industry of people looking to escape from the cities to the island, where time slows down, offering a peaceful, relaxed way of life.
The Island has a year-round tourist industry from people coming to enjoy snowmobiling and ice fishing in the winter months, bird watching, bicycling, lilacs and other blooms in the spring, the warm, turquoise waters and sandy beaches in the summer, deer and small game hunting and the beautiful changing colors of the fall. Our two ferry boats and two airline services of small planes bring anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 tourists here every week. Peak season begins from the beginning of April to the end of October.
Rustic Rose will be the number one go-to souvenir shop for all those wonderful visitors. The island is greatly lacking in a souvenir shop that sells high-quality, stylish merchandise. I have lived on the island and have been a part of the outstanding community for 25 years now. I raised three children here on my own and have had this dream of starting a locally-owned business for years. I have accomplished many steps to get this business started but am looking for help to finish the final necessities.
My Team
Rustic Rose LLC will be a Mother, Daughter ran business. My daughter is a school teacher at the Beaver Island Community School k-12. She will spend her time off in the summers helping me operate the shop, order inventory, and manage social media and advertising.
Problem
With the giant construction cost spike of 2021, I have run out of funds to complete the building of the shop and start-up costs. Construction costs went up 23 percent since pre-pandemic, the biggest spike in 50 years. This is not something that I could predict when I started the process of building.
I am still looking at the cost to complete the building of my souvenir shop, including the shelving needed for the inside. The electronic aspects, such as a security system and a point of sale system. Finally, I also require funds for the inventory of my store.
The market on Beaver Island is vast and promising. As stated earlier, the island has thousands of visitors to the island every week. The week of the Fourth of July we see nearly 15,000 tourists visit our Island. The demand for a souvenir shop with updated, trendy, unique gifts, clothing, and artisan crafts is there. Rustic Rose Gifts & Treasures will supply these items with the support of additional funding.
Solution
We will be able to solve the hurdles we have encountered with funding. With the funding, we will be able to complete the building of my shop. Be capable of ordering the electronics needed for the business, and the inventory integral in making it the number one souvenir shop, on the largest, inhabited island in the Great Lakes region.
Business Model
Rustic Rose is a new souvenir gift shop that caters to tourists and the local community of Beaver Island, MI.
- Our intentions are to obtain an 80% market share and become a central hub of shopping activity for the local community and visiting tourists of Beaver Island.
Rustic Rose will be located at 37795 Kings Hwy, Beaver Island, MI in the Harbor district of beautiful Beaver Island. Rustic Rose is located directly across the street from the Island’s most popular public beach. We believe that this is critical to our initial success and long-term growth.
Our objectives are to receive a 50% profit margin within the first year. To have a customer base of 1,000+ by the end of the first operating year, and to achieve a net profit of $75,000 by year two and $100,000 by year three.
Competition
At this time there are only small souvenir spaces inside existing businesses. Both the Beaver Island hardware store and grocery store hold a small space within their businesses to sell souvenirs. These areas have only a few shelves of merchandise and are known to house very cheap or outdated gifts and clothing.
A quality souvenir shop with many options is more than needed in the community and for our tourists.
Your Vision
Rustic Rose will supply the market with fresh, new, and unique options. Items that align with current trends. We will pride ourselves in getting locally Island-made or Michigan-made artisan crafts.
The island is very lacking in this and it is often that tourists leave disappointed that they were not able to find gifts and treasures to share with friends and family or a token to remember their own amazing time with.
Rustic Rose is also in the prime location on the island being that nearly every tourist that visits the island must pass the location while on vacation. We are located one block from where the two ferries dock in the harbor. We are within a half mile of every hotel on the island. Rustic Rose is also directly across the street from the most visited beach on the island. Many hundreds of people visit the white sands of this beach every day in the peak tourist season. As well, we are the first shop that people see when coming into town from the two airports on the island.
Traction
Thus far at the start of this business, Rustic Rose has completed the clearing and preparing of the property for the building. Along with having the zoning approval for the building and business. Nearly two-thirds of the building was completed until the rise in building costs halted that. Rustic Rose has its own federal tax ID (EIN), and has requested an applied sales tax permit.
The business name has been registered and bank accounts have been opened. We have applied for an entity formation in the way of an LLC. Both a certificate of occupancy and a resale certificate have been applied for.
Many trade shows have been attended where relationships have been established with suppliers and artisans. Contact with local Artisans has been conducted and secured, including that with a local potter and a local homestead that supplies quality, sustainable fur products.
Funding Ask
We are asking for $75,000 in funding to be able to consummate our vision. As a mother, daughter team it has been an aspiration to bring an exceptional souvenir shop to Beaver Island. We are established members of the community and would cherish the opportunity to get our business up and running.
As stated, the funding would be for final construction costs, along with start-up and inventory expenses.
Projections
Winning to us would be seeing our doors open and happy faces finally able to find gifts and treasures that accurately represent this magnificent Island we call home! Being a part of the community is something islanders hold very close to themselves and having a unique artisan souvenir shop to offer the island and its tourists would be wonderful. Stability is also a win, we know we have the consumer base to achieve that.
Closing slide
The next steps, after finding funding, are to finish construction, purchase the start-up materials and inventory and open our doors! This will be a woman-owned and locally-owned business and we are eager to bring that to Beaver Island.