INTRODUCTION During the Erasmus meetings, we have met experts who helped us understand how to create a business. They have showed the path to reach our goal. So, collecting information, we understood how to run a business, to get money, to advertise and to pay taxes. Finally we could easily plan our activity. Ignazio

ANALYSIS OF THE TERRITORY Noto, in the last ten years, has had an extraordinary turistic growth, thanks to the rediscovery of its architectural heritage and its natural landscape. This has made possible the birth of many businesses, among which hotels, agritourisms and restaurants. After a careful analysis of the territory and the products that it provides, and through the study of eight economic activities in our town, we were able to identify the missing businesses in Noto and its surroundings. Ignazio

SWOT ANALYSIS First, we developed some ideas about economic activities that, in our opinion, could be innovative. Among all the activities examined, a self-service dog grooming shop and a small factory for processing local food products were the most promising. We then did the SWOT analysis, namely we compared the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and problems of each of the two businesses, and we understood that the grooming service would be more convenient than the factory for processing local food products. Marta

ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITIES First of all, we searched for possible sources of financing for our grooming business, and we decided to choose the European funds, because they offered lost fund financing. After that, we started considering the first expenses needed to open the activity. Samuele

CANINE REGISTRY Soon after analyzing the SWOT and deciding on our business, we went to the Town Hall offices to check the canine log in Noto. We discovered that about 20% of dogs are microchipped, which is about 400-500 dogs. We only considered the registered dogs living in Noto municipality, which gave us a more accurate and complete picture. Adriana

COMPETITORS After a careful search of the possible competitors, we realized that there were other grooming shops in the neighbouring towns, but not of the same kind. Our activity outdoes the competitors, since it has a more flexible schedule (8 a.m. - 12 p.m.), lower prices and a good location. To be sure to reach our goals, we also considered only the possible clients living in our town, because dog owners in Noto have greatly increased in the last few years. Lavinia

GROOMING SERVICE STANDARDS To open a grooming service some sanitary certification is necessary, such as sanitary authorization and an HACCP certificate, which are the only documents you must pay for. To get a sanitary authorization for a grooming shop, you need to fill out a special form, while to get a HACCP certificate (Hazard-Analysis and Control of Critical Points) you need to do a training course. Vittoria

ADVERTISING To expand the range of customers, we have decided to stress web advertising (social media, internet) over the traditional methods (leaflets, posters), although we will still use these. Facebook has got a lot of clients, and so we have chosen to use a visual language in order to reach everyone. In the leaflets we inserted the contact information, the address, our services and our scheduled times. In this way we could let the clients reach us. Andrea The website reaches a number of customers, and it is complementary to the other social media used. On the website you can buy an USB key to enter the shop, and you can also find general information.

CONCLUSION We summarized all the information in a business plan. It includes a three-year simulation of the earnings. This simulation has confirmed our ideas. We project our earnings to be about 250,000€. Enrico Finally, we checked all the business plan again to be sure that our simulation and information was correct.

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION Andrea