Enterprise Development Program For Rusher’s Bakehouse: An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Approach

Entrepreneurial ecosystem

Enterprise development program is the concept which strengthens the entrepreneurial management skills with the help of training resources and capacity building, as these practices encourage the good workplace practices in enterprises. In terms of the entrepreneurship development level, the most important purpose of the program is to identify and develop the tools and procedures which handle the long term effects of the entrepreneurial culture.

In other words, general purpose of this program is to contribute towards the enterprise culture in a country or society. Enterprise development program is basically the management training program which mainly focuses on starting and improving small business as a strategy for creating more and better employment while developing economies and economies in transition (Masson & Brown, 2014).

This paper helps in developing the key attributes with the help of hands on experience in practice, and it also develop the solutions in terms of the real challenges faced by the enterprise through the case study related to the business and project.

For the purpose of this assignment, we choose Rusher’s Bakehouse as a case study. This bakery serves number of varieties in breads and pastries, and they serve their products to the people of Sheffield and beyond.  Bakers, chefs, and baristas of this café make everything with complete knowledge and expertise, and there are no improvers and additives in their products. Cafes of the Rusher’s Bakehouse also provide variety of options in lieu of breakfast and lunch. They serve the coffee which is roasted by the pioneering northern roasters North Star Coffee, and they also ensure best taste and quality.

Structure of this paper includes the entrepreneurial ecosystem, strategic enterprise management, new venture creation, finance analysis and risk management, IPR, pricing structures, networking and customer relations, calculation of tax and VAT, book keeping, and effective pitches and presentations. Lastly, paper is concluded with the brief conclusion.

The definition of the entrepreneurial ecosystem states the collective and systematic nature related to the entrepreneurship. It is necessary to understand that new firms not only grows because of their talent and visionary individuals, but they also grow because of the environment and ecosystem developing the public and private players which nurture and help these new entrepreneurs, as they make things easy for them. This can be understood with the help of example, existence of the other ventures, finance availability for entrepreneurs, patent system, etc (Nambisan & Baron, 2013).

There are number of approaches in terms of defining and measuring the entrepreneurial or entrepreneurship ecosystems, but these approaches are wide in nature. However, some important components of ecosystems are present in each approach, and these components are defined below:

• Finance is the component which is important in each and every context, as it includes number of aspects such as access to debt, venture capital, grants, banks, microfinance institutions, public capital markets, development finance institutions, and government finance.
• Business support is the another component which mainly includes the networks related to the industry, incubators, legal or accounting services, mentors of business and advisers related to the techniques, credit rating agencies, etc.
• Policy is component which includes number of things in its ambit such as tax rates and incentives, cost for the purpose of starting the business.
• Markets is the place in which entrepreneur stands its business and conduct its business operations as it includes the domes companies, international organizations, consumers, distribution networks, retail networks, and also the networks related to the market.
• Human capital is the source which includes high schools, universities, technical training institutes, and community colleges.
• Infrastructure includes the electricity providers, transport providers, communications, and other providers of the utility such as gas and water.
• Research & Development is the source which includes the public research centres and laboratories, and private research centres and laboratories.
• Culture is the system which includes the media, government, schools, professional associations, social organizations that mainly support culture related to the entrepreneurship (Nanda & Sorensen, 2010).

Strategic enterprise management is defined as those management techniques, metrics, and other related tools which are designed for the purpose of assisting the companies in making the high-level strategic decisions. Business organizations using the Strategic enterprise management tool need to establish the strategic information system in their business for the purpose ensuring the information management and get help in the decision making related to the strategies.

Strategic enterprise management

Strategic enterprise management is considered as the solution that was mainly developed for the purpose of building an integrated system for the purpose of managing the diverse business process in the organization. The main aim of this process is to ensure the single unified system within the organization for recording the each and every move in the department through organizing, planning, executing and controlling processes.

There are number of tools of the strategic enterprise management which can be used by the Rusher’s bakehouse for ensuring the SEM in the organization:

• Rusher’s set specific goals for the purpose of improving the bakery’s position instead of getting only general goals such as profit maximisation.
• Different standards are established for the purpose of measuring the performance against the defined goals, and also provide adequate information to those who are involving in the decision making of the strategies.
• Activity based management approach is used by the Rusher’s for the purpose of seeking the evaluation of customers and projects in context of cost and benefit of the bakery and café (Radford & Bloch, 2011).

There are number of strategies which can be used by the Rusher’s Bakehouse for the purpose of ensuring profitability and long term survival in the market:

Cost leadership: It mainly focus on the leadership of the business in market in terms of the cost which means, that business must be the lowest cost provider in context products and services offered by them.

Differentiation: it is considered as the non-pricing strategy, as in this business does not attract the customers by offering them lowest price of the products but they can attract the customers by offering value adding features. In context of the bakery business, owner can increase the quality of the cakes, breads, and pastries (Clarks, n.d.).

It is necessary to register the business as an entrepreneur-legal person for the purpose of initiating any new venture, and this is known as entrepreneurial activity.

There are four business models which can be used by the entrepreneurs that are manufacturer distributor, retailer, and franchisees. In context of the Rusher’s Bakehouse, business model opted by this organization is the manufacturer model. As manufacturer purchase the raw material for the purpose of creating the product, and after creating the product, they sell it directly to the end consumers or to another business organizations which act as the retailers (Entrepreneur sight, n.d.)

This is the most difficult stage of the start-up, as all the activities are conducted for ensuring the selling of the products or services offered by the business to the consumers. Following are the components which must be ensured by the entrepreneur for the purpose of selling its products and services to the customers:

Market evaluation: In context of the Rusher’s Bakehouse, it is necessary for the bakery to done the effective evaluation of the hotel industry in which they operates their business.

In UK, Cafes and coffee shops are considered as the rapid growing industry as they are fall under the segment of the quick service market in the UK. It must be noted that bakery and coffee chains also merge into this market segment and this market witness the immense growth I past two years.

It is reported that almost 81% people visit the coffee shops on weekly basis and spend almost £9.6bn a year in almost 24000 outlets as stated by the Allegra Project Cafe 2018. These numbers are astounding, and there is slow but continuous growth of this segment. There are number of new entrants in the market which disrupt the market and also gain the attention of the customers (Café success, 2018).

Business Registration

Market size for café and bakeries are rising day by day in UK, and it is estimated that this growth will be continued in next five years. There are number of branded café in UK such as in 2005 there are only 2600 cafes, in 2008 number increase to 5225, and in 2017 this number is 7000 (Lanaporter group, n.d.). Following is the profit forecast of three years in context of the UK bakery and café industry.

Source: By Author

Before there were only few pplaces to buy coffee, but now this industry shows tremendous growth, and this can be seen below:

(By Source: BBC News, 2017)

Planning: The most important element of the success is the effective planning, which means, entrepreneur must ensures the effective planning in terms of the strategies opted by the seller, markets information, etc. Planning must be done after the effective evaluation of the industry in which business operates (Broadbent, 2018).

Strategic decision: In this step, owner must choose the sales strategy they want to adopt for selling their products and strategy must be competent with the planning done by the entrepreneur:

• Understanding the target market is the most important strategic recommendation which must be adopted by the Rusher’s, as in this business targets the potential buyers on the basis of the market evaluation.
• While selling its products, business must have the appropriate budget, and this budget must be set for each and every activity related to the sales such as marketing, commission, etc.
• The most effective component of any sales strategy is the competitive advantage, which means, Rusher’s must focus on developing the competitive advantage over its competitors. This advantage can be developed in number of forms such as cost, quality, service, etc. (Leonard, 2018).

Marketing is considered as the concept and tool which play important role in the growth and success of the business. As marketing is the tool which helps the business in introducing the product to the customers. Effective marketing helps the business in ensuring growth and profitability. Following are the strategies in terms of marketing which can be used by Rusher’s business:

Social media: These days, business cannot ignore the power of the social media, as there are number of business which ensures their growth and success only with the help of social media. It is the most important marketing tool which must be used by the Rusher’s for the marketing of their products and services. Some important platforms of social media are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (Adams, 2017).

Search engine Optimization: this is the tool which can also be used by the business for marketing, as in this people who are searching related this will definitely see this business as an option.

Print Media: now a day, print media is considered as the old technique of marketing, but no one can ignore its effectiveness, as it is most reliable technique also. It mainly includes brochures, templates, advertisement, etc. 

Advertisements: in this Rusher’s can advertise their products on different platforms such as television, radio, etc. (Caylor, 2017).

Pricing strategy is considered as one of the classic 4P’s of the marketing that are product, price, place, and promotion. Pricing structure or strategy must be consistent and uniform in terms of the pricing of the products, and services for the purpose of achieving the business and market goals of the organization. Following are important tools which can be used by the Rusher’s for ensuring effective pricing strategy:

• Branding is the tool which is sued by the entrepreneur for the purpose of strong and good image of the business.
• Consistency is the negative approach which is used by the entrepreneur in building the image of the organization.
• Pricing strategy also affects the bottom line performance of the business, which cause direct impact on the revenue of the business (Hgiu, 2009).

It is necessary to understand that business runs on money, and following are the finance options which are available to the business start-ups:

• Personal funds is the most common source of finance, as there are number of business owners which provide funds to the business from personal savings.
• Credit cards and credit lines is the another source of finance, as they ensure good financial standing for the business owners.
• Loans from financial institutions and banks are the sources which are available to the entrepreneurs at any point of time (Gartenstein, 2018).
• Venture capital investment is the source which is derived from the private equity. As it is considered as the form of financing which is used by the firms for the purpose of funding the small and early stage business organizations. This option can only be used by those firms which demonstrate the high growth in term of sales, revenue, etc.
• Crowd funding is considered as the funding source which provides funds to the project or venture by raising the money from large number of people, and these people contribute very less amount of money through the internet. Crowd funding is defined as that financing method which collect the funds for the start-up business from the large group of individuals instead of raising funds from the small number of investments. In the present business environment, this source of funding is very popular as there is less risk (Marks, 2018).

On the other hand risk management is the approach which evaluates and identifies risk related to the business operations at each and every stage of business. This approach not only identifies the risk but also ensure the strategies for handling the risk. It is necessary for the entrepreneur to develop such risk management strategy which covers all aspects of the business operations and risk related to these operations.

New Venture Creation

Effective risk management strategy is the only way through which threats related to the risk can be prevented and its effects on the business can be minimized. Following are most important steps which can be used for developing the effective strategy in this context:

• Identification of the risk is the first and foremost step of the risk management strategy.
• Evaluation of the risk, so that tools can be adopted for handling the same.
• Treatment of the risk by developing and implementing the tools identified in above step.
• Continuous monitoring of the risk management process (Sheehan, 2010).

Intellectual property is the approach which can be used by the individual for the purpose of protecting its idea, products, or services. Rushers can use the IP rights in context of protecting the products they offered to their customers, if such products and services are unique in nature. Following are the types of rights which can be used by the Bakehouse for the purpose of protecting their products:

• Trade secrets
• trademarks
• copyrights
• patents

This can be understood through example, Rusher’s bakehouse can take patent of their name so that no other individual can use their name as the business venture (Gov.UK, n.d.).

Networking is considered as the socio-economic business activity through which business people and entrepreneurs ensure the strong business relations and use these relations for the purpose of creating the business opportunities. Following are the three types of networkings:

• Passive Networking
• Desperate Networking
• Mindful Networking

This approach helps the business organization in grabbing the market and ensure strong customer base for their business. Customers are the key essence of any business, and it is not possible to ensure long term survival of the business without the strong base of customers. It is necessary that networking don by the organization must be customer oriented.

Entrepreneurs are taxed on the basis of the individual tax rates, which are stated in this table:

Category	Tax rate	Income after allowances
Basic rate in rest of UK	20%	Up to £32,000
Higher rate in rest of UK	40%	£32,001 to £150,000 (GOV.UK, 2018)

Vat is considered as sales tax in UK and this tax is added in the price of the maximum goods and services sold out in UK. It must be noted that current rate of the VAT in the UK is 20%.

Cash flow Management:

Maximum start-ups failed because of number of reasons, but the most common reason behind this failure is the running out of the money. It is necessary for the entrepreneur to manage each and every penny in effective manner and maintain record of the same. If entrepreneur fails to manage the cash flow in effective manner then they put their business in the dangerous position (Long, 2017).

Book-keeping is the most difficult task, and it advisable to get the professional help for the same. As this tool includes number of techniques, it is necessary for the business owner to under the basic concepts of these techniques. Information in the books must be recorded in accurate and fair manner.

Personal survival planning is another important component, while conducting the business; individual must prepare the backup plan for their survival in case anything goes wrong. This backup plan states the alternatives through which situations can handle.

Conclusion:

After considering the facts of the above paper, it is clear that number of areas affect the development of the enterprise. All these areas play important role and recognition of these areas is important for ensuring the development and survival of business. Enterprise development program is the concept which strengthens the entrepreneurial management skills with the help of training resources and capacity building, as these practices encourage the good workplace practices in enterprises. Main purpose of this program is to contribute towards the enterprise culture in a country or society. Enterprise development program is basically the management training program which mainly focuses on starting and improving small business as a strategy for creating more and better employment while developing economies and economies in transition.

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