In the dynamic business environment, it is very crucial for an entrepreneur to be able to take sufficient risks and ensure that their business becomes successful. Moreover, entrepreneurship is not just concerned with the idea generation of the business but is also concerned with managing the daily operations of the business successfully (Burns, 2016). Moreover, there are various factors lying in the external environment of the business which have a direct impact on the functioning of the business. In addition to this, it needs to be ensured that if a business is in the form of a partnership, it needs to ensure that both partners take up equal responsibility for the management of the business and run it effectively. The primary aim of the report is to discuss the different ordeals and opportunities which are present for an entrepreneur through a case study of Bespoke Threads. The journey and the probable decisions which can be taken by Alison shall be discussed.
Franchising Recommendations for Alison
A business cannot function effectively without a well laid out plan. This is because the plan assists the organization as well as the owner of the enterprise to take correct steps which would guide them and assist them while decision making. Alison wanted to start an enterprise on her own and got into the bespoke fashion industry along with a partner. Having no prior knowledge about the functioning of the industry, Alison hired external employees to manage the business. Although this was considered to be an expensive operation, it proved to be successful for the long run because the business was generating profits (Parker, 2018). As the business was performing well, Alison and her partner decided to expand it and bring in a third partner for the firm. Unfortunately, things did not work out well with the partner, and the business had to be closed down. This did not disdain Alison from continuing her operations from home (Fan, Kühn and Lafontaine, 2017). As Alison had the knowledge and put in behind her hard work, the bespoke store was functioning well even from her house. Hence, this had a positive aspect as well and assisted her to save considerable costs and this proved to be a helpful aspect even when the economy of the country clashed. Alison had a family to look after as well and therefore, working from the convenience of her home proved to be a good aspect.
There exists one problem with the business which is that it has reached its capacity and hence, Alison would be requiring external help to run the business effectively which is not possible because she would not be able to manage the staff and hence, to make the different operations easier, Alison has considered to give out the enterprise for franchising. Franchising is a god opportunity which can be harnessed by Alison (Schaper et al., 2015). Moreover, the different benefits of Franchising for Alison have been given below:
As stated above, Alison`s business is at the brim and has reached its capacity. Moreover, this puts her under additional pressure to operate whereby she might be affected severally. In case she gives her business for franchising she would be able to reduce certain operational pressure which can then assist her to maintain a wok life balance as well as mange the existing business well.
If Alison continues her operations in this state, the quality of her work shall deplete and this can have a negative impact on the brand name of the organization. Hence, in case the operations get divided, she will be able to manage the current operations well.
Franchising can be described as a cost effective manner of expansion. This is because the firm does not have to incur any extra costs for the expansion of the enterprise. Along with it human capital is also not required.
In scenarios where the franchisee purchasing her business will market the firm, this shall have a positive impact on Alison`s business as well and help it to become popular in the long run.
In case Alison is not being able to manage well, she can get the assistance of the talent manager of the franchisee for her operations and moreover, with respect to the scalability aspect, Alison will be able to ensure that the size of the franchisee and other terms are as per her convenience.
Although Alison has been successfully running her business, however being a sole proprietor in this set up, she is not being able to successfully manage it and hence, as stated earlier should give it out for franchising (Storey, 2016). However, expanding the business operations is not an easy endeavor and the firm may be faced by the following shortcomings and barriers.
Alison`s business has already reached its maximum capability and hence, she has been facing difficulties in managing it. In scenarios where she will be required to expand the operations, her business will become impossible to manage and hence, she would be now be looking after two branches. This can take a toll on her health and lead to several complications.
Expansion requires funding and hence, funding can be difficult to attain. Very often even though finding is available, the different managers may find it difficult to manage these funds and utilize them effectively (Nijmeijer, Fabbricotti and Huijsman, 2014). Hence, for this purpose, it will act as a barrier.
As mentioned in the case study, Alison needs to look after her family as well and at present even though there is just a single branch to look after, Alison finds it difficult to maintain a work life balance and in case she expands it, she will not be able to take care of both these aspects at once.
Alison is working alone in her business and hence, she already finds it very difficult to manage the business she has in hand now, it will be very difficult for her to look after an expansion plans single handedly.
Expansions, even with the right factors are always not successful in nature and any organization who wants to attain success, has to take a considerable risk at the first step and then ensure that they are able to be successful. Hence in this scenario, Alison is faced by a risk as well and also stay with the psychological barrier of a failure.
Moreover, the environment in which her business is operating in is already very complex and tends to change quite often (McAdam, 2013). Earlier, she was able to face the economic down turn effectively however, this may not be the case at present and she may not be able to adapt to the new trends alone.
It is not easy to maintain a franchisee and for this reason, very often the enterprises are faced by the problems arising from the control exerted about the franchisee. If the franchisee turns out to be dishonest then it would lead to a loss of business for Alison.
Expansion of the business involves abiding by various legal rules and obligations. These are expensive in nature.
Alison is operating her business from home. As given in the case study, operating the business from home has various advantages and helps Alison to save conveyance, managing and other relevant costs but there are certain shortcomings of her business as well. Moreover, in case of a mis-happening, the chances that Alison`s business will fail is more than the chances of the failure of an actual bespoke fashion shop (Wynarczyk and Graham, 2013). This is not due to the fact that Alison has been managing her business alone but has several other aspects associated with it. They have been stated as follows:
There are various distractions present in a household and these distractions are bound to have an impact on the operations of the business (Kuratko, 2016). As she is mother to a young child, she needs to contribute some of her time to the son and therefore this time she will not be able to invest in the store which may have an impact on the operational efficiency of the business enterprise.
Home businesses are less professional in nature. When an office is located in a house, it is bound to be taken informally by the owners as well as the different customers. This shall also have an impact on the perspective of the different employees towards the organization and thus, for this reason, when a business lacks the professional look, the brand name gets damaged.
Window shopping and in store traffic although have no positive impact on the revenues as earned by the organization but they tend to have an impact on the operations of the organization and disrupt the image and brand name of the firm. As the business is running from home she may be facing troubles with respect to encouraging the store traffic and make no conversions based on this.
Running the business from home has limited options and hence, the manner in which Alison will be able to expand her business is quite limited in nature (Hoy and Stanworth, 2014). Moreover, without proper employees, assistance and other relevant resources, it will be quite difficult for her to manage the business effectively.
Lastly, in scenarios where she operates from the convenience of her home it can be stated that, she will not be able to maintain a continuous presence at home (Lee et al., 2015). A proper traditional shop will be open round the clock even when the owner of the business is not present, however, this may not be the case for a business which is based in house because, in case Alison leaves for a daily chore or some travel expeditions, the shop has to be closed down too.
Therefore, from the given analysis as done on the home based business of Alison, it can be stated that it is because of the stated reasons why Alison`s home based business is more likely to fail than an actual bespoke shop.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded that after the different components of the business have been analyzed, there exists a number of areas which need attention in a proper business. These comprise of expansion possibilities, home based business enterprise, startup requirements and others. Although partnerships assist a business and help them to get the word divided, managing a business is not easy when alone. The report was based on the case study of the Bespoke trade by Alison whereby the background of the case was stated which was then followed by the reasons why the business could ho for a franchising opportunity. In the second section pf the report, the reasons why expansion is a difficult step had been stated. Lastly, the reasons why Alison’s business is less likely to be successful than the business of a proper Bespoke business have also been provided. The following sections will lay down certain recommendations for Alison.
Hence, after studying the case study of bespoke fashions by Alison, the following recommendations have been provided.
References
Burns, P. ,2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Fan, Y., Kühn, K.U. and Lafontaine, F., 2017. Financial constraints and moral hazard: The case of franchising. Journal of Political Economy, 125(6), pp.2082-2125.
Hoy, F. and Stanworth, J., 2014. Franchising: an international perspective. Routledge.
Kuratko, D.F. ,2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Lee, Y.K., Kim, S.H., Seo, M.K. and Hight, S.K., 2015. Market orientation and business performance: Evidence from franchising industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 44, pp.28-37.
McAdam, M., 2013. Female entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Nijmeijer, K.J., Fabbricotti, I.N. and Huijsman, R., 2014. Making franchising work: A framework based on a systematic review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(1), pp.62-83.
Parker, S.C. ,2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press
Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B. ,2014. Entrepreneurship and small business.
Storey, D.J. ed. ,2016. Entrepreneurship and new firm. Routledge.
Wynarczyk, P. and Graham, J., 2013. The impact of connectivity technology on home-based business venturing: The case of women in the North East of England. Local Economy, 28(5), pp.451-470.
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