Write essay on small business management.
Small business management is a demanding task. It requires a number of skills to start up a small business and run that successfully. Several business skills like financial management, customer service, sales and marketing, negotiation and communication are essential for successful commencement and continuation of the business (Mazzarol, 2014). For initiating a small business for a product like T-Shirts, several steps are to be considered. The first step is product planning and placement. The target group of customer has to be determined and this will reflect the product range. Sourcing is the next step that considers the vendors for raw materials and the subsequent managing for dyeing, printing and packaging. Distribution channels are the points of sale of the manufactured T-Shirts and it includes retail store, online store, suppliers, etc (Scarborough, 2012). Marketing involves the complete strategic planning for identifying the potential customers and selling them with appropriate utilization of the resources. Budgeting is the cost that has been accounted for marketing, production, operations, cash flow, etc. The last step is teamwork wherein the meaning and purposeful role of the business is built upon. However, planning constitutes the major part of the business management and it should as realistic as it should be. The goals of a small business should be achievable and respectable and assumptions should be based on the expenses and sales projections (Chaston, 2014). Manufacturers and suppliers provide with the more realistic idea of the costs and timeline. These are the basic steps and requirements for starting up a small business for T-Shirts by proper implementation of plans.
The performance of a business depends on the strategic thinking and for a clear marketing and business plan that enhances the money and time for taking the business to the next level. A business consultant helps to develop techniques and strategies for starting up a small business and creating business success (Baden-Fuller & Haefliger, 2013). The business of philosophy T-Shirts has faced several challenges in its journey for setting up the business. Some of the critical areas of the challenges have been listed below.
Taking into consideration these factors, philosophy t-shirt had a hard time for starting with the business.
Lack of autonomy has been the prime area of concern for the company. Every business needs autonomy to grow and to implement its independent strategies. However, Philosophy-T was operating under the shade of Massey University. This certainly means that the business is governed by the financial and legal rules of Massey University. Because of the university rules, PayPal was not implemented in the business even if it is the most popular system of payment for online sites for retail sales. This was a big setback as most of the students and customers were accustomed to the popular payment methods. Hindrance in payments may lead to customer dissatisfaction (Liu, Chen & Yao, 2012).
Business teams that are ambitious aim higher. Higher levels of engagement are assumed with the commencement of every new business project. Autonomy leads to motivation for engagement. Business consultation always recommends promotion of autonomy for better success of the business. Therefore, for flourishing the business of Philosophy-T, the university should provide with more autonomy to the students wherein they can go beyond the rules of the university to expand their business, without any restrictions. Asking for permissions should not restrict the ideas from being implemented as a point of business development. The management style of the university should not affect the business progress and decision-making. This can culminate towards increasing dissatisfaction among the students, who are actively engaged in business activities (Moon et al., 2013).
The problem of lack of autonomy can be solved by promoting autonomy to the students of the university who are engaged in the business. Autonomy will provide the students with the independence and discretion for scheduling their work and determining how it has to be done as per their convenience. This will eventually benefit in the end, as it will promote satisfaction to the students towards their activities and greater motivations for the performance of the job (Folger et al., 2013). Autonomy at all levels of the business will promote and benefit the company as a whole. Not only the individual group members but also the group will benefit from autonomy. This will make them do independent decision-making and strategic planning that is related to a specific function of work and they shall be free to assign specific tasks to the individual members of the business group (Hess, 2014).
The students of Massey University are working towards a common goal of setting up and promoting the business as a part of their learning project. It is a part of an educational initiative. Philosophical quotes on the t-shirts are an inspirational idea that promotes sustainability and learning. Therefore, the objective of the business is much beyond of just selling t-shirts as there is an educational motive attached with the t-shirts (Winkel, 2013). Since this is a noble initiative taken up by the university, so the students should be facilitated with ample opportunities to show up their skills by providing autonomy. With this autonomy, they will be able to come out of the banner of the university and think independently and rationally for showing up their skills. The legal and financial rules of the university bounds them to act within certain limits and they cannot think or go beyond them. However, real life business cannot be tied to the limits and so they should be set free to deal with their products as they find feasible.
Upon critical analysis, it has also been found that autonomous work groups have several drawbacks and potential challenges. With complete autonomy, the students might take the undue advantage of working at a moderate pace and not keeping up with the requirements of the business. As a result, the business might face loss and as the university is the chief financial director of the project, it has to be careful and vigilant about the student activities. Autonomy may also give rise to internal battles as the students will try to gain the authoritative control and will fight to have the decision-making authorities for the university (Wright & Stigliani, 2013). Change resistance has also been another phenomenal aspect for autonomy that has led to the resistance for the responsibilities of new assignment and changes to company policies (Yu, Yashima & Shen, 2014).
IT integration issues have been the other challenge faced by Philosophy-T during its set up venture. The IT person responsible for assisting the project resigned from the job and the technical issues related to payment system were left unresolved with his departure. Therefore, there was no way left for receiving cash, for generation of the budget sheets for analysis of the classes and no assistance was available to help with the backend of the website. All these problems collectively led to the deferring of the business as the project period had to be extended and sale of the t-shirts was rescheduled. The students got it impossible to sale the t-shirts whereas their lecturer had projected sales of the t-shirts.
In the present world of technology advancement, it is very important the companies must be aware of the common problems of IT and they should take initiatives to avoid them. The business, therefore, should not stay in the darkness regarding the concerns associated with the utilization of technology (Dunning, 2013). Proper arrangements of IT experts should be made available prior to beginning the business set up. Since the students did not have proper arrangements of IT experts prior to the setup, they had to suffer and their business faced a setback. For every IT and technological jobs, the students had to depend on external vendors that contributed towards the business costs. Hosting the website of the company, choosing the designs of the t-shirts and linking the credit card payment system with the system of the university are some of the common IT activities that the students had to outsource from external resources. If they had arranged for a dedicated IT team of experts, they would have played an important role in troubleshooting. Although few of the students might have been computer savvy and appear to have better knowledge than others regarding the usage of technology, technological professionals are certainly required for the growth and development of the business (Kim, Kim & Kim, 2014). Small loopholes of IT integration can be easily escaped with the help of these professionals.
Information technology serves as critical tool for operating most of the companies and they act as catapult for growing the business upon effective utilization. However, if the IT resources are weak for the company, the business tools become frustrating and the roadblocks become expensive for achieving the objectives of business (Drnevich & Croson, 2013). Business management consultation can cause to think over these issues and help the business grow with the implementation of proper strategies. However, maintaining a team of professionals for a small business like Philosophy-T is quite expensive and the company may not be able to afford the costs. If they had outsourced the services accordingly and kept a backhand IT support for regular maintenance and troubleshooting, that could be effective, economical and beneficial for the business (Jeston & Nelis, 2014).
Taking too long to deliver T-Shirts was one of the challenges that Philosophy T faced at the commencement of the business. The customers have been complaining about the time between delivery and ordering. The delivery has taken 14 working days on an average. This is quite a long time and hampered the customer satisfaction. Since most of the customers are the students of the university, they have the expectation of better services regarding the delivery of their t-shirts of choice. Since the time taken by the delivery team is too long as per their expectations, the customers started complaining. This lead-time has to be reduced for better customer compliance. The process of delivering or shipping is a crucial process for the online retail business as it is the final stage of shopping (Denenberg, Shemesh & Chappell, 2014). Therefore, the delivery process has to be improved by the implementation of several tactics. Managing the supply chain effectively can reduce the delivery time. The delivery can be outsourced by the third party courier services, where the customers can be charged as the courier service charges as the shipping cost (Sahney, 2015). However, free delivery can be availed if there is a minimum bill of order that is purchased. Flat rates can also be offered to the customers based on their total orders and range of products. These strategies aim at benefitting all the parties involved in the transaction like the customer, courier and the company so that the delivery process is smoothened and on time. These strategies can speed up the delivery process and the customers can avail their products on time thereby, improving the customer satisfaction (Zhang & Zhang, 2013).
The business of Philosophy T has been a novel approach and initiative for exposing the students to real time business management. Therefore, specific strategies have to be developed to grow the business and earn profits for the better future of the company as well as for the students. For this, the students or the entrepreneurs have to focus on the internal and external factors that are causing hindrance to the progress of the business. The performance of the business has been satisfactory until now. However, the customer complaints have to be taken into consideration. There have been several internal problems like lack of autonomy, IT integration issues, time frame too short and extended delivery time. Setting down these problems can also reduce some of the external problems and customer satisfaction issues.
Many of the customers have provided with their feedback that they would like to have more options regarding the choice of the t-shirt quotes. This can be sorted out by setting up an application at the company website that can enable them to choose their quote of choice. Several printing technologies have been developed that has made the printing job easy like direct to garment and heat transfer techniques (Rothaermel, 2015). This can help the students to print the t-shirts with ease as per the customer customization. Since the market of t-shirt is crowded and competitive, therefore brand recognition is necessary. For this, digital marketing through social media is an important tool for publicity and sufficient time has to be devoted to it (Zane & DeCarolis, 2016). The future of the business is bright and it can be accomplished by proper implementation of the business management strategies.
References
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Chaston, I. (2014). Small business marketing. Palgrave Macmillan.
Denenberg, J., Shemesh, E., & Chappell, S. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,738,648. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Drnevich, P. L., & Croson, D. C. (2013). Information Technology and Business-Level Strategy: Toward an Integrated Theoretical Perspective. Mis Quarterly, 37(2), 483-509.
Dunning, J. H. (2013). Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International Business) (Vol. 13). Routledge.
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