Unit 33 Small Business Enterprise Free Assignment

Introduction

The report is all about a small business enterprise and its expansion and development procedure. Typically a small scale business would be consisting of the shop and his owner. He will be responsible in selling off products as well as services through some franchise or using some other means adopted by the owner himself. Such a kind of business offers flexibility in terms of time. For example, the owner will be liable in setting his own time of accommodating customers (Bridge and O'Neill 2012).

The report has made a survey on a hotel ‘The Ledbury’ which is into a process of bringing some strategic changes so as to get more business in their long run. They have implemented a lot of arrangement for the development of the same (Bridge and O'Neill 2012).

Task

In the above scenario of a small business enterprise, produce a profile of a selected small business identifying its strengths and weaknesses (AC 1.1)

Brief history of business (Share some interesting story how the business started)	Located in England at the Notting Hill of London, ‘The Ledbury’ holds two ‘Michelin Stars’ and is ranked among 50 best restaurants of the place. Making an inception in the year 2005, it is a sister restaurant of ‘The Square’. Consisting of same backers, Brett Graham is the head of this restaurant. He was a sous chef of ‘The Square’ accumulating a total experience of about three years over there (Monk and Wagner, 2012). Within a year, this sister restaurant became a Michelin Star but it actually started tasting success after four years of its establishment. 2010 gave its second star as well as this restaurant got an award of the year’s ‘Square Meal BMW Restaurant’ (Bridge and O'Neill 2012).
Background information of owner/manager (Age, gender, marital status, social background, education etc.)	Born in 1979 at Newcastle, New South Wales, he started his career as an apprentice in a local fish restaurant. Then at the age of 18 he went to Sydney for a job in a restaurant where he got the recognition of his cookery skill with an award of being ‘best young chef’. Not mapping any career info mentally, this HSC qualified happily married male chef carved his own niche over years. His childhood was spent at the farm of his grandfather at Newcastle (Monk and Wagner, 2012).
Mission statement, monthly and yearly business objectives	Being the head in the kitchen section, the maestro is well aware about the various ways with which a successful restaurant can carve its way to success and strive well in a competitive environment. He has effectively implemented all the various practice and techniques which will be bringing victory for this two ‘Michelin Stars’ restaurant  but he admitted that it took some time to make the establishment running with all triumph. After becoming the ‘Youngest Chef’ in 2002, this ambitious Aussie took a strong grip to this sister concern just three years after (Ackermann and Audretsch 2013). Right now The Ledbury have become ‘hottest dining venue’ with its widest assemblage of cuisine list giving a good tickling to the taste buds. Their vision is to keep the business going with a motto of allowing themselves in developing and embracing the new with implementation of new carte du jour of each day (Ebert, 2014).
Operating objectives (e.g., profitability, market share, cost efficiency, product and service quality, innovativeness, social responsibility etc.)	During 2012, a conducted survey made a clear rating about the restaurant. With its commendable reputation being given by almost 6,000 diners of the place, as their favourite place for dining out of almost 1,190 establishments in Greater London. Seizing a total market share of approximately 5% till the recent year, the offered cuisine list is cost efficient. In terms of innovativeness, they are offering haute cuisines from French with sprinkles of British ingredients (Ackermann and Audretsch 2013).
Starting capital	The Ledbury started its journey with a mere of 50,000 dollars which now have doubled its profit every year. Now they are gaining more revenues implementing their manifold plans which are also boosting up their confidence level because of the mass appreciation that they received from their customers (Bridge and O'Neill 2012).
Primary and secondary products/services (benefits and features of products)	Including its widest variety of culinary experience, the restaurant attracts foodies with their various discount options including complimentary drinks and happy hour systems. Also some of the finger licking recipes, they have implemented a menu list which offers a lot of variation of countries and their authentic recipes.
Functional departments (Purchase, marketing, sales, HR, operations, finances, distribution etc.)	Purchase: The purchasing department would be interviewing sales working staffs, putting orders for needed goods, tracking records of all the hotel departments, signing some contracts, and giving suggestion for a particular product so as to ensure the cost benefit of that hotel Marketing: The marketing planning of the hotel will be implementing a complete suite of strategies for building an awareness about the restaurant and make a promotion of ‘customer loyalty’ (Bridge and O'Neill 2012) Sales: These are the bright minds working creative for promoting the restaurant and increase brand popularity HR: This department work hands in hands for providing the organization an environment to work well as well as meet up all their needs. Infact they will be in the process of planning the various strategies that will be helping the organization in bringing more revenue each year. Operations: They will be overseeing the operations regarding open air restaurant establishments, and the other ways with which customers can have their full relaxation with chilling at their last level of energy Finances: Their activities ranges from book keeping to giving information to the assisting managers for taking strategic decision. They will be responsible in planning the financial resources for bringing any development to the restaurant.
Organisational structure	Owner: He will be taking care of the complete establishment and the prime investors Manager cum Supervisor: He will be the person supervising the entire infrastructure Waiter: They are the main hands for the cook in making dishes available in front of the customers Cook: The ultimate soul of any hotel is the cook and his kitchen department (Cavusgil et al. 2014). He will be the person in taking care of the customer as well as the company reputation and brand popularity. With his innovation and creativity, he will actually going to act as a magnet in attracting more number of foodies each day to the restaurant. Without a good food, no restaurant will have earning. Thus finding the right cooking team will enhance any restaurant to implement the finest cuisine list ever (Cavusgil et al. 2014).
Role and responsibilities of personnel in functional departments	Managing and supervising departments who are the person in taking care of the organization as well as maintain the level of satisfaction of each customer.
Customer segments	Will be taking care of the customer satisfaction and take feedback from each of them so as to implement such for a betterment of the restaurant. The customer segment will be fetching client demand inside the kitchen room from where the perfect dish will come out as per the customer request. And making an overall check about the outcome, they will be serving the dishes in front of the consumer.

Carry out an analysis of the business using comparative measures of performance (AC 1.2)

The hotel ‘The Ledburry’ measures their performance making use of non-financial and financial events. The later makes inclusion of all the profits before any turnover or taxes have taken place. On the other hand the former, non-financial measure primarily focuses on those issues affecting the satisfaction of each customer, time of delivery, referral rates, turnover and waiting time of an employee. Distinguishing the limitations of only relying to the financial and non-financial measures, managers and owner have taken an approach with which a measure can be taken to both the financial as well as non-financial issues.

The measures which they have adopted have their direct influence on the ‘course of actions’.

Figure 1: Business Analysis

This is the format which the restaurant follows in terms of having a comparative measure about their business.

Recommend with justification, appropriate actions to overcome the identified weaknesses in the business (AC 2.1)

The weakness and overcoming such has been identified as below:

Weakness	Measures
Not having enough space to accommodate more number of people during rush hours	The restaurant is planning to adopt measures in getting rid of space problem by arranging financial resource for taking more space with arrangement of more number of tables (Monk and Wagner, 2012)
Not having parking lot for customers	The locality around which the restaurant has been constructed does not offers enough space for parking cars. Therefore the administration is planning to shift the location where taking free parking lot will be possible
Inspite of giving assurance regarding quantity and quality of the food, the cook is unable to make delivery at the right time because of less hands	Because of not having enough man force, the restaurant is unable to manage rush. Thus there is a plan to hire more people

Analyse ways in which existing performance could be maintained and strengthened (AC 2.2)

The Ledburry with their strong squad of employees are headstrong about their brand popularity as well as how can they continue their way of customer satisfaction. Therefore to make it all the more clear a table has been maintained below:

	Existing Practice	Recommendation for maintaining and strengthening
Brand Popularity	This is the part where they never fails in giving any effort	They need to be careful about increasing popularity with implementation of more options like discounts, happy hour and others
Customer Satisfaction	With their outstanding performance in terms of table management and on time food delivery, their effort gives a full satisfaction to every client (Carpenter and Petersen 2012, p.299)	With their increasing brand popularity more number of people is showing eagerness towards their cuisine expertise. But because of not affording enough space people need to wait for a longer time which is not healthy for the long run in terms of customer satisfaction rating
Quality Assurance	The cook is serious enough in maintaining quality in terms of delivering the right taste	During rush hours sometime quality is compromised because of lack of hands. Thus the hotel is needed to assure enough workforce for serving the best

Recommend with justification, new areas in which the business could be expanded (AC 2.3)

Right now the restaurant has concentrated on food only. But the business wants to flourish in its coming days. Henceforth they are needed to make a little shift towards the other parts of expansion such as in giving open air restaurant to its customers.

Additionally if the customer is new to the city, then the hotel can also make arrangement of local tours and sight-seeing (Sluyterman, 2013). Many times, travellers may come up with the need of hiring vehicles for planning their own tours so the hotel may come up such idea to increase their business as well as make a good turnover at the end of the year.

But in all the cases, the organization is needed to keep in mind that customer satisfaction should be the last thing even if it is the earning and profit which is going to be counted at the end of the year. Branding can only be achieved after the customer gets satisfied with whatever service they are receiving from the organization (Sluyterman, 2013).

Produce an assessment of existing business objectives and plans (3.1)

Objective and Plan: The motto with which the company is progressinghas been identified below:

They understand all the dimension which mostly affects the ‘customer satisfaction’Analysing all the strategies that gets implemented for the ‘customer satisfaction’ realized by the restaurant (Ackermann and Audretsch 2013)Making a complete assessment about the effect received for the efforts in order to get a better ‘customer satisfaction’Identification of the gaps for which a customer might not have given a good remark towards the food they were provided (Ackermann and Audretsch 2013)Revise business plans to incorporate appropriate changes (AC 3.2)

Bring some good number of changes adopting which can be attained at the shortest time period. A restaurant business is one which cannot bring a lot of changes in a single day since their brand popularity depends mostly on how they are satisfying their customers and how much they are offering quality to make their consumers satisfied. Therefore, if the business is thinking of making a lot of modification and alteration to their offerings then first they need to calculate the total number of time within which they are planning to complete their modification (Ackermann and Audretsch 2013).

Next if they are trying to incorporate the idea of providing open air restaurant option to the customer then promoting such would be needed. A complete research should be there mentioning the various facts about why customers would be preferring their hotel. Also there would be another research about what are the different options in getting visitors in their hotel. Within the business plan, the organization should be highlighting the different reasons for which they are remaining their best ever choice in terms of fooding and open air restaurant (Sluyterman, 2013).

Prepare an action plan to implement the changes (AC 3.3)

According to Brett Graham, the entire analysis took a positive response from each of their client when they have surveyed for their new business plan. In fact the survey have reported that the entire session had its best effect with much a satisfied people encouraging them in going with their plans of bringing change to their existing infrastructure (Ackermann and Audretsch 2013).Report on the impact of the proposed changes on the business and its personnel (AC 4.1)

As it has been seen with the five star hotels ‘Goring Dining Room’ they made an inception as a hotel with only option of open air restaurant whereas their vision of sticking in the long run have given them success. Now they are a five star hotel with all facilities that will be attracting more number of visitors each time. With a supporting team of hotel staff they have enabled that all their efforts are getting rightly placed with the best outcome.

Thus following such and taking a glance to the above paragraph, it can be said that a business can be successful with application of right kind of plan and keeping modifications so as to meet customer needs (Sluyterman, 2013).

Plan how the changes will be managed in the business (AC 4.2)

Implementation of the plan should include:

• Investments on planner searching: This need to be attained before anything else because after having a proper plan, it would get executed properly (Sluyterman, 2013). A blue print is needed using which the planner would be making modification to the existing setup.
• Searching of investor or arranging for bank loan: As soon as the plan gets ready an overall estimation need to be attained using which bank loan or an investor would be searched. An investor would be providing human resource to the organization to implement changes stylishly.
• The idea need to get implemented with theme decoration suitably: Nowadays, theme has become one of the main criterion with which more number of visitors can be attracted. Thus putting some theme will be an easiest way for gaining brand popularity. Brand recognition has its biggest effect on the growth and development process of any organization. Therefore if implemented changes get a view about how much customers can enjoy benefit out of it, then it will bring the best outcome ever.
• Open the new section as soon as possible: As soon as everything is attained, the organization needs to make its launch readily (Carson, 2012, p.9). People are in search of getting introduced with something new, be it clothing, food or entertainment. Infact if some organization is giving entertainment in a package then nothing can be better than that. In the same place if along with enjoying a finger licking food, if they get a scope of relaxation with good music, under open sky and chill with their friends then obviously brand popularity will have its biggest hype (Cowling et al. 2012, p.779).Monitor improvements in the performance of the business over a given timescale (AC 4.3)

The Profit improvement that the restaurant experienced is graphed below:

Graph: Profit Improvement

Analysis:

According to the graph, the blue line implies the existing stage when there was just a planning of implementing some changes but the organization was not sure about whether they should be bringing such (Haltiwanger et al. 2013, p.349). On the other hand, the red line is net result after successfully applying the plan on the business.

For every business (practicing to any industry), the ultimate motto is to get a good turnover at the end of the year along with a good response over the trading. So to establish such, it is needed that the organization is serious enough in putting their plans into effect at the right point of time with using right means of strategies (Gronum et al. 2012, p.281). Therefore, to continue such procedure it is needed that they have put an effort to make a rigorous research in terms of finding the segment of customers who are actually going to enjoy this benefit and enhance them in getting a good grade in the long run (Shani and Chalasani, 2013).

Henceforth, the best practice to make an initiation about expanding business is getting a client analysis. To attain such one way can be making a close end questionnaire answering which can give the owners a good understanding about what kind of target customers are enjoying their initiative. Also it will ensure the company in getting a view about how much resource they would need to spend to make the entire change (Olson and Staley 2012, p.93).

Therefore, with the graph mentioned above it is clear that for ‘The Ledbury’ customers are in need of a modification to their setup and infrastructure and they are infact inspiring the restaurant to bring the changes as soon as possible (Sharma et al. 2012, p.5).

Conclusion:

The report stands as a review about the different perspectives using which a restaurant can earn most. With the various strategies the restaurant ‘The Ledburry’ can earn most. Implementation of a number of strategies will be making them capable in getting a bigger profit as well as will enhance their ability in terms of standing strong with its other competitors.
Various graphs and tabular form data has been used to make the concept clear about what are the different strategies that can actually commence success to the restaurant.
Henceforth keeping an eye on the entire matter it can be said that small business enterprise can have its biggest turnover by following certain methodologies and strategies as well.

Referencing:

Books:

Ackermann, S.J. and Audretsch, D.B. eds., 2013. The economics of small firms: A European challenge (Vol. 11). Springer Science & Business Media.
Bridge, S. and O'Neill, K., 2012. Understanding enterprise: entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan.
Monk, E. and Wagner, B., 2012. Concepts in enterprise resource planning. Cengage Learning.
Shani, D. and Chalasani, S., 2013. Exploiting niches using relationship marketing. Journal of Services Marketing.
Sluyterman, K.E., 2013. Dutch Enterprise in the 20th Century: Business Strategies in Small Open Country. Routledge.
Journals:
Blackburn, R.A., Hart, M. and Wainwright, T., 2013. Small business performance: business strategy, and owner-manager characteristics. Journal of small business and enterprise development, 20(1), pp.8-27.
Carpenter, R.E. and Petersen, B.C., 2012. Is the growth of small firms constrained by internal finance. Review of Economics and statistics, 84(2), pp.298-309.
Carson, D., 2012. Some exploratory models for assessing small firms' marketing performance (a qualitative approach). European journal of marketing, 24(11), pp.8-51.