Questions WA # 1 SMall Business Management - Assignment Example

29th June Part Political/Legal: Smoking café business in which different kinds of cigarettes, cigars and other smoking activities offered to the customers are more prone towards political and legal threats. The government may take any action through relevant legislation such as putting bans on consumption, or reduced level of tobacco or any other action, as a result, the business activities of smoking café can be highly affected due to such legislations. Technological: Dress tailoring businesses in which dresses are cut and stitched have been massively affected by the new sewing and cutting machines.

As a result of the invention of those machines, the quality of stitching, cutting and designing of the dresses have been improved which in fact, brought in more efficiency and productivity for the entrepreneurs. However, most of the handicraft workers were terminated due to this technological change. Socio-cultural: Fast food restaurant businesses with low price meals are more popular now due to having more busy life. People do not have time to cook food on daily basis. As a result, more dine- in, take-away and other meal delivery based businesses are being flourished.

These restaurants are small in size and provide low priced and medium quality food to the middle class busy families. Demographic: The increasing trend of acquiring professional qualifications has led to an increase in the caching and tuition centers where those professionals teach those professional papers and offer the preparation of those papers. Those papers are examined by the professional bodies such as accounting bodies, regulatory and secretarial bodies, etc. These bodies are regulated under some statute and are allowed to take professional exams.

However, for the preparation of those exams, small coaching and training centers are being developed and shows the demographic change especially with increasing awareness regarding the level of education. Economic: Before recession, when economy was at its peak, many small businesses were developed to offer home decorating services and products to the families. However, after recession when people even hardly managed to survive with their housing, they preferred to save whatever the amount they are left with after the necessary expenditures.

Home decoration businesses suffered a lot as people got hit hard due to economic recession. Global: With the wider acceptance of western clothing and dress, the small retail businesses are being set up which provide western clothing. Western clothing is more famous among men and therefore the businesses give more focus in providing men wear dresses. The trend of wearing local dress is at its declining pace thus small entrepreneurs are also switching their offerings and providing those clothing solutions which are globally acceptable.

Part 2 Cost-based Strategy Cost-based strategy is the one in which the business tries to keep the cost as lower as it could but it does not necessarily means that it also provides the products or services at a lower price. Toyota is the best example of cost-based strategy such that it deploys sophisticated manufacturing techniques to cut its costs. However, the prices of Toyota cars are highly competitive. Differentiation strategy Differentiation strategy is the one in which businesses provide different sorts of products and services under single brand name.

Those services and products may complement the main stream product or service of the business but it has its own unique features. This differentiated strategy is adopted by the businesses in order to retain as well as attract the customer who are willing to consume other related services or products of the business. For example, British Airways is the leading airline of UK and its main streamline business is to provide passenger services to the travelers through airplanes. However, it provides other services as well to the passengers, which include offers relating to holiday packages in cooperation with resorts and hotels, etc.

Focus Strategy Focus Strategy is the one in which businesses aim to cater a small but very specific target market which is called a niche market. Rolls Royce provides very expensive and customized based cars to extremely rich people. No other car manufacturer provides these kinds of cars and standardized care are sold. However, Rolls Royce has identified a specific and small class and it earns the major chunk of its revenues by catering this nice market. Part 3 What can the Elevation Burger franchisor do to help franchisees in a recession?

Be specific. The franchisor of Elevation Burger has different options to help the franchisees in recessionary time periods. The major assistance that he can provide may be in the form of reducing the franchising fees especially to the newly based franchisees so that they remain determined in continuing with their franchise agreement. Moreover, the franchisor can help them by providing assurance to overcome their losses for a specific time period. Franchisor can also provide the franchisees the material resources from where low priced raw materials can be purchased.

Not only this, franchisor can also provide managerial skills to the franchisees as the franchisees are new comers for Elevation Burger. However, franchisor can demand more fees after spending reasonable time with the reduced impact of recession on the business. References Marketingteacher.com. Generic Strategies – Michael Porter (1980)., n.d. Web.