Analysis an Entrepreneur: Katherine Sampson - Case Study Example

Analysis an entrepreneur: Katherine Sampson Name Professor Institution Course Date Analysis an entrepreneur: Katherine Sampson Introduction The 21st century has seen high growth of entrepreneurship research and activities (Lucky 2011, p.219). Many billionaires today derive their successful stories from entrepreneurship as opposed to employment. Such stories have encouraged people to opt for entrepreneurship instead of employment in a bid to become their own boss and create wealth (Edewor, Imhonopi & Amusan 2014, p.60). In most cases, people think that it only takes capital to start successful business. However, established entrepreneurs challenged this notion and argued that it takes a lot more factors to build successful business. Key (2011, p.153) argued that creativity, innovation, motivation, teamwork, communication, risk-taking and ethical responsibility are some of the factors that are credited for success of most Australian entrepreneurs. Therefore, this paper will analyze one of the entrepreneurs who have made a mark in fast food and can be used as point of reference by the upcoming entrepreneur. This paper will focus on Katherine Sampson and her business Healthy Habits Restaurant. History, development and growth of the entrepreneur Today there are several established entrepreneurs who are highly idolized by young people and any upcoming entrepreneurs. Such people have influence social and economic growth of individuals in one way or the other (Parnell & Lester 2007, p.155). In their own narrations, their journey has been faced with challenges but their consistency has paid them off. One of such entrepreneurs is Katherine Sampson, the creator and manager of Healthy Habits fast Food Restaurant. Healthy Habits was first established by Katherine Sampson in 1992 and has since grown to be leading and fastest-rising sandwich franchise in Australia (Pirouz 2011). Healthy Habits has expanded its business and now has 41 stores in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and Christchurch in New Zealand, and even plans to expand globally. Rielly (2015) stated that Katherine Sampson was even featured in Fast Franchises magazine of 2009 and 100 fastest growing businesses in 2008. Her journey to building this business empire is one interesting and it started by identifying an opportunity. Surprisingly, Katherine Sampson got married at 18 years and by 27 had two and staying-at-home mother (ICMI 2016). They later separated and became a single mother of two. This is when life took another turn and Katherine Sampson decided to fend for her family for better future. Well, during one of her trips to Victoria in 1992, Katherine Sampson came across one sandwich bar in a rundown condition and decided to purchases it for $300k. Pirouz (2011) claimed that Katherine went ahead to refurbish it and renamed it “Healthy Habits”. The business soon turned into eventful store in food industry after McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and KFC. After sometimes of operations Katherine felt the store had started to gain success and decided to expand into the new markets hence establishing the second and many more outlets. Pirouz (2011) argued that after the first outlets were successful she decided to franchise because she realized an opportunity in the market with Healthy Habits as the market leader in sandwich bar segment. So in reality she felt good about the opportunity of offering unique and product to market. Opening more outlets marked the beginning of her development and growth and even that of her business. This is very important because it is where most entrepreneurs derive their motivation to take further risks. Katherine decided later in 2009 thought the time was ripe to bring extra funding and expertise and decided to sell 80 percent of the business to another company called Dymocks Group (ICMI 2016). She went ahead and sold remaining 20 percent to some company in 2012. ICMI (2016) contended that Katherine Sampson recently started a new company HELLO SAM and uses Burger concept to operates its store. Katherine is building a new model which she intends to use in expanding the business in future. The whole journey of Katherine depicts some traits of a successful entrepreneur including having a vision, innovation, risk taking, resilience, persistence and driven (Lucky 2011, p.153). The role of their family and socio-cultural background in the development of their entrepreneurial passion In general, socio-cultural background means the combination of the social and cultural components which can modify or modify social behavior in the social setting (Akpor-Robaro 2012, p.59). In entrepreneurship perspective, it means if a member of a family is an entrepreneur he or she can influence other members of the family to start and run businesses. Even though some people deny it, family plays a major role towards success of an entrepreneur. Katherine Sampson case was a bit different but still family played a critical role towards her business success. ICMI (2016) posited that her inspiration was not from husband side of the family but from her mother and father. Her successful business emerged from humble beginnings as single parent of two at the age of 27, and motivated to take risk and purchase a dilapidated sandwich bar from a relative (Rielly 2015). Katherine Sampson could haves seen some potential from the sandwich bar when the relative had just started the business and wished she owned the business. To a big extent, her passion for running her own business was influenced by the family (relatives). Buying the business from a relative also meant that it was just continuity of a process from one generation to another. This practice is supported by the research done by Akpor-Robaro (2012, p.175) which concluded that most people who enter business often do so via existing or current family ventures. The concept is derived from belief that home values of entrepreneurial family often offer a great atmosphere for supporting and nurturing entrepreneurial personality character and development (Bergmann & Sternberg 2007, p.60). Therefore, family background works as a powerful source of impact on whether someone would become a successful entrepreneur. Katherine Sampson stated in one of the interviewers that she received a lot of moral and financial support from family. Culture is also understood to influence entrepreneurship passion and development in individuals. Building from the Weberian studies, Bergmann and Sternberg (2007, p.60) argued that culture certainly influences entrepreneurial activities in numerous ways. First culture influences people’s attitude towards work. Katherine Sampson had been single parent staying at home but the entrepreneur culture in Australia and within their family influenced her attitude to venture into Sandwich bar business. In addition, culture is understood to influence social networks and building of confidence in social groups and individuals (Akpor-Robaro 2012, p.175). Entrepreneurial culture in social groups especially on women has highly gained momentum in the recent years. Women like Janine Allis are some of the examples who have made it Australia hence influencing confidence in women. Katherine Sampson borrowed her entrepreneurship drive from such women. The type of businesses they developed and the competitive advantage of the business compared to other entrepreneurs Katherine Sampson developed a sandwich bar business from a previous rundown venture and named it “Healthy Habits Restaurant” (Pirouz 2011). The fast food store was formed as result of need to provide healthy in Victoria Australia. To develop this business, Katherine Sampson stated that who conducted a research about the fast food market and particularly sandwich not just about Victoria market, but about the country’s’ market. She discovered that although there were several fast foods, there was no sandwich bar outlet in Australia (Pirouz, 2011). The fact that Healthy Habits Restaurant was the only outlet offering sandwich bar services was itself a competitive advantage. Furthermost most fast food companies in Australia including McDonalds, KFC, Chicken Treat, Nando's, and Fast Eddys offer unhealthy food. This means Healthy Habits Restaurant takes the competitive advantage of selling health sandwich. The advantage is attributed to the fact that most fast food consumers in Australia have become health conscious and now prefer low fat content foods. IBISWorld (2014) opined that in 2014, Australian healthy fast food went up by nearly 35% to $508 million from 2013 showing a potential in the market segment. The whole process downs to characteristics an entrepreneur; that is sporting an opportunity and using creativity and innovation skills to develop it to respectable business. The future suggestions for the entrepreneur including different types of businesses or avenues they may take Entrepreneurs must always be big dreamers and risk takers (McMullen & Acs 2007, p.12). The field involves selling one business and venturing into another it is viable. Rielly (2015) claimed that as an established entrepreneur, Katherine Sampson has since sold her first business “Healthy Habits Restaurant” and started another called “HELLO SAM” which also operates in fast food industry. Katherine’s reason for selling some stake the business was to use the funds to hire experts and fund the remaining part (Pirouz 2011). Another perspective which is depicted here is that finance sometimes becomes a major challenge entrepreneurship. The future suggestion for entrepreneur is that she should not underestimate the cost of starting and managing a startup (Parnell & Lester 2007, p.75). Even though that cost (capital) is not the only factor for entrepreneurship, it plays an important role in renovation, product development and hiring experts. Another suggestion is that Katherine should try a hand in another industry may be tourism. Katherine sold the whole Healthy Habits Restaurant and started another business in the same fast food industry which is risky (ICMI 2016). Parnell and Lester (2007, p.76) suggested that entrepreneurship is not just about risk taking but also spreading risks. It means that should one industry face economic downtown or saturation of businesses; the entrepreneur will still depend on his or her business in another industry. Conclusion Analysis of Katherine Sampson entrepreneurship practices and activities provides more knowledge to upcoming entrepreneurs about this field. The analysis shows that the first step for an entrepreneur is to spot an opportunity in the market. The second step involves researching about the trend in the market and if the entrepreneur has the chance to make an impact and grow. Therefore, are several other traits which must be blended with the first two steps to make a successful entrepreneur. Experts in this field claimed to be successful entrepreneurs must be creative, innovative, risk-taker, have passion, resilient, persistent and have teamwork, good networker, and drive. References Akpor-Robaro, M.O.M 2012, The impact of socio-cultural environment on entrepreneurial emergence: A theoretical analysis of the Nigerian society, European Journal of Business and Management, Vol.4, No.16, pp. 172-182. Bergmann, H & Sternberg, R 2007, The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Germany, Small Business Economics, Vol.28, No.2, pp.205-221 Edewor, P.A, Imhonopi, D & Amusan, T 2014, Socio-Cultural and Demographic Dynamics in Sustainable Entrepreneurial Development in Nigeria, Developing Country Studies, Vol.4, No.4, pp.58-64 IBISWorld 2014, IBISWorld Industry Report H4512: Fast Food Services in Australia, Viewed on 23rd March 2016 from http://clients1.ibisworld.com.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/reports/au/industry/default.aspx?entid=2005 ICMI 2016, Katherine Sampson, Viewed on 23rd March 2016 from http://www.icmi.com.au/katherine-sampson Key, S 2011, One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs, Sydney: McGraw-Hill Education  Lucky, E.O 2011, Nurturing Entrepreneurship Development in the 21st Century: The Practical Approaches, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 1, No. 9, 219-227 McMullen, J.S & Acs, Z.J 2007, What is an entrepreneurial opportunity? Max Planck Institute of Economics Group Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, pp.1-25 Parnell, J.A & Lester, D.L 2007, Reevaluating the Entrepreneurship-management Conundrum: Challenges and Solutions, Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Vol.12, Vol.4, pp.74-77 Pirouz, A 2011, Katherine Sampson of Healthy Habits shares her franchising success secrets, Viewed on 23rd March 2016 from http://mybusiness.com.au/case-studies/katherine-sampson-of-healthy-habits-shares-her-franchising-success-secrets Rielly, L 2015, High growth speaker series: Katherine Sampson on growth by strategic alliances, Viewed on 23rd March 2016 from http://laurenrielly.com/events/high-growth-speaker-series-katherine-sampson-on-growth-by-strategic-alliances Read More