Tools for Business Model Generation - Assignment Example

Marketing By Task 2: Part Explore a range of possibilities for new business ventures. 1. Transport service; Students traveling out of the university can be facilitated with transport at a cost. 2. Career counseling service; The University being well equipped with relevant information they can set up a career coaching facility to the students at a cost. 3. Staffing service specializing in internships; The University can start a staffing service where they help students connect with local and international business for employment. 4. Personal training; The University of Hertfordshire can establish training students in athletics or local fitness e.g. gymnastics. 5. Group travel service; The university can provide transport services to groups of students travelling to various parts of the country with the university vehicles 6. Website or smart-phone app for rating professors; the university can develop an application where students will rate and comment about professors and other issues at a cost. 7. Financial planning; Personal financial planning is a major problem among university students and therefore the university can help them save and manage their money and get paid for that. 8. Photocopy and video service; Students will always do photocopy of the lecture hand outs thus a potential business opportunity for the university. 9. School Magazine; The university can publish weekly magazines about the current issues that will be bought by students. 10. T-shirt company; T-shits never lose taste among the students thus the university can come up with neat designs or funny sayings for students. (Entrepreneur, 2013). Part 2, justify why you think this is a good business idea The University of Hertfordshire is looking forward to expand its portfolio through launch of a new business venture by the end of 2014. The target customers of this venture are the current university students. I therefore recommend that the university venture in Digital printing of T-shirt with motivational quotes and university logo. (Mitchell Holt 2009) T-shirts are very common among the youth how happen to be the major of the university population in Hertfordshire. The demand and taste of T-shirts has been found to be always high among the student. It is for this reason that the university is likely to highly benefit from the venture. The availability of new and efficient technologies will facilitate the printing of the T-shirts at a relatively lower cost and consequently lead to provision of the T-shirts at a reason and affordable prices to the students. The use of the new technology will facilitate printing of quality T-shirts which will lead to satisfaction of client and there a rise in sales and profits for the university. The digital printing of t-shirts with funny quotes and university logo will not only provide high profits to the university but will also boost promotion of the university thus reducing the cost of advertisements incurred in the normal promoting and advertisements (Mitchell, 2009) When students wear this T-shirts around, they will have the feeling of ownership of their university. This will attract other individuals who may be willing to join the university and thus increase the market share of the digital printed t-shirts though increased numbers of students in the university. Task 3: business model For the success of the venture the university will have to put in place a strong business model to address the following areas in the daily activities of the business. Infrastructure; Identify the significant activities in executing the businesses value proposition that would be through creating an effective supply chain of t-shirts. Identify key resources of the venture to sustain the business this should the workforce and the finances. The university shall establish effective relationship with the students to continue buying the product. Offering; According to Alexander (2004), a business value proposition is the differentness from similar organizations in the industry. This provides added value in differing ways for example; product design, brand, price, cost reduction, accessibility, and convenience. The university will look it the factor to ensure client satisfaction. Customer Segments: For an effective business model, the university will identify it customers. Market segmentation will be done to ensure the specific target group is identified (Alexander, 2012). Customer Relationship: To ensure the survival and success of the businesses, the University must identify the type of relationship they want to create with their customer segments (Alexander, 2012). Cost Structure: This is most important monetary consequences while in operation, the university must adopt either cost driven or value driven cost structure. Based on the ability of students to consume the university must be able to produce products that are both of high quality while they are cost effective, this will ensure survival of the business. Business model canvas Key partners Hewett Packard (HP printers) Key activities Personal selling Value proposition Production of cost effective high quality goods Customer relationship Provide personal assistance Self- service and co-creation Customer segmentation Identify potential students within the school Key resources the intellect human resource and physical printing resources Channels Creating awareness among students, evaluation ,purchase delivery and after sale Cost structures Establish a value driven business model where worker and customer satisfaction comes are highly valued Revenue streams Achieve high value of sales due to quality Ensure that clients pay what the business expects form the sales Task 4 Visualize the capability to generating totally custom shirt? You choose the material and style of the shirt, and then the image or graphic you want on the front and/or back, this is the ultimate form of expression. With no restrictions to what can be communicated. This venture will require a number of resources for effective production and satisfaction of the customer’s needs; the major resources include human resources and production facilities (equipments). Human resource; Human recourse is a fundamental in put in the success of any kind of business venture. The human recourse has put in place an effective work force that is willing and able to work in the business effectively. (Griffin, R 2009) The recruitment, selection and employment procedure must be duly followed to ensure that the task force that is employed is qualified and best suit for the job. In the digital t-shirt printing the HR department is expected to bring in course individuals that are well informed with handling of the new technological equipments in the industry, the task force should be computer literate as most of the processes will involve use of the computer. The must also have high levels of creativity (Navarro, 2006). Printing equipments For the success of the venture, adequate infrastructure must be put in place. The necessary technical machines must be put in place for high quality of products that will meet the expectations of the students. Printing and designing machines will have to be acquired from the (HP) company as it is recommended to have products of high quality. The cost of these equipments may be determined through consultation with the respective manufacturing company. Office equipments and furniture are also essential in the start-up of the business, the cost of the furniture can be determined from local through the request of local traders price lists. Part 2 Pricing of the product is very essential as it will determine the levels of profits that would be generated sales. The prices are justified by a number of factors, they may include; The prices of other T-shirt printing organization, the prices will consider the prices of other competitor in the region to avoid over pricing which would significantly lead to lack of buyers of the product leading to business failure. Production cost, the cost of producing the t-shirts will determine their cost to ensure that the business venture makes profit which is the sole purpose of the venture. The willingness to pay by the students, students being the major consumers of the product then the prices will be set at a level that they are willing to pay. Through a research prier to production the university will be able to know the number of students willing and able to buy the products of the venture and therefore will be able to estimates numbers of sock that would be sold in one year. With that information then the business can establish the expected profits in one year. The number of students in the university and their willingness to buy will help to know the number of sale the business will make in one year. The amount of sales made be similar businesses in the area would help determine the number of sales that the business would make due to their experiences in the industry. Part 4 According to the research carried out in UK on potential buyers of the tracker, it revealed that only 12% of the total 9 million cat owners were willing to buy the tracker at different prices. This is a very insignificant number of willing buyers that is (1080000). I consider this being a huge threat to the producer because he may not be able to meet the target of the business. The risk level of is very high and not as prescribed as a low risk. A more precise research ought to be done to determine the possible sales and the period it would take to make the sales. I agree with the risk level applied on the marketing of the cat trackers. This is because the product is not well known among the potential consumers and therefore an intensive marketing strategy needs to be put in place to popularize the product and increase the sales. This is evident from the previous research that on 12% of the market share was willing to consume the product to raise this numbers intensive marketing needs to be done in the region and hence increase the sales. Marketing involves sensitizing people to consume and not about making sales, it undertaking high risks. Part 5 closing position Selling price per unit =£60 Units sold =£1500 Cost price =£39 Profit & Loss (excl. Launch costs) £000s Sales income = (£60 * 1500) =£90 Cost of sale = (£39 * 1500) =£ 58.5 Gross profit =£31500 Gross margin =35% Operating cost =£26.3 Operating profit/ (loss) = £8.7 Cash Flow (inc. Launch Costs) £000’s Starting cash position = (£55.0) Marketing =£ 0.0 Profit / (loss) =£8.7 Closing position =£46.3 Task 5 Part 1: Enterprising Enterprising refers to the individuals who are ready to undertake projects of importance or difficulty or untried schemes; this individuals are characterized by great imaginations and initiatives with the knowledge acquired from the study of enterprise module, I am now fully equipped with the necessary information in order to be able to venture into the business industry and establish a successful enterprise (John, 2009). This will be possible through carrying out of necessary research before beginning of the business to establish potential consumers willing and able to consume the product that I will be producing secondly is to segment the market; this will assist in reaching the target market very easily thus minimizing the cost. Marketing of the item for consumption is very essential. This is because the aim of the venture will be to make profits which can only be achieved when the good or services produced reach the intended consumer. Customer relations are also very crucial customers will on consumer where they fill that their expectations are meet, to ensure this, I will proved good customer relations in the business. To win the market share, I must do better than my competitors this will be through provision of high quality goods and services to my customers (Michael, 2006). Human resource management is also essential for efficient production of goods and services. When workers are motivated they tend to increase in efficiency at work, good communication channels shall be established to ensure that the employees are recognized in the institution. References Alexander, 2012. Tools for business model generation, Stanford University Amanda, Blough 2009. Journal of enterprise culture Vole 21 no 03 pp 359-374 Entrepreneur, 2013. Mission Statement and Vision Statement. Retrieved on 26/01/2013 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/ Griffin, R 2009. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. London: Cengage Learning John, K., 2009. Managers Guide to Operations Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Mahadevan, B. 2004. Operation Management: Theory and Practice 2002. Michael, A., 2006. A Handbook of Management Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide to Achieving Managerial Excellence and Improved Decision Making, Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers Navarro, P 2006. The Well Timed Strategy: Managing the Business Cycle for Competitive Advantage. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall Rudolf F. Graf 1999. Modern business Dictionary, Newness, 1999 Taylor & Francis, 2002. Business and economics, Productivity Press Development Team. Read More