Laundromats: An Entrepreneurship Analysis - Essay Example

An effective business positioning, business partner map, SWOT analysis and interview summary will be covered. A good business management strategy is essential for any lucrative business. This will involve the market status for your particular business, risks, competition and many other elements. As mentioned in the first paragraph, Laundromats are already proven to be a lucrative small business. In the ADL Matrix (developed by Arthur D. Little), businesses are analyzed by measuring aspects namely "common rivals, prices, customers, quality/style, substitutability, divestment or liquidation".

It also assesses the industry's life cycle by using guidelines such as "business market share, investment, profitability and cash flow". Taking the industry of Laundromats as our case, rivalry in a busy capital city like Sydney is inevitable. Laundromat owners then are driven to compete with their rivals by putting an "edge" to their Laundromats. Some would put refreshment bars and Internet stations in their Laundromats where customers can spend their time waiting. In an interview conducted, a Laundromat owner also had this same idea.

He bought the Laundromat for $50,000 and his average monthly revenue is $15,000. He pays the rent of $1,000 and he thought of a way of maximizing the space by adding an Internet service. Unfortunately, he failed to push through with this idea due to the abundance of Internet shops in the area. Hopefully, this entrepreneur would not stop venturing into ways of making his business more customer-friendly. For in this industry, the convenience the business offers its customer is a key to its success.

In the book Step-by-Step Startup Guides: Coin-Operated Laundry, the Laundromat business is described as a "mature market". To put it simply, this means "In some areas of the country, there are too many Laundromats already". Looking at the ADL Matrix, this means that during favorable conditions, the business must "find niche and attempt to protect it" . This means that the business must hold on to its edge over its competitors and try to grow with the industry.Business Partners It is important for a small business such as a Laundromat to be concerned about its relationship with customers, but another relationship of interest would be a possible relationship with a business partner.

Basically, this means believing that two heads are better than one. In Jess McCuan's article, "Howdy Partner", he states that business partnership is very appealing for a small business. Two people's ideas, spaces, skills and capital will merge into one to further improve their business and expand their profit. But an entrepreneur must also remember that a partnership may not be limited on splitting the workload to make it easier. This will also mean that each one of the partners will be affected by the other's performance and if one is lacking or irresponsible, the other, as well as the whole business, will suffer the consequences.

This is why McCuan discusses the importance of selecting an ideal business partner. Contrary to the personal life where one gets attracted most of the time to an individual whom he has a lot in common with, the partner preference in the business aspect is quite different. It is better for