Christopher Barringham - Entrepreneur - Essay Example

Running Head: Christopher Barringham - Entrepreneur Christopher Barringham Academia Academia Research History & Background The entrepreneur I am talking about is not an extraordinary man but I like him because he has made a lot of money simply by doing “Nothing” at least in my view. He is supported always by his family, which was very rich but had fewer minds. He was a person who got education from a higher university and on the basis of his sharpness he made his family to help him start a business, which is related to the same business his family is running, but Mr. Barringham’s idea is even smarter. Christopher’s family is having five steel manufacturing firms, they are manufacturing steel from the past 55 years, they are having rolling mills and furnaces on the basis of which they manufacture steel from the scrap which is very different process that is followed by the international steel mills. In the past study Mr. Barringham had identified that there is a very sufficient amount of steel lefts every month and is not utilized any where which results in the disturbance in the forecasting and it happens to at least one out of five steel manufacturing firms that his family is having, which means that mostly the sales are not as high as predicted and the production is relatively more, it does not really mean the loss because if not today than tomorrow it gets sold for sure but the real disturbance is created in the forecasting which is very annoying, also the client list that Mr. Barringham’s family firms are having is very limited, same clients are being entertained over the years with out making any efforts to find new ones. So the idea that Mr. Barringham initiated was to start an office in a very suitable location, which is not with in the city as there is more construction taking place outside the city and the other construction companies are facing trouble in asking for the construction material. Another good point in his favor was that he was quite much familiar to this business and also he had sufficient amount of knowledge that was an upper hand in his case. As some one has said, “Knowledge is power, and the more you know about your customers, product, and market, the better off you will be. According to research conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, 90% of all small business failures can be traced to poor management resulting from lack of knowledge”(Jim n.p: 2000). Idea Generation The entire idea came in his mind when he was 23, as he did a study on the companies being operated in his family. From the study he realized that there is an overall of 20 – 25 percent of steel that is left unsold almost every month, though it depends on different situations, at times the steel lefts unsold is 50 percent and at times it results in shortage from all 5 companies and thus they have to contact other people outside their family to give them some amount of it as others have done partnership with them and are helped at numerous occasions. The idea came in his mind saying “what if my family is benefiting me, it would have been a lot better if they help me rather than helping others, and thus I started an office by the name Crisp Bar Steels”. From an other study he came to realize that they are only having clients that are just 15 percent of the overall construction market, it also does not include the government, which is handling even bigger projects, so it was concluded that there are people in the construction market that are not being served by the facilities and they have to struggle a lot for getting the material. His idea was to get the steel from companies being operated in his own family and sell them to the other construction businesses in the market. In this case he was not being paid by the customers as he is performing the job of the middleman and people buy the steel on a fixed price that is ordered by the Chamber of steel industries but he is paid 1 percent each from every company, as none of them was having an office with in or outside the city, the profit of each company was so high that it can be estimated from the fact that the monthly electricity bill of each company was about 5 to 6 million. Idea Implementation The idea was to initiate the office for all the five companies jointly, it is a proprietorship by Mr. Barringham acting as the managing director (operations) of all the five companies jointly, although the structure of the office is not a complex one, they have only four people working under and those are customer relationship manager which’s main job is to identify the people in the construction business and to maintain and increase good relationships with them. The second one is coordinator, which has a very hectic work, the main job is to coordinate to the client and then coordinate to the companies asking for the amount of steel required to be sold, the companies are contacted on one by one basis. A finance manager is also working there, his job is to keep the finance records and profitability report of all the five companies. The last one is a marketing manager which is an essential part as his main job is to advertise the service that they are offering and also serves as a reminder of Mr. Barringham’s office to all the previous and new clients, this keeps the name in the market, the main idea that Mr. Barringham followed was to do marketing to the list of the customers through internet and also telephone, while complimentary letters are also sent to the clients in order to keep them aware of the presence. The role of human resource is the most important in such businesses, it is because of their efforts that the firm is able to communicate their message to the household and business sector or more formally their target audience, the firm is actually emphasizing on one man policy, one effective manager who is having the potential of being a leader and has all qualities that are available in at least a traditional manager (planning, organizing, leading and controlling), Mr. Barringham is playing this role himself. The Marketing Plan The Target Market: The best thing about Mr. Barringham’s business is that they have the target market in the entire Britain, one cannot say that his services are just limited to London or Birmingham, but they are catering every construction company who is working within or out side England, or some one who is having the business of developing residential houses and residential places and than selling it tomorrow to someone else, or even someone who is willing to construct house for self or giving it on the rental basis. The entire idea says that they are not just working on B2C relationship but also B2B relationship. Of course there are big gaps in the segments or there are people who are unaware of the product and services Mr. Barringham’s company is offering. The Marketing Budget: The marketing budget according to Mr. Barringham is just 10 percent of the profit, it is because of the fact that the company has started full operations and is now set into the market. The Internet marketing is the best thing that company is using, it is so because it is not requiring a big investment and also it is communicating the advantages of the product to both the target audience and also the people who are not target audience but yet can potentially buy the product. There is a big list of the client’s email addresses that is available from the Mr. Barringham. So the idea he is emphasizing on is to keep on mailing those companies and also finding new clients through searching further as they would help the company in creating more market for the five of the companies being operated by Mr. Barringham’s family. The entire idea Mr. Barringham is trying to tell is to inform the new clients and to keep on reminding the previous ones, this is possible through personal meetings with their customer relationship manager which would provide the details about the products on person to person basis and also they send the complimentary gifts to the old clients, such as calendars and diaries and small gift items and also the customer relationship manager keeps on calling to the clients once a month asking if they need any of the services. Another important point of notice is the payment terms which means the ability to collect the cash from the customers, previously all the five companies work on the credit terms and they have hardly faced bad debts but the idea is that all the old customers are allowed to buy on the credit terms while the new customers would have to pay the cash in hand, which is another reason for Mr. Barringham’s success in the business of Steel. So Mr. Barringham started business with very less budget, which is showing that it was a small business while performing even bigger operation, one can also say that his office is performing the work of a manager, a marketer and a forecaster for not just one but all the five companies in a unified manner which would be profitable to both of them, him and his family. “The third biggest challenge for todays small business is scaleable costs. In many small businesses, it is difficult to get economies of scale. One example is a retailer who cannot purchase inventory in large enough amounts to get a discount from the supplier--so that his cost per item sold does not decrease, regardless of volume”(n.p 46: 2002). My personal View Obviously I enjoyed this assignment as I got to know an entrepreneur who I always thought had done nothing, and I came to realize that this man has done a lot of struggle as he could have just become a follower of his family but he came up with an idea and worked on that at his own, and I think that this is what makes him a successful entrepreneur as he had the courage to face all the difficulties and also a tendency to do sacrifices. He was never afraid of what could have happened but all his concerns were at something special that is going to happen. So I loved doing this assignment as it also gave me a lot of motivation to step into some business like Mr. Barringham. Appendix: A Success Story I personally asked Mr. Barringham few questions, which he replied in a straight way, which shows his loyalty to his work. How did you get into this business? [ Me] I was always aware of the fact that I had to do something being within my family, also I had to do some work in which I can lead a team rather than being a follower, I also had a dream to work in an environment which is calm and healthy, unlike steel industry where you can barely stand due to a lot of noise and heat. [Mr. Barringham] How did you manage to start this office at an early age, how much your family supported you? [Me] I simply took pounds 5000 from my father when I was turning 24, which was not really a big amount for him but yet he gave me after a lot of begging, I simply rented an office outside Birmingham and started my work by hiring a work force of four people who are still working with me. My family supported me a lot as if they would not have permitted me then there was no way to start this business, although I assured them through tremendous measures that they would all be in great profit than me, which proved to be a truth later on. [Mr. Barringham] References * Elliott D., B. Herbane, E. Swartz, “Business Continuity Management”. London: Routledge, 2002. * Hisrich R., M. Peters, D. Shepher, “Entrepreneurship”, (n.p.): McGraw-Hill, 2005. * Jim K, n.p: 2000 * (n.p), “Vital Role of Small Business Demands Greater Recognition”, Canadian Speeches: 2002. Read More