Unit 1: Assignments 1 and 2.
In this assignment, I will explain how entrepreneurs use different types of innovation, with examples, and analyse how each type of innovation has helped them to succeed. But first, we will be understanding the definition of innovation.
To innovate is to take something and, quite simply, make it better, this can mean many things, for example making a product which makes an everyday task easier or shortens the length of time it takes to complete (such as the introduction of the electric toothbrush, another example would be taking an already established product and making improvements such as making it easier to use (however, an entrepreneur must be mindful of other entrepreneur’s intellectual property when building upon an already established product, for example the Rich Dad Poor Dad company could not have built their board game Cashflow using the Hasbro owned Monopoly board which the Rich Dad Poor Dad board game was lightly inspired by because of the intellectual property Hasbro owns which is the Monopoly trademark and the copyright to the board game). We innovate in everyday life, for example, I learned from the internet that pealing a banana the upside down by pinching the bottom of the banana (not the stem) is far more successful than trying to rip the banana open by the stem – this is a form of innovation however, for an entrepreneur, innovation is vital and, usually, far more complicated than peeling a banana, because innovation is vital to success in the sense that when an entrepreneur innovates, it allows them to keep up with and even set new market trends, this is particularly true of brand new products such as the latest virtual reality (VR) technology breakthroughs which has allowed far more complex VR products to hit the market including those from tech giants such as Samsung with Samsung Gear and Sony with PlayStation VR. The technology which allowed these products to hit the market was the innovation that set the VR market into motion, the sleek new designs of each respective product (and many others, including the Google Cardboard VR headset) are also innovations which, alongside the hardware inside the devices, sets them apart from the rest. Each headset will have its own software installed, for Sony it would be PlayStation software whereas Samsung would most likely use Android software and the apps and games and other uses that come from VR will be as a result of different innovations in programming and hardware capability.
Innovation encompasses new ideas, better solutions and pioneer new products. We all had portable tape and disk players more than a decade ago and we were blown away by MP3 players when they hit the market but one true example of innovation was when Apple revealed their MP4 player, the very first iPod. This innovation had such an impact on the technology industry that Apple suddenly became recognised as a big player in the industry to the point every tech company were bringing out their own MP4 players but none of them had the slick novelty of a touch sensitive input device like Apple’s iPod, from there they innovated further and brought out the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch, almost each year bringing out new versions of each until eventually they, like the MP3 player and the iPod before it, became obsolete. This is what happens when innovation stops and a product is merely updated, as the saying goes “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” Another saying could be “You can’t build a house without any bricks” but a way of innovation would be to bung-a-low roof on the smaller amount of bricks one may have.
One example of fantastic innovation, or not so fantastic depending on your own personal opinion, is the “selfie-stick” which allows users to take photographs of themselves which is a rising trend with the introduction of apps such as Instagram which is owned by Facebook and with some companies developing new ways to try and improve the device, including introducing different functions like the ability to switch between photo and video mode. The new functional capability would make the new selfie-stick more innovative than the last.
Another form of innovation has been seen with the rise of cryptocurrencies, each argues that it is more secure than the rest and with this new innovative currency, you have innovative start-ups and established companies who reside on Lee Road in Ohio which has been coined “Bitcoin Boulevard” because every shop on the road, to the best of my knowledge, only accepts cryptocurrency as payment. This is very appealing to the rising number of people who believe there is an invasive amount of surveillance within society however, I personally fail to see the positive innovation behind bitcoin except for unsavoury individuals because the payments are very difficult to trace and very easy to cover up, though my opinion aside, it does show innovation can be both positive as well as negative.
A company called Zopa created ripples in the finance market when they introduced innovative financial products which has gone on to become what we know now as peer-to-peer (P2P) lending a decade ago now, P2P lending allowed individuals to borrow and lend to one another without using banks as an intermediary (otherwise often known as the middle man to everyday consumers). Prior to this, the only viable P2P option was asking your mother to lend you a fiver so you can visit the pub with your pals but because of Zopa (and many companies since, including Lending Circle and RateSetter), we could lend to those we do not know but who may perhaps be more credit-worthy than our own friends and family. These innovative finance deals used the same processes a bank would when they took the money you gave them and lent to another for a profit and from which, they would give you a cut in the form of a percentage called interest (however, should the interest rate drop below 0%, we will be paying the banks to lend our money out to make a profit for them from which we will actually lose money – the innovative idea the Bank of England had to lower interest rates has a negative impact on the consumers but a positive impact on the economy which demonstrates again how innovation isn’t always positive all round, another example of innovation having both negative and positive effects are Shell who are innovative with their oil pumping machinery but it doesn’t mean it has a positive impact on the environment).
From the 6th April 2016, an Innovative Finance ISA was released to better facilitate P2P lending whilst still taking advantage of the now measly ISA interest rates. Previously, you were only allowed one cash ISA and one other type of ISA whether that be an investment ISA or otherwise but the government have innovated by allowing consumers to mix and match as many ISAs as they like provided they do not break their personal ISA allowance.
According to Electric Teeth, innovations in dental care have been reported as early as 3500 BC when tools equivalent to the first toothbrush existed but let’s skip ahead to a more civilised time, 1880, when an inventor named Dr Scott invented a slightly automated toothbrush; this innovation was to see rise to the first cordless electric toothbrush introduced by General Electric in 1969 and today the debate still continues as to which, a manual or electric toothbrush, is better at its job. I personally prefer manual brushing as the vibrations of the electric toothbrushes make my nose feel funny but you cannot deny the impact the innovation within the dental industry has had on the products available to buy today. Had it not been for Dr Scott, we may never have thought of a fully electric toothbrush. Now all we need is an automatic toothbrush that will brush our teeth for us… That would be true innovation for those of us who are time poor.
Another example of a company innovating is Uber who were formerly known as UberCab, the founder of Uber also founded the popular website StumbleUpon.com. Uber started as a respectable cab firm in the USA and launched its own app for the intention of connecting their customers in San Francisco to their drivers within their catchment area. The innovation was purely accidental when they saw the outstandingly positive response and decided to go on to what we know them as today, a worldwide taxi-service who give everybody an opportunity to be a cab driver. However, this innovation hasn’t come without its own drawbacks; as a result of several high-profile legal disputes between them and the private taxi hire industry, plus questions regarding the safety of passengers due to lack of vetting processes from Uber has led to significant costs as they’ve expanded multinationally. Uber drivers in the United Kingdom have to go through the same process as any other private hire driver with the same licencing conditions which were previously not enforced because of the local authority’s lack of understanding of the technological advancements however, now they are coming to understand how entrepreneurs may try to take advantage of licensing laws and the argument with cryptocurrency which is being debated in regards to previously mentioned Bitcoin Boulevard, is that what if business owners avoid declaring all of their income because of the untraceable nature of the currency? There are several legal implications an entrepreneur may want to take into account with any new ideas or innovations they have, Uber were stung quite heavily by UK fines as a result of non-compliance to British private hire regulations.
YouTube (before it was owned by Google) found themselves about to crumble when they started as a video-dating website before the founders had the idea to convert it into the video sharing website we know it as today. This innovative idea (along with paying attractive women to post several times a month to attract their initial members) led to the tech-giant now known as Alphabet (formerly Google) to acquire them. Prior to YouTube, the only video sharing sites allowed you to download and watch videos whereas YouTube allowed streaming. This form of innovation also lead to the birth of other types of video sharing sites which had their own innovative take on the type of content their site would hold. Later, we would also see the rise of live broadcasting introduced to the internet as online video developed further. In my opinion, the innovations in the technological world, in particularly, the internet, are far superior than the latest innovations in any other market sector with perhaps the exception of infrastructure such as replacing the old bulbs in street lights with new, energy efficient and brighter LEDs – this change to the street lights is another example of innovation from the local authorities to bring government spending down whilst having a positive impact on the environment.
Now we have looked at and analysed several types of innovation within multiple sectors, businesses and scenarios, we should fully understand what innovation is but how exactly do we innovate? Quite often it is said innovations come from “Eureka” moments but what people tend to misunderstand, according to Entrepreneur.com, is that there are several steps to innovation and many innovators share similar traits but for now we will be looking at the steps an entrepreneur may use to innovate and we will also look at the creative process undertaken by many entrepreneurs in their effort to come up with new, innovative ideas.
Entrepreneurs are often able to spot market trends and patterns and therefore have an understanding of how to predict which way a market is headed. By following the creative process properly, they should be able to identify any risks their ideas may pose and also will should carry out detailed risk assessments before implementing any innovative idea they may have. The creative process undertaken during innovation contains four classic stages, these are;
This is the first stage of the creative process which typically includes an assessment of what it is that the entrepreneur hopes to achieve and might include things such as deadlines, a list of tasks required and a comparison of the positive and negative effects their innovation may or may not have. They’ll also begin to think about what else they may need to take into account such as costs, tasks they may have overlooked or any potential delays.
This is the second stage of the process where, according to many, you should simply leave the idea alone and let your thoughts naturally develop naturally around it. I can understand the ideology behind this but personally, I think nurturing your idea would be a more productive activity in the sense where you should spend time devoted solely to thinking about ways you could innovate or different methods of innovation and therefore the effects your choices going forward may have on your overall objectives. According to Graham Wallace, disengaging yourself from your goals allowed for more stimulating thought processes and although scientific research has proven that allowing yourself to focus on things less important has been effective in creative thinking, I personally feel this method is more likely to set an entrepreneur off; it may give an entrepreneur what they think is a fantastic idea but because they’ve not dedicated their thought processes to their objectives, it would be easy to oversee vital risks you perhaps wouldn’t so easily miss if you were focused on your goals. With that being said, perhaps there should be a fifth step to the creative process…
We have all had that sudden feeling of realisation which may or may not have made your eyes well up in tears as a result of sheer astonishment, this is what the creative process helps to achieve, this is often characterised as the moment everything, in this case, your plan for innovation, just falls into place and finally,
The successful application of the Eureka moment.
The creative process isn’t designed to be the be all and end all of innovation, in fact the Wallas Model is applicable in many scenarios from society and ethics to art to creating a new dish, like soup. A chef may want to create a new tomato soup but only by following the Wallas Model (the above process without my suggestion of the nurturing stage), would the chef maybe think to add a bit of stilton as well as the sprinkle of coriander. The successful application would be verified by the empty bowls on the tables of the restaurant at the end of the night.
There are other processes an entrepreneur may choose to adopt during their attempts to innovate, one process is called the Team Climate Inventory (TCI) which was developed by Professor Anderson and West, this process included:
This is focusing on the clear objectives and how you are going to achieve them.
This is how effectively the individuals involved in the innovation work together, it may also include risk assessments and viability tests.
Upon completion of the previous step, you should have a good idea of your team’s individual strengths and weaknesses and thus, allows you to delegate tasks to each member of the team.
This refers to any outside organisations or bodies who you may need to consult with or co-operate with to implement your plans for innovation.
We will now consider three different types of creative medium and evaluate how effective these mediums would be for a company who were to use each medium as part of their marketing strategy. I will then choose which medium I would personally use taking into account the above processes and the positives and negatives of each medium. The three mediums will be:
The first medium we will explore is print based media, typically in the form of a sponsored magazine article, a typical example and perpetrator of such often-considered untrustworthy marketing practices is found in the online journalism industry who will advertise their political/social agenda in the form of sponsored articles (and videos) which can often take the form of “Top Ten” lists. I believe this is a particularly untrustworthy method of marketing because they typically do not disclose the fact they’re sponsored so it is easy to misunderstand what is somebody’s genuine opinion and where their opinion may be influenced by financial reward. You would not see many larger companies engage in this type of practice however, some websites like Hubpages (previously Squidoo) were a perfect place for these kinds of articles as that is what the site is designed for. I have used the website myself to publish articles regarding products and opportunities within previous Multi-Level Marketing businesses that I’ve operated. You may also see articles which advise on how to use a product with links to also purchase the product alongside the article, sometimes it is obvious that an article is sponsored or designed as an advertisement but quite often it can be difficult to tell the difference. These articles are often linked to from sponsored advertising slots (for reference, scroll below any article on The Daily Mail website to the section “From the web” which is sponsored articles by a marketing company called Taboola; this is what is misleading because a media giant is advertising these articles to people who may not have noticed the little sign saying they’re sponsored as potentially accurate or endorsed by themselves when in fact this would not be the case).
The second medium we will look at is still imagery, such as posters or billboard advertising. You’ll often see billboards in high traffic areas and used mostly by larger companies but when they cost in excess of up to £300 a week, it is understandable why they may not be included in a small business’ advertising budget. The reason billboards are effective is because they are large and eye-catching, along roads like Melton Road in Leicester, where at least ten thousand cars and pedestrians travel daily, alongside several sets of traffic lights giving vehicle users plenty of opportunities to stop and look at billboards, it is understandable why this is such an effective medium. For the smaller businesses, however, they can opt for posters to be displayed in bus shelters (often the advertising space is provided by a company called JCDecaux who are innovating their own advertising spaces with motion advertising as well as good old still imaging, such as their new Heathrow Airport Motion Showcase advertising panel, which will be costly to advertise in given it’s such a prominent advertising space) which will be seen by many commuters who use public transport and pedestrians or pass by or telephone box users. The downside to posters is they are smaller and often ignored by road users because of the fast paced environment, they are also costly over the long term and are only effective if used long term, the effort will be obsolete if the poster is only displayed for one week at the cost of in excess of up to £150 per week, JCDecaux recommends hanging several posters to reach maximum impact which can cost way into the thousands of pounds. Advertising space is a tangible asset however and even advertising giants like JCDecaux will negotiate on price of advertising space and award it, usually, to the highest bidder.
The final medium we will explore is motion picture, such as television or internet video advertising such as on YouTube. This medium is used by companies of all sizes, perhaps not television advertising but with the rise of online video advertising, video advertising has become affordable to even the smallest of businesses whereas the television advertising slots are typically reserved for the larger businesses with the finance available to spend thousands and sometimes millions of pounds on advertising. This doesn’t necessarily mean the adverts between program breaks on television, it can also refer to Iceland who sponsor the yearly television reality show “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” though admittedly, there’s not an awful lot of reality behind the show in question, to sponsor a program which gained (at peak) 10 million viewers in one episode like “I’m a celebrity…”, you can expect to pay way into the hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions, unfortunately, we can only speculate at how much the sponsorship deal between Iceland and ITV1 was worth because this has been kept private. Overall however, I believe video advertising to be one of the most effective methods of creativity because it is 100% dynamic and also allows you to incorporate other mediums within it such as audio and still imaging. However, for a local based business, I think poster-based advertising would the most effective for them though to reiterate, in terms of creativity, I do believe motion picture is the way forward because there is only so much you can do with a still image. I also feel video encourages creativity far better because it allows a person to really explore several different tools to create a motion picture and can edit their creations frame by frame whereas with a poster, it’s pretty restricted in the sense if one part of it is wrong, it will still be front facing a second from now whereas a motion picture has the ability to change to a frame with will hopefully rectify the imperfection.
In conclusion, it is important to understand how innovation and creativity encompass one another and alongside this, how being an entrepreneur and being innovative are often one and the same but doesn’t necessarily have to be – one key trait of being an entrepreneur is the ability to find innovative people to make up for any lack of innovation or creativity they may have themselves.
Sources:
http://www.electricteeth.co.uk/the-history-of-the-electric-toothbrush/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250777
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3856266/Syrian-doctor-says-return-war-ravaged-country-stay-UK.html (scroll down to the section “From The Web”)
Assignment 3
In this assignment, we will be looking at two of my own business proposals and choosing the one I believe will be most successful to carry forward, I will make my choice based on skills and attributes required which are available to contribute to the operation of my businesses, I will assess the risks and rewards of each proposal and I will also briefly explore other viable business opportunities I have looked at previously.
To understand my choice in business proposal, we must first understand what I believe is success or rather, what I believe will contribute to the success of my business. Typically, success means simply to achieve your goal and with that being said, what would be my goal for business? Well, my ultimate aim is to own a holding company which owns several companies underneath it – the benefits of this will be mostly tax benefits and would allow me to retain shares within the holding company which would overall increase the value of the company itself instead of my own self-worth. Success to me, therefore, is high growth and profit potential. I also want to make a difference in the world so that should my business ever fail in the future or cease trading, it will leave a legacy of being good for the world; this is what inclined me to begin researching social enterprises and has given birth to the idea of a marketing business which in itself would have a social enterprise arm in the shape of a national leaflet distribution network, following a similar business model to The Big Issue, founded by ex-homeless drug addict John Bird who, like myself, has been able to draw from personal experience to make a real positive difference within British society by giving those who wouldn’t be given a second glance at by an employer due to their circumstances a hand up instead of a hand out.
We will discuss this marketing social enterprise shortly but first we will compare it to my own previous business idea which I did launch successfully and managed for over a year which I ceased trading as a result of the inability to gain finance.
In November 2014, after spending several years living in hostels, in the streets and imposing on people’s hospitality, I secured my own flat. From the age of sixteen through until 2014, I had no work experience other than working in the hair and beauty industry (which I have worked in since the age of 14), I chose to leave this industry due to the nature of many of those who also work within the industry. Because of this, employers felt I had no transitional skills which I could apply in other industries but unfortunately for them, they were very wrong because I had learned how to manage a business through the in depth practical tuition of my very first employer, Geraldine Roberts who owned Stagg Hairstyles in Leicester City Centre, at its peak one of the most popular unisex hair salons in Leicester. So, when I found myself unable to escape the rut I was in, I decided the only way forward was to start my own business but the truth is, what could I do which doesn’t involve hair? Well, cutting grass isn’t a far shade off how I used to cut hair (I was never very good with actually cutting hair, my forte was colouring, perms, relaxants and hair treatments), so I chose to become a gardener. At this point, I’d never put a seed into soil except a sun flower seed when I was about ten years old. However, through self-tuition, I taught myself enough to be able to provide basic gardening and landscaping services and through television programmes like Gardener’s World and the vast archives of gardening videos on video hosting websites like Alphabet owned YouTube, I was able to add more services.
I found it very easy to acquire customers with zero budget, I simply posted adverts on social media offering subsidised gardening services to those who can provide the necessary tools. My first customers were in Glenfield, an elderly couple who I provided three days of work for £80, just general weeding, painting a fence and relaying slabs which had gone askew; I quickly found the majority of “the knack” in gardening is mostly just common sense. By the end of the year, I had several regular customers strewn throughout Leicestershire as far as Hinckley and even now, I still have a couple of customers who I visit a couple of times of year to provide gardening work even though officially, my business is no longer trading. I found myself able to generate an income with zero overheads, because of my situation, I could not afford to register as a limited company so even that wasn’t taken into account. I used to cycle with the hand tools in my bag and after purchasing more tools, I would strap them to my bicycle and back pack; travelling became increasingly difficult and prevented me from purchasing the equipment I really needed, such as an independently fuelled lawn mower (powered by a diesel or petrol or electric motor) and hedge trimmers (shears simply took too long). I applied for finance from the government backed Start Up Loans Co. via Virgin Start Up but due to, as they put it, lack of viability and experience, they refused my loan application. This is when I decided to put my tools down for the time being, so to speak. With that being said, this proposal is not obsolete but simply on a temporary hold; gardening is wonderful because anybody can do it – I am evidence of that and therefore, it is perfect for my social enterprise idea because with services like YASC (provided by YMCA at The Dawn Centre, a hostel for homeless single people) who provide a free shower and breakfast Monday to Saturday, there is no reason why anybody cannot attend work as a gardener and be presentable. On this basis, with good management, I believe it would be perfectly viable to run a gardening business as a social enterprise successfully. However, because of the lack of transport for myself and therefore, understandably, those who are hard-up may also experience drawbacks from lack of transport, I do not think this is the business proposal I would choose right now until I was in a position to fund it myself because transport is a large cost to take into account. Alongside this, there are several other overheads which would eventually have to be considered, as a sole-trader who also lacked any insurance, I bore the entire risk and should anything have gone wrong which resulted in having to pay compensation, it may have made me be forced to apply for bankruptcy, this is a very real threat to sole-traders and because of this it would be very silly for me to grow a business with employees without adequate insurances. The other regular overheads to consider would be:
As you can appreciate, on a low budget, it would be impossible for fund these expenses properly whilst still generating a profit, each of these costs rise with the more people who work for you (although, all of my “staff” would work on a self-employed basis for progression purposes; I do not aim to have many people work for me in my social enterprise; for me, a social enterprise will be successful when those who work with me go on to build their own independent businesses who will work alongside mine which I believe will help me to expand nationally far easier than if I weren’t aiming for individuals who provide work for me to find their own independence in the long run). This is the main reason as to why I would not start my journey towards my previously defined success with a gardening business.
My final word in regards to this proposal is that although I would run it as a social enterprise, I would not provide the opportunity for my self-employed workers to start their own business until I had found an adequate replacement as in choosing to encourage my workers to start their own business has the very real risk of increased competition; I would hope we would all work together but I understand that in reality, some individuals will choose not to co-operate with us once they find their independence and that is also a wonderful thing because competition is healthy as it allows us to cater to different consumer’s needs in different ways, albeit unfortunate should one of these new businesses become more successful than my own.
My second business proposal again would incorporate a social enterprise, I aim to launch a marketing business which has currently started as a simple leaflet distribution network within Leicester. My aim is to take on individuals with poor circumstances and give them a non-customer facing role which will allow them to earn a similar income to that of a Big Issue Seller.
With The Big Issue, I have identified a significant flaw in their business model whereby if a seller does not have at least one or more of the following factors, they will find a discrepancy between their earnings compared to a Big Issue seller who does meet more of these factors, these factors are:
My solution to this is to provide those who do not meet the above factors a non-customer facing role whereby they can earn money based on their own performance. Quite simply, they will paid £10 per 1000 leaflets they post from door to door. This seems like a measly amount given 1000 leaflets takes typically three hours or more depending on distance between letterboxes but if a person is delivering 3 different leaflets to 1000 letterboxes, they will earn £30 per 1000 letterboxes which is much more attractive. The downside to this is that homeless people do have a lot of other commitments, such as appointments to keep etc. – This is why it would be important to have other distributors available to assist in distribution outside of the social enterprise branch of the business. Outside of leaflet distribution, also my current aim, is to implement Direct Selling services; I am currently trialling this with a physical product (customised printed toughened glass products) however, my intention is to move more toward the telecommunication industry; I have approached Three in the hopes of gaining support from them to be a dedicated reseller of their services which alongside the experience I have gained in sales (since 2014), in multiple mediums (door to door, telesales and face to face marketing – a service I currently provide alongside hand to hand distribution which allows me to discuss with potential customers and promote my customer’s services or products) in the hopes of building towards a business which could replace the gap in the market left by Phones4U and which I predict will be made wider as Carphone Warehouse continue lose their market share to the likes of high street dedicated mobile network stores (like EE, Three and O2). Going back to the marketing business however, which at the moment we will only focus on leaflet distribution, I was able to launch this business again with no overheads and though it is unregistered and I currently operate it as a sole-trader who takes on assistance on an ad-hoc (as and when needed) basis, I wouldn’t really call it a real business as yet even though I do have some high-profile customers as far as London and Bristol, one customer (JJ Promotions/Dr Jajoo) in London is associated with Sony Entertainment’s Bollywood branch. As my business grows however, and as I add more services, there will inevitably be overheads I need to cover. These include;
From my experience, I can generate upwards of £70 per week (roughly) with one person distributing leaflets for just a few hours a day. Because of this, I believe the above costs are perfectly affordable if you take into consideration the potential increase in income if a person was distributing for more hours or worked for more days; this makes this business proposal the most viable out of the two. Through partnerships with other leaflet distribution companies such as Leicester Leaflet Distribution who have already expressed an interest in my social enterprise plan, I may be able to share the software and make use of their spare tracking modules bringing costs down even further. I also believe that if I were to seek external sources of finance to properly start-up the leaflet distribution social enterprise, I would be in a far better position than I was when I attempted to gain funding for my gardening business. Therefore, this would be the business I would choose to operate as I believe this would set me up far better for faster growth than gardening which is considerably lesser profits for much greater amounts of effort.
Below, I have taken the liberty of creating a chart which will allow us to assess the skills and attributes required by each proposal and what skills and attributes would make someone more attractive to employ once the business was launched:
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Gardening |
Leaflet Distribution |
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Due to high amount of labour, physical fitness is key. High level of presentation skills. Attention to detail. Ability to make proactive decisions on the spot. Ability to adapt to any unforeseen circumstances (such as concrete bedding instead of sand underneath patio slabs). Trustworthy. |
Physically fit. Personal presentation not really important due to non-customer facing role. Able to make proactive decisions in the running of their own distribution campaigns (for example, making the choice between continuing to work to meet deadline or going home to recharge your GPRS tracker because the battery light is flashing; they should do the former and make note of where they noticed the battery light started flashing = in case you wondered, I feel that is more proactive than stopping, at the very least continue until the battery has died before going home) Trustworthy – however, with the software which provides a house count (gathered from census data), if they discard any leaflets we will know about it. |
|
Preferred skills/attributions of employees |
Preferred skills/attributions of employees |
|
Able to drive a car/van with a clean, full driving licence. No criminal convictions which could void any business contents or liability insurances. |
Able to drive. No convictions which could void any insurances. Able to plan their own routes and manage time effectively. Good sales and communication skills for progression purposes. |
As you can see, both proposals require skills which can be shared between the two which emphasises my point that an entrepreneur can manage multiple businesses (evidence of this can be found by looking at Sir Alan Sugar’s and Sir Richard Branson’s business portfolios), these skills will also allow me to delegate work to workers which will promote job rotation should the individuals want to do this; ideally, they’ll stick to their individual jobs but at times of worker shortages, it would be great to be able to have leaflet distributors help assist the gardeners and landscapers. However, I still feel that the leaflet distribution and marketing business would be the way forward. However, one major drawback of the leaflet distribution business is that we cannot guarantee delivery, as Jordan Singh who runs a direct sales business and hosts business networking events advised me, we can only assure our customers that we will do everything we can to ensure delivery. One drawback of this means that if one of our distributors fail to complete the tasks they’re given and, for example, a common plight we have in the industry is workers dumping leaflets, this will incur costs in the way of refunds and re-printing costs, of course this kind of practice will result in instant dismissal but I’d rather not have to pay for reprinting, let alone give refunds.
In conclusion, between the two proposals, I think leaflet distribution is far more risky because of the potential risk of workers dumping leaflets and the costs incurred from that alone however, I feel the reward is far greater and more attractive in the way of profit and growth. Therefore, leaflet distribution will allow me to achieve success quicker than if I were to start with my gardening business proposal. With that being said, both are, in my opinion, perfectly viable but in terms of how an investor or loan provider would see it, I do think they would prefer the leaflet distribution business (though bear in mind this can be as a result of influence from being declined on a previous Start Up loan application I made to launch the gardening business previously), I do believe going forward with the leaflet distribution and marketing business proposal would be the best option for my business and my goals; again, because of the high profit and quick growth potential.