One of the tasks you will need to do is to choose some directors for your company. These will be: -
- Managing Director
- Finance Director
- Personnel Director
- Production Director
- Marketing Director
These are some of their jobs, so choose carefully.
Managing Director
Jobs and Responsibilities
Make sure that all departments carry out their jobs to a high standard and on time.
Give help and support to all employees in the business.
Work with people outside the business, i.e. teachers, students.
Motivate employees.
Discipline employees who are not working as hard as they should.
Meet with other company directors.
Finance Director and Finance Department
Jobs and Responsibilities
Work out the unit cost.
Work out the variable costs.
Meet with other company directors.
Work out the break-even analysis.
Work out the start-up cost.
Decide where the money is going to come from.
Produce a cash-flow forecast.
Keep a control of all money going in and out of the business.
Produce a profit and loss account.
Personnel Department
Jobs and Responsibilities
Produce an ORGANISATIONAL CHART, which clearly shows the CHAIN OF COMMAND.
Work with the heads of other departments to write job descriptions for all employees which must include what job each worker will be doing before, during and after the business would run.
Produce wages statements.
Decide how much each employee will earn based on the type and amount of work each person does.
Marketing Director and Department
Jobs and Responsibilities
Design the group questionnaire
Ensure that the entire group carries out the questionnaire, and hands them back to the department.
Compile the results and make sure that they are on the shared area of the school computers.
Analyse the secondary market research.
Check out the competition, specifically the LSC and Buttery.
Production Department
Jobs and Responsibilities
Draw up a list of the exact ingredients you will need in your product.
Find out where the best place to buy the ingredients would be. This must be based on price, quality, and how easy it would be to buy the product.
Think about issues such as storage, space, Health and Safety etc.
Think about how easy it would be to manufacture your product.
How and where will the product be sold?
What arrangements will need to be made for the selling of your goods?
Based on your market research, decide how much of your product you will need to produce each day.
***Some of this work will need to be done as a group, and the information will need to be available to everyone. Again, the report MUST be done individually. This is not a complete list, it is up to you to discover whether there are any other aspects of this task that need doing.***
CHALLNEY HIGH SCHOOL FOR GAYS
Business Studies Coursework
Enterprise
‘Is there a gap in the market for fast food at Challney?’
Introduction
As a student at Challney High School for Gays, my task is to decide whether there is a gap in the market at the school to provide an alternative supply of fast food to the students in years 7-10. I will have to compete against three different suppliers of fast foods. One is the Buttery, the second is a company selling ice cream and the third will be selling Samosas.
Business Opportunity
Business Description
- What business format will you be using?
- Sole Trader, Partnership, Private Ltd Company, Public Ltd Company (PLC)?
- Which one have you chosen?
- Why are you not choosing the others?
Present Market and Local Business Environment
- What is available at the moment?
- Who are your customers?
- What is the MARKET SEGMENT?
- What is your competition?
Gap in the Market and Unique Selling Points
- What is the GAP in the market that you will fill?
- What is unique about your market?
- What is unique about your product?
- How will you find this out?
Aims (500 words)
- What do you want to achieve? Will you only want to BREAK EVEN? What might your other objectives be?
- Maximising Sales?
- Maximising Profit?
- How important is it to gain experience of running a business for the first time?
- Meet customer needs?
-
Produce a Cash flow forecast based on what you think you might do. Remember that this will only be a forecast.
Objectives
- How are you going to satisfy your aims?
- What type of market research are you going to do?
- Why are you going to do it this way?
- Investigate how the work might be divided. Discuss what types of people would be best in certain roles. You will need to be aware of the management roles set out beforehand. You will also need to discuss how the directors might carry out these tasks.
Constraints and Controls on your Business Activity
For this section you will need to look at what types of things would limit what you can do with your business, or even stop your business from trading. Examples of these might be:
- Time
- Capital
- Labour
- Lack of experience
- Health and safety issues
- School rules
You will also need to do a risk assessment, for example, is there any danger or risk to you and your customers whilst setting up and running your business such as food poisoning, and accidents.
Marketing
For this section you need to go to the ‘V’ drive on the school computers. The document you need to use is called ‘SPLASH1’
Primary Market Research Report
Terms of Reference
Findings
Conclusions
Recommendations
Secondary Market Research Report
For this section you need to go to the ‘V’ drive on the school computers. The document you need to use is called Sec_data.
This is the task that you will need to complete. You will also need to write a report about this research. This you can find in the ‘V’ drive and the file is called ‘Secondary Data Analysis’
Market Research – Secondary Data Analysis
Open a spreadsheet file from the V:Drive called Secdata.xls
Enter formula to work out the Gross Profit Margin (GPM), Net Profit Margin (NPM) and the Return on the Capital Employed (ROCE) for each of the 4 businesses.
Write a paragraph about
- The GPM for each company. For example which of the businesses had the highest/lowest sales, variable costs (Cost of Sales) and GPM?
- The NPM for each company. For example what were the various Fixed Costs to the businesses, which was the most important cost and which had the highest/lowest costs and the best/worst NPM
- The ROCE for each company. Identify the capital invested and what was the highest/lowest ROCE
- Which business do you think performed the best and would you invest in it? Explain why.
- Using the results of this research, what have you learned to help you plan your business?
Marketing Campaign
- How did you market your company?
- How did you find out what your customers wanted?
Pricing Strategies
- How did you decide what price to sell your product at?
- Which pricing strategies are available to you?
- Which ones will you use and why?
Marketing Mix
- Explain all 4 P’s and make it relevant to your business.
-
Why this product?
-
Explain your choice of location (place)
-
How did you promote your product?
-
What factors were considered before setting a price for your product?
Company Organisation
- You will need to put an organisational chart in this section.
- Explain the roles and responsibilities for each department and for each person.
Sales
**Your teacher will give you a set of sales figures for each day that you would have traded. ***
Finance
Sources of Finance
- Internal finance
- External finance
- What other options of finance are there?
- Why did you not use them?
- Explain the limitations of the different sources of finance.
Fixed and Variable Costs
- Explain what FIXED and VARIABLE costs are.
- Analyse your own company’s fixed and variable costs
Business Viability
- Break Even Forecast
- Cash Flow Forecast
These will be done to show what you THINK might happen to your business.
You will be given a set of figures from your teacher to complete the following.
- Break Even
- Cash Flow
- Profit and Loss account
You will need to explain all of these accounts. Explain how many items you need to sell before you break even. Explain what happened in theory (forecast) and what happened in reality (actual).
Break-even Analysis
- Show your company’s Break Even Forecast
- Analyse your Break Even Forecast
Cash-Flow Forecast
- Show your company’s Cash Flow Forecast
- Analyse your Cash Flow Forecast
Profit and Loss Account
- Show your company’s Profit and Loss Account
- Analyse your Profit and Loss Account
- Compare your Profit and Loss Account with those on the secondary market research.
Evaluation
Summary Statement
If you were to run your business in reality, how successful do you think it would be? Explain your reasons.
Analyse your accounts. Compare your NPM, GPM and ROCE to the businesses in your secondary market research.
Show an Organisational Chart and discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of having this.
When work had to be produced as a group were there any problems? What could be done to overcome these problems?
If you were to run the business in reality, what would you do to make sure that it ran perfectly, and without any hitches?
The sections you need to consider are as follows:-
Account Analysis
Problems
Strategies to Overcome Problems
Appendix
Remember to include….
- Your business ideas brainstorm
Your own ideas for: -
- Company name
- Slogan
- Logo
- Poster
- Questionnaire
Company
- Name
- Slogan
- Logo
- Poster
- Questionnaire
Remember…
Because you will not be running the business, it is VITAL that you demonstrate that you understand EACH concept you discuss. An example of this might be that when you discuss Sources of Finance, it will not be good enough just to say that you have chosen to use an EXTERNAL source. In order to gain top marks, you must discuss each different type of finance, explain the advantages and disadvantages of each and then explain WHY you have made your own choice. In order to help you with this your teacher will give you some examples of what your work should look like.
This is your own coursework, and whilst there is some group work needed, the report that you hand in must be individual.
Make sure that you complete all of the tasks that are in this guide. If you are worried about anything, or don’t understand something, it is up to you to ask for help.
Your hand in deadline for your COMPLETED work is the last Business Studies lesson before the SUMMER HOLIDAY. We will, however expect to see work in progress before then.
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