What were the problems?
Planning a business is definitely easier than putting everything into practise. However, together as a group we managed everything. The first problem occurred when the college rejected to provide our group with a refrigerator which changed our initial plan a lot. We would have been unable to keep the drinks chilled until the opening time of our stall. Every day we were allowed to run our stall for 2 hours which meant Amir had to keep the drinks at his house until half an hour before our stall’s opening time. This was a complicated process and also affected Amir’s other plans but it was the only way to make sure that the drinks are still chilled when sold in the College.
On the first day of selling, our group also realized that our stall did not look attractive enough and our display board didn’t have enough posters to display. Our Group manager Joy therefore offered to bring table clothes in red (because it would match to the display boards colour which was blue) and to print out more posters that would get peoples attention to our stall.
Another problem we came across was that more and more people requested another flavour (Passion Fruit) to be sold as well as Mango. This changed our initial business plan dramatically since we did not know at which shop we could buy Rubicon with passion fruit flavours from. However, the amount of requests was high enough to change the business plan so we had to look in each shop that sells drinks. Most of the shops we went to sold Rubicon Passion fruit but we couldn’t buy it since they were sold for £0.50. This would have meant that we met the Customers request but wouldn’t make any profit. At last our group member Rahila came up with the Idea to check at ASDA’s because internet researches showed that ASDA offers Drinks for even cheaper than Tescos. Rahila then went to ASDA’s and as expected passion fruit flavoured Rubicons were sold for £2.24 per six cans. This meant that each Can would get us £0.13 profit if re-sold for £0.50.
After having sorted out our stall and adding another selling product we came across another problem with our group members. Some group members either didn’t turn up or turned up late or just didn’t try to market our product effectively. Our Team leader Joy then held a meeting within the group with all our group members. This was some sort of warning and also advice towards the group since some group members did not take our group or their position serious enough.
Thereafter, on the third day of business an unexpected problem occurred. Our selling product ran out of stock and we still had another one and a half hour left to run our stall. The reason for this problem occurring is because surprisingly the college allowed us to run our stalls for 2 more hours than usual. We were not prepared for this and therefore had no products to sell. It was also impossible to travel back to north harrow to buy stock as this would have taken us almost an hour. However, since we did not want to waste this opportunity we quickly discussed a solution within the team. Mehdi, who is the Operations assistant knew a shopkeeper of a shop which is only located about five minutes away from the college. Amir and Mehdi then went to the shop but the shopkeeper only sold each can for £0.40 which meant our profit per can will be decreased from £0.20 to £0.10 per Can. We didn’t really have a choice and at that moment the offer was our last option. Although, we couldn’t make as much profit as usual, but still managed to run our stall for the 2 hours.
A Table of our cash flow is shown below:
What activities did you undertake in order to put your business idea into practice?
The first meeting within the group was held roughly 2 weeks before we started to run the business. The meeting was to choose a name for our business and to decide about who will overtake which role in the business. Everyone of our group first had a chance to talk about any previous experiences in business which included running a stall, leading a team etc. Since Joy had previous experience in leading a team and has already gained very good communication skills she was chosen to be our team leader and managing director. All of us thought our business name should be unique and therefore we decided to call our business”J MARK”. The name is made up of all our group members first names’ first letter. J for Joy, M for Mehdi, A for Amir, R for Rahila and K for Karm. In our point of view, the name is very unique and in a way we are all part of it.
The roles of each of us were as follows:
Karm was given the role as our finance director since he has excellent numeric skills and is also very reliable. Rahila was chosen to be the sales director because our team leader believed that she has good communicating skills and will therefore be able to market our product very effectively. I was given the role as an operations director. The reason for this is because it was my responsibility to purchase our selling product at Tesco for the price agreed (£0.30 per can) and to transport it to the college. Since we couldn’t rely on Tesco too much, group member Mehdi created a back up plan. The back up plan was a list of 4 different shops in uxbridge we could try to purchase our selling product if Tesco should run out of stock. Therefore, Mehdi was given the role as the Operations Assistant.
Our second meeting was held three days before we started our business. It was in a tutorial lesson so there wasn’t a need for anyone to spare extra time. In that meeting, we drafted the first design of how we think our stall should look. We also took down notes on what still needs to be done e.g. speak to the student support team to arrange a freezer or visit other shops in uxbridge to see whether the selling product could be purchased from somewhere else for even cheaper than £0.30.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t borrow a refrigerator from the student support team like we planned to. This plan could therefore not be put into practise. We also couldn’t only sell mango flavoured Rubicons since a high amount of people requested passion fruit to be sold.
Your contribution
I strongly believe that I was a big part of the group. I didn’t only come up with the Idea to sell Soft drinks, but also knew where our group could purchase the drink for £.0.30 and the quickest way to transport the product from North Harrow to Uxbridge College. When I first came up with the Idea, the rest of my group members didn’t agree with me that the product will be sold successfully. Therefore, I was told by our team leader to create a handout with a big picture of our selling product and the price we are planning to sell it for which was £0.50. I fulfilled her wish and created a handout which I then walked around in college with and asked people whether they would like to see our being sold in the college. Like I expected 100% of the people asked answered with Yes. Since the results turned out positively, my Idea got accepted by our team leader and the rest of the group. My main Duty was to purchase the product at Tescos and store the chilled at home. I had to make sure that I keep the products chilled until I leave my house to College. This was to ensure that the drinks will still be cool when being sold. This would have been unnecessary if the student support would have provided us a refrigerator.
However, I also found weaknesses on myself. Sometimes, I turned up a few minutes late which affected the business. It resulted in the group not being able to start running the stall on time like all the other groups did. The reason for me being late was because I had to carry 50 Cans in my bag which made me walk slower than usual. However, I could have left my House earlier to make sure that I get to College on time. My weakness affected the number of Cans sold per day as well. If I would have been in college on time we would have been able to sell much more Drinks. I also found that my communication skills were not effective enough to persuade customers to buy our product. On the second day of our Business our Team leader Joy decided to let me stay at the stall for one hour. She explained me how to talk to customers in order to make them buy our product. However, as I actually tried to talk to people who walked past our stall I realized it was not as easy as I was told. I believe, it was worth every minute although it was hard at first I definitely improved my communication skills.
INCLUDE YOUR PERSONAL LOG
This table is to show the which Jobs I did and when I did them
I think our business was very successful. Especially when compared with the other groups (Majer, Cakes and Bakes etc.) We made the most profit in our class which makes this an achieved business objective of ours. Our idea to set up the stall nearer to the exit was an excellent idea because we was right outside the door where staff come out of and also adjacent to the barriers where everyone walks through to get outside the college. The most beneficial advantage was our selling product. We are glad that we had the idea of that product before anyone else did. Rubicon is a very famous and preferred drink. This got us many customers each day. The time at which we run our stall was inappropriate on some days. The time at which the mall is the most crowded is 12 pm since that’s when everyone usually comes out for their lunch break. We were not allowed to choose the times for our business ourselves. On some days the college told us to run our stall at 10 am which meant the mall was still quiet empty. We are sure that we could have sold much more if we were allowed to run the stall from 12 pm to 3 pm.
