As I am only starting up as a small sole trader and working from home my business will be situated in a room that my parents are letting me work from in their house of which I will be paying them monthly for. I am starting off with a home based premises for now as it is more affordable, as I have no profit to pay out in large amounts for the rent of a shop for example. However for future references I hope that when my business expands and sales increase I will be able to afford rent for a small shop in town of which I will pay from the profit that PDW gains. I am hoping that moving into the shop I the future will increase sales by a larger amount gaining more profit for the business.
There are few physical resources that are vital of having within my business one being access computer which has available internet connection, this is highly important to have this before my business starts as I will need to create a website for PDW in order for my customers to email me their wanted orders I will also need to check and sort the orders that my customers have required, the internet is also a useful source of advertisement of which I will use to promote my service which will enable my sales to increase as more people will be able to see the service I am offering to the population, this will also enable my business to be worldly promoted.
The equipment I will need in order to complete my customers orders, is a printing machine, this is the only one piece of machinery that I may buy to start with, as I have some money already invested into the business for my start up costs, a drying rack, small essentials for example, pens, pencils etc. I will obtain the resources like the machinery by renting for the cheapest possible amount, until my business is properly up and running as I am not in need for everything right now also the finance is tight so I would not be able to buy all essentials now, for the smaller equipment I will purchase a variety, but the mass of the equipment that I will need can wait until later.
I will need to forecast the type and number of staff that will be required to meet the firms objectives. I will also need to take into consideration the HR that I will need to require in order for my business to operate efficiently. Although right now as I am a small business it is not essentially required, but for future reference this needs to be considered.
I will need a certain amount of people to do certain jobs for the business, although I do not want to lose out on profit, and gain minimum wage so I am going to limit the amount of employees that I hire, hoping for each employee to take on more than one job/task. Depending on what part of the business they are focused on depends on how they will be trained. I will interview a variety of people to see which person fits the jobs best.
Employees should add to productivity and output. the measure of output from a production process. The rate at which goods or services are produced especially output per unit of labour. Help maximise profit- the process by which a firm determines the price and output level that returns the greatest profit. Be motivated and satisfied in order to provide effective service to both internal and external customers. Functional skills will also be required by the employees, this will include areas of customers service, selling, administration and production/operations.
Legal aspects:
As a lawful business each individual supplier will be checked for standards and reports to insure that laws such as the consumer protection act of 1987. Standard acts have been met to the correct requirements thus giving our customer high quality and correctly produced products.
Consumer Protection Act 1987-
This is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made important changes to the consumer law. The product liability directive introduced a regime of strict liability for damage arising from defective products. They then created government powers to regulate the safety of consumer products through Statutory Instruments. This then can define a criminal offence of giving a misleading price indication.
I must ensure that all products which I sell are of good quality and is exactly what the customer has asked for, I must ensure that it fits all of their wants and needs of my company. This means that I need to check over every design to make it perfectly accurate to satisfy the customer. Also I must ensure that the price is right and not over the maximum amount.
As I am working from home in a spare room of my parents house, my insurance will be covered under the home insurances of which I will pay monthly for, which will make it a lot cheaper and easier for me to start off with. Once my business expands, and I move my business into a small shop in town I will need to find a good business insurance which will cover any errors like a fire, break down in machinery, accidents at work or an accident involving a customer’s, if any of these were to happen a loyal insurance company would save me a large amount of money in the long run. For this a good insurance to take interest into would be a public liability insurance, for example Finsbury Insurance Group, offer £27 a month which protects my business from any problems within trade work i have done, and will complete and protect also some of my business assets.
Business continuity is the activity performed by an company to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. Cash flow: Cash flow is the movement of cash into or out of a business, project, or financial product. A business needs to get the right balance between the cost price and the quality customers are not going to be interested in a high cost product if the quality isn’t great however if a high quality product has been produced, and has been put on the market for a low price, the company is going to loose out on a lot of profit that could be made, the right balance needs to be checked out in order for customers and the business to both be satisfied, in the businesses account to carry on with success and make future plans. ‘Shop around’ for materials and stop, figure out the best price payment in terms of availability of a product. I will also need to ensure that continuity of supply is performed so that my customers are not let down what so ever, I should always have my service on offer, in order to greet my customers wants and needs.
Within my budget I have designated a specific sum of money to each part of the business such like, physical, human and financial, along with a budget for advertising and public relations. By doing this it allows me to keep a closer track on money and makes financial documents like cash flow and profit/loss account easier to calculate.
I will need to focus on to start up my business, the first of which is physical resources, which has a budget of £3000. The premises is located within a small room of my parents house and as my start up budget is relatively small I will be renting until I can afford a budget big enough for rent of a shop in town. The payment is a sum of £80 a month. However things such as electricity, will have to be paid separate using part of the profit that PDW will gain, this will mount to around £100 a month. The computer, phone, cabinets, and other larger physical resources are also available online and from my research it is clear that second hand products are hugely in a more accessible price range to me and would be more suitable for a small business.
Quality.
Managing quality means that production has to work hard to achieve quality products. The production process needs to be properly managed. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service was produced correctly. Many different techniques and concepts have evolved to improve product or service quality. There are two common quality-related functions within a business. One is quality assurance which is the prevention of defects, such as by the deployment of a quality management system and preventative activities like failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). The other is quality control which is the detection of defects, most commonly associated with testing which takes place within a quality management system typically referred to as verification and validation. Quality is determined by the product users, clients or customers, not by society in general. It is not the same as 'expensive' or 'high quality'. Low priced products can be considered as having high quality if the product users determine them as such.
Quality control.
Quality control is a process by which individuals review the quality of all factors involved in production. This approach places an emphasis on three aspects, being. Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well managed processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records. Another being competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and qualifications. And lastly things such as soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational culture, motivation, team spirit, and quality relationships. The quality of the outputs is at risk if any of these three aspects is deficient in any way. The focus is on detection not prevention therefore this makes it a very expensive method. It involved inspecting products during production, so any faulty products spotted can immediately be taken out of production and fixed or adjusted to perfect the product. If products are not inspected and sent to shops without checking the products, this may lead to a very unhappy customer, which could affect the loyalty and trust between the customer and the business. Testing products are vital within the production, any dangerous or unreliable products could place negative view on the businesses reputation which then could decrease sales. Sampling of the products also take place whilst the products are produced, any individual which spots anything that could be improved within the product is done so within this part of the production. There are many benefits to quality control, one of the main upsides to this method is that it prevents poor quality products from reaching the marketing place and customers, which could lead to a untrustworthy relationship between the business and customers, better products and services ultimately establishing a good reputation for a company and higher revenue from having more satisfied customers. Only one individual is needed to trust in order for h to do their job properly. Lastly inspectors can take a wider view of the organisation. However there are few downsides to this method, the responsibility lies within the inspector and not the productive individuals therefore, there is little encouragement for the producers to improve on the products. Also in use of this method it is a extra expense or business cost that the company will have to pay in order to use this method. This system is necessary to bring into the control of my business to ensure that I offer a satisfactory service and products to all of my customers.
Quality assurance.
Quality assurance is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a product or service to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process. QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products. Quality is determined by the product users, clients or customers, not by society in general. It is not the same as 'expensive' or 'high quality'. Low priced products can be considered as having high quality if the product users determine them as such. Quality assurance is about how the design of a product is designed in order to minimise the chances of faults, therefore is a product is well controlled ten quality will be built into the product. If the production process is reliable then there is less need to inspect the production output (quality control). The benefits of Quality assurance include things such as a greater ownership by individuals, greater motivation over the ownership/recognition which therefore lead to increased confidence that controls are in place and the risk of error is reduced. In quality assurance, there is more emphasis on self-checking, rather than checking by inspectors It is also benefitted as reduced cost occur due to less required employees, reduction in loss of time due to rework on finished products which may be faulty and lastly lest waste of raw materials etc. Overall I think that this would benefit the company deeply as it would provide a higher quality service to clients and community also promising them with a increase in reliability of the end product that they wish to invest in. There are little downsides which lie within this method, as it is seen to only improve a business.
Total quality management.
The traditional term applied to quality concept is Total quality management. TQM is appropriate for any size business from the large business chains for example supermarkets to small businesses such as sole traders. A business which provides a quality product and quality customer service keeps its customers. Quality products which can be manufactured items or services are often the result of a policy of quality which extends to every person and procedure within the business, this policy is known as Total quality management. Everyone in the workforce is concerned about quality at every stage of the production process therefore, the whole business understands the need for quality and seeks to achieve it. Many advantages lie within Total quality management, it puts customers at the heart of the production process as it leads to quality products which leads to customer satisfaction. Workers therefore feel more motivated by extra responsibility as they are involved in making decisions which turn out successful, which in all makes them work harder to please their customers, and earn money. Less wasteful than throwing out defective finished products, as products are made correctly first time which no faults or errors in the products. Eliminates cost of inspection as there is no need for inspectors to check over products, as series of recent products have been made to perfection so therefore can be checked by individuals in the business itself. However setting up total quality management takes quite a while so benefits may not be seen for several years, however I think that taking interest in this method would definitely help to increase the sales of my products, and create a stronger relationship with loyal customers.