- WHAT AGE GROUP ARE YOU IN?
18 – 25 26 – 35 35+
- WHAT GENDER ARE YOU?
Male Female
- WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?
Customer Relations Worker Taxi Driver
Customer Service Manager Assistant Shopkeeper
Other
- HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DRIVING?
1 month – 5 years 6 – 10 years
10 years +
- DO YOU THINK THERE IS A NEED FOR SLOUGH TO HAVE AN ITALIAN CAR REPAIR CENTRE?
Yes No
- DO YOU THINK THE LOCATION OF THE BUSINESS IS SUITABLE TO SEE FOR DRIVERS PASSING BY?
Yes No
1) WHAT AGE GROUP ARE YOU IN ?
18 – 25 26 – 35 35+
2) WHAT GENDER ARE YOU?
Male Female
3) WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?
Customer Relations Worker Taxi Driver
Customer Service Manager Assistant Shopkeeper
Other
4) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DRIVING?
1 month – 5 years 6 – 10 years
10 years +
5) DO YOU THINK THERE IS A NEED FOR SLOUGH TO HAVE AN ITALIAN CAR REPAIR CENTRE?
Yes No
6) DO YOU THINK THE LOCATION OF THE BUSINESS IS SUITABLE TO SEE FOR DRIVERS PASSING BY?
Yes No
The questionnaire was randomly asked to ten people. The point of the first four questions was to find out the back – round information of the person answering the questionnaire. There was no specific use for these four questions for helping me finding the relevant views of the public towards my business. The last two questions helped me find the views of the public towards my business.
Five females and five males were willing to answer my questions. There were four people aged between 18 – 25 years, another four aged between 26 – 35 and two aged and two aged 35 + who had answered my questions. The majority of the public thought that there was a need for an Italian car repair centre in Slough which will be a positive point in my conclusion. The people who said there is no need to set up a business in the Slough area said that because they think that there are enough repair centres in Slough and they say all of them are too expensive. They also said that they 'rip you off' because you have to pay a lot of money and they do not even do a good job.
The next page shows the financial detail of my business for the first three years of running. These spreadsheets include all the variable costs; fixed costs, total costs, fixed assets etc.
Short Term Objectives:
- To provide the complete range of parts for the Italian cars at competitive prices;
- Buy or lease a vehicle for delivery of cargo;
- Deliver cargo to our customers on the same day of order;
- Advertise and develop awareness of ICRC;
- Endow with a technical support line for the general public;
- Institute contacts with garages and body work shops for sales;
- Have an approves Ministry of Transport inspector;
- Provide M.O.T tests;
- Buy or lease garage equipment.
Long Term Objectives:
- Move to a larger premises;
- Provide body parts for all sorts of cars i.e. doors, wings etc. on premises;
- Expand our range of parts available to cover ore manufacturers;
- Provide complete repair and maintenance including M.O.T tests;
- Employ extra staff to increase sales and output;
- Create a CD/catalogue to supply to customers;
- Supply parts and advertise on-line (Internet).
PROVIDE COMPLETE RANGE OF PARTS FOR THE JAPANESE AND FRENCH CARS.
I am intending to implement this situation by carrying out research and obtaining information from the distributors and manufactures of car components. When I received the information from the companies they sent me their pricelists, OEM numbers and technical information. I created a spreadsheet on the computer, which included the parts for Italian and other cars for each part.
PROVIDE A COMPETITIVE PRICE
All the local retail stores have to be contacted to obtain prices of parts for Italian and other cars and this information is also included in the spreadsheet. I will have the wholesalers’ prices and retail prices for each of the car components; hence calculations can be made to obtain the mark up margin that the retailers operate. I can set out our margin as required.
BUY OR LEASE VEHICLE FOR THE DELIVERY OF GOODS.
I intend to buy a vehicle, as our own vehicle which can be used to deliver as required, hence there will be no cost associated with this activity.
SAME DAY DELIVERY SERVICE
Orders for the parts will be taken over the phone and the Internet and a delivery note attached with this order, the orders will then be delivered free of charge, provided the following criteria is met:
- Orders are placed by 3:00pm
- The sum of the order is £20.00 (including VAT) or greater
- Orders must be placed account holders
All the deliveries will be delivered by 5:30pm, any orders placed after £3:00pm will be dispatched for the following day.
ADVERTISE AND IMPROVE AWARENESS OF ICRC
The following techniques will be used to implement these objectives:
- Create leaflets and circulate door to door or with local newspaper;
- Place adverts in the local newspaper, Auto Trader, Exchange and Mart and supermarkets;
- Have a contact with a local bus service and advertises on the busses;
- Deliver leaflets to mini-cab firms and automotive sales companies as well as garages.
TO CREATE A TECHNICAL SUPPORT LINE FOR CUSTOMERS
Technical support will be provided by one of the engineer who will have experience of repair of automotive cars, has good communications and a good understanding of car parts.
ESTABLISH CONTACTS WITH GARAGES AND BODY WORK SHOPS
We have qualified sales engineers who will establish and visit sites if necessary to establish and make a number of contacts. All our customers will reap the rewards of being account holders, as they will have discounts on parts.
APPROVED M.O.T INSPECTOR
A qualified engineer will be sent to a government-approved station to become an approved M.O.T inspector before any premises are obtained. ICRC will pay all the fees.
PROVIDE M.O.T TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Once our engineer has obtained a license from the Ministry of Transport, we will carry out M.O.T testing on our premises.
BUYING OR LEASING OF GARAGE EQUIPMENT
The equipment that we will keep on our premises will be leased at first with opportunity to buy the equipment later. A number of companies will provide information on the equipment required and the cost of keeping the equipment. Most companies will lease the equipment out to their customers for a small fee per week. The cost of leasing a platform lift is approximately £30.00 per week.
STRENGTHS:
- A complete and comprehensive range of parts for the Italian cars, which no other company provides.
- Same day delivery service to account holding customers.
- A location that is strategic an accessible to the public as well as being within the surrounds of other motor trade organisations including dealers.
- Discounts to account holders.
- A credit scheme to assist in customer relationships.
- A technical support line for customers.
- Free electrical test carried out.
- Prices will be competitive as we intend to specialise in a particular type of manufactures.
- If you had a car garage, which could order specialist good and bulk orders to reduce certain costs, would you use it?
- Do you think that your business and the local community could benefit from a local car garage?
- In your opinion is there a high rate of home improvement in the local area?
- What services does your business need that a local car garage could provide?
- In your opinion would a local car garage be a success in a local area without one?
I would like to thank all the people who answered my questionnaire and my telephone calls and anyone else who helped me with my research information.
Businesses need to recruit the best possible procedure workers. To achieve this, I have to decide what procedures to adopt for recruitment and selection. For instance, how will I attract workers to apply for the job? How will I choose which applicants to appoint? Will I use interviews? Will I use other methods of selection? What use will I make of references?
I will need quite a lot of people. Firstly, I will need people who can work on cars and are good at fixing cars. Also I will need to find a person or people who are good at finding problems on cars. Basically, I will need to look for good M.O.T inspectors. In my opinion, I will need to start my business with external recruitment. This is when I can appoint an employee from outside the organisation.
