This portfolio is based on two contrasting businesses. The first would be a sole trader while the second would be a public limited company.

        The disadvantages or drawbacks can be that they have to comply with many external regulations, shareholders come together annually and can make some concerns, which can affect the business. Shareholders expect to make profit or else they could just sell their shares, and the original owner(s) can lose overall control of the business. Another disadvantage is them having to file their accounts in the public domain each year because anybody at all can know how well or badly they are performing. Financial accounts are normally with the “Companies House”. Also their financial accounts have to always be vetted by auditors. The company has to pay these auditors. Also the shareholders might not have much interest in the long-term prospects of the company and might only be interested in the quick return of their money.

Sainsbury’s being a plc suits the business activities because the company is a large company so they have different managers for different areas of the business, which makes the managers have a more specific area to work in. Also, the big shareholders can come together to make a decision that will benefit the company and its sales.

MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE BUSINESS

The main activity that goes on in Talent Barbering salon is:

• Cutting hair for customers: this is like the main job that takes place in the salon. When the customer comes in, he/she is allowed to choose what they want their hair to be done with and the employee would follow through.
• Also give hair services to women: Some barbering salons normally just cut hair but Talent also has a section in the store for women who want their hair did. They have female employees who do the women’s hair.
• Cashiering: when a customer is finished receiving his/her service, they go to the till where there is an employee next to a cashiering tilling machine. The customer pays the employee and the employee in return thanks the customer for coming and gives him/her a receipt, which shows the service being given, and the amount paid for that service.
• Booking an appointment: customers could book appointments with the salon just by calling into the shop to book an appointment. Another way of booking an appointment is by coming into the shop and booking an appointment also.
• Security on the premises: The salon doesn’t really have very tight security but they still have CCTV cameras operating 24/7,
• Ordering stocks: Mr Adewale normally orders stock like once every two weeks. Stocks like clothes, shoes, and hats e.t.c.  
• Cleaning the salon: The salon really doesn’t have a cleaner to the cleaning job in the store. They just have the employees who cut hair clean up after they provide each customer with a service.
• Health & safety: Health and safety is important to the store as they have to make sure the store is clean at all times, the floor not wet, as a customer could just slip over and sue them for compensation. They also have to make sure the employees and customers are safe within the working environment.

They also sell products in the store:

• Clothes
• Shoes
• Hats
• Music CD’s
• DVD’s

        Mr Adewale basically tries to make money/profit from any angle in the business. Normally a barbering salon would only cut hair but his salon is doing that and also providing services and selling different products.

The main activity that Sainsbury supermarket is involved in is food retail. Sainsbury supermarket offers over 34,000 products – 50% of this is Sainsbury own brand including fresh product. In addition t o a wide range of quality food and grocery product, many stores offer baked bread in the premises delicacy, meat and fish counters, pharmacies, coffee shops, restaurant, petrol station and car wash services.

• Health and safety: they have to ensure that the store is in great condition, and also their products especially their freshly made food products. They have to make sure the shelves are clean, the windows clean, and the floor mopped clean and dry. For instance the employees who cut hair do the cleaning, they do it by themselves.
• Transport/delivery: Sainsburys also do delivery to customer’s homes just as suppliers do delivery to Sainsburys. They provide delivery services for customers who shop online, or go to the store and can’t take every load of shopping they’ve bought so they ask the store to deliver it for them.
• Finance: Sainsburys have to pay wages to their employees and managers so that goes under their financial activities, and also they might want to invest in other specific areas which would also go under the financial activities being made in the organisation.
• Marketing: in order for Sainsburys to attract more customers nationwide, the best way for them to do it is by marketing through different means of communicating with the customers. They could advertise on TV, radio, newspapers, leaflets, magazines and other resources.
• Human resources: this section of the business is mainly for employees or staff members. Although Human Resources are known to hire and fire staff members, they also deal in employees’ complaints and training the staff members.
• Cashiering: the cashiers are the one’s who give and receive money to and from the customers. They are the ones the customers who buy products go to in order to pay for their products. Cashiering is done using modern electronic tilling machines- whereby each produce is first scanned to provide the price on its sales receipt and customers normally pay by cash, debit or credit card.
• Security: due to the fact that Sainsburys is a large organisation, they would need security to patrol the store in order to scare fiends away from the store. They also need security to ensure that the staffs have a safe surrounding to work in. Sometimes security men or women are not enough so normally the store would also bring in surveillance cameras to help the security members.

Sainsbury have a total of 730 stores as at October 2004, Sainsbury supermarket serves over 12 million customers a week and as at March 2004 had 600 stores through out the u k. Sainsbury‘s supermarket was established in 1869 by john James and Mary Ann Sainsbury and is Britain‘s longest standing major food retailing chain. Sainsbury’s supermarket employs over 150,000 people; of these 70% are part time 30% fulltime.

Sainsbury supermarket offers over 34,000 products – 50% of this is Sainsbury own brand including fresh product. In addition t o a wide range of quality food and grocery product, many stores offer baked bread in the premises delicacy, meat and fish counters, pharmacies, coffee shops, restaurant, petrol station and car wash services.

INDUSTRIAL SECTORS.

         Almost all Industries can be said to belong in a particular industrial sector. These sectors relate to the stages of production of a particular item.

The three industrial sectors in the UK are:

• Primary sector: The primary sector of industry generally involves the conversion of natural resources into primary products. Most products from this sector are considered commodities or raw materials for other industries. Major businesses in this sector include agriculture, agribusiness, fishing, forestry and all mining and quarrying industries.
• Secondary sector: The Secondary sector of industry is the manufacturing sector of industry. This sector of industry generally takes the output of the primary sector and manufactures finished goods or products to a point where they are suitable for use by other businesses, for export, or sale to customers. This sector is often divided into light industry and heavy industry. Many of these industries consume large quantities of energy and require factories and machinery to convert the raw materials into goods and products.
• Tertiary sector: The tertiary sector of industry is also known as the service industry. It involves the provision of services to other businesses or people. Services may involve the transport, distribution and sale of goods from producer to a customer or consumer as may happen in wholesale and retailing, or may involve the provision of a service, such as in tourism or entertainment. The goods may be transformed in the process of providing the service, as happens in the restaurant industry. There may not even be any goods involved.

The sole trader I have chosen belongs to the category of tertiary sector. The business provides services for customers, which is cutting hair for customers.

The PLC I chose belongs to secondary sector. It manufactures most of its own products to sell to customers. It’s also in the tertiary sector because it provides services like insurance services, some of the branches provide petrol services, and they also provide customer service.

        I’m going to use employment and output figures to show the trends in the secondary and tertiary industrial sectors:

EMPLOYMENT TRENDS IN THE UK

Derived from Annual Abstract of Statistics 1995 and 1999, ONS

The table above shows that the secondary sector in 1989 of the national employment was 27.03%. And between 1989 and 1997, the amount gradually dropped, and it’s even dropped further in 2005. It also shows that the tertiary sector in 1989 was 68.96%. And in between 1989 and 1997, the numbers gradually increased, and it’s increased even more in 2005.

 

UK OUTPUT BY SECTOR, 1989-97        

The table above shows the output for each sector over the period of 1989-97. This shows how much each sector has contributed towards the nation’s wealth.

        The secondary sector shows that between 1989 and 1997, the figures decreased gradually while the tertiary sector between 1989 and 1999 shows that the figures increased gradually.

SALES TRENDS FOR THE RETAIL SECTOR.

The graph below shows the table for the food retailing sector in the UK.

Source: NATIONAL STATISTICS/MINTEL

The sales value for the food retailing market in the UK has grown from £79.1m in 1997 to £106.5m by 2004 a year on bases.

The graph above shows the increase in sales form 1997 to 2004 for food retailing. In all, the trend shows that of growth, year on year since 1997.

 

EMPLOYMENT IN HAIRDRESSING

        Source: ONS figures: SIC 93.02 and 93.04

The table above shows the figures for employment in the hairdressing and beauty industry. It shows that just over 103,000 men and women were employed in June 2002. This could be compared with the 91,984 employed in June 1998. The figures have fairly increased over this certain period, by up to 12% over four years. In June 2002, among those who were employed, around 63% were female of whom 54% worked on a part-time basis. This could be compared with the male hairdressers of whom just over 31% were working part-time basis.

BUSINESS LOCATION AND INFLUENCES ON LOCATION.

Rob Lewis is the manager of the Sainsbury’s store that is located on 25 Calderwood Street, Woolwich, London, SE186QW (map shown below).

This location was chosen because of the following:

1. There is less competition, as they are the only large major store around Woolwich.
2. Since there is no competition, they have a lot of customers coming into their own store and buying goods.
3. There are a lot of people who live in Woolwich, Plumstead and other areas around Woolwich who would rather go to Sainsbury’s closer to them other than going all the way to places like Greenwich which is further than Woolwich.
4. The location of the store is good for people who drive as there is up to 700 parking spaces for them.

The influences on the location of the business are that since the business is located in Woolwich there are more people around the area who could apply for the job and there would be more customers coming through to buy products from them. Also the price of the products influence the location because if there was another retail business around the location, they would have to keep on reducing the prices of products just to make sure that the competition goes to their advantage, this makes them loose more profit than what they could have made if there was no competition. So them not having competition there benefit them.

Talent barbering salons location was chosen because of the following reasons:

1. There is only one other barbering salon in Woolwich, which can give Talent competition, but they are approximately 3 miles away from each other so the distance can be a difference on what customers come to whichever shop.
2. If customers are arriving with a bus, the store is right in front of the bus stop they get off on so they know that they don’t have to walk a distance when they get off the bus.

STAKEHOLDERS OF THE BUSINESS.

        Stakeholders are individuals/groups of individuals who have a certain interest in a business and can have a certain effect on how the business is being operated. Below is a list of stakeholders of each of my businesses and what kind of influence they have on the business.

Sainsbury’s:

• Customers: The customers are the most important assets in a business. Without them the business would never be successful because there would be no profit. Customers also have interests in the business because they expect to see what they need. They are also welcome to give ideas to the business on how they can improve. Sainsburys respond to their customers by providing and producing more and more fresh food and products everyday for them. They also provide customer service for customers who are having problems coping with the services and products of the company.
• Employees and Managers: Employees and managers are mostly interested in how much money they’re getting, the way the staff is being treated and whether the business is secured for a while or whether it could close down any day unexpectedly. Sainsburys on the other hand respond to their employees and managers by providing more employment space in their business, by giving them bonuses, and also giving them insurance. They also provide training programmes for their employees at one stage of the year.
• Shareholders: Shareholders are groups of individuals who invest in the company. The general public can invest in Sainsbury’s because it’s a PLC. The shareholders are interested in two things, for the business to be successful and make profit. Sainsburys would respond by making sure that the organisation makes profit. The shareholders are the owners of this business.
• Suppliers: The suppliers are the people who supply the goods needed for the business to run. The suppliers are mostly interested in how frequent or on a regular basis Sainsbury’s can place orders with them. Sainsburys would also respond by placing orders frequently in order to keep themselves and the suppliers happy which would make a good if not great relationship.
• Competitors: Sainsbury’s don’t really need to worry about competitors because their location is not really close to other stores, but if they still want to worry about competitors, they would be interested in the price of goods their competitors are selling, and what other services their providing that can make customers go to them (their competitors).
• The local community: they can also be important because they could also be shareholders of the business. Also the local community would be expecting big organisations to come around so there would be space for employment. Sainsburys would respond to the local community’s needs by creating more stores in the community and could also sponsor the local community in things like the local football clubs, local concerts or theatres, and other things that have to deal with the local community.
• The government: the local government would be needed to for such things like planning laws, and health and safety standards for the organisation. The national government would be needed to produce laws facing things like racism, and sexual discrimination. Sainsburys in response would follow or abide by the rules given to them by the government.

        Talent:

• The owner is a stakeholder as his livelihood depends on the success of his business.

• Customers: The customers are important to this business because if they were not there, there would be no one to provide the service to. They customers would be interested in how good their haircuts would be, and how they treat their hair. They would respond to the customers by providing more employees to help provide more space for customers to cut their hairs.
• Employees: This business doesn’t really employ, it just has family members helping out with the services. But they also would be interested in how much they get for helping out, and how many hours they’ll be working, and how they are being treated. The business would also respond to the employees by giving them decent pay salaries and hours working time.
• The local community: Since Woolwich is like a market place, lots of people would be walking around the area that means there could be lots of customers coming in to get haircuts. The business could respond to the local community by doing good deeds for the community like giving away free haircuts to little children.

M2

In this section I would explain the differences of stakeholders between both Sainsburys and Talent Barbering Salon.

        The stakeholders in each business are of much importance to the business.

• Customers: The ways Sainsburys look at their customers are different from how Talent looks at theirs. For example, if a customer stops coming into Talent for hair service, this would be recognised by John and would have him thinking why that customer has left. But I a customer or 2 stop coming to Sainsburys, it wouldn’t really have an effect on them or they wont even notice it because they are such a large organisation that one or few customers would not have and effect on them as much as it would on the sole trader.
• Employees and managers: The influence employees and managers have on Sainsburys are also different from that of Talent. I think the employees and managers for Talent influence the business more than it does in Sainsburys because, if an employee decides not to show up for work for Talent, it would affect them because they would have less service space for customers which would result to customers waiting which would also result to customers leaving because they have to wait. If an employee or manager decides not to show up for Sainsburys, it wouldn’t really have an effect on them because they would have the bounce-back ability to have an extra employee to cover for the missing employee or manager.
• The local community: There’s not really much difference in the influence the local community has on both businesses because without the local community around, there’s basically no use of both businesses starting up a business in the first place.

BIBLIOGRAOPHY

The sources used in this investigation are:

• the ONS website ( )
• HEINEMANN GNVQ intermediate business textbook
• the search engine which is
• HABIA website