Tuesday 22nd July opened with a discussion on competition. Had I really considered the competition and what was their strategy? I had to be careful of the science of costing and the art of pricing strategies in accordance to the current competition. Before enrolling on this course I had taken into careful consideration the competition and noted that I needed to enforce some kind of innovative idea to differentiate from others however, I hadn’t really considered the cost-pricing strategy. Obviously I understood it essential to make a profit to be successful and in order to do this I needed to attract customers. I learnt that I had to price services over total costs but to also consider competition strategies. I applied this to Leisure Lettings and have driven down costs by working from home and cutting down show-rounds as I am to introduce a ‘virtual tour’ of all the properties over the Internet. This will enable a larger profit whilst keeping in line with current competition.
The 23rd July proved interesting as life coach Derek Grant introduced a way to move forward in personal development skills. Different personalities adapt to things in different ways. I discovered my learning style is equally as strong in all four areas of personality; pragmatist, activist, reflector and theorist. These attributes are transferable to skills applied in every day life, just when and how is what I am slowly learning, and no doubt will continue to learn throughout my life. I can use this to my advantage in Leisure Lettings as I will be dealing with members of the public every day and will need to be equally strong in all areas to be able to adapt to others.
24th July proved advantageous because it lead me to think about the correct advertising and marketing strategy, which I had not done so before. I designed an advert using the style ‘A(awareness), I(identify), D(desire), and A(action)’ and adapting it to Leisure Lettings. From this, I was able to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of marketing when applied to Leisure Lettings, at home I researched the present advertisements on the market.
28th July we were to discuss start-up costs. I had previously considered costs as a whole. I learnt that there were many costs that I would save, which would make my business more productive and in line with competition.
On the 29th, I learnt to build a financial plan. I had absolutely no idea how to do this before, even after looking into certain bank business plans and from research in the library. I found this lecture to be of most benefit. I am now able to draw up a break-even analysis, cash flow identifying opening and closing bank, and am able to balance the books and produce such data in excel spread sheets and on bar charts and graphs. This will be of most benefit in the future in whatever business I go into as I can now adapt these standard strategies to apply.
From reviewing the current property market every day for the last three or four years, and from experience from the family business, I have noted trends and tried to predict future outcomes. I knew that to comply with demand a business has to produce what the customer wants. How was I to do this? I learnt different types of market research and how to ask appropriate open-ended questions to potential customers. I did not realise however, how to assess demand. From identifying the customers socio-economic groups and targeting a particular market, it appeared that I needed to target young professionals that are currently letting property, and find out if they are happy with the current letting market at the moment, and how they thought it could be improved. This proved most beneficial as I spent several hours out of class interviewing potential clients.
Towards the end of the course, I could put together a thorough business plan, and produce it in a presentation to the other entrepreneurs. PDE 3620 helped me to thoroughly investigate my business proposition, through the financial analysis firstly, and methodology secondly. I identified short and long term goals, and a step-to-step method of how to achieve them. I have sincerely put so much extra time and effort into working out the process of setting up Leisure Lettings throughout the stimulating lectures and in personal time, and was shocked to find that time just swept away from the excitement at working towards discovering that, if all goes to plan, Leisure Lettings will make a profit of over 54,000GBP in the first year with 21,000GBP drawings and 13,000GBP left to invest.
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Bibliography
Websites
Textbooks
Campell, Stonehouse and Houston 2002, Business Strategy: An introduction (2nd edition) Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 07506-4207-6 pp 26-28; Chapter 14; Chapter 2
Fry, Stoner and Hattwick 2001, Business: An Integrative Approach (2nd edition) McGraw-Hill ISBN 007-117949-6 Chapter 4; Chapter 5 pp 106-132; Chapter 8 pp 217-218
Other Materials
HSBC Start-up Pack
Nat West Small Business Guide
The No-Nonsense Guide to Government rules and regulations for setting up your own business (Spring 2003).
PDE 3620 Lecture Notes; P.Newby, D.Grant, J.Jagiello, A.Branagan.
Word Count: 906 (not including Appendices, Bibliography or footnotes)
See exact pages of websites in bibliography
See exact chapter and page of textbooks used in bibliography
See Financial Plan Appendix 2
