What strategies could be used to help a small business survive in spite of competition?

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Business Studies Coursework

What strategies could be used to help a small business survive in spite of competition?

        The two businesses I will be investigating are:

“Kenneth More Theatre”, which is a charitable company, limited by guarantee and controlled by a board of trustees who of which can not be paid.

  • “A Market Trader” which is in a partnership with shared liability for debts.

By using “The Kenneth More Theatre” in my coursework I am able to find out more about charitable businesses and also understand them better. I will also be investigating a business which gives a service and compare it to a business which offer goods, a market trader. I have chose two completely different kinds of businesses to find out if the competition changes for these two businesses in particular.

        The main disadvantage in choosing two different kinds of business is that they will be hard to compare as they both contain different variables, for example, the liability status, financial situations, hours of work needed and there environments in which the two work in.

        Swot Analysis

A “SWOT analysis” is basically a summery of a businesses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

        I will do a S.W.O.T analysis for each pf the companies I am investigating to give me a broad view of their businesses and will also help me to evaluate.

Market Trader

        

Theatre

Products

The marketing mix is the 4”Ps”, there are 4 main aspects of a business which you need to consider in order to be successful, the 4Ps are Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

   The products offered from business are very different from one an other, one is house hold goods, ranging from plates to batteries offered by the “Market Trader” and the product or service offered from the “The Kenneth More Theatre” is entertainment and food. The “market traders” products are needed by almost everyone, as the products are essential to a house where as the service from the theatre is purely for pleasure and leisure, you do not need to go and see a show but you need plates and eat off and batteries to able electrical appliances to operate.

Pricing Techniques:

   Critical point price is where goods are priced £9.99 instead of £10.

  • Complementary pricing is when a product is cheap but another product to go with it is deer, for example, ball point pen is cheap, but the refill is expensive.
  • Differential price is when price goes down due to competition.
  • Discount price is when products are bought in large orders or to loyal customers.
  • Sales, mark downs to get clearance of goods.
  • Price cuts are used to clear products as they are at the end of their product life.
  • Loss leaders is when products are placed in baskets to catch customers attention.
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Price

The prices are also worked out differently, as a market trader buys the products for a set price and makes a mark up to a set price to make a steady profit, in order to pay for a fixed, variable and semi-variable costs, for example, rent of pitch, wages and food and drink. The same applies for the theatre because wages still have to be paid, but any extra profit made is put back into the company, so the prices have to bring a reasonable bit of profit by raising prices.

Break Even

The ...

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