Recommendation on whether Alison should continue operating from home or expand via franchising

The case study is related to Alison who belongs to a family which is an owner of a small business organization. Alison had however spent most of her time while working in an insurance organization. Alison had made a decision to start her business in an age of twenty. A shop was rented by Alison and one of her colleagues which helped her to start the operations of a business named Bespoke Threads. A business based plan was also developed by them which played an important role in obtaining finance for the operations. The two of them also hired some professional help for their shop as they were not experienced in clothing design. The operations of their shop had been quite successful in nature and had been able to provide high returns to them as well (Schaper et al., 2014).

The company had however faced major issues when Alison and her colleague had decided to include another partner in their operations. The entry of another partner in the business had caused major issues with the original operations of Bespoke Threads as the working style of the new partner was quite different from Alison and her old partner. This further led to quitting based decision that was taken by the old partner of Alison. Alison then shifted her business operations from her house itself. The analysis in the case study will thereby be based on the ways by which Alison can continue her future operations from her home (Schwens et al., 2018, pp.734-768).

Alison can continue her business operations of Bespoke Threads from her home as this will be helpful for her to continue the operations in the industry with less amounts of cost. The rent and staff based costs of the company have been reduced up to a huge manner if the operations are continued at their house itself. The costs based production of Alison had been reduced and she was able to provide similar products and services to the customers who visited her shop previously (Schaper et al., 2014). The name of her original business will also be able to attract more clients and this can further increase the revenues of the organization. The financial crisis which had taken place all over the world could have caused issues for the company if it had the shops in operations. This had played an important role in decreasing the rates of loss that the company could have faced in the industry (Acs, Szerb & Lloyd, 2017, pp. 29-35). The running process of the business was thereby based on the clients which had been acquired by the company with the help of its shop. The client base of Bespoke Threads had been ab important part of the successful operations of the company even after it had shifted its operations. The company was able to operate in a profitable manner with the help of the time that was being given by Alison to the customers and the online operations as well (Alvarez & Barney, 2017, pp.87-105).

Personal problems of growing the business and their potential impact

The major reason which can provide success to the company even in the home operations is the brand value that has been developed by Bespoke Threads in the industry. The brand name had played an important role in creating a sustainable operations of the company in the industry. The clients of the company were also served with the help of online operations of Bespoke Threads in the industry. The reduced need of staff for the operations of Bespoke Threads in the market is an important factor that can help in increasing the revenues of the company. The revenues of a Bespoke Thread can thereby increase with the reduction of costs based on the operations (Barringer, 2015).

Alison was also able to provide more time to her family due to the shift of operations in her home. The home based business operations of the company can play an important in increasing the business capacity to higher levels. Alison will however not be able to serve a larger group of customers with the help of the operations of her business in her home. Alison will thereby need to increase the reach of her operations with the help of proper online business or franchising the business based operations as well (Zahra, Wright & Abdelgawad, 2014, pp.479-500). Franchising of the business activities will thereby play an important role in the proper business based operations and increasing the revenues as well. This will help Alison to spread the operations of the company to many other areas without any particular physical shop. This will play an important role in increasing the reach of the company and further the revenues as well (Brenkert, 2017, pp. 85-128).

Bespoke Threads will be able to increase its client base with the help of the different franchise stores all over Australia. The outsourcing of activities can also help Alison to position her organization in a profitable manner within the industry. Franchising of the business activities is an important part of increasing the reach of the organization (Welter et al., 2017). Alison will be able to cater a larger group of customers with the help of franchising based operations. The franchised stores of the company will be able to attract huge number of customers with the help of its brand name. The existing client base of the company will also play an important role in developing the revenues in an efficient manner (Gupta, Chiles & McMullen, 2016, pp.540-544).

Comparison of Alison’s business with a bespoke clothing business operating out of a shop

The development of Bespoke Threads will be an important part of the outsourcing the business based activities. Licensing is another major part of the activities that can be effectively performed by the organization in order to expand its operations. Alison can think of providing the license of performing business based activities of Bespoke Threads to an organization in order to operate in Australia in a profitable manner. The two major options that are being provided by Alison to increase the business based revenues of the company, namely, licensing and franchising can play an important role in increasing the revenues of the organization in the industry (Hitt & Duane Ireland, 2017, pp.45-63).

The reach of the company will thereby be increased in an effective manner along with the customers. The organization will be able to operate in a profitable manner even with the home based operations. Franchising and outsourcing of the operations will thereby play an important role in providing the company with a competitive position in Australian market. On the other hand, Alison also needs to increase the online presence of the company in order to provide the products to them in an efficient manner. The implementation of outsourcing and franchising based activities can play an important role in the successful operations of the company in the clothing industry (Jaskiewicz, Combs & Rau, 2015, pp.29-49).

Alison had started the operations of her business at the age of twenty. With the passing time the business operations of the company had increased. Alison’s family has also grown with time which has further increased her responsibilities. This can cause an issue with the ways by which the Alison will be able to take care of the business operations with undivided attention. The increased work pressure of the company can play an important role in the ways by which Alison aims at managing the balance between her personal life and work life in an effective manner. Personal and family based responsibilities of Alison can act as a hindrance to the ways by which she is able to take care of the business (Kazanjian, Drazin & Glynn, 2017, pp.173-199).

The expansion of business operations can also be affected by the increase of the growth of her family size. The work and family life balance based activities need to be performed by the professionals in such a manner which can help them to create effective work based activities. Alison needs to consider this factor as she is not a simple professional. She has a whole business organization running under her. The balance of personal life along with the work related activities in an effective manner. The conflict that can take place between the family life and work life of Alison will further cause stress and lead to issues in business operations (Kerr, Nanda & Rhodes-Kropf, 2014, pp.25-48).

The client base of Bespoke Threads will be affected by the ways by which the Alison manages the different operations. Proper management of time will thereby play an important role in increasing the levels of profitability of Bespoke Threads in an effective manner. Personal life based issues that are being faced by Alison can affect the revenues of the company in an adverse manner (Nambisan, 2017, pp.1029-1055). The different personal issues faced by Alison thereby need to kept away from the operations of the company. Alison will also need to manage the clients and their demands in an effective manner so that the client base can be maintained. The high capacity of operations of the company needs to be managed in such a manner so that Alison is able to increase the revenues and continue the operations as well (Kuratko, 2016).

Alison has been operating her business from her home after the business had failed in its shop based operations after the inclusion of a third partner. The entry of third partner had caused huge issues in the operations and profitability of the company. This had further led to home based business operations of the company. Alison had thereby aimed at balancing her family life and work life in order to remain profitable in the market. The client base which had been created by Alison with the help of her shop in Australia had played an important role in keeping the operations of the company in a running state (Mason & Brown, 2014, pp.77-102).

Alison will thereby be able to continue the operations of her company in an effective manner with the help of the business operations from her house. The clothing business that has been set up by the Alison at her home had been quite successful and the company has been able to serve its client base in an effective manner. However, the long term operations of the company are not possible with the help of the home based model. Alison can thereby aim at increasing the revenues of her business with the help of different activities like franchising and licensing. This will be helpful for the company to create its position in the industry. The home based business model of Alison is quite likely to fail in the near future as the company will not be able to serve a larger group of customers without adequate amount of staff. The larger group of customers will require higher levels of services and their demands will also increase in this process (Michael, Storey & Thomas, 2017, pp.45-65).

The company needs to increase its resources for the purpose of providing the services of Bespoke Threads to the customers. On the other hand, the implementation of franchising activities will help the organization to expand its operations and develop a larger customer base. Providing licenses to the other organizations in order to operate in an effective manner will play an important role in increasing its reach and making the operations successful as well. The physical operations of the company play an important part in the ways by which Alison is able to increase the revenues in the future. The home based operations will not be able to provide adequate amounts of profits to the company in order to increase its revenues (Phillips et al., 2015, pp.428-461).

The most important role of the operations of a company is played by the customer base. The increased customer base in the future can only be managed with the help of proper stores and franchises which can operate in different parts of the country. Alison will thereby be able to increase the revenues of the company with the help of the franchising based operations of Bespoke Threads. The change in business model of Bespoke Threads will be the most important part of the successful operations and increase in revenues as well. The clientele that has been created by the company has been able to provide a huge support to the company. The future operations of Bespoke Threads are totally based on the expansion related steps that will be taken by Alison (Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015, pp.970-985).

The expansion of the operations of the company will thereby play a major role in the revenues of Bespoke Threads. Thereby it can be proved that the home based operations of Bespoke Threads are highly likely to fail in the future due to the lack of adequate resources to fulfil the demands of the customers in an effective manner. The increased customer base of the company will play an important role in the ways by which the company can continue its operations in the industry. The increase in resources will play an important role in the successful operations of Bespoke Threads in the future. The formation of physical operations and stores all over the world is thereby necessary in order to serve the customers in the country (Read et al., 2016).

Conclusion

The report can be concluded by stating that Alison needs to bring changes in the business model of the company in order to create an effective position in the industry. Alison will need to take advantage of the customer base which has been developed with the help of its physical stores in major areas of Australia. The company was not able to continue its operations in the physical stores due to the lack of proper partnerships. Alison had however continued the operations with the help of her home based business model. This had been quite easy for the successful operations of the company along with the balance that she was able to maintain between her work life and family life. The operations have however not been found to be successful for the future of the company in the industry. Alison thereby needs to think of expanding the operations of the company in an effective manner with the help of a franchise model. This model has been proved to be quite successful in nature for the operations of the company in an efficient manner in the future. Bespoke Threads can thereby increase its revenues with the help of proper expansion of the operations of the company in an effective manner. The personal problems of Alison however need to be considered in this case so that she is able to manage the operations of the company in the future along with high amounts of revenues as well. Alison thereby needs to consider the ways by which she can increase the revenues of her organization and expand the customer base.

References 

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