Franchising A Bespoke Clothing Business: Advantages And Challenges In An Essay.

Case Study on Bespoke Threads-tailor-made for success;

1. Would you recommend that Alison keep operating as she is, or should she expand via franchising? Explain your reasons.
   
   
2. What are some of the personal problems of growing the business further?
   
   
3. Is Alison more likely to fail than a bespoke clothing business operating out of a shop? Why?

The Importance of Proper Analysis and Management in Business Operations

Business operations require skill, financial support and efficient employees that can contribute towards its success. Without these factors along with proper analysis of the factors that exist in the market, it can be difficult for business to remain in function. At the same time it is also necessary that proper managerial decisions that are made so that the business can run in a proper manner without any type of hindrance. As stated by Scarborough (2016) these strategies can be formed based on the current position of the business as well as the demands of the market and the customers. Therefore, it can be said that while operating in a business it is necessary to take into account every factor that may contribute to its success.

The case scenario describes the foundation and controversies that existed with setting up a new bespoke store in Australia. Alison founded the store in a form of partnership and with the growing success of the business, expansion and experimentation with the business was made. However, due to certain setbacks such as hiring of a new partner, the company had to be operated shut down. Yet Alison decided to run the company from home so that the profit that was being made along with the reputation of the company was kept intact (Schaper et al. 2014). In this regard, it can be said that Alison could have opted for a different approach in the form of franchising the company.

According to Dees (2017), franchising of a company has its advantages as well as its limitations. Evidence from the case study showed that Alison gained considerable success by working from home. This is mainly because Alison innovated manner of providing clothes to the customers so that extra help is not required. The innovative systems of customers purchasing the clothes have provided Alison with an opportunity not hire staffs. Thereby, Alison managed to keep her wages and at the same time ensured that expansion of the business was not required. However, keeping the future in mind, Alison aims to franchise the business and ensure that it gains the recognition it has in the local market.

In order for Alison to consider franchising the business, it is essential that the advantages and disadvantages of franchising be taken into consideration. Franchising can help in reducing the risk of business failure. However, for this it is essential to consider the success or failure rate of franchises across the industry (Kirzner 2015). In this case determining the success of franchising for Alison can be difficult as the bespoke store set up by Alison is the first of its kind. Therefore, benchmark may not be available for her to identify the success rate that can be brought about in the business.

Alison's Case: Setting Up and Operating a Bespoke Store in Australia

At the same time, franchising can be done upon products and services that are already established in the market. According to Drucker (2014), it needs to be kept in mind that the customers prefer products that are reputed and have been received good feedback. Therefore, in the case of Alison, she has already established her products in the market with the help of conducting the home business. Hence, franchising her company can provide an increase in the popularity of the products. Moreover, the establishment of a bespoke store is rare in most countries and Alison can take advantage of setting the benchmark of bespoke in the market.

Another biggest advantage of franchising is that people does not require any prior experiences in a particular skill (Hitt and Duane Ireland 2017). It has been established from the case study that Alison does not have skills in the manufacturing or production of the clothes. However, setting up franchising does not require the people involved in the commencement of its success can provide skills, as it is required (Barringer 2015). Moreover, Alison can gain exclusive rights of the territory in which she plans to set up the franchise. Franchisers do not sell any other business in the territory to which it belongs. Hence, Alison can gain huge advantages while promoting the business as a franchise.

However, certain limitations also need to be considered by Alison. As pointed out by Kuratko (2016) the fact that cost of developing a franchise can be higher than the normal cost. This is mainly because legal rights to owning a franchise need to be licensed along with purchase of territory, materials and the human resources that can help in establishing the franchise to its success. Hence, Alison needs to face off restrictions so that she can develop and gain the equal amount of success she has gained while operating the company on her own terms. Moreover, changes cannot be made as per the suitability of the business.

Therefore, it can be said that Alison can consider franchising the business as it can bring about excessive success of production for the company. The fact that the company and its products are reputed in the business can help in the quick development of the franchise and ensure that customers recognise and promote the bespoke for gaining quality services and products.

The aim of Alison is to expand the business so that it can contemplate with the rising demand of the customers. It has been stated that with the rise of business, people can gain more knowledge about the changes that need to be faced in the market and the demography (Parker 2018). Hence, in order to mitigate with such changes it is required that strategies be formed so that success can be gained in the market. In the case of Alison, it is necessary for her to understand and take steps that may hinder the progress of the business. Furthermore, the challenges and the personal problems that Alison may face while expanding the business further need to be analysed as well.

Advantages and Limitations of Franchising a Business

Storey (2016) is of the opinion that one of the important factors that need to be analysed by Alison is about keeping up with the changes in the market. The customers may easily find one kind of product to be monotonous along with the company involved in selling the product (Burns 2016). Hence, it is necessary that Alison make changes at every turn of the season so that the products and designs made by her do not become outdated or out of fashion. This particular problem requires extensive market research and people capable enough to maintain a proper customer relationship service. Hence, Alison needs to ensure that talented and experienced individuals are provided with the task for undergoing a proper marketing research.

For this, it is necessary that Alison hire personnel capable enough to provide assistance in various departments. The case study provides evidence that Alison is against the hiring of personnel, as they can become a liability particularly during the time of less work. However, in order to expand the market, it is necessary that Alison abstain from such thoughts and proceed to hire employees that are capable enough to manage every department based on their speciality. Hence, hiring of such experienced people will require payment of a large amount of salary that can be yet another problem faced by Alison.

Thereby, the financial position of the company needs to grow so that Alison can maintain her competitiveness in the market and ensure that her products receive positive reviews from the customers. Managing the finances can be challenging for Alison as most of the time the profit earned have been invested in personal development and development of the organisation. Therefore, it can be said that Alison need to maintain a budget that can help her to maintain the expense and income in the company. The case study also provides evidence that Alison had managed to gain a family life after the dissolving of the company.

The fact that Alison has a family and a son in primary school signifies the attention required by the family. She does not have to remain obsessed with the shop and spent long hours in it. However, with the expansion of the shop, this scenario can change as the physical presence of Alison in the shop during its early years and during time of crisis is required. Hence, it can be stated that Alison may gain a professional success with the setting up and expansion of the company but she may have to sacrifice her personal life.

The Advantages of Franchising Alison's Bespoke Clothing Business

Another challenge that Alison may face is the fact that she needs to make plans so that she can secure a proper future. With the ending of each financial year, Alison needs to analyse the budget by calculating the expense and income of the company. This can help Alison to determine the success she has and work on building up on the success in the future. According to the evidence provided in the case study, this is something Alison or her partner had not been doing ever since the inception of the business. Hence, this one criterion needs to be fulfilled so that the success of the company can be determined.

Another criterion is the manner in which problems can be solved. While running a business with the involvement of employees conflicts are bound to take place. Alison does have previous experience about such issues that led to the closer of the company. However, having been the sole owner of the business for a long time, Alison may fail at the attempt to reduce conflicts in the organisation and ensure a peaceful working environment. Therefore, Alison while trying to expand the business will definitely face this particular challenge.

Based on the evidence from the case study and from the analysis made it can be said that the challenges faced by Alison are common in business. Proper motivation as well as strategic management technique can help Alison to overcome the situations. However, the drawback is that Alison is inexperienced in these matters and this may prove to be the factor that hinders her progress towards attaining greatness with the company. With the popularity of the company in the local market and the innovative nature of Alison, she can ensure that these challenges be mitigated without further setback.

The type of response that is gained from the customers can determine the success rate of Alison. From the case study, it can be seen that Alison has managed to gain a large customer base that are interested in the bespoke clothing idea. The fact that the company was one of a kind in the country has provided much evidence for the customers to be involved in undertaking business in the country. Therefore, the rate of success of Alison in her bespoke clothing is high. This is also because she has innovative ideas that can help people to choose and fit into the clothes that they desire.

The Challenges of Franchising Alison's Bespoke Clothing Business

However, the issue remains to be solved involves the success or failure of the company if it was to operate from being outside of a shop. According to Scarborough (2016), the fact that the bespoke clothing was a new and innovative idea during the inception of the business may have provided Alison with an opportunity to remain successful. However, since the success of the company is high, moving away from the hop may result in huge failure in terms of investing in employees as well as resources. This is mainly because the competitive advantage that Alison had over the sell of bespoke in the initial years has narrowed down with its success.

As stated by Dees (2017) competitor markets indulge in bespoke as it involves less labour charge and charge for raw materials. Experienced manufacturers are hired so that clothes can be weaved with the best design and quality. This helps companies to cut down the costs of extra production and ensure that they can continue to remain a fierce competitor in the market. Similarly, for Alison, competitors such as George and King, Designer DYI along with John Ferrigamo may pose threat for her and her company (Kirzner 2015). Hence, it can be said that Alison need to ensure that the bespoke does not leave the shop and operates for the betterment of the shop.

According to Drucker (2014), operating outside of the shop can also have its disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is the fact that the people engaged in the designing of the bespoke may sell the designs to people directly at a higher cost. Therefore, the company may have to incur loss for the actions of the bespoke. At the stage in which Alison has taken the company, encountering a loss can deal a heavy blow on the chances of the company to expand. Hence, Alison needs to be physically present so that she can ensure that the company does not suffer from any type of loss either financially or in terms of number of units sold.

At the same time, it can be seen that bespoke clothing have not received a proper reception in the market (Hitt and Duane Ireland 2017). People tend to prefer clothes that are already well crafted so that the efforts of providing measurements can be reduced. The fact that Alison has managed to expand the business and bring the concept to the fore ground of the market structure needs to be appreciated. At the same time, it also needs to be pointed out that the success is based on the inner part of the city in which Alison resides. This highlights the fact that neighbouring people around the premises have been the main target customers for Alison.

Therefore, the success rate of the company cannot be compared with the success it may receive globally. As evidenced from the case study, the client gained by Alison has been the work of good research for several years. These points to the fact that not many people are aware of the business and despite its success in the inner part of the city, Alison may find no such guarantee in the global market. Hence, operating outside the shop can bring about failure for the bespoke clothing and the reputation earned by Alison as a homegrown company with innovative tactics may be lost.

At the same time Alison, need to ensure that the employees she is hiring provide support for the growth of the company. Moving to a well-organised establishment to a shop outside may provide Alison with a disadvantage, as she needs to monitor the employees continuously. A similar scenario as described in the case study can be repeated if the company is to run by partners that have huge experience in the fashion industry (Schaper et al. 2014). Hence, to enjoy the success and ensure that profitability is maintained Alison need to provide considerable assistance and formulate innovative ideas for building strategies to mitigate any threats. Thus, based on the evidence collected it can be concluded that Alison need to ensure that the business be expanded as a franchise manner.

References

Barringer, B.R., 2015. Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Pearson Education.

Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.

Dees, J.G., 2017. 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case Studies in Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability(pp. 34-42). Routledge.

Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Hitt, M. and Duane Ireland, R., 2017. The intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic management research. The Blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship, pp.45-63.

Kirzner, I.M., 2015. Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press.

Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.

Parker, S.C., 2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.

Scarborough, N.M., 2016. Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Pearson.

Schaper, M,.Volery,T,.Weber,P,.and Gibson,B,.2014 Entrepreneurship and Small Business 4^thed.Cornwall: Wiley

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