Impact Of Proposed Changes On Cross Lane House, A Small Business

Cross Lane House

When we talking of small business enterprise, we are referring to a business which is of small scale in nature (Scherr, and Hulburt, 2001). A small business employs is run with a few workers with low sales volume. Businesses of this nature are usually owned by individuals and are privately operated. The defining a small business in most cases differs from one country to another and the industry. This mean that what a certain industry or country refers to small business may not be the case (Watson, and Everett, 1996). According to the Small business Administration if the United states of America for example, defines small business as one that has less than 500 employees in a period of 12 months from its inception and should come from the manufacturing industry.  In another country, this can be considered as a large scale business (Van Auken, and Neeley, 1996). For a country like Australia, a small business should have less than 15 workers. Countries who are members of the European Union understand small business as one that has employees not more than 250 as per the European Union small business act (Atkins, and Lowe, 1997). Therefore, a business defined as small may not be so when it comes to other countries or states and industry. In our case, Cross Lane House is a small business those history dates back to 1545.

Since the year 1545, Cross Lane House has been operating at A39 at Allerford Village whereby Minehead and Porlock are five miles and one mile away respectively.  Cross Lane Hose has an advantage because it has ready customers due to its strategic location. This is because Cross Lane house is close to a National Park i.e. the Exmoor Ntaional Park and the National Trusts Holnicote Estate (Miguel, D.C). This flow of clients will serve as important customers to Cross Lane House.

Cross lane house has not seen any major changes since its inception in the year 1545. However in the 2012, the premises were refurbished to give a new look where one can find his/her luxury (Konovsky, 2000). However, the originality of the establishment were not removed but improved to retain the fabric. The expansion of the establishment by including a gift shop will greatly enhance the thriving of the business to greater heights.

In fact it is said that small businesses are the ones that help in making the economy at the local level to thrive (Schoeffler, Buzzell, and Heany, 1974). Cross lane House has been performing well despite her medieval nature of structures. This is because small businesses are the ones that give create employment for people at the local level. Products and services that cannot be found here, are likely to be brought about by small business establishments. Any small business help in the expansion of the industries where they lie. Women and the minority groups find placement in such establishments hence the local economy having a tremendous growth sue to finance put to the economy by such workers (Guha, Grover, Kettinger, and Teng, 1997).

Impact of the Proposed Changes to the Business and its Personnel

Growth of a small business in any country will help stimulate the growth of the economy (Churchill, and Lewis, 1983). The proposed changes to Cross lane House is likely to help the business collect more revenue. Cross lane is already on a growing trend because from the reports of the year 2014-2016. The business seems to make great improvements in terms of income. For instance, in the year 2014, in 2,269 days, the business collected a revenue of £294,918, the following year, 2015, the revenue collected by Cross lane House was £318,573, in 2,360 days while in the year 2016, the revenue collected by Cross lane House was £329,100. In 2,633 days (Miguel, D.C). Therefore, even before the renovations were done the business was moving forward in terms of revenue collection. With these new look, the business is likely to grow even more being that it can now accommodate more clients and make more sales in the coming years. In this period 2014-2016, the hotel results show that there 12 rooms. In 2014 the rooms accommodated a total number of guests 9,074 in 2015 the room accommodated a total number of guests 9,802 while 2016, the rooms accommodated a total number of guests 10,126. With these improved status, more is expected in terms of clients and income this was Monthly Hotel revenue. In the same period, monthly restaurant revenues were £89,160, £87,765, £91,935 while monthly bar revenues was £23,400, £30,000, £30,600 respectively. Expenses for the period was £146,000, £157,000, and £177,000. From the profit and loss statement, the business seems to be making a consistent growth from the year 2014-2016, the business made a gross profit of £141,257, £144,971 and £135,445 respectively. This means that the business is headed to the right direction.

Growth of business means many things to both the company and employees. First thing is excitement that comes with it (Konovsky, 2000). For instance, each employee will be delighted that his/her contribution lead to growth. There is a feeling that as an individual, I have accomplished something for this business and therefore, the business management is likely recognize the input from each employee (Gunasekaran, Marri, McGaughey, and Nebhwani2002). This increases the employee’s morale to work even harder. Secondly, see an opportunity for each of them being rewarded for what they have done for the business. This is because growth experienced in business translates higher profits in the business. Therefore, employees will expect rewards in terms of monetary, inform of increased salaries, bonuses on their hard work and packages. If the employees are rewarded this way, their morale is to work increases just as the sales also goes up (Colombo, Laursen, Magnusson, and Rossi?Lamastra, 2012). The employees are assured of being retained in business for long due to their high productivity. Another important fact is that when there is growth, employees feel that they have a sense of job security (Bamberger, Biron, and Meshoulam, 2014). This is because a business that is not making profits may consider sacking some employees so to continue making profits. Which is not the case when the business is growing. However, rapid growth may make employees fear that their efforts might not be recognized because there might be change of structure which may make their presence not to be felt (Rauch, and Rijsdijk, 2013). Finally, when there is growth in business, the workload might increase on the part of employees. This may worry them because they may feel overworked hence becoming tired from the increased workload.  This are instances that are likely to face Cross Lane House.

Impact of the Proposed Changes to the Business

Here are the four major strategies that will be used in managing the changes that are seen at Cross Lane House.

When business is thriving, create a management model that is working and put in place a system that can be used to control quality (Levin, and Nolan, 2013). Probably, when a business is small, it might not require much because each employee knows one another. But as the business continues to grow, and more employees are being brought onboard (Stark, J., 2015). It is prudent that proper structures are put in place to ensure cohesion among the employees from the junior staff to top management. Define roles of each employee and identify your own roles as the entrepreneur (Patel, Pettitt, and Wilson2012). This will ensure that your there is quality control on your goods and services hence everything remaining constant. Have an organization structure, from the top management and put their roles down on writing. Accountability for each individual will be realized when this is done.   

This is necessary so as to ensure that the quality of the goods and services remains the same despite the changes in the business (Sallis, 2014). Systems for quality control will be identified, and a person from with the management model will be assigned the responsibility of ensuring that quality is maintained (Conti, 2012).

Once a management model that is working has been put in place and established well (Bridge, and O'Neill, 2012). Make sure that the system is followed properly. Even though everyone one now understand their roles and responsibilities. It will be a great idea to ensure that the system is followed keenly by everybody in the staff (Goss, 2015). This can be effected by use of daily or weekly checklist to see where there is a lapse and do something to ensure that there is no deviation.

As much as there is a proper system, a good management model and proper quality control system with the business (Storey, 2016). Always make sure that you are updated on the numbers. Numbers will tell what is going on be they put everything straight. Numbers will indicate where changes needs to made within the overall business structure to make sure there is efficiency in the business sales and quality as well (Jaggia, Kelly, Beg, Leighton, C., Olaru, Salzman, and Sriananthakumar, 2016). When following numbers correctly, the health of the business will be know well and if anything is wrong, precautions are taken.

To monitor improvements in the business, benchmarking will be used (Sampaio, Thomas, and Font, 2012). This is a very good method to acquire feedback on how your business is doing. In this way, the costs, the time cycle, the productivity and the quality of a certain procedure is compared with the known industry standards or the best practices (Butler, 2012). Benchmarking will then show the position of the business and thus helping you to understand where you are and the results will help in making informed decisions on the way forward.

Impact of the Proposed Changes to the Personnel

In monitoring improvements, there are two categories that improvements in business can be based on i.e. the inputs and out puts.  Measuring improvement in business is done in five fundamental sections. Namely;

1. Money, which is measured in terms of profit
2. The relationships between the Output/input also called productivity
3. The emphasis by the clients for example quality
4. Innovation in business and the need to adopt to change
5. Human resources

Conclusion

In conclusion, Cross lane House has shown to have a great future. This is attested by the numbers in terms of revenue collection. The livelihood of the staff is expected to improve due to the growth that is seen in Cross Lane House through increased salaries, bonuses and other benefits that comes with such growth. However, employees might have fear of the changes that the structure of running the business might change and therefore, leave them out even with their contribution to the growth of the business. If the business is slow in recruiting more staff, then the current employees are likely to be overworked and thus getting tired from the extra work that they might be assigned.

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