Individual Action Plan: Self-Assessment, Business Idea, Resources, Target Market, Essay.

You are expected to write an “Individual Action Plan” that discusses your new venture business idea focusing particularly on:

• your own self-assessment for starting and managing the new venture;  - the result show average entrepreneur.
• the source of the business/social venture/project idea/innovation;
• how did you identify the opportunities that led you to the consider idea for the new venture;
• how you intend to go about developing the idea, resourcing it, identifying its market and Is business viability.

An entrepreneur commonly defined as a person who starts and manages a business. But that is not all, an entrepreneur refers to an individual who identify the problems existing in the society and find different ways to solve that problem in return of some monetary compensation (Barringer & Ireland, 2010). Being an entrepreneur is not easy, they are known to be strategic managers and leaders as they embrace challenges and take strategic decisions which will contribute in achieving the vision and mission of the organization (Krogue, 2013). An entrepreneur should possess special set of skills in order to run a business efficiently. In order to analyze the entrepreneurial skill in an individual a self-assessment test has been provided.

1: Totally disagree, 2: Somewhat disagree, 3: Somewhat agree, 4: Totally agree.

If the score of the above survey lies in between 55 to 65 then an individual can be seen as a potential entrepreneur (BDC, 2017). However, this cannot be seen as a benchmark for becoming an entrepreneur (Michael, Illis & Erin, 2010).

Idea in any business plays a very crucial role for any entrepreneur. It is the foundation of starting a new business venture. The idea that I have chosen, to start a new business is a tea vending machine. Tea has been quite popular among British population since a very long time. British population consumes 165 million cups daily which makes it 60.2 billion cups per year (UK Tea and infusion association, 2017). The Indian tea commonly known as chai has been gaining popularity all over the world. The reason behind is its taste and health benefits of ingredients like cardamom, cloves, ginger and basil leaves included in its preparation. A cup of chai helps in relieving stress, improves digestion and immune system and lower down the cholesterol and metabolism level. In corporate world, coffee vending machines are very common. On an average an individual usually drinks around 3 to 4 cups of coffee at their workplace which is caffeine rich and there are many health risk associated with it such as insomnia, nervousness, high blood pressure etc. (Albert, T, 2014). My aim is to provide Authentic Indian chai in every office of UK through vending machines, the reason being a cup of tea is rich in antioxidants and the caffeine content is just half than what it is in the coffee along with various complementary health benefits attached to it (Greenwood, 2016). Organizations are focusing on adapting healthy practices for their employee because health is directly related to the productivity and performance of an individual. There are many coffee machines available in the market but tea vending machines are not commonly available, the reason being the lack of awareness about the benefits of tea in comparison to coffee. This business segment has a lot of potential. UK has been identified as a tea drinking nation as the daily consumption of coffee is 70 million cups. But still coffee shops don’t offer much variety of tea in their menu. The vending machines will serve variety of tea such as jasmine tea; chamomile tea, tea latte and mocha. The aim is to satisfy the taste buds of tea lovers and make tea popular among coffee drinkers. In order to serve general public apart from corporate sector; the vending machines will be installed in public parks and shopping malls. The vending machine for tea will serve the best quality chai which is prepared by the Indian tea experts in order to ensure quality and taste in every sip.

The Business Idea

It has been discussed above that UK is a tea drinking nation but the consumption of tea has fallen by 19 percent since 2010 (Poulter, 2016). The reason being the young generation is more habitual to the taste of coffee (Ferdman, 2016). But coffee chains like Starbucks by introducing Chai latte have not only satisfied the taste buds of tea lovers but also attracted many coffee drinkers and as result the demand for tea menu is rising (Saner, 2016). One of the main elements of Drucker’s sources of innovation is the unexpected (Drucker, 2002). The unexpected refers to either unexpected successes or unexpected failures (Burns, 2013). The reason behind choosing this idea was to revive the tea industry in UK as it still have many potential left which is being exploited by the coffee chains like Starbucks and also people are becoming health conscious and tea being rich in antioxidants and low caffeine level provides many health advantage to individuals (Drucker, 2008).

The key resources in starting a new business venture are human capital and finance. For financing the new business, a loan application will be made to the government of UK who are providing loan facility starting from £500 to £25,000 (Gov.UK, 2017). The benefit of financing through government loans is easy repayment option at lower interest rates. Another benefit of financing through government loans is that it will enhance the credibility of the business (SBA, 2017). The human capital that will be required to start the business will be a technical expert who will design the protocol of the vending machines and work on it. There will also be a team of Tea experts which will be called especially from India to give the authentic tea flavors in every sip of tea coming out from the vending machine. The tea leaves will be supplied from Darjeeling, India because Darjeeling tea leaves are considered to be the best in quality. Lastly a team of experienced sales person will be hired to market the product in the targeted customer segment and can also provide excellent customer service (Burk, 2007).

The targeted customer segment for this tea vending machines are corporate customers. The major reason behind choosing this customer segment is that coffee culture in corporate world is very common. People working over there take coffee breaks in order to relive stress. But taking too much coffee can be very harmful for health. Replacing coffee with tea can be a healthier option. Also, another customer segment can be teenagers and youth who are more inclined towards drinking expensive coffee at chains like Starbucks, Costa coffee etc. Tea vending machine provide 2 3 variety of tea which will appeal the youth audience. Health awareness campaigns will be organized in order to aware the audience about the health benefit of being a tea drinker. Also, pamphlets and a sample cup of tea can also be distributed in offices. Online promotion is also an effective strategy to reach out a larger audience.

Sources of Innovation

My focus will be on engaging many corporate offices and if the tea vending machines prove to be successful in those offices, employee can spread about the tea machine through word of mouth. Also by tying up with the organization like UK tea and infusion association, the product can be promoted among the public. The team who is involved in the business is very efficient and specialized in their respected fields. The professionals who are involved in designing the protocol of the machines are skilled and the experts who will develop the tea taste in the machines are called from India and the sales team who is responsible to promote and sell the product collectively contributes in providing customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Starting up a new business is a difficult process. There are many roadblocks in the journey of being a successful entrepreneur. Behind every successful business there is always a unique idea which gives a competitive edge to the business. Many startups failed because they follow their competitors but in order to succeed, innovation and risk taking ability is very important. After seeing the a decline in the growth rate of tea industry in UK, the reason for choosing the business idea of a tea vending machine is because it has a lot of potential which is still yet to be discovered by competitors. Exploiting an opportunity is the main element of starting a business and it has already been done by me. People will soon realize the health benefits of being a tea drinker rather than a coffee drinker and then switch to a healthier option.

References

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Ferdman, A.R. (2016) The slow death of the most British thing there is. The Washington post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/04/why-the-british-are-drinking-coffee-instead-of-tea/?utm_term=.815b210fa857 on 4 March 2017.

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Greenwood, V. (2016) The British drink more than 60 billion cups of tea a year – so what is it about this humble brew that refreshes them so? BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160602-why-do-the-british-love-the-taste-of-tea-so-much on 4 March 2017.

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Poulter, S. (2016) We drink twice as much coffee as tea: the nation's favourite drink is under threat as tea consumption falls 19 per cent since 2010. Dailymail, UK. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3538880/We-drink-twice-coffee-tea-nation-s-favourite-drink-threat-tea-consumption-fallen-19-cent-2010.html on 4 March 2017.

Saner, E. (2016) Chai latte: the all-conquering beverage causing a storm in a coffee cup. The guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/19/chai-latte-the-all-conquering-beverage-causing-a-storm-in-a-coffee-cup on 4 March 2017.

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