Operational Management for Small Business

This assignment provides an in-depth analysis of operational management for small businesses. It highlights the importance of proper planning and strategy development for successful business expansion. The report also emphasizes the need to overcome challenges during expansion and maintain a balance between personal and professional life when running a business from home. With a focus on understanding business nature and concept, this assignment aims to help students develop effective operational management strategies for small businesses.

Case Study on Bespoke
Threads-tailor-made for
success

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1) Would you recommend that Alison keep operating as she is, or should she expand via
franchising? Explain...................................................................................................................1
2) What are some of the personal problems of growing the business further?...........................3
3) Is Alison more likely to fail than a bespoke clothing business operating out of a shop?
Why?...........................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

SUMMARY
This case study reflects on how Alison and her colleague left an insurance company and
started a business of custom made clothing for women. In that time it was not available in
Australia. Therefore, for starting business and acquiring funds they developed a business plan. In
this they rented a shop in CBD and hired professionals that helped in designing and
manufacturing of cloths (Jacobs and Schramme, 2016). This idea was very successful. But the
main disadvantage was they spent all time in shop and didn't have personal life. Then, they
decided to take on third owner and offered partnership to a known person in fashion industry.
This changed the overall operations of business. It proved to be wrong as business suffered a
huge loss. With this the original partner decided to sell her share. With this partnership was
dissolved. Then, Alison decided to continue with it and translated into home business.
But Alison kept business going on and in several years she started earning profits and
build a strong client base. Also, online order system was implemented by her that made it easy
for customers. They can order new garments when they come for fitting. So there was no need
for physical store. Now Alison want to grow business in other cities, so she is planning to
franchising it. For this she also had talks with interstate franchisees so that concept can be
converted into franchise structure.
TASK 1
1) Would you recommend that Alison keep operating as she is, or should she expand via
franchising? Explain
In context to given case study it can be seen that when bespoke business was running in
shop Alison and her partner has to spend a lot of time in that. So this was the reason they was not
able to maintain balance between personal and professional life (Scarborough, 2016). Then, they
both decided to hire third partner but this idea failed and business suffered a loss. Due to which
her original partner sold her share and partnership dissolved. Then, Alison decided to operate
from home. For this she continued to work in similar way. After earning a stable profit she
implemented an online ordering system so that more profits can be generated and work can
become easier.

Yes I suggest that Alison should keep operating business in same way. She has already
operated at maximum level so now she should expand by implementing other strategy. She must
choose one area, this will help her to develop a proper structure. Then, it can be operated at large
scale. Also, she it will help her to increase client base and earn more profit. Also, operating an
online business from home is way easy. Alison has implemented online system from which
client can give orders and it can be processed. Besides this, she is earning stable profits and
spending time with her family. Apart from this her home is in inner part of city that enables
clients to reach easily (Masutha and Rogerson, 2015). It has benefited business as more
customers have attracted towards it. In addition to this she has also set a system in which client
can come for fitting and order new garments of new fabrics and styles. In this way sales has
increased and revenue is generated. With this there is no need for physical store. Moreover,
Alison business is expanded at maximum level. So she is earning stable profits. When there is
enough profit generated then Alison can think of franchising it. She can also open a physical
store in major city. It will benefit in covering large area and attracting more customers. If Alison
continues to operate in similar way then its range can be increased. It can gain major market
share and develop a loyal customer base. Now she is married so her husband can also help him in
business. This will enable Alison to operate more effectively. It is said by Alison that she do not
want to stay for long hours in shop and business suits her family as well. She has to take care of
her son as he is at initial stage of schooling.
But if she decided to franchise than there will be high risk. Because earlier a situation
occurred in which third partner was operating overall business and it resulted in loss. So if
Alison again take this decision it can lead to loss. The person who will be running franchise may
not have proper skills and qualities in fashion industry. He or she may does not have experience
of running business. Suppose, Alison decided to opt for franchise and if it leads to loss then she
again can not raise profits from same business. It might happen that some other competitor may
emerge in the market with similar concept but some changes in it. So it is risky to translate
business into franchise (Richert, 2017) . Also, Alison has effectively understood the concept of
bespoke clothing. So she knows that in how much quantity of raw materials has to be purchased,
what new designs and styles must be implemented, etc. with this she is developing products to

fulfil client needs. Moreover, online process has made it easier for her to run business. If she
wants to expand in major cities then she can hire staff. Furthermore, a home delivery service can
be started by her. For this certain amount of delivery charge can be taken from customers. In this
way Alison can grow business in other major cities of Australia. Bespoke clothing can be grown
by implementing other strategy. For example Alison can develop a website. With this more
customers can be attracted and more sales can be generated. It will also require low investment.
2) What are some of the personal problems of growing the business further?
As it was observed in case study that when both partners decided to bring in third one in
order to manage and operate business. So in order to expand business, raw materials was
purchased in bulk with high budgets. This didn't suit business as it was in initial stage. So it
suffered a huge loss. It can be seen that there are several personal problems that can occur while
expanding business (Monsson and Jørgensen, 2016) . As Alison runs business from home by
having an online order processing system.
 The first problem for Alison is to handle large number of orders in one time. It may get
difficult for her to process the order of clients. Along with this the system may get crash
due to some technical problem or failure. So it will be difficult for her to implement
another one. Moreover, she is not having any back up structure to store and manage data
of clients. Therefore, in case if data is lost it can not be retrieved.
 Second is as she is married and having a young son, it might be difficult for her to take
care of them and manage the household work. Due to this it can have a negative impact
on her son studies. She will not be able to balance personal and professional life. For
example – if her husband or son falls ill then she might not be able to handle business
operations well if it is expanded further. This will affect it to a great extent. So it will lead
to fall in sales and profits (Gross, Connolly and McNamara, 2016). Then again in order
to manage operations she might not be able to spend more time with family. The personal
life of Alison will be affected.
 This is the most common problem that can occur in while growing of business. In this to
grow and expand capital is required. Funds are needed for infrastructure, equipments,

salary to staff, etc. but Alison is not having sufficient amount of funds and if she decides
to take loan or use personal resources then to might affect their income. The overall
budget of household might get affected. Also, she will hire staff or have to pay rent for
physical store. So in this personal expenses may be used by Alison.
 Alison is alone women who is managing the overall bespoke business and if expansion is
done so orders of clients will increase. Then she will not be able to fulfil orders and their
needs until and unless staff is hired (Crawford, 2015) . Besides this, she is not having any
experience in handling business to a large scale so she will have to take help of others.
Also, she has to travel in other parts of country so it will affect the education of his son.
Moreover, business requires large physical space to complete the orders and her house is
not so big that staff can work there.
 In her clothing business, online system is implemented for taking orders so if data of
order is not stored or managed it will lead to great confusion. Customers might get
different order. This will dissatisfy them. Furthermore, if too many orders are received in
one day then it will be very difficult for Alison to complete them. Alongside this, it is a
small business so Alison can not afford to lose her customers or incur loss.
Therefore, these personal problems may restrict Alison to grow business in other major
cities. It has limited the growth of business. She has to look after her son and husband as well.
Her son education has just began so she can not take risk to have poor impact on him. However,
this type of business requires more time to work as compared to others (Schwass and Glemser,
2016). It will affect the physical health of Alison, She will not be able to take care of herself.
Hence, by this it is a challenging task for lady to grow enterprise. She will have to play role of
housewife and entrepreneur. On the other hand if she hires staff and open physical store to grow
business further than it will be beneficial. For this she requires funds and other equipments in
order to run business at large scale.
3) Is Alison more likely to fail than a bespoke clothing business operating out of a shop? Why?
In order to handle functions of enterprise it is necessary that nature and size is identified.
This is because it will help in effectively managing operations so that sales can be increased. In

order to successfully run a business an individual should have proper and effective skills and
qualities. This is because success of business depends on how a person manage operations. A
person is not tailored made to become an entrepreneur. He or she gains some knowledge and
implement idea to start business and make its successful. Similarly, in this case study Alison is
running business from home. She has successful build a strong client base in CBD. Also, she is
earning stable profits as her home is in inner side of city that easily enables customers to find it.
When business was in partnership they work in shop where Alison has to stay for long hours. In
context to above question it can be stated that Alison is able to manage bespoke business at home
efficiently. It is because she has converted the store business to home. Moreover, she has planned
and executed strategies well (Shukla, 2016. Walters, 2017). It can be seen as she has
implemented online system that is working very effectively. It has given advantage to customers.
No Alison will not fail in any other business that is operated outside shop. This is because
she is having experience and has understood the concept of how to run business from home.
Also, how to earn profit by trading with customers and how to invest minimum amount in
business and generate high revenues. She also knows which customers should be targeted and
what activities should be outsourced so that demand is met on time. So if she gets engaged in any
other business apart from bespoke clothing in fashion industry then it will be easy for her to
manage operations. Alison knows the basic requirement of business and when to implement it.
However, if any person does not understand size and nature of business it will affect operations
and lead to loss. Alison has gained some knowledge about basic things related to business. This
has enabled her to acquire resources and clients (Jacobs and Schramme, 2016). Moreover, the
success of bespoke clothing business has boosted her confidence that she can engage and run any
other business from home. Alison very well know about growing of business in different ways.
In can be done by franchising or licensing the concept in different states. Also, how a particular
concept can be translated into franchising structure. But she knows that in order to expand
business staff and physical resources are required. Thus, Alison might face some difficulty here.
Thus, by gaining this much knowledge in business it is will be easy for Alison to engage
or start in any other business out of shop. It will help her to convert it into home business. Alison
will be able to implement strategies so grow in different markets (Scarborough, 2016) . She will

learn and gain more knowledge on how to run and manage operations without having physical
store and staff. Besides this, in what ways profits can be generated and how funds are utilised
effectively. So these all are the reasons why Alison will not be fail to start new business. This is
the reason of operating small business at large scale effectively.
CONCLUSION
From this report it is summarised that in order to run a business successfully, a proper
planning is required. This is because it helps in controlling and managing the operations in
effective way. Also, strategies should be developed on how expansion will be done and what
changes will be made. Moreover, there occurs many problems during expansion. So it should be
overcome by taking appropriate measures. It is also concluded that women should maintain
balance between personal and professional life is business is run from home. To grow business a
proper plan should be developed. It will help in expanding in step by step manner. Besides this,
if business is managed properly profit can be earned easily. For this it is necessary to understand
the nature and concept of business.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Crawford, D.K., 2015, October. Tailor-made: Meeting the unique needs of women of color
STEM-SBS faculty through mentoring. In Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2015
IEEE (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
Gross, N., Connolly, N. and McNamara, P., 2016. Scaling Up a Small Technology Firm:
Business Model Innovation at HaylioMed. Business Case Journal. 23(2).
Jacobs, S. and Schramme, A., 2016. Multiple pathways to success in small creative businesses:
The case of Belgian furniture designers. Journal of Business Research.69(11). pp.5461-
5466.
Masutha, M. and Rogerson, C.M., 2015, June. Business incubation for small enterprise
development: South African pathways. In Urban Forum (Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 223-241).
Springer Netherlands.
Monsson, C.K. and Jørgensen, S.B., 2016. How do entrepreneurs’ characteristics influence the
benefits from the various elements of a business incubator?. Journal of Small Business and
Enterprise Development. 23(1). pp.224-239.
Richert, M., 2017. An energy management framework tailor-made for SMEs: Case study of a
German car company. Journal of Cleaner Production. 164. pp.221-229.
Scarborough, N.M., 2016. Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management.
Pearson.Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Schwass, J. and Glemser, A.C., 2016. Wise family business: family identity steering brand
success. Springer.
Shukla, M.K., 2016. Supplier evaluation and selection criteria in business performance of small
and medium scale enterprise.

Walters, K., 2017. Changing the Perceptions of Making: Adjusting the Mechanics of Ideation
for Multidisciplinary Success.