Entrepreneurship: Starting a New Business in the Era of Covid-19 Pandemic

This document discusses the process of starting a new business in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. It covers various aspects such as business details, location, market analysis, product description, USP, competitor analysis, operations plan, risk and contingency plans, sales and marketing strategy, finance and funding plans, and management team.

Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Business details......................................................................................................................2
Location..................................................................................................................................2
Market or Industry analysis....................................................................................................2
Product or Service description................................................................................................3
USP and Competitor analysis.................................................................................................3
Operations Plan......................................................................................................................4
Risk and Contingency plans...................................................................................................5
Sales and marketing strategy..................................................................................................7
Finance and funding plans......................................................................................................7
Management team – justifying the ability to lead and manage the venture...........................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is described as the formulation of the business in order to build and scale
the organisation to generate profit. It is basically all about transforming the economy and big
problems of the world by providing suitable solutions. It is basically the action of starting or
running the business in a creative manner to work for one's own self ventures. It is important
because it can provide the solution to enhance the standards of living in order to create wealth
not only for the entrepreneurs who is owning the business but also for the other businesses as
well because entrepreneurs support in driving the change with elevation as they produce new and
improved products and services so that the market can be developed and also the people of the
nation (Zahra, 2021). The following discussion is based on starting a new business that is
entrepreneurship and making the business plan in the era of covid-19 pandemic. Business plan
will tell about the positive and negative impact on the entrepreneur to start a new business by
discussing the business details and location along with the market or industry analysis and
product or service description. A unique selling proposition and competitive analysis is also
discussed along with the operations plan and risk and contingency plans. Moreover, sales and
marketing strategy along with the finance and funding plans are also discussed by justifying the
ability to lead and manage the venture by having the skilled management team with proper
findings and conclusions.
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MAIN BODY
Business details
Business details include that the entrepreneur wants to establish an online grocery delivery
company in order to provide the home delivery services to the customers in the covid-19
pandemic situation the world is facing today. Not only the grocery products but also the other
products for example the retail products and services with good offers and discounts along with
competitive pricing in the industry (Choe, Oettl and Seamans, 2020).
Location
Establishment of an online grocery delivery company does not need any physical
infrastructure or a proper location but it only needs the virtual location to interact with the
customers at the initial stage of business plan. The proper physical infrastructure and location
will be planned after the setting up of the business and in order to expand the business on an
international basis. This is because the operations and management along with the stock
management need the proper location with the employees for better and smooth functioning of
the organization and therefore headquarters of the organization must be in the London, United
Kingdom for the better facilities provided in the City as per the needs and requirements of the
business and warehousing of the stock which is the most important part.
Market or Industry analysis
Pestle analysis is one of the methods through which the market or industry analysis can be
made for the business which includes 6 different factors. In the context of online grocery
delivery company, political factors have a threat towards the company because of the negative
impact of Brexit on food prices along with the uncertainty of the political situation leading to
slowdown in terms of investment spending. Economic factors have a threat towards the company
because the slowing economy can negatively impact the new business and also can experience
the input cost inflation. Social factors have the opportunity towards the company because there is
an increase in consumer focus in terms of organic and healthy eating along with the food waste
management model is effective and efficient. Technological factors have the opportunity to work
with the company because big data and artificial intelligence along with automation are helping
the retailers to improve the efficiency along with the strong online interface which are driving
the new alliances and customer experiences. Legal factors have the opportunity towards the
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company because of the strong compliance standards and audits for suppliers. Environmental
factors have the opportunity towards the company because the investments made in logistics for
customer delivery are sustainable in nature along with the organization by the commitment to
sustainability (Kuckertz, Hinderer and Röhm, 2019).
SWOT analysis is another method through which the market or industry analysis can be
made for the business which includes four elements. In the context of an online grocery delivery
company, strength includes the strong Technology platform and proprietary software along with
competitive pricing and wide range of offers. Weaknesses include the operations dependent on
revolving credit facilities and Debt along with the exposure to a single market and the relatively
small scale considering the overall United Kingdom grocery market. opportunities include the
expansion by replicating the business model in other lucrative European markets and investment
in technology in order to improve the capabilities and competitive advantage along with the
licensing of robotics which has enabled automated warehouse platforms. Threats include the
impact of Brexit which has caused the economic slowdown reducing consumer spending and
competition from online retail Giants along with the intense price wars across grocery retail
sector (Ketchen Jr and Craighead, 2020).
Product or Service description
Products and services offered by the online grocery delivery company are all the grocery
products along with the fresh vegetables and the retail products such as clothing and other items
which includes under the domain of retailing (Murphy, Hood and Wu, 2019).
USP and Competitor analysis
Unique selling propositions of the online grocery delivery company are the best offers for
the first time purchase and the best discounts for the repetitive purchases from the company.
Prices are competitive in nature which can be afforded by every middle class family as well.
Moreover, there is the delivery of fresh vegetables without getting rotten, otherwise there will be
a cash back to the customer. There is also the exchange system where if a customer wants to
exchange some item which they have ordered previously then they can easily do without any
extra charges and also there is a return policy but after some deadline of the timings. Also there
are every day offers and discounts on special items purchased for large sales and revenue
generation. These all are the special features about the company which can be a unique selling
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proposition and can support the customers as well as organization also in getting the good
productivity done (Ratten, 2020).
In order to examine the competitor analysis for the online grocery delivery company,
porter's five forces model can be applied for better examination and analyzing of the industry
facts. Threat of new entrants can be low for the online grocery delivery company because of low
capital required without having any proper infrastructure but only required is the appropriate
application to operate and better management skills. Bargaining power of suppliers can be high
for the company because suppliers are already dealing with the brands in the industry and
therefore they can charge high for the startups. Bargaining power of the customers can be low
because of the unique selling proposition of the company as compared to the other brands as the
customers want more offers and discounts on the products and therefore the new startups they
prefer the most. Threat of substitutes can be high for the company because there are various
other brands who are selling the same product with similar prices so the customer can switch to
another company. Competitive rivalry can be high for the company because of the tough
competition in the industry especially in the United Kingdom market such as Asda, Amazon
fresh, Ocado and many more companies are performing well in the industry (Chandna and
Salimath, 2018).
Operations Plan
Operations plan of the online grocery delivery company includes the basic management
plan and total quality management along with the just in time management and six sigma.
Management plan includes the five basic functions of Management which includes
planning in which the planning of budgeting and allocation of resources is required in order to
set up the startup with better feasibility study and good planning process. Organizing in which
the systematic way of performing the operations are decided so that it can be done in an efficient
and effective manner. Staffing in which the employees are hired for different departments of the
company which includes the technical expertise along with human resource expertise and
financial along with the marketing expertise in a strategic manager. directing in which the work
force is directed of what tasks and roles and responsibilities are to be performed by them in order
to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organization. Controlling in which the whole
management and operations is controlled show that any conflicts or any change can be easily a
doctor by having the conflict and change management in the company.
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Total quality management is an operational plan which must be performed by the company
so that whatever products and services they have promised to offer to the customers must be of
best quality and no complaints from customers should be there for better customer experiences in
order to gain the long-term relationship with the customers and loyalty. This is important to
maintain the budget and to be cost efficient so that waste management can be done in a strategic
manner (Tonday and Tigga, 2019).
Just in time management is an operational plan which must be performed by the company
so that every process performed in the organization can be on time without any delays because
this can affect the impression on customers which can prove negative and it cannot be awarded
by the company. Therefore, it is important to maintain the just in time management operational
plan for better timely activities in an organization and it also includes the inventory or stock
management in the form of better data analysis and examination of fit so that any wastage can be
controlled by the company.
Six sigma is an operational plan which must be performed by the company which means
that company must not stick to one process throughout the life of the company but it must work
to improve its each and every operation and management plan so that the enhancement can be
made in productivity in order to make large sales and revenue generations. Six sigma is all about
the improvement strategies that can be adopted by the company which also includes the change
management and without change and improvement the company cannot grow so therefore in
order to grow and expand the company on a large scale it is important to adopt the operational
plan of six sigma (Vadana, Torkkeli, Kuivalainen and Saarenketo, 2019).
Risk and Contingency plans
Risk and contingency plans of online grocery delivery company include 4 major steps such
as risk identification and risk quantification along with the risk response development and risk
response control.
Risks identified in the online grocery delivery company are the inventory damage which
means that stock of fresh vegetables and fresh food items can be rotten out and spoiled if not sold
on the correct time or not taken care properly. Another risk is the failing to monitor competitors
which means that not having the enough resources or strategies to fight against the competition
in the industry. Data breaches and digital theft are also the risk associated with the online grocery
delivery company and this is because there are various types of cybercrime related to the
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confidential data and hackers demand in return of money by blackmailing which can spoil the
image and reputation of the organization in the industry and the great loss in terms of revenue as
well (Paras, 2019).
It is important to quantify the risk on the basis of priority so that it can be resolved in a
systematic manner without leaving the important one first and taking the important one on a
second priority. That is why it is important to set the priority of each and every risk associated
with the company. Therefore, the risk which is on priority to get resolved are the data breaches
and digital theft because it can result in major harm in the company. Second priority is the
inventory damage because it can result in the losing of customers and their loyalty along with the
relationships. Third priority is the feeling of monitoring competitors because it is important to
formulate the operations and management plan in such a manner so that it can give the
competitive advantage to the company in the industry in order to be stable for better productivity
and large sales and revenue generation and can fight against the competition (Arlott, Henike and
Hölzle, 2019).
After quantifying the risk on priorities then it is important to report about the resolving
solutions in terms of risk response development which means that solutions to be taken out to
rectify these risks for the company. Firstly, data breaches and digital theft can be resolved by
installing the safety and security systems in the organization and educating the employees about
the maintenance of security and safety with the technical systems so that the private and
important data can be saved along with the image of the organization. Second is the inventory
damage which can be resolved out by keeping the stock in a distinguishable manner such as the
items which are required cold storage are to be kept strictly in them and items which are required
normal temperature must be kept as for the needs and requirements so that it can be saved for a
long time and also it is important for the company to sell such stock as quickly as possible.
Third is the failing to monitor competitors can be resolved out by analyzing and studying about
the different competitive models from management domain and apply in the real time in a
strategic manner so that the better analysis of the competition can be done in the industry and
this can also be done with the help of big data management bi examination of such data for
future consideration and better decision making in the organization.
It is important to control the risk which are responsive in nature for the organization which
means that whatever mitigation is being taken out for the risk in order to rectify, it is essential to
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record the feedback either in a positive or a negative manner so that it can be improved for future
and the negative feedback can be converted into positive for better considerations therefore
feedback management systems are to be developed by the organization so that risk can be
mitigated well (Igbinakhase, 2021).
Sales and marketing strategy
Sales and marketing strategy for the online grocery delivery company can be adopted by
using both the methods of marketing such as traditional as well as online marketing. Both are
equally important and it can be done with the help of newspapers and magazines along with the
radio and television in the form of traditional marketing. It can also be done with the help of
social media marketing and search engine optimisation along with the Google ads and pay per
click in the form of digital marketing. Talking about sales strategy then the company can adopt
the tactics such as to connect with the customers in terms of products and services they are
offering bi influencing and convincing them about the benefits of the services in life along with
the good communication flow with them can help the company in gaining good sales and
marketing strategy (Mukti, Wibowo and Galih, 2019).
Finance and funding plans
Cost estimation to run the business of an online grocery delivery company can be $10000
to $15000 in just building an application on demand for grocery delivery. Other costs include the
staff along with the operations and management cost can be $5000 per year also of the stock
management and maintenance of the application of $10000. Company can use different types of
funding plans to collect the capital to start the business such as personal savings, family and
friends, crowdfunding, Angel investors, venture capital, bank loans and small business
administration loans. They all deal with the providing of funds to the start-up businesses with
proper legal formalities (Steininger, 2019).
Management team – justifying the ability to lead and manage the venture
Management team in order to justify the ability to lead and manage the venture includes
the technical experts and human resource experts along with the finance experts and operations
experts and the most important are the sales experts. They all have the leaders and managers
along with the executive employees, they all will be working in the operations and management
department of the company in order to give the productivity and for their personal growth as
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well. Technical expert is for the maintenance of application, human resource experts are for the
strategic hiring and recruitment of skilled employees in order to fill up the vacancies, finance
experts are for the budgeting and investments planning, operations experts are for the stock and
total quality management and sales expert are for formulating the strategies for marketing and
selling the products and services to the customers in a potential manner (Sahut, Iandoli and
Teulon, 2019).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that entrepreneurship and starting a new business is an important concept to
learn and study in order to apply its applications in real world organisations not only for the
personal benefit but also the economy as well. Therefore it is important to analyse the whole
business plan about the new start-up which includes the in depth new business details, it is
necessary to examine the location of the business, it is is essential to determine the market or
industry analysis, it is significant to gain the knowledge about product or service description, it is
crucial to assess the unique selling proposition and competitor analysis, it is imperative to study
about the operations plan, it is required investigate about the risk and contingency plans, it is
needed to learn about the sales and marketing strategies, it is vital to plan about the finance and
finding along with the management team in order to justify the ability to lead and manage the
venture. Hence, this report covers all such areas in order to better understand the concept of
entrepreneurship and starting a new business along with the business plan.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Arlott, A., Henike, T. and Hölzle, K., 2019. Digital entrepreneurship and value beyond: why to
not purely play online. In Digital Entrepreneurship (pp. 1-22). Springer, Cham.
Chandna, V. and Salimath, M.S., 2018. Peer-to-peer selling in online platforms: A salient
business model for virtual entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Research, 84, pp.162-174.
Choe, D., Oettl, A. and Seamans, R., 2020. What’s Driving Entrepreneurship and Innovation in
the Transport Sector? (No. w27284). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Igbinakhase, I., 2021. Determinants for SMEs and Entrepreneurship Success Post-Pandemic.
In Handbook of Research on Strategies and Interventions to Mitigate COVID-19 Impact on
SMEs (pp. 168-185). IGI Global.
Ketchen Jr, D.J. and Craighead, C.W., 2020. Research at the intersection of entrepreneurship,
supply chain management, and strategic management: Opportunities highlighted by
COVID-19. Journal of Management. 46(8). pp.1330-1341.
Kuckertz, A., Hinderer, S. and Röhm, P., 2019. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial
opportunities in the food value chain. NPJ science of food. 3(1). pp.1-5.
Mukti, I.Y., Wibowo, A.P.W. and Galih, S., 2019. Lessons learned to increase the digital startups
success rate. Global Business and Management Research. 11(1). pp.226-234.
Murphy, P.J., Hood, A.C. and Wu, J., 2019. The heptalogical model of
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy. 2(3). pp.188-213.
Paras, A.Y., 2019. Online buying prefeences of college of business entrepreneurship and
accountancy employees. International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and
Social Sciences. 8(6). pp.477-485.
Ratten, V., 2020. Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the entrepreneurship education
community. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global
Economy.
Sahut, J.M., Iandoli, L. and Teulon, F., 2019. The age of digital entrepreneurship. Small Business
Economics, pp.1-11.
Steininger, D.M., 2019. Linking information systems and entrepreneurship: A review and agenda
for IT‐associated and digital entrepreneurship research. Information Systems
Journal. 29(2). pp.363-407.
Tonday, H.R. and Tigga, A.M., 2019. A Critical Study of Paradigms and Perspectives for
Advancement of E-Entrepreneurship. International Journal of E-Entrepreneurship and
Innovation (IJEEI). 9(2). pp.49-57.
Vadana, I.I., Torkkeli, L., Kuivalainen, O. and Saarenketo, S., 2019. Digitalization of companies
in international entrepreneurship and marketing. International Marketing Review.
Zahra, S.A., 2021. International entrepreneurship in the post Covid world. Journal of World
Business. 56(1). p.101143.
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