Go Fund Me: Business Functions, SWOT Analysis, Porter’s Five Forces Model, 4Ps of Business, and Gibbs Reflective Model

This report provides an analysis of Go Fund Me, including its business functions, SWOT analysis, Porter’s five forces model, 4Ps of business, and Gibbs reflective model. It also includes recommendations for the organisation.

Go Fund Me

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Business functions.......................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis:...........................................................................................................................4
Porter’s five forces model............................................................................................................5
4Ps of business.............................................................................................................................6
Recommendations:......................................................................................................................7
Gibbs Reflective model:..............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneur is defined as a person who starts business, bearing all risk as well as benefits of
business. The procedure of establishing business is known as the entrepreneurship. It is the
concept that is related to starting and managing whole business venture and for the purpose of
gaining higher profitability objectives. Basically, entrepreneurship is considered as the
willingness of starting new venture that plays important role in development of economy and
expending it into global market place. In the process of starting business various skills such as
technical skills, personal and business management skills are required. Business is referred as a
legal entity which is involve in various commercial, professional and industrial activities for the
purpose of gaining profit. In this report the chosen organisation is Go Fund Me which is an
American crowdfunding platform that is launched in 10 May, 2010 and headquarter situated in
Redwood City, California, United State. In this report business functions, Swot analysis, porters
five forces and 4Ps of business are mentioned. Apart from that a reflection on learning is covered
in this project report.
TASK
Business functions
Business functions are defined as the activities that are carried by the enterprise to run business.
Functions of organisation is divided into two types such as core business functions and
supportive business functions (Bhattacharyya, 2017). Core functions are necessary activities of
business to earn income through producing final products on the other hand, supportive functions
facilitate the GoFundMe to carry all primary functions smoothly. Some of business functions are
defined below:
 General management is the important business function that manages all organisational
policies, regulations as well as ensure that business goals and objectives are achieved in
well defined manner.
 GoFundMe maintain public relation through collecting their information and provide
them services according to their interest that satisfy them (Snyder, Zenone, and Caulfield,
2020).
 Human resource in the most effective function of business that includes various activities
like recruiting, staffing, selecting, retaining and managing human resource.

 Administration functions are defined as the procedure of running business efficiently and
manage all organisational affairs. Management functions includes creating, executing and
examining the plans and business activities.
 Financial functions of GoFundMe is essential for managing funds of organisation in
effective way and ensure that business funds are utilising in best possible manner.
 Marketing functions are defined as the process of buy and selling business products to
individual and company. It is most important functions facilitate in promotions of
products and services.
SWOT analysis:
Swot analysis: Swot analysis is refereed as the effective tool and framework that used by
the organisation to evaluate the positioning of business in competitive market place (TOL, 2017).
The model facilitates organisation to analyse internal business environment factors such as
strengths and weakness whereas external environmental factors opportunities and threats and
formulates business strategies accordingly. These factors are defined below:
Strengths Weakness
Strengths are defined as the internal
capabilities and skills of GoFundMe that
provides various competitive advantages then
other competitors.
 GoFundMe has huge geographical
presence that enhance organisational
market share and easy accessibility.
 The organisation provides range of
products that help to increase customer
base and profitability ratio (Wain,
2017).
 GoFundMe provides its services at
different social media networks that
create strong relationship with
customers.
 Respective organisation has strong
Weakness are the area on improvement or
factors that limits the organisation to gain
competitive advantages then others. Some
factors are mentioned below:
 GoFundMe has no effective waste
management practices that affect the
sustainability of business operations.
 The organisation has insufficient cash
of assets that affect the financial
position and performance .
 GoFundMe has to budget for the
marketing as well as promotional
activities that limits the ability of
organisation to reach potential
customers.

financial positioning that allow it for
further investment. It use integrated IT
infrastructure the enhance operational
efficiency.
 Workforce diversity is the major
strengths of GoFundMe organisation
and it provides higher quality products
that enhance customer loyalty.
 Respective organisation has less
amount for research and development,
inability to recognise customer’s need,
ineffective customer services and
decision-making process are weak areas
of GoFundMe organisation.
Opportunities Threats
 Raising in the disposable income of
customers enhance the customer base
of GoFundMe. E-commerce and social
media marketing generate opportunities
to expand in market place .
 Development of technology facilitates
the GoFundMe to bring innovation in
business operations and enhance
efficiency as well as decrease cost.
 Reduction in interest rate help the
GoFundMe to provide financing at
lower cost. Emergence with new
market enhance the opportunity of
expansion.
 As the rules of government are changed
and new regulations are imposed that
creates threats for GoFundMe
organisation and enhance risk as well to
run business.
 Competitors are the biggest challenge
that impacts on the performance and
profitability of GoFundMe.
 Raising inflation rate enhance overall
cost of production and shortage of
skilled labour in the market create the
threat for GoFundMe to perform
organisational functions efficiently.
Porter’s five forces model
Porter’s five forces model is defined as the framework that facilitates the organisation to
analyse the competitive forces that shape the industry and help to determine various industry
strengths and weakness.
Threat of new entrants: Overall proficiency of GoFundMe organisation is getting affected
by the new entrants in the market (Sisco and Weber, 2019). The threat of new entrants depends
upon various factors such as barriers of entry, trade restrictions and regulations to operate

business. Entry of new business affect the overall profitability and market share of GoFundMe.
So the organisation impose various berries to restrict entries. The threat of new entrants is high
for GoFundMe.
Threat of substitutes: Threat of substitute is high for the GoFundMe organisation because
there are range of similar products are available in the industry that is offered by the other
organisation. As the industry contains lower switching cost. In market various substitutes are
available that affect the organisational profitability. GoFundMe focus on products quality and
maintain strong customer relation to overcome threat of substitutes.
Bargaining power of buyers: Power of buyers are defined as the ability of customers to
drive the prices of products at desirable level. The power of buyers are depends upon number of
buyers, switching cost to find new customers for outputs (Akhlaghpour and Vaast, 2018). As
there are similar products are available at lower switching cost that affect enhance the buyers
power to set product prices. The bargaining power of buyers is moderate to high for GoFundMe.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Supplier power is defined as the power that is hold by the
suppliers to change the pricing of raw material that is used by the business to produce outputs.
As GoFundMe organisation has number of suppliers that weakened position of suppliers in
market. Switching cost and number of suppliers are the factor that affect the power of suppliers.
In the industry higher number of suppliers are available, so GoFundMe can switch to different
supplier any time at low switching cost.
Competitive rivalry among the industry: Competitors are defined as the organisations that
provides similar products at reasonable prices and affect the profitability and market share of
industry (Barcelos, 2019). As there are range of products are available for customers at lower
switching cost and the industry contains higher bargaining power of customers that force
GoFundMe to provide products at lower price. Overall, there are high competitive rivalry is exist
for GoFundMe.
4Ps of business
4Ps of business is stand for the product, price, place and promotion. These P’s are the
integration of various marketing strategies that ensure that the organisation provides quality
products to customer at competitive prices. These all factors are mentioned below:
Product: Products are defined as the physical things that the organisation provides to its
target audiences that contains value for them as well. GoFundMe provides the finance to

business for their start-up and expansion. The salesforce of organisation maintains effective
relationship with customers.
Price: Price are defined as the cost of products and services that is established according to
competitors, customers willingness to pay and cost to produce products. GoFundMe charge
interest for providing their finance to businesses. The organisation uses various pricing models
that are one-time purchase and subscription model.
Place: Place is referred as the destination from where customers buy products from
organisation (Manzoor, 2017). Organisations offer their products and services through various
online browsers, retailing locations or through trade shows. GoFundMe provides finance through
various websites.
Promotion: Promotions are the effective mode of advertising and promoting organisational
products and services and ensure company reach to potential target market and customers.
GoFundMe organisation conducts various social media campaigns as well as email campaigns to
reach targeted audiences on right time at right place as well.
Recommendations:
 It is recommended to GoFundMe organisation to make presence of social media platform
that ensures wider customer reach. Best network is being selected and effective content
strategies are adopted to attract audience.
 GoFundMe should update all information about business on crowdfunding pages that
enhance the brand loyalty and customer base as well.
 It is recommended to GoFundMe to conduct various campaigns for the purpose of attract
the existing as well as new customers that expand business functions in another areas.
 GoFundMe establish organisational goals and objectives and develop effective strategies
to attain them, using effective marketing strategies and motivates staff members to
improve organisation performance and expand it.
Gibbs Reflective model:
Gibbs model is the most effective mode for reflection through various stages which help the
individual to exploring their experiences. The model consists description, feeling, evaluation,
analysis, conclusion and action plan (Pammer, Krogstie and Prilla, 2017). Explanation of my
experience throughout completing the learning process is defined below:

Description: For the process of learning series of activities are organised by the educational
institute and the activities includes presentation, projects and assignment. This project assigned
to my group that includes five members including me. In the process of starting project, we
assign all project task in group according to skills (Li, Tan and Xue, 2019). For completing the
project, me and other group members decided to write their part to merge it together before
submitting date. Because of lake communication all members are write project in different
writing styles that create challenge for us than we decide to make correction quickly to complete
the project.
Feeling: In the staring project, we are happy and excited as we divided the work smartly but
at the time of merging the project work, we are facing various challenges and mistakes as well.
Effective work and efforts of all team members motivates us to complete project work with
efficiently on time. Throughout the project, I feel excitement, nervousness but at time of
completion assignment, I felt happy and satisfied because work in being completed before
deadline.
Evaluation: During the project, various situations are raised in front of me that reflects that
some things goes well on the other hand, some things are went wrong. As the all group members
are ready to work harder to complete the assignment and played active role that is in the favour
of us. Miscommunication among group is the thing that affect the whole assignment as well as
create burden on team and consume too much time to solve problems (Punnappurath and Brown,
2019). All group members work with dedication and I guide the team to complete work on time.
Analysis: At the starting of project, we take decision to divide assignment work among
group members according to their skills, capabilities and knowledge that motivates them to
perform task in best possible manner. It saves time for completing the project because all
members are award about their work. There are various primary and secondary research
approaches are used by me and other members to get relevant information and completing the
assignment effectively. We need to decide this thing in initial part of project as it helps us in
completion of project in effective manner.
Conclusion: In the process of completing work, I have learnt various knowledge from the
situations that are raised during the assignment work such as working in group, time
management, reading writing skills, enhance my self-confidence through leading the team,
effective decision making according the situation, leadership skills as well as communication and

negotiation skills that help me to attain goals properly and completing work in future as well.
These skills facilitate me to handling all situations properly and take decisions accordingly.
Action Plan: If I get opportunity to work with team in future then I will focus on effective
communication among all team members, identify their strengths and skills to divide work
efficiently (Lotter and Miller, 2017). I have developed the skills of taking active participation in
such activities in academic life and I will use these skills and capabilities that is learnt from this
project that facilitates me to handle all situations in most efficient manner.
CONCLUSION
As per the above report, it can be concluded that business is involve in various activities for
the purpose of attaining defined objectives. There are various functions are performed by various
department of organisation. Swot analysis help to evaluate all factors and formulate policies
accordingly. Porter’s five forces facilitates organisation to understand competitive positioning in
market place. Reflection is defined as the process that help an individual to explore experiences
from specific event.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhattacharyya, A., 2017. Fighting Human Trafficking With Art. Diverse Issues in Higher
Education. 34(22). pp.5-5.
Snyder, J., Zenone, M. and Caulfield, T., 2020. Crowdfunding for complementary and
alternative medicine: What are cancer patients seeking?. Plos one, 15(11), p.e0242048.
TOL, T., 2017. Transitions Online_Around the Bloc-How Ukrainian Rebels Use Crowdfunding
for Propaganda. Transitions Online, (08/01), pp.5-6.
Sisco, M. R. and Weber, E. U., 2019. Examining charitable giving in real-world online
donations. Nature communications, 10(1), pp.1-8.
Akhlaghpour, S. and Vaast, E., 2018. Digital Activism for Social Causes: Understanding
Clicktivism and Substantive Actions. Available at SSRN 3220833.
Barcelos, C. A., 2019. ‘Bye-bye boobies’: normativity, deservingness and medicalisation in
transgender medical crowdfunding. Culture, health & sexuality, 21(12), pp.1394-1408.
Manzoor, A., 2017. Crowdfunding for Non-Profits: Opportunities and Challenges. Handbook of
research on emerging business models and managerial strategies in the nonprofit sector. pp.152-
167.
Wain, A., 2017. Learning through reflection. British Journal of Midwifery. 25(10). pp.662-666.
Li, Y., Tan, T. and Xue, J., 2019. Understanding and analyzing java reflection. ACM
Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM). 28(2). pp.1-50.
Punnappurath, A. and Brown, M. S., 2019. Reflection removal using a dual-pixel sensor.
In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (pp.
1556-1565).
Lotter, C. R. and Miller, C., 2017. Improving inquiry teaching through reflection on
practice. Research in Science education. 47(4). pp.913-942.
Pammer, V., Krogstie, B. and Prilla, M., 2017. Let's talk about reflection at work. International
journal of technology enhanced learning. 9(2-3), pp.151-168.