Small Business: Definition & Characteristics

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of small businesses, defining them and outlining their distinguishing characteristics. It examines various aspects of small business management, including entrepreneurship, marketing strategies, innovation, and networking within the context of enterprise development. The analysis draws upon scholarly research and reputable sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of this vital sector of the economy.

SMALL BUSINESS
ENTERPRISE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Different strength and weakness of small business enterprise.........................................1
1.2.Evaluation of business Posh Nosh using comparative measures of performance............3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Different ways by which Posh Nosh can reduce their weaknesses..................................4
2.2 Ways by which Posh Nosh current performance can be improved and strengthen.........5
2.3 New areas where business can expand themselves..........................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Assessment of existing business objectives and plans.....................................................6
3.2 Make business plans to incorporate appropriate changes.................................................7
3.3 Action Plan in order to implement changes in the venture..............................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Impact of changes on Posh Nosh......................................................................................9
4.2 How change can be managed by the venture...................................................................9
4.3 Monitor improvements in the performance of the business over a given
timescale...........................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Small business enterprise is the venture which serve employment to the small number of
the people, in simple words it can be said that small business enterprise is the organisation where
the size and structure of the firm is very small and people are employed at smaller scale. With
that they do not have small number of sales and profit. It is being generally owned by the private
people such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and co-operation. These enterprises do not have
large budget to invest, thus their profit and sales margin is also less. It plays very important role
for economy, as it enhance national income of the country. Local people can get several benefits
from the small business enterprise, as they can get employment and can earn minimum wages.
Posh Nosh is the small business enterprise who deals in the several products such as food,
catering and drinks. This venture is famous for serving world's class quality and tasty street food
as well as it is also registered in the Wales and England. With that they also organise different
event for different occasion, thus they also deal in event management. The project report
includes their objective and systematic plan for business. Other than that report also includes
impact of current changes in the business and how it has impact over the Posh Nosh.
TASK 1
1.1 Different strength and weakness of small business enterprise.
Posh Nosh is the small venture, which is trying to expand their business gradually by
expanding their street food. This helps them to cater the needs and wants of target market
therefore, they can be successful in expanding their business. While implementing this business
strategy, they face lots of problems as well as they are finding lots of opportunities in order to
expand their business in different areas. The different strength and weakness have been
identified. Posh Nosh produces very high quality and delicious food for the customers so that
they can create awareness about different varieties of the products. With over two decades of
experience in the catering industry, cited venture is at the forefront of special occasion and event
catering in Devon and the west country (Blackburn, 2013). They have been serving world's class
cuisine with outstanding levels of the services (Small-Scale Enterprise. 2014). The key objective
of the venture is to serve high quality products and services so that their customers have
maximum level of satisfaction. Now the venture is going to expand their business by expanding
their shop and stalls so that they can serve more delicious foods to large target market. The
different strength and weakness they face while expanding their business are as follows:
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Strengths
Price: The venture serves delicious food at affordable prices where every person can afford their
any kind of products. As the venture serve street food so that have their shop at street so they
expenditure are very less. Therefore, this is the reason they are able to serve different variety of
products at affordable prices. The customers also like to purchase goods and services at
affordable prices which is good sign for the venture. It states that price the good strength for the
organisation so that they can satisfy their target market. It charges affordable price for foods and
also delivers high quality of food to its customers (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012).
Product quality: Combination of utility and product at maximum level is the utmost quality
which helps the organisation to attract large number of target market towards the better quality.
If the person is feeling hungry and Posh Nosh come in their mind when they thinking for foods,
then this can be very powerful strength that they haven in their brand. The events they organise
for their clients give customers a feeling of high profile and special since these events are really
outstanding. This is another major strength of the venture that helps them to expand their
business.
Supply chain management: As the demand changes supply also changes and it is very easy for
the small scale entrepreneurial to adjust that sales and earn profit. Post Nosh always produces
their products and services by considering their demand for the products, this strategy helps
them to keep balance between their demand and supply (Di Domenico and Miller, 2012). This is
also another strength of the venture which serve them to have competitive edge and helps them
to expand their business n different locations.
Proper supervision: In small scale enterprise, workforce is limited. Thus, it states that people
who work in small scale enterprise have small organisation structure (Small Business Eligibility
Requirements. 2012). This it is easy for the top-level management to manage their worker by
keeping proper eye or supervision on them. This helps the venture to identify the needs and
wants of the workers in order to motivate them to cater needs and wants of the customers.
Small capital and small risk: Small business entrepreneurial do not require large capital to
invest in market. Thus, they have very small risk. It is being analysed that venture that have
small size have small risk to wind up. If they are not earning high profits, it does not bother them
rather they care for customers satisfaction (Eid and El-Gohary, 2013).
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Weakness
Lack of advertisement and promotional activities: It is one of the biggest weakness of small
scale enterprise say Posh Nosh. They do not have adequate fund to promote their business. Even
when they are entering in market place, they hardly earn profit, even they continue their business
at survival level. Thus, it is very difficult for the venture to do several promotional activities
such as discount, sample etc. Its brand name is not as much popular as other companies like
KFC, McDonald etc. Posh Nosh really needs to work on marketing and it should improve its
promotional and marketing activities.
High and intense competition: This is very stressful weakness for the venture, most of the
small-scale venture just get scare out of competition and wind up their business, rather they need
to fight with it in order to establish their brand, Posh Nosh is facing very large competition in the
market, there are several ventures who have opened their stops. Thus, they are getting fear of
competitive firms and this serve weakness to them (Gronum, 2012).
Production cost: It is very costly for the owner as all the expenses need to be handle by him
only. Thus, for him cost of production is very high. Other than that, due to high labour cost there
is increase in cost of production. As they deal in high quality of products and services, in order
to maintain their quality, they need to invest in several things such as production techniques,
technology, promotional activities etc.
1.2.Evaluation of business of the Posh Nosh using comparative measures of performance.
In order to expand their business, they need to do effective environmental analysis, so
they need to analyse their daily performance as well as they also need to identify what are the
negative and positive feedbacks of the customers. Posh Nosh is serving customers their desired
foods but they have to improve a lot in their servicing and production sectors. Following analysis
have been made:
Number of customer's orders: This the key factor by which Posh Nosh can improve their
performance and expand their business (Hatten, 2015). Currently they are taking around 300
orders per day, with that they are taking 200 online deliveries which is average selling which
every shopkeeper is doing. In order to enhance their business, they need to sell above the
average.
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Time for delivery: As Posh nosh is services industry, they need to focus on extending
marketing mix that is process, physical evidence and people. Process plays significant role to
attract large customers. Nowadays customers are not having patience. Thus, it is important for
venture to reduce their process time. It is seen that a pizza requires around 30 minutes to be
produced and served to customers. The time taken is more and needs to be reduced for customer
satisfaction.
Crete customer feedback form: Feedback form is very important for Posh Nosh to find and
evaluate the negative and positive comments or feedback of the customers. This will help them
find that which dish is most preferable by the customers and which food customers are not
buying. As well as it helps them to find that what are needs and wants of the customers (Ratten,
2014).
Performance measurement: comparison with the Posh Nosh, Qbic hotel can measure their
performances through analysis their financial statements. In respect to this, organization check
their balance sheet. In this, company includes their profits, cash flow and investment. atio
analysis includes liquidity position of the enterprise. Nowadays Qbic hotel has minimum
liquidity position.
TASK 2
2.1 Different ways by which Posh Nosh can reduce their weaknesses
In current time, Posh nosh is facing lots of problems and that have further become
weakness for them and their performance. Different problems they are facing is process time,
they take lots of time to serve products to customers. Other than that they are facing problems
from workers, they are not doing their task in effective and efficient way. There is lack of skilled
employees in venture so customers do not like to interact them. Due to this issue, company's
profitability and productivity has also negatively affected. In order to improve business
performance, labours need to work properly for giving a proper outcome to company. Some
strategies which helps the venture to reduce these problems are as follows:
Strict action against labour: It is one of the effective and fruitful strategy which helps the Posh
Nosh to overcome their negative points which is related to employees and their performance
towards customers satisfaction and services. Employees of the venture ate not doing work with
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the full efforts and efficiency (Storey, 2016). Top level management need to monitor and
supervise their employees closely to identify where they are lacking. Other than that,
organisation should arrange different training and development programs for the employees so
that they can know their importance over performance of venture.
New machines: This is also another important strategy which helps the venture to enhance their
performance, reduce their weakness, stable their strengths and expand their business. Firm
should invest their profit in purchasing and implementing new machine in the venture so that
time and money of the organisation reduces as well as it is known that machine is more efficient
than man.
Complimentary drinks or food: This very effective way by which venture can attract large
number of customers. Most of the customers just wait for some promotions and discounts in
order to buy some products and services. With help of this strategy, new customer can attract
toward the firm. Other than that, in order to retain their old customers, they should provide
complimentary drinks and foods to regular customer (Teasdale, 2012). Obviously, new ones
would like to avail these benefits. In order to do this they will try to become regular customers
hence, will increase their sales and loyalty towards their company will increase.
2.2 Ways by which Posh Nosh current performance can be improved and strengthen
In order to improve their profitability and productivity, Posh Nosh need to take such
measure which have direct impact over the sales and customer's satisfaction so that it have
impact over performance of the venture. By improve existing performance, company can
improve its strengthened. First of all, organisation need to identify needs and wants of the
customer. Thus, they need to focus on proper market research. Other than they also need to
analyse their business internally and externally. This will help the venture to identify their
strength, weakens, threats and opportunities. Customers satisfaction is directly liked the sales of
organisation and sales is directly related to the performance of venture. Thus, organisation need
to trigger customer's satisfaction in order to enhance their performance (Neneh, 2012). Venture
need to enhance their variety of products. In simple words, they need to improve their menu so
that they can attract new customers as well as retain their old clients.
Other than that, they are also organising different events such as weeding, birthday
parties, cocktails, corporate events, feasts and festivals etc. So they need to give their best by
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serve different and innovative services in their different types of events. It includes providing the
unique venues for any function to be done. Venue plays very big role in event. If it is attractive,
then customers will like to visit that place again and again and this way customers can approach
Posh Nosh company for every event. Beaches can be a good venue for any sort of event.
Adoption of various cultural themes is also a good idea. This is another type of promotional
activities by which they can build up their brand image. Other than that, employees are also very
useful resources for the venture (Blackburn, 2013). Effective work force id effective and
efficient, then they are assets for the organisation and if they are not then they become liability
for he ventures. Thus, company should organise training and development program for its
employees so as they can learn new skill, talent, knowledge and ability about the work. This
strategy assists to company in improving the employee's performance and quality of work.
2.3 New areas where business can expand themselves
Posh Nosh wants to expand their business so that they can build their own band name in the
market place. There are several areas where they can expand their business that are farming
sector. It is very good sector where they can expand their business as they produce raw material
there which they can use in their business This helps them to reduce their manufacturing cost. By
growing their own crops such as wheat, rice etc which they use in producing their food, with the
help of this they can earn huge profits. Other than that, they can also grow different vegetables
such as tomatoes, potatoes, lady finger, onions, garlic, spinach etc. and also fruits like oranges,
bananas, cherries, apples etc. This all will help the venture to produce different dishes, other than
that floor will help to produce bread. Currently they are using purchasing raw material from
several sources, but when they will manufacture these goods, they need to buy them at higher
prices (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012). As well as this way, they can also able to expand their
business in any other fields. With that they can also sell their raw materials that are fruits and
vegetables direct to the market at higher prices so that they can earn revenue from that field also.
Thus, they can serve both purpose that are using that raw material in order to prepare different
dishes and they can also their raw material to different buyer. With these purpose and new field
of expansion, they can generate high revenue. Other than that, their purpose can also be solved
that is to expand their business, enhance performance of venture and earn more revenue.
Farming is the business from which they can earn more revenue and reduce their cost of
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production. Thus, it will enhance overall revenue, sales and performance of the venture (Di
Domenico and Miller, 2012).
TASK 3
3.1 Assessment of existing business objectives and plans.
The key objective of the venture is to enhance their sales as well as is to increase their brand
image. This will enhance overall performance of the business. Firm is working in very effective
and efficient many in order to achieve their objective. They have implemented different
strategies which helps them to grab large market share. Other than that, in order to increase their
sales, they have started serving complimentary drinks and foods to their regular customers. They
only serve complimentary products and services to their loyal customers so that they can retain
their customers as well as give privilege and treat them special. This will help the venture to
recognise their privilege customers and find those customers who will help them to enhance their
sales in future. As it is known that word of mouth plays very significant role in increasing as
well as decreasing image of the company (Eid and El-Gohary, 2013). Such as if one customer
says that Posh Nosh dishes is very bad and then other customers will never ever eat food at Posh
Nosh. Whereas one customers says that i love posh Nosh food, it is upper delicious then the
other customers who are listing this feedback will definitely go there and have food. Thus, if
organisation will satisfy their customers, they will able to acquire more target market. Other than
that venture is working on brand management and creating their brand image. As it is known
that small scale enterprise need to face very large competition. Same as Posh Nosh is also facing
very intense competition from different brands such as McDonald, KFC and Dominos.
Being a small business venture need to promote their products and services with effective
marketing tactics so that they sell their goods and services (Gronum, 2012). These includes all
the activities which promote brand image such as advertisements on taxis, cabs, jingles on
radios, free food samples etc. Free samples can be served such as French fires that are given
during the peak hours of the day. These free samples should be given to the customers and if
they like these products then they can buy their products. The organisation is implementing great
marketing techniques in the market which helps them to attract and retain their target market.
Other than that, they also show films in their events which help them to promote their brand.
With the help of these activities, venture is able to attain their objective, that is to earn large
amount of profit from different sectors and different customers.
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3.2 Make business plans to incorporate appropriate changes.
Posh Nosh need to make some changes in their business so that they can improve
themselves. Other than that, they are also expanding their business in farming sector, so they
need to focus on several activates and need to make balance between investment and profit. The
business plan starts with buying the land for farming where fruits and vegetables will be growth.
As the land has been purchased, the venture will able to produce fruits and vegetables. After that
production, they will be having raw material to produce different dishes. With the help of this
business sector they will be successful in reducing their cost of production and this will
ultimately reduce in price in the product and services. Other than that rates are also dependent on
the quality of the goods they are manufacturing. The better the quality they able to serve to the
customers, the better they will able to earn the profit (Hatten, 2015). This can only work well if
proper functioning and coordination can be made here. Companies nowadays focus on
developing a feature which is unique and profit generating
3.3 Action Plan in order to implement changes in the venture
The action plan which is being made by the venture should be clear and precise. The plan
should clearly dine the goal and objective of the organisation so that they can able to achieve
their aim with the help of proper action plan. Action plan change whole scenario of the venture
and helps them to achieve the goal in proper way as well as change the objectives into reality.
Other than that it also helps the firm to enhance their efficiency and accountability in the
organisation. The plan will be going to cover different aspects, such as
 What changes will be occurring in the venture?
 Who will be responsible for bringing changes in the organisation?
 By whom these changes will be going to done?
 What will be different resources will be required by the venture in order to bring changes
in the firm?
 How communication will helps to bring change?
What changes will be occurring in the venture?
When Posh Nosh will able to implement their plans in the ventures they will able to
reduce their cost of production. They will produce raw material that is fruits and vegetables by
their own then they will not need to purchase it from different supplier at high prices. This is the
reason their manufacturing cost will be reduced (Ratten, 2014). Other than that they have plan to
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market their product with different marketing tactics such as TV and Radio advertisement. This
will make several changes in the venture such as brand management, increase in sales, customer
awareness, attract and retain target market, profitability enhancement etc. Other than that, the
most important thing that will change is it will reduce in cost of production for the firm.
Who will be responsible for bringing changes in the organisation?
All the changes will be bring by the owner of the venture and well as marketing team
also plays very significant role in making changes. Posh Nosh is going to expand their business
by opening heir new business that is Farming so they will be required land so that they can grow
different fruits and vegetables. Owner need to invest in land in order t develop production house.
Other than that marketing manager needs to make effective decision for selecting the effective
tactics of marketing (Storey, 2016). Changes will be occurred after 3 months as the plan have
installed. Huge capital will be need by the venture in order to invest in different resources such
as land, human resources etc. Proper communication will be required for new customers.
Promotions, ads, banners etc. will serve as a source of communication and hence changes will
come in time.
TASK 4
4.1 Impact of changes on Posh Nosh
 This will bring new opportunities for the venture they will able to invest in new
technology, with that workers will be exited to learn different techniques by which they
can able to enhance their performance. Other than that they will find new customers who
will buy their products and services.
 This will enhance efficiently of the workers as they will able to learn new things with the
help of different training and development programs organised by the venture.
 With that innovation is other aspect that will increase, this will bring new techniques in
the organisation and they will able to serve innovative products to the customers.
 The organisation is not arranging the different training and development programs which
helps employees to learn new skills and knowledge in order to reduce barriers and
enhance their efficiency.
 Most of the people want to be employees in this organisation, this because the venture
understand all the employees as a asset.
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4.2 How change can be managed by the venture
In order to implement changes in the business, management is required to consider on the
model of Lewin under which three major stages are there. These stages are as follows-
Unfreeze: This is the first stage in the model where venture think to implement change in the
organisation. In this stage firm think to enhance moral of the employees in the organisation so
that they can work in effective manner (Teasdale, 2012). This stage of change demands well
defined communication plan and objectives to be addressed. In simple words, it can be said that
in this stage venture try to identify and analyse the need of change and find out that what actual
changes they will be required in the venture. The employees was not highly skilled before the
change in the organisation. They do not know how to work in effective way. With that they are
not using all the resources in proper manner.
Change: In this stage organisation focus on implementing the changes that have been in
identified in the previous stage. Change takes place in different aspects such as technology,
structure, culture, or procedures. All the employees of the venture are responsible to execute the
changes that have been determined by the top-level management (Neneh, 2012). The employees
are given proper training with the help of training and development programs so that they can
not resist change and able to manage and implement change properly.
Refreeze: In this stage, the venture permanently adopts and accept the change that has been
taken place in the previous stage. A new role of all the employees have been start in this stage so
that they can work in effective and efficient manner with the changes that have been occurred.
Now the employees are highly skilled in order to execute change in the organisation. Training
and development programs have served them and effective and efficient skills and knowledge in
order to work with the new change in the organisation.
4.3 Monitor improvements in the performance of the business over a given timescale
In order to maintain their performance that has been taking place in the venture, strict controlling
and monitoring will be required. Different changes that have taken place in the Posh Nosh are
due to their different marketing strategies and expansion of the business in farming sector. A
good quality product and a good sense of market has enabled Posh Nosh to bring changes in
their company and sales have increased (Blackburn, 2013). Improvement can be find in the
employees because the change is being implemented by the employees who are working in the
organisation. The venture has proper monitoring on the employees to find that they are able to
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adopt and implement the change. Other than that monitor helps them to find that what problems
they are facing when they are executing the change.
CONCLUSION
From the project report, it can be concluded that small business enterprise plays very
significant role in enhancing economic condition. With the help of small business enterprise,
people find employment opportunities and have increased their living standard. Posh Nosh is
also small-scale business enterprise who have started with very small business but now they are
trying to expand their business with the help of farming fruits and vegetables. Ultimately this
will reduce their cost of production and helps them to attract large customers.
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REFERENCES
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business. Palgrave Macmillan.
Di Domenico, M. and Miller, G., 2012. Farming and tourism enterprise: Experiential authenticity
in the diversification of independent small-scale family farming. Tourism
Management.33(2). pp.285-294.
Eid, R. and El-Gohary, H., 2013. The impact of E-marketing use on small business enterprises'
marketing success. The Service Industries Journal.33(1). pp.31-50.
Gronum, S and et.al 2012. The role of networks in small and medium‐sized enterprise innovation
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Hatten, T.S., 2015. Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond. Nelson
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Ratten, V., 2014. Future research directions for collective entrepreneurship in developing
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Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Teasdale, S., 2012. What’s in a name? Making sense of social enterprise discourses. Public
policy and administration.27(2). pp.99-119.
Neneh, N.B., 2012. An exploratory study on entrepreneurial mindset in the small and medium
enterprise (SME) sector: A South African perspective on fostering small and medium
enterprise (SME) success. African Journal of Business Management.6(9).p.3364.
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medium enterprise sector; preliminary findings from a cross-country
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Urban, B. and Naidoo, R., 2012. Business sustainability: empirical evidence on operational skills
in SMEs in South Africa. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 19(1)
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Schoonjans, B and et.al 2013. Formal business networking and SME growth. Small Business
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[Accessed on 22nd October 2017].
Small Business Eligibility Requirements. 2012. [Online]. Available
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