Business Startup Report: Barney Confectionery House in London, UK

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the process of starting a small confectionery business, named "Barney Confectionery House," in London, UK. It begins with defining the business's industry, location, target customers, and business model, emphasizing the introduction of sugar-free confectionery. The report then explores visual identity and core values, including social and environmental considerations. A significant portion is dedicated to market research, differentiating between primary, secondary, quantitative, and qualitative research methods. The report also delves into employment laws, particularly equality and diversity, as well as employee rights. Ethical practices are discussed, highlighting the importance of making sound decisions. Finally, the report touches upon the accounting basics, outlining assets and liabilities essential for managing the company's finances.

STARTING UP A
SMALL BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
SETTING UP..............................................................................................................................3
VISUAL IDENTITY..................................................................................................................4
VALUES.....................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
PRIMARY RESEARCH.............................................................................................................5
SECONDARY RESEARCH......................................................................................................6
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH.................................................................................................6
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH....................................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY LAW.......................................................................................8
EMPLOYEE RIGHTS................................................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
TASK 5............................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Starting up a small business is a complex activity. There are various things that are
required to be taken into consideration. These aspects are required to ensure its sustainability and
long term growth in the marketplace (Storey, 2016). The following report is based on setting up a
new business in London, UK by the name of “Barney Confectionery House”. It would cover
effective market research to successfully setting up this business and employment laws that are
required to be taken into consideration by the entrepreneur. The report also covers ethical
dilemmas faced during running the business and actions taken against them to ensure prosperous
growth of the business. It also includes accounting basis to clearly determine the financial facet
of the company.
TASK 1
SETTING UP
It is crucial for any business to produce an outline which covers all the possible aspects of
the organisation. For a new business, it is required to define certain elements. As per the
scenario, the name of the business would be “Barney Confectionery House”. The certain
elements required to be identified for this business are described below: Industry: The firm would undertake manufacture and distribution of confectioneries in
the UK market. The nature as well as operations of the company would classify it into
Food Industry (Confectionery). Location: The agenda of the firm is to provide its service to maximum number of
customers within the UK market. To aid this, the outlet of the firm would be situated
near Trafalgar Square, London. The reason for such a location is that it would attract
more local customers as well as tourists who seek new places to have a bite. Target Customers: These refer to those customers upon which the firm would
channelise its marketing and selling strategies to maximise their sales. It is an imperative
process for the entrepreneur as it would enhance cost effectiveness and perfectly focused
marketing strategies that would increase the efficiency in the firm's operations (Burns
and Dewhurst, 2016). For Barney Confectionery House, the most appropriate target
customers would be those who are aged between 15-65 years with income level more

than £5,000 who are loyal consumers of confectionery products and inclined towards
living a healthy lifestyle.
 Business Model: With the ongoing health concerns in the UK, it is necessary that viable
steps be taken to address these problems and promote a healthy style of living. The
confectionery consumption in the UK is quite high (Julien, 2018). With such vast
consumption, it is likely that these would invite health related problems for its
consumers. To eliminate this possibility, Barney Confectionery House is planning to
introduce sugar-free confectionery items which would be available at the company outlet
in London. It would sell sweets as well as sugar-free chocolates without any added
preservatives of food colour to maintain its health quality. Through telephone services,
the firm would also home deliver the products within 2km radius of the outlet.
VISUAL IDENTITY
The visual identity of Barney Confectionery House would be the one which attracts the
customers and clearly define the ideology of the entrepreneur behind creating this company. For
its logo, the entrepreneur has derived inspiration from Klingele Chocolade, which is one of the
most famous chocolate companies in Belgium. The logo of one of the company's brands is as
below:
(Source: Balance Belgian Chocolate, 2018)
The logo of the brand clearly identifies its agenda of preserving the environment as well
as adopting healthy practices in manufacturing and distribution of chocolates. Similar aspects
Illustra
tion 1: Balance Belgian Chocolate

would be covered in the logo for Barney Confectionery House which convey the message of the
firm to the public.
VALUES
There are certain values that Barney Confectionery House would follow to make it even
more ethical and to ensure its long term growth in the UK market. These values are described
below: Social Values: These values include all the values that could benefit the society. Barney
Confectionery House would promote donations to various societies aiding the poor and
disabled, as well as sell its products at an affordable and reasonable price to customers to
enhance their standard of living (Glaub and et. al., 2014). Moreover, one of the most
prominent values that the firm would follow is the value of equality and diversity in
hiring employees as well as in serving customers.
 Environmental Values: The environmental values of Barney Confectionery House
includes adopting methods that are environmental friendly and minimise the usage of
environmental products such as papers. Another value would include effective waste
management and producing products which does not deplete the environment.
TASK 2
Market Research refer to the process of a detailed assessment of marketplace which
would provide Barney Confectionery House with preference of the customers, expected pricing
for the products as well as effective methods that are required to be adopted by the firm to
effectively carry out its operations. The research carried out by entrepreneur of this firm are
described below:
PRIMARY RESEARCH
This include the first hand research which is directly performed by the entrepreneur
(Naudé, 2014). This includes:
 The type of customers that would be interesting in the offerings and best methods to
reach them.
 Buyers' needs, wants and preferences which would allow the entrepreneur to develop
offerings that serve these demands clearly.
 Influential factors of customers' decision-making.

 Information about existing competition in the UK market.
These information are necessary to be derived as it would allow the entrepreneur to
develop an effective business idea which, as per the scenario, Barney Confectionery House.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
This type of research is already present in the books, journals or websites. Secondary
information could be gathered by the entrepreneur through public, commercial or educational
sources (Stam, 2015). For Barney Confectionery House, the secondary research would include,
government statistics about sugar patients in the UK, statistics from financial institutions or
banks regarding cost effective methods to start up the business, libraries and so forth. All these
secondary sources would allow the entrepreneur to gather data that would be complex to be
derived in primary research but was equally important for business.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
This research for the entrepreneur of Barney Confectionery House would be aimed
towards quantifiable facts regarding the industry. For instance, one prominent research would be
to determine the sales of Sugar Confectioneries in the UK since 2018.

(Source: Sales volume of sugar confectionery* manufactured in the United Kingdom (UK) from
2008 to 2017 (in 1,000 kilograms))
This research is useful as it shows how gradually the sales of sugar confectioneries are
declining. This would provide the entrepreneur the idea for sugar-free confectionery items,
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
The main agenda of qualitative research for entrepreneur of Barney Confectionery House
must be to identify the trends regarding sugar consumption and lifestyles of individuals (Hazudin
and et. al., 2015). The three main sources through which this research would be conducted is:
 Focus Groups
 Personal Interviews
 Observation
These sources would allow the entrepreneur to accurately determine first-hand
information about these aspects which could be an important factor to determine its success in
long-term.
Illustration 2: Sugar confectionery Sales in the UK from 2008 to 2017 (in 1,000
kilograms)

TASK 3
It is important for any organisation to comply with the employment laws that are
necessary for long term support from employees or workforce of the company (Kibler, Kautonen
and Fink, 2014). Entrepreneur of Barney Confectionery House must undertake two main aspects
into considerations. These aspects are described below:
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY LAW
This is a major factor that would provide the firm an ethical work frame as well as it
would fulfil its social values. While selecting applicants, the advertisements of the firm must
include a section which would describe equal opportunities for all, so that individuals from all
communities take interest. Another way through which This compliance be shown by Barney
Confectionery House is that the pay-scale of both the employees would be equal and would be
pre-negotiated with their consent. The criteria for their salaries would be decided by their input
in the operations of the firm.
EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
The two employees present in Barney Confectionery House are employed under Zero-
hour Contracts. This type of contract mean that it is not obligated that minimum working hours
be provided by the employer. In addition, the employees are free to accept the tasks offered to
them. However, there are no exceptions for these employees. And they are entitled to all the
statutory rights for employees. These rights are described below:
 The employees of Barney Confectionery House are entitled to National Minimum Wage,
structure of which is described below
(Source: National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage Rates, 2018)
 These employees are also entitled to paid annual leaves.
Illustration 3: National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage Rates

 They are entitled to receive rest breaks during their work hours in the firm.
 The employees of Barney Confectionery House will not be subjected to any form of
discrimination.
TASK 4
Entrepreneur of Barney Confectionery House must adopt ethical practices during their
decision-making process which is necessary to build a stronger reputation in the market. As per
the case, the ethical choice made by the entrepreneur would be to not go into a deal with the
website. The reason would be that associating with an entity accused of unethical practices
would demotivate the staff as well as would disrupt the reputation of the company because a
negative perception will be formed about Barney Confectionery House about supporting these
unethical practices. This would restrict people to buy offerings of the firm to an extent that the
business might be shut off. Moreover, according to the social values defined above, this
association would give a negative message where equality, diversity and anti-discriminatory
practices are concerned.
One of the major cases which created a buzz regarding employment discrimination was
about Framboise Patisserie. The firm was sued when Patty Meimetea, the co-owner was seen
quoted 'I can't hire you because you're black.' The firm was later fined of $25,000 seeing such
discriminatory practices (Employment Discrimination Lawsuits: Case Studies, 2018). Barney
Confectionery House must use this as an example of what happens to companies who adopt such
practices. Thus, associating with such a website would be ethically wrong and unfavourable for
the firm.
TASK 5
The entrepreneur of Barney Confectionery House must consider accounting basics to
manage the cash flow of the company. There are two main factors which would help the
entrepreneur in aiding the purpose. It is first necessary to define the basics of accounting. These
are as follows: Assets: All the things in an organisation which are owned by the business are termed as
assets. These resources maybe tangible or intangible and could be controlled by the
business. There are various assets for Barney Confectionery House which are described
below:

▪ Cash: These refers to the cash in the company accounts. These are generally
liquid and accessible by the firm as and when required.
▪ Accounts Receivable: These are considered as expected payments for Barney
Confectionery House's offerings already sold to the customers. It is not necessary
that it is considered liquid as there is a time period of a month or two from the
point of sale up to which these could be paid.
▪ Inventory: These are the items in stock. For the firm, these could be all the raw
materials that are used to produce confectionery items available at the warehouse. Liabilities: These are the amount or resources that firm owes to external parties. For
Barney Confectionery House, these are described below:
▪ Bank Loans: The amount borrowed by the banks to set up the business is
required to be paid by the company. These are one of the biggest liabilities of the
Barney Confectionery House.
▪ Accounts Payable: The amount to be paid to vendors or contractors are accounts
receivable.
▪ Taxes: The percentage of income that is to be paid to the government are taxes.
Barney Confectionery House also requires to pay a certain percentage which is it
liability. Gains: These are the values generated from sales of the confectionery items of the firm.
Another source of gain could be investments of the entrepreneur in the market (Mas-
Verdú, Ribeiro-Soriano and Roig-Tierno, 2015).
 Expenses: These refer to the money spent for production, distribution, interests,
administration expenses and so forth.
There are various ways in which the cash flow problems could be eliminated by the
entrepreneur. For this, the prominent measure that could be taken by the entrepreneur is
preparing a cash flow statement.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded by the report that certain activities are crucial in starting up a small
business. This involves creating a work frame, defining values and creating a visual identity of
the firm. It is also important for entrepreneurs to conduct primary, secondary, quantitative and
qualitative methods, that are necessary to determine all the aspects related to the business.

Employment laws must be clearly followed by the entrepreneurs along with ethical practices in
running the business. Lastly, it is clear to define and adopt appropriate accounting practices for
smooth running of business organisation.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals

Burns, P. and Dewhurst, J. eds., 2016. Small business and entrepreneurship. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Glaub, M.E., and et. al., 2014. Increasing Personal Initiative in Small Business Managers or
Owners Leads to Entrepreneurial Success: A Theory-Based Controlled Randomized
Field Intervention for Evidence-BasedManagement. Academy of Management Learning
& Education. 13(3). pp.354-379.
Hazudin, S.F., and et. al., 2015. Discovering small business start up motives, success factors and
barriers: A gender analysis. Procedia Economics and Finance. 31. pp.436-443.
Julien, P.A., 2018. The state of the art in small business and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Kibler, E., Kautonen, T. and Fink, M., 2014. Regional social legitimacy of entrepreneurship:
Implications for entrepreneurial intention and start-up behaviour. Regional Studies.
48(6). pp.995-1015.
Mas-Verdú, F., Ribeiro-Soriano, D. and Roig-Tierno, N., 2015. Firm survival: The role of
incubators and business characteristics. Journal of Business Research. 68(4). pp.793-
796.
Naudé, W., 2014. Entrepreneurship and economic development. International Development.
Ideas, Experiences and Prospects.
Online
Employment Discrimination Lawsuits: Case Studies. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.insureon.com/blog/post/2014/06/19/employment-discrimination-
lawsuits.aspx/>
National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates/>
Sales volume of sugar confectionery* manufactured in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2008 to
2017 (in 1,000 kilograms). 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.statista.com/statistics/481870/sugar-confectionery-volume-sales-
in-the-united-kingdom-uk/>
Stam, E., 2015. Entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional policy: a sympathetic critique.
European Planning Studies. 23(9). pp.1759-1769.
Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.