BUS302 - Bespoke Threads: An Entrepreneurial Case Study Analysis

This case study analyzes the entrepreneurial journey of Alison, who runs a bespoke fashion business. It evaluates the potential of franchising as a growth strategy, considering its benefits such as reduced burden, consistent operations, cost-effective expansion, and marketing advantages. The study also addresses the personal and professional challenges Alison faces in expanding her business, including loss of personal life, funding problems, maintaining work-life balance, and the risk of failure. Furthermore, it explores the reasons why Alison's home-based business might be more susceptible to failure compared to a traditional bespoke shop, citing household distractions, lack of professionalism, limited expansion options, and the inability to maintain continuous operation. The study concludes by recommending strategies for Alison to consider for her business's future.

Running head: CASE STUDY-BESPOKE SHOP
CASE STUDY-BESPOKE SHOP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Due to the complexity of the business environment, it is very important for all the organizations
to plan adequately and have adequate resources at its disposal. Moreover, the business is required
to take in consistent measures to ensure that it succeeds in the future. The report is based on the
concept of entrepreneurship whereby the different risks as faced by a business shall be discussed.
The concepts shall be elaborated upon by using a case study where Alison runs a bespoke
business. The different opportunities as available to her shall be elaborated, which will then be
followed by the steps she should take.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................3
Franchising Recommendations for Alison..................................................................................3
Problems associated with expansion of Alison`s business..........................................................5
Reasons for Alison’s failure over a Bespoke shop......................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
In the dynamic business environment, it is very crucial for an entrepreneur to be able to
take sufficient risks and ensure that their business becomes successful. Moreover,
entrepreneurship is not just concerned with the idea generation of the business but is also
concerned with managing the daily operations of the business successfully (Burns, 2016).
Moreover, there are various factors lying in the external environment of the business which have
a direct impact on the functioning of the business. In addition to this, it needs to be ensured that
if a business is in the form of a partnership, it needs to ensure that both partners take up equal
responsibility for the management of the business and run it effectively. The primary aim of the
report is to discuss the different ordeals and opportunities which are present for an entrepreneur
through a case study of Bespoke Threads. The journey and the probable decisions which can be
taken by Alison shall be discussed.
Analysis
Franchising Recommendations for Alison
A business cannot function effectively without a well laid out plan. This is because the
plan assists the organization as well as the owner of the enterprise to take correct steps which
would guide them and assist them while decision making. Alison wanted to start an enterprise on
her own and got into the bespoke fashion industry along with a partner. Having no prior
knowledge about the functioning of the industry, Alison hired external employees to manage the
business. Although this was considered to be an expensive operation, it proved to be successful
for the long run because the business was generating profits (Parker, 2018). As the business was
performing well, Alison and her partner decided to expand it and bring in a third partner for the

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firm. Unfortunately, things did not work out well with the partner, and the business had to be
closed down. This did not disdain Alison from continuing her operations from home (Fan, Kühn
and Lafontaine, 2017). As Alison had the knowledge and put in behind her hard work, the
bespoke store was functioning well even from her house. Hence, this had a positive aspect as
well and assisted her to save considerable costs and this proved to be a helpful aspect even when
the economy of the country clashed. Alison had a family to look after as well and therefore,
working from the convenience of her home proved to be a good aspect.
There exists one problem with the business which is that it has reached its capacity and
hence, Alison would be requiring external help to run the business effectively which is not
possible because she would not be able to manage the staff and hence, to make the different
operations easier, Alison has considered to give out the enterprise for franchising. Franchising is
a god opportunity which can be harnessed by Alison (Schaper et al., 2015). Moreover, the
different benefits of Franchising for Alison have been given below:
1. Reduces Alison`s burden
As stated above, Alison`s business is at the brim and has reached its capacity. Moreover,
this puts her under additional pressure to operate whereby she might be affected severally. In
case she gives her business for franchising she would be able to reduce certain operational
pressure which can then assist her to maintain a wok life balance as well as mange the existing
business well.
2. Maintaining consistent operations

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If Alison continues her operations in this state, the quality of her work shall deplete and
this can have a negative impact on the brand name of the organization. Hence, in case the
operations get divided, she will be able to manage the current operations well.
3. The expansion shall be cost effective
Franchising can be described as a cost effective manner of expansion. This is because the
firm does not have to incur any extra costs for the expansion of the enterprise. Along with it
human capital is also not required.
4. Marketing benefits
In scenarios where the franchisee purchasing her business will market the firm, this shall
have a positive impact on Alison`s business as well and help it to become popular in the long
run.
5. Assistance and Scalability
In case Alison is not being able to manage well, she can get the assistance of the talent
manager of the franchisee for her operations and moreover, with respect to the scalability aspect,
Alison will be able to ensure that the size of the franchisee and other terms are as per her
convenience.
Problems associated with expansion of Alison`s business
Although Alison has been successfully running her business, however being a sole
proprietor in this set up, she is not being able to successfully manage it and hence, as stated
earlier should give it out for franchising (Storey, 2016). However, expanding the business

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operations is not an easy endeavor and the firm may be faced by the following shortcomings and
barriers.
Loss of personal life
Alison`s business has already reached its maximum capability and hence, she has been
facing difficulties in managing it. In scenarios where she will be required to expand the
operations, her business will become impossible to manage and hence, she would be now be
looking after two branches. This can take a toll on her health and lead to several complications.
Funding problems
Expansion requires funding and hence, funding can be difficult to attain. Very often even
though finding is available, the different managers may find it difficult to manage these funds
and utilize them effectively (Nijmeijer, Fabbricotti and Huijsman, 2014). Hence, for this
purpose, it will act as a barrier.
Maintaining work life balance
As mentioned in the case study, Alison needs to look after her family as well and at
present even though there is just a single branch to look after, Alison finds it difficult to maintain
a work life balance and in case she expands it, she will not be able to take care of both these
aspects at once.
Lack of assistance
Alison is working alone in her business and hence, she already finds it very difficult to
manage the business she has in hand now, it will be very difficult for her to look after an
expansion plans single handedly.

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The chances of failure
Expansions, even with the right factors are always not successful in nature and any
organization who wants to attain success, has to take a considerable risk at the first step and then
ensure that they are able to be successful. Hence in this scenario, Alison is faced by a risk as well
and also stay with the psychological barrier of a failure.
Maintaining pace with the business environment
Moreover, the environment in which her business is operating in is already very complex
and tends to change quite often (McAdam, 2013). Earlier, she was able to face the economic
down turn effectively however, this may not be the case at present and she may not be able to
adapt to the new trends alone.
Franchisee issues
It is not easy to maintain a franchisee and for this reason, very often the enterprises are
faced by the problems arising from the control exerted about the franchisee. If the franchisee
turns out to be dishonest then it would lead to a loss of business for Alison.
Legislative regulations
Expansion of the business involves abiding by various legal rules and obligations. These
are expensive in nature.
Reasons for Alison’s failure over a Bespoke shop
Alison is operating her business from home. As given in the case study, operating the
business from home has various advantages and helps Alison to save conveyance, managing and
other relevant costs but there are certain shortcomings of her business as well. Moreover, in case

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of a mis-happening, the chances that Alison`s business will fail is more than the chances of the
failure of an actual bespoke fashion shop (Wynarczyk and Graham, 2013). This is not due to the
fact that Alison has been managing her business alone but has several other aspects associated
with it. They have been stated as follows:
1. Household distractions impact
There are various distractions present in a household and these distractions are bound to
have an impact on the operations of the business (Kuratko, 2016). As she is mother to a young
child, she needs to contribute some of her time to the son and therefore this time she will not be
able to invest in the store which may have an impact on the operational efficiency of the business
enterprise.
2. Lack of professionalism
Home businesses are less professional in nature. When an office is located in a house, it
is bound to be taken informally by the owners as well as the different customers. This shall also
have an impact on the perspective of the different employees towards the organization and thus,
for this reason, when a business lacks the professional look, the brand name gets damaged.
3. Lack of window shopping of store traffic
Window shopping and in store traffic although have no positive impact on the revenues
as earned by the organization but they tend to have an impact on the operations of the
organization and disrupt the image and brand name of the firm. As the business is running from
home she may be facing troubles with respect to encouraging the store traffic and make no
conversions based on this.

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4. Limited expansion
Running the business from home has limited options and hence, the manner in which
Alison will be able to expand her business is quite limited in nature (Hoy and Stanworth, 2014).
Moreover, without proper employees, assistance and other relevant resources, it will be quite
difficult for her to manage the business effectively.
5. Continuous guarding
Lastly, in scenarios where she operates from the convenience of her home it can be stated
that, she will not be able to maintain a continuous presence at home (Lee et al., 2015). A proper
traditional shop will be open round the clock even when the owner of the business is not present,
however, this may not be the case for a business which is based in house because, in case Alison
leaves for a daily chore or some travel expeditions, the shop has to be closed down too.
Therefore, from the given analysis as done on the home based business of Alison, it can
be stated that it is because of the stated reasons why Alison`s home based business is more likely
to fail than an actual bespoke shop.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded that after the different components of the business have been
analyzed, there exists a number of areas which need attention in a proper business. These
comprise of expansion possibilities, home based business enterprise, startup requirements and
others. Although partnerships assist a business and help them to get the word divided, managing
a business is not easy when alone. The report was based on the case study of the Bespoke trade
by Alison whereby the background of the case was stated which was then followed by the
reasons why the business could ho for a franchising opportunity. In the second section pf the

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report, the reasons why expansion is a difficult step had been stated. Lastly, the reasons why
Alison’s business is less likely to be successful than the business of a proper Bespoke business
have also been provided. The following sections will lay down certain recommendations for
Alison.

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Recommendations
Hence, after studying the case study of bespoke fashions by Alison, the following
recommendations have been provided.
 Alison needs to ensure that in future, she can easily expand her business in case she gets
assistance in the long run. Moreover, she cannot continue with her home based business
any longer and may be required to shift to a professional set up soon. Although additional
costs will be invested, this shall assist in maintaining the welfare of the firm.
 Alison has already applied her best efforts and when reviewing the different business
opportunities, she will be required to ensure that she is able to invest in a franchising
which shall then reduce the pressure on her and provide other benefits as well.

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References
Burns, P. ,2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Fan, Y., Kühn, K.U. and Lafontaine, F., 2017. Financial constraints and moral hazard: The case
of franchising. Journal of Political Economy, 125(6), pp.2082-2125.
Hoy, F. and Stanworth, J., 2014. Franchising: an international perspective. Routledge.
Kuratko, D.F. ,2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Lee, Y.K., Kim, S.H., Seo, M.K. and Hight, S.K., 2015. Market orientation and business
performance: Evidence from franchising industry. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 44, pp.28-37.
McAdam, M., 2013. Female entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Nijmeijer, K.J., Fabbricotti, I.N. and Huijsman, R., 2014. Making franchising work: A
framework based on a systematic review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(1),
pp.62-83.
Parker, S.C. ,2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press
Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B. ,2014. Entrepreneurship and small
business.
Storey, D.J. ed. ,2016. Entrepreneurship and new firm. Routledge.
Wynarczyk, P. and Graham, J., 2013. The impact of connectivity technology on home-based
business venturing: The case of women in the North East of England. Local Economy, 28(5),
pp.451-470.