MGT711 Entrepreneurial Ventures Report: Issues and Strategies

This report analyzes the challenges faced by entrepreneurial ventures, particularly the scarcity of financial resources, using the social development platform Chuffed as a case study. It examines the limitations of crowdfunding and proposes that ventures transition into listed companies operating under ...Read More

Running head: ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES
Executive Summary:
The report below throw light on the most significant issues which entrepreneurial ventures face
namely, scarcity of financial resources. The charity based social development ventures in many
cases resort to crowd funding to raise capital. However, crowd funding does not prove efficient
to raise sufficient capital to support the business expansion strategies of these social development
venture. This requires these ventures to transform into listed companies running on ‘social
benefit model’.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary:........................................................................................................................1
Overview of the product/service/both offering:..............................................................................3
Overview of the target market:........................................................................................................3
Overview of the business model:.....................................................................................................4
What is the strategy?........................................................................................................................6
The marketing plan:.........................................................................................................................7
Products:......................................................................................................................................7
Pricing:.........................................................................................................................................8
Place:............................................................................................................................................8
Promotion:...................................................................................................................................9
What will the production/operational plan look like?.....................................................................9
Discuss the human resources need into the near future:................................................................10
Summary:.......................................................................................................................................10
Reference:......................................................................................................................................11

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Overview of the product/service/both offering:
The service which would form the base of the study would be social development
platform called Chuffed based in Australia. The firm raises money using crowd funding platform
to support these funds. The firm is currently facing shortage of capital. This is because social
development projects are increasing in scale and consequently requiring more funds. The
entrepreneurial firms which initially raise funds using crowd funding face the issue of lack of
financial resources. They in order to sustain in the market have to adopt strategies to counter the
issue of financial weakness. The report would explore a strategy which would allow
entrepreneurial ventures to counteract the issue of lack of financial resources. The main country
which would be taken into account while conducting the research would be Australia.
Overview of the target market:
The main target market which the social developmental project offering venture namely,
Chuffed targets consists of Australia, its home country. The firm has also entered Europe, the
United States and the United Kingdom. The social conscious project market in Australia consists
of different types of awareness programs. For example, social enterprises creating health
consciousness among the people is one of social development segment (Vichealth.vic.gov.au.
2019). The other types of social conscious project include varied services like creation of
awareness like environmental sustainability and safety management.
The target host markets of Chaffed consist of Europe, the United States of America and
the United Kingdom. These market are also suffering from several issues which are having
negative impacts on the society and require creation of social consciousness. For example, the
United States of America faces several environmental challenges like marine pollution and

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shortage of food (Bowerman, 2017). Passani, Klitsi and Vanobberger (2016) opine that the
involvement of the people can boost tackling environmental issues. Garbelli, Adukaite and
Cantoni (2015) strengthen the argument by pointing out that support from local people can boost
industries like local tourism which in turn boosts the business generation of the overall tourism
industry. Thus, it is evident from the overview that the expanse of social consciousness
promoting industry is increasing which would require more investments from the side of the
management of the concerned firms. Giones and Brem (2019) strengthen the discussion by
pointing out that crowd funding generate smaller amount of capital which is in most cases
insufficient to support the business growth of firms, many of which operate in the social
consciousness creation sector. These firms have to take adopt strategies to order to boost their
capital generation.
Overview of the business model:
Business model canvas of a social consciousness project management firm (like Chuffed)
Key Partners Key activities
Value
proposition
Customer
relationship(How)
Customer
segments(Who)
1. Suppliers of
promotional
materials like
flyers and
leaflets
2. Suppliers of
stationary
items used in
day to day
operations
3. Supplier of
website
4. Markerting
partners in
home and
host markets
4. Banks
(financial
products like
Marketing of
products using
makreting
channels which
would include
digital channels
like Youtube and
ecommerce
platforms
1. Providing high
quality products
including goods
and services like
selling of goods
manufactured by
the local
communities.
2. Round the
clock customer
assistance on
email, mobile
app and
customer care
numbers
3. Providing after
sales services to
customers on
email, mobile app
1. Relationship with
customers by offering
high quality products
manufactured by local
communities
2. Round the clock
support to customers
on telephone and
email.
3. Disocunts and
product bundling to
enhance customer
purchase value.
4. Continuous
communication with
customers on the
social media to gain
their valuable
feedback.
Products as per
the needs of the
different
customer
segments like
Australia, the US
and the UK

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insurance and
payment
gateways)
5. Risk
management
and insurance
companies
and customer
care numbers
4. Generating
repeat sales as
per future needs
of the customers
as per
information
generated on
email, mobile
app and
customer care
numbers
5. Continuous
communication with
customers on social
platforms like
Yourtube and
Facebook, even if they
cease to be customers
Key
Resources(What) Channels(How)
1. Financial
resources-
Companies acquire
capital from
market and invest
in asset classes-all
on the fintech
plartforms
2-material
resources-
Procured from
suppliers using
email, mobile app
and customer care
numbers
5. Human
resources-
Acquired by
floating
adversiment of
vacancies on the
online job portals.
Human resources
or employees are
the makers and
users of the
business model.
Official website,
Youtube, Mobile app
Cost structure Revenue structure
Fixed costs(taxes, customs duties
and rent on property both in the
home and host markets)
Variable costs(Digital marketing
costs, social media marketing,
ecommrce marketing costs,
marketing etc)
Semuivariable costs(electricity,
telephone, internet etc)
1. Marketing goods on own outlets and online portal attached
to official website
2. Markerting products on third party ecommerce websites
and third party distribution chains (wholesalers and retailers)

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Assumptions to be taken into account while interpreting the business model canvas:
1. Chuffed has transformed into a public limited company
2. Chuffed has transformed itself into a social benefit model.
3. The company would procure goods manufactured exclusively by local communities and sell
them in the market under its own brand name.
What is the strategy?
The strategy which social consciousness project management firms like Chuffed can
adopt would be converting into public limited companies. This would enable the firm to raise
capital by issuing shares in the stock market. Thus, would enable the firms to support their
business expansion needs (Cattaneo, Meoli and Vismara 2015). However, it can also be pointed
out that listing of firms and generation of capital from the market require the concerned firms to
satisfy certain criteria. For example, as per the requirements of the ASX, the firms aiming to get
listed should have generated ‘A$1 million aggregated profit from continuing operations over
past 3 years + A$500,000 consolidated profit from continuing operations over the last 12
months ‘, ‘A$4 million net tangible assets’ or ‘A$15 million market capitalisation ‘ (Asx.com.au.
2019). One can point out from the analysis of the criteria that in order to apply for listing on
stock exchanges, the concerned firms require to have immense financial strength. The social
awareness creating firms with limited market presence generally do not have the financial
strength to get listed on the stock exchanges. However, as far as big firms like Chuffed are
concerned, these firm operate in several markets like Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Thus, one can assume that these firms would have the financial strength to get listed on stock
exchanges like the ASX.

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The marketing plan:
The following is the marketing plan which the social consciousness generating firms can
adopt to counteract the issue of financial capital shortages:
Products:
The social consciousness generating firms (like Chuffen) should expand its product line
to generate more revenue (Clyde et al.2018). The initial product offering of the firm consisted of
creating awareness about different social issues in the Australian society. The firm has also
extended into overseas markets like Europe, the US and the UK. This expansion of business of
Chuffen has put immense pressure on its existing resources which the former usually raises by
crowd funding. As already mentioned that the firm is embracing the limited company status
which means that firm would be required to higher revenue as per the listing parameters of ASX
(Asx.com.au. 2019). It is evident that the existing product of the firm is insufficient to generate
the required revenue which means that firm should restructure its existing product line. The firms
(like Chuffen) should transform from charity based business organization to ‘social benefit
model’. The firms should acquire environment friendly products produced by the local
community and market them under its own brand name. They should ensure that the products
they sell are of superior quality and meet the requirements of the customers. They can market the
products either in single units or adopt the strategy of product bundling. They should retain their
initial product offering namely social consciousness promoting projects. However, they can
bring about more innovative packages of social awareness generation campaigns. For example,
the social development campaign segment should consist different types of campaigns like work
health and safety campaign and environmental awareness campaign. The the restructured product

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lines of the social awareness development companies should consist of both finished goods made
from locally sourced raw materials and social awareness development campaign.
Pricing:
The firms (like Chuffen) should price their products strategically so as to generate high
revenue. First of all, the pricing strategy of the firms should encompass both their service
products and goods. The pricing for the services should be fixed on the grounds of different
parameters like the scales in which the particular awareness events are to be held (local, national
etc) and number of guests. For example, an awareness campaign to be held in the national level
would be priced higher compared to a small scale local awareness campaign (Cao, So and Yin
2016). Similarly, the prices of the finished goods would be fixed based on parameters like
quality and package size. For example, goods made from organic raw materials acquired from
different geographical regions would be priced less compared to products made from ingredients
acquired from a single region. These legitimate pricing strategies would ensure customer
satisfaction and enable the firm generate immense revenue (Machado, Faff and Silva 2017).
Place:
The firms (like Chuffen) in order to generate higher revenue as per the parameters of the
stock exchanges (like ASX) they are listed on, should integrate their place strategies to the
previous two components of their marketing mixes namely, product and pricing (Asx.com.au.
2019). The first place strategy which these firms should consist of physical presence in the
strategically important market through their branches. For example, Chuffen is based in Australia
and has presence in several host markets like the US and the UK. The firm should be branches in
all these markets. The branches should employ officials who would manage the day to day

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business operations. The firm in areas in which it has no direct presence, it should enter into
partnerships with the local firms.
The second part of the place strategy consists of digital presence. The social awareness
generating firms should maintain a highly advanced official website which would have an
ecommerce attached to them. For example, customers would be able to view and order products
on the official website of Chuffen. Similarly, the business customers would be able to view
details of awareness programs. The customers would also be able to purchase products of
Chuffen on third party ecommerce portals like Amazon. Thus, it is evident that the strong place
strategy of the listed social development firms discussed would enable them to generate high
revenue.
Promotion:
The promotional mix of the social development firms should combine printed, audio
visual and digital media. The printed media would consist of newspapers and magazines. The
audio visual media would consist of television while the digital media would consist of the
official website of the concerned firms and social media platforms like Youtube (Alves,
Fernandes and Raposo 2016).
What will the production/operational plan look like?
The operational plan of the social consciousness promoting firm (like Chuffen) would
consider customer expectations as the drivers of operations. The marketing department should
gain information from the customers which would be integrated into the marketing mix and the
production strategy. In other words the operational plan of the firms should stand on total quality
management or TQM

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Discuss the human resources need into the near future:
The social development firms (like Chuffen) should employ human resources in the
future which would be strategically aligned to their business requirements. The firms should train
and mentor the employees to boost their skills and competencies
Summary:
It is clear from the discussion that entrepreneurial social awareness generating firms face
financial challenges in their initial stages. It can be concluded from the discussion that firms can
meet their initial financial requirement using crowd funding but the strategy does not suffice the
business expansion needs of these firms like Chuffen. This requires these firms to adopt ‘social
benefit model’ and list themselves (if financially strong) to counteract the financial challenge.

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Reference:
Alves, H., Fernandes, C. and Raposo, M., 2016. Social media marketing: a literature review and
implications. Psychology & Marketing, 33(12), pp.1029-1038.
Asx.com.au. 2019. Asx.com.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.asx.com.au/documents/resources/00080_Listing-with-ASX_Brochure_Dec-
2016_07_final.pdf [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].
Bowerman, M. 2017. Usatoday.com. [online] Usatoday.com. Available at:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/04/21/these-issues-look-out-national-
geographic-earth-optimism-summit-earth-day/100750898/ [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].
Cao, J., So, K.C. and Yin, S., 2016. Impact of an “online-to-store” channel on demand allocation,
pricing and profitability. European Journal of Operational Research, 248(1), pp.234-245.
Cattaneo, M., Meoli, M. and Vismara, S., 2015. Financial regulation and IPOs: Evidence from
the history of the Italian stock market. Journal of Corporate Finance, 31, pp.116-131.
Clyde, P., Sivadasan, J., Karnani, A.G., Manchanda, P. and Narayanan, M.P., 2018. The social
impact of profit-maximizing firms. Available at SSRN 3284113.
Garbelli, M., Adukaite, A. and Cantoni, L., 2015. Communicating Tourism Sustainability
Online. The Case of Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.
Giones, F. and Brem, A., 2019. Crowdfunding as a tool for innovation marketing: technology
entrepreneurship commercialization strategies. In Handbook of Research on Techno-
entrepreneurship, Third Edition. Edward Elgar Publishing.

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Machado, M.A.V., Faff, R. and Silva, S.C.D.S., 2017. Applicability of Investment and
Profitability Effects in Asset Pricing Models. Revista de Administração Contemporânea, 21(6),
pp.851-874.
Passani, A., Klitsi, M. and Vanobberger, W., 2016. Exploring impacts of collective awareness
platforms for sustainability and social innovation.
Vichealth.vic.gov.au. 2019. Vichealth.vic.gov.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/blog/the-changing-face-of-social-
marketing [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].

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