Swing Patrol Business: Performance Evaluation and Expansion Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive business analysis of Swing Patrol, a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) dance academy. The report begins with an introduction to SMEs and then delves into a detailed profile of Swing Patrol, including its mission, vision, aims, objectives, ownership structure, history, activities, and locations. It identifies the company's strengths, such as a large dancer base and passionate teaching staff, and weaknesses, including limited geographical presence and specialized dance forms. A comparative analysis with a competitor, Razzmataxx Theatre, evaluates Swing Patrol's financial performance using ratio analysis, revealing insights into revenue, net profit margin, and market position. The report then proposes actions to address weaknesses, such as expanding the target market and scope of operations, and ways to maintain and strengthen current performance, including developing technologies and fostering relationships with stakeholders. Furthermore, the report explores new areas for expansion, assesses business objectives and plans, and outlines an action plan for implementing changes. The implications of the changes and a plan for managing them are discussed, concluding with recommendations for improving Swing Patrol's overall business performance.

SMALL BUSINESS
ENTERPRISES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Profile of the Swing Patrol....................................................................................................1
1.2 Comparative analysis and evaluation of business performance............................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Actions to overcome weaknesses..........................................................................................4
2.2 Ways to maintain and strengthen current performances.......................................................5
2.3 New areas for making expansion..........................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Assessment of business objectives and plans........................................................................7
3.2 Business plan and areas of changes......................................................................................8
3.3 Action plan for the implementation of change......................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1Implication of the adopted changes........................................................................................9
4.2 Plan for how changes will be managed in business............................................................10
4.3 The improvement of business performance for the stated organization.............................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Small and medium enterprises are the organizations including the not more than 250
employees and the annual turnover of these organizations are below 50 million euro.
Additionally, the sales operation of these firms are limited within the country. These companies
have huge scope of growth and development at national and international level. The stated sector
offers employment opportunities to the population to of an economy. In UK, the act relating with
same and medium enterprises are different as compare to the another business organizations. The
present document is prepared with a motive to explain the strength and weakness of Swing patrol
(Obeng and Blundel, 2015). Although, swing patrol is a dance academy which provides training
to both the men and women. This organization falls under the category of small and medium
enterprises. The firm has smaller staff with limited number of operations the organization is
performing. This document will explain the ways through which the weakness of this company
can be ascertained. In addition to this, report provides development plan which will enlighten the
areas of development by the organization. This will aids the company to make appropriate
business decisions (Goss, 2015).
TASK 1
Business name: Swing Patrol, London, UK
Mission: The mission statement of Swing Patrol is to share a joyful, wonderful and
enjoying dance services to build passionate and professional dancers.
Vision: The vision of the company is to become a leading and successful dancing
organization through having an excellent audience base
Aims and objective: To learn friendly swing and varied dance forms such as Jitterbug,
Blues, Solo Jazz, Balboa, Charleston and other vintage styles.
Ownership structure: It is a form of sole proprietorship that is only owned by Scott
landed. He is own responsible to manage and regulate all the activities and services delivered to
achieve success (Blackburn, Hart, and Wainwright, 2013).
History/background: Initially, it had begun its journey where it was primarily schooled
by radio. In the beginning period, it taught dancing styles especially to youth generation and
sport clubs. Thereafter, Scott started their operations in Washington, Melbourne and other places.
In April, 1998, the company registered its operations and activities (Swing Patrol history, 2015).
1

In the duration of 1997 to 1998, its Ballroom, Lindy Hop, Rock and Roll enlarger its volunteer
base and reached success. It started its journey with only 23 students which continuously goes up
and now, it have more than 1000 dancers.
Activities and operations: Swing Patrol specializes in teaching different variety of
dancing styles so as to develop incredible and highly talented dancers in Vintage era (Ebert and
et.al., 2014). It conducts more than 40 weekly dancing styles at around 35 places in the London,
UK. it mainly conducts Lindy Hop as well as Blue social dance classes for the volunteers and
participates (Swing Patrol, 2015). It carries out its activities and operations through a passionate
teaching team, Mike Legenthal who is expertise and specialises in teaching Jazz and blues.
Number of dancers: Swing patrol’s excellent, passionate and dedicated teaching staff
teaches variety of dance forms to more than 1000 dancers group.
Locations: London, Sydney, Melbourne and Berlin
Strengths:
 Strong dancer base above 1000 dancers
 European Swing Dance Championship award
 Passionate and dedicated teaching team, Mike Legenthal
 Top 10 performance at Trafalagar square
 Four amazing and excellent performance troupe
 The Swing Patrol is able to provide its services on relatively lesser cost. Because of this,
it is a preferred brand among customers who are fan of fun and entertainment.
 Besides this, the company's marketing strategies are also strong where it uses strong tag
lines for featuring qualities of services. The company has made its success by performing
in a way due to which its name has been recorded in Guinness book of records. The
organisation has its services in different cities which helps in making large customer
base.
Weakness:
 Limited geographical presence in Melbourne, London, Sydney, Tasmania and Berlin only
 Specialises in some specialized form of dances such as Solo Jazz, Balboa, Charleston and
other vintage styles only (Cassar Ittner and Cavalluzzo, 2015).
 The said company is not present in performing dramas and other theatrical performances
which makes its scope very limited. The mentioned organisation channels in less number
2

of countries as well. This makes the firm's services very weak and less accessible
(Carraher and Paridon, 2015).
 In addition, the target market for enterprise is also very limited where it use to perform
social dances only with contribution of some volunteers and other staff.
 The workforce employed for various functions have not used much of the props to make
their performances innovative and better.
1.2 Comparative analysis and evaluation of business performance
Razzmataxx Theatre is a competitor of Swing Patrol, who is regular focusing their efforts
to deliver top-quality dance teaching service to the staff. It gives tough competition to the Swing
Patrol to gain dancers traffic and conduct operations in the competitive marketplace. Ratio
analysis is considers as the best technique to quantitative measures and evaluate the comparative
performance of both the SMEs.
Year
Swing patrol Razzmataxx Theatre
Revenues Net profit Net profit margin Revenues Net profit
Net
profit
margin
2011 3400 255 7.50% 3200 300 9.38%
2012 4200 420 10.00% 4050 350 8.64%
2013 4550 300 6.59% 4800 510 10.63%
2014 5100 612 12.00% 5420 610 11.25%
2015 5700 855 15.00% 6020 675 11.21%
Taking into consideration the results, it can be seen that although, both Swing Patrol and
Razzmataxx Theatre’s revenues shows a upward movement, but still, comparative growth in
sales is higher in competitor, Razzmataxx Theatre (Gupta and Makrigeorgis, 2016). In the year
2015, it can be seen that, Swing Patrol’s total revenues has been reported to 5700 Pound,
however, competitors’ total earnings were comparatively greater to 6020 GBP. It may be due to
greater target audiences and growth in demand.
Net profit margin is an effective measure to analyze and evaluate profit generating
capability of the firm by obtaining excessive revenues over the cost incurred during a specified
period. In the year 2011, Swing Patrol’s NPM was 7.50% just doubled to 15.00% in 2015,
3

however, in contrast to this, in Razzmataxx Theatre, NPM was higher to 9.38% got enhanced at
less rate and reached to 11.21%. Thus, the results presented that although competitor
organization is serving higher audiences and generate high level of earnings, but still,
comparatively, Swing Patrol generated higher yield on their revenues is a sign of effective
performance (Ellis, 2016). Ineffective marketing, tough competition, less audience base
comparison to Razzmataxx Theatre may be the reasons for less revenues in Swing Patrol.
However, high profitability is a sign of strong financial control and effective utilization of
monetary resources.
TASK 2
2.1 Actions to overcome weaknesses
The Swing Patrol became famous after its popularity on famous show of Dragon's Den.
The organisation offers a differentiated idea of business but it has some weaknesses as well due
to which it is prone to various threats as per the present market conditions. For defeating the
above discussed weaknesses the said company can apply following measures which are as
follows:
 Increasing target market: The cited organisation should make some strong strategies that
can develop its information system that can contribute in expanding its services towards
different countries. With the help of strong information systems, the firm will be able to
manage communication with various personnels in better way and with more
coordination. Besides this, it will help in easy flow of significant information among
various branches on time so that no chaos or distortion can become barrier in
communication process (Klapper, Biga-Diambeidou and Lahti, 2016). Thus, the company
successfully enhance its target market to overcome its weakness of limited target market.
Moreover, it can also learn to use more prop to make the performance presentable and
innovative.
 Expansion of scope : The mentioned business has a good strength to develop in market
with its present skills present in their groups. For achieving high business growth in
present market conditions, company should make arrangements for proper allocation of
its resources. Apart from this, various shortcomings and scarce resources needs can be
fulfilled by outsourcing. The method of outsourcing is comparatively less expensive way
4

of increasing accessibility of resources. In addition, the company can also organise a
small event to invite required talent of the field so that its talent search objective can be
accomplished in better way.
 Expanding accessibility: As mentioned above, the said venture has not expanded its
business and performance at wider level (Squicciarini, 2016). The access of firm is very
less due to which its target market has also shrunken form with less number of customers.
Therefore, the enterprise should make some expansion strategies to give their
performances in new markets from where they can add more number of customers.
Besides this, it is also necessary that company recruits some more talents in their group
who can contribute in success of organisation. This will also help in increasing its
services with broader reach in geographical sense.
2.2 Ways to maintain and strengthen current performances
The Swing Patrol is a well known company in Melbourne, Sydney and Berlin with a
good fame in social dance performances. For maintaining this strength there are some ways
which can help the organisation:
 Developing technologies: The said company is continuing with social dance
performances where it has lots of opportunities to develop with the help of new
techniques. As discussed earlier that dances performed by this group make less use of
props can be transformed as an opportunity. The use of various new techniques in dance
forms along with some good props can prove to be of good strength for dances. Besides
this, company can also focus on developing some infrastructures so that it can make use
of new technologies in success of company (Cole and Sokolyk, 2016).
 Development of relationships: The cited firm can make efforts to develop its relationships
with its various stakeholders so that company can build a strong bonding with them. It is
very necessary for any company to maintain good relationships with different concerned
persons so that it can help in marking success in market. With the help of positive
relationships with different stakeholders like staff, customers and government of different
cities where it performs, the enterprise can make its image positive in market.
 Human resource development: The company should make efforts to manage its human
resource in efficient way so that it can employ skilled and talented workforce in its group.
This will help in giving better performance in an improved way. Besides this, it also
5

helps in development of innovative measures in the group so that it can come up in the
market with better use of available workforce (Huq and et.al.,, 2017). The company can
make arrangement of searching best talents from various parts of countries that have
some innovative and differentiated stylises of performance. In addition, the organisation's
strategy of teaching dance in one day can be presented in better way with innovations and
different dance forms. The classes taken by this organisation should be managed as per
the requirements of customers.
 Porter's five force analysis: The five force analysis can also help in overcoming
weaknesses. The bargaining power of supplier is more as the company does not have a
large source of supply and they have to search for talent more. While the bargaining
power of buyers is less as the quality of performance and innovative techniques are much
helpful to attract customers. Thus, they will be ready to pay for full package of
entertainment. Threat of new entrants is moderate as there are less number of competitors
in this field which attracts new business entrants. The threat of substitution is low as
many performers can present same type of talent but the standard level which is shown
by Swing Patrol is very high which is not easy to replace. The degree of rivalry is also
moderate with less number of competitors. But it is necessary to bring innovations to
maintain the competition level.
2.3 New areas for making expansion
Presently the company has its operations in Sydney, Berlin and Melbourne only which
makes it clear that it has large opportunities to expand its market in other countries as well.
Besides this, Swing Patrol also deals in music, accessories, shoes and clothes as well which
makes the opportunities more wider. So company can adopt some measure that can help it in
expanding its business operations which are as follows:
 Expansion in different areas: The company can make its services expanded in different
countries by giving its performances at various locations. Besides this, the organisation
concentrates only on the social dance forms which makes the scope of its viewers limited.
This is necessary that firm starts its performance in various other areas as well where it
has options like singing, dramas, theatre performances etc. With the help of expansion in
different fields, the organisation can have more number of customers (Westerlund, 2017).
6

 Enhanced services: The online tools in which it use to focus with different accessories,
clothes, shoes etc. that makes its opportunities wider. The company should start to widen
its target market so that it can have broad opportunities in the market. Moreover, with its
clothes and accessories, it can make marketing of its performances as well along with
marketing of its brand.
TASK 3
3.1 Assessment of business objectives and plans
In business plans and objectives, it is always recommended to make the objectives on
SMART criterion. The objectives based on SMART, define its quality which is based on some
particular factors. The expanded form of SMART refers to objectives that are specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and time bounded. In context of Swing Patrol these objectives
can be arranged in a following way:
 Specific: To expand the market share of company along with its target customers in more
number of countries (Choshin and Ghaffari, 2017).
 Measurable: To enhance its operations in European market with 10-12% increase by the
end of year 2018.
 Achievable: To expand the services in different dance forms along with singing, theatre
performance and other dance forms.
 Realistic: To make the performance of business innovative and developed with
technological improvements. Besides this, making performance of group more targeted
towards enhancement of customers and large market share.
 Time bound: To achieve the large market share up to 10% by expanding services in
European market by the end of 2018.
Objectives of Swing Petrol:
1. To expand the market share by 15% till the end of 2017 through delivering superb quality
services
2. To maximize number of dancers attendees by 10% through having well experienced and
talented dancer team
3. To promote the net earnings by 10% by the end of next year through introducing new
dancing forms
7

Reviewing the objectives of Swing Petrol, it can be evaluated that it aims at maximum its
market share by 15% till the end of next year. In order to meet this purpose, it will need to recruit
talented and well experienced dancer team and introduce new and unique dancing styles to
maximize its audience base. Along with this, expansion strategies can be used that will help to
drive more dancers, sales, profitability and market shares as well. Thus, the objective of growth
in dancers and net earnings by 10% by the end of 2017 can be achieved.
On the basis of above smart objectives it can stated that the company can target its market
for the expansion f market share (Ellis and kiely, 2015). In addition to this, the operations of the
company can be enhanced by 10 to 12% by brining improvement in company operations.
However, the management can adapt different dance forms along with singing and drama. In
context to this, he performance of business innovative and developed with technological
improvements. Besides this, making performance of group more targeted towards enhancement
of customers and large market share. To achieve the large market share up to 15% by expanding
services in European market by the end of 2017.
3.2 Business plan and areas of changes
In order to bring the requisite changes by the organization it is crucial to develop the
effective measures for the development of business plan. This plan will assist the company to
identify the needs for the requisite changes. However, the areas of changes are explained below.
Financial aspects: The stated organization needs to focus on the financial aspects of the
firm. It includes financial planning and the allocation of financial resources to the departments.
In Order to expand and grow, the management needs to analyse the financial resources of the
company (Obeng and Blundel, 2015). Presently, Swing patrol is operating in UK market if the
firm wants to enter into new market then it will required funds. Although, the management of
company need to make appropriate arrangements of funds. It will assist the organization to
evaluate the areas needed financial resources.
Marketing planning: The system of marketing of the stated organization requires
developing for the attraction of new customers. The stated firm is going to expand its operations
in European market for which the firm needs market planning. In addition to this, the
organization offers training for single dance. However, it needs to expand its areas of dancing so
that it can increase it customers.
8

Human resource development: It is important for the organization to have skilled and
developed human resource so that they can comply with the altered policies and strategies of the
stated organization. The effectual and economical way of method must be formed to integrated
the needed alterations. This will assist the Swing Patrol in strengthening the intrinsic system of
the institution while processing the powerful competing basal in the economic system (Goss,
2015). The seasonal variations may pose the risk of cost increment thus the company must
incorporate the zero hour system to employ part-time employees to enhance the operations.
3.3 Action plan for the implementation of change
There are certain strategic objectives which are formulated by the management of the
cited firm. Following are explained below:
Proposed action Milestone tasks Responsibl
e person
Tar
get
date
Success
indicator
Progress
To promote
the net
earnings by
10% by the
end of next
year
through
introducing
new
dancing
forms
 Promotion &
marketing
 Best dancer team
 Staff induction
 Introducing new
dancing forms
 New dance forms
 Talented &
experiences
dancers
 S
Operations
heads
HR
manager
31st
Mar
ch
2017
 Marketing
effectiveness
 New
advanced
dances
forms
 Brand
awarenes
s
 Number
of
attendees
to learn
dance
To expand
the market
share by
15% till the
end of 2017
through
delivering
 Opening more
institutes inside
and outside
London
 Collection of
required money
Geographical
expansion &
diversifications
 Finance
manager
 Project
head
31st
July
2017
 Growth in
number of
dancers
 Market share
 Growth in
sales
 Success
in new
market
 Effective
financial
managem
ent
9