Due to re interest in this field Alison has done a lot of researched and also completed her MBA degree to pursue her career in business and combining her experience and MBA degree she had a very good opportunity of starting up the business and being successful. Before starting up a business it is always important to have the necessary experience in that particular field and along with that it is also important to know your goods and the changing trend in the market. Having the needed experience means that you know the market and doesn’t need to consult anyone for help which can save money ND you will have an advantage in the market.
Similarly when we look at the case of Alison, it is clearly seen that since she had worked in 2005 with the boutique she had all the experience and information needed to proceed with the business. Liaison’s store was a bit removed from majority of the other stores in the area. She was smart and knew the market very well and she had her stores open for customers during lunch time and used to close after the dinner time. She also had her boutique open on Sundays. If we take a look at other store whose working hours are 9-5 and these store are located all close to each there, Alison was more dedicated and customer oriented.
Towards the end of the case study, Alison realized that it time for her stop doing everything in her business. She thought of focusing herself more on the managerial part rather than doing entire thing by herself. According to me the business will be a huge success as it has got a name for itself and it doesn’t need to be more depended on her. Alison did a great job as a new business owner because all the responsibilities were taken by her and she was able to able to increase the revenue more than what was expected. Since the business has been a success it she can now focus more on the inventory and financial.
My suggestion would be that one store is enough because it is clearly seen that Alison is not good with balancing both work and life. All the more there is so much more left for Alison to learn from her business. In case she wants to open up another location then it would affect her existing location. When we look back at how she opened her first location like finding capital, hiring an employee and plus she was at the store day and night. Therefore if she plans n opening out another store she would have to find an investor or use the money from the first store to start up the second store.
Knowing how involved she gets with the store she would spent her entire time with second store because it’s a new store thus leaving her first store which can affect her business. According to me for an MBA graduate this is a very good career because Alison has the passion about the boutique and she has a leadership character which can help her in business. All of the above reasons prove that it was worth opening the boutique after her MBA degree. If Alison wanted to expand the business beyond 600 square foot then she would have to learn the accounting part for it and the inventory part.
If she is so much into expansion then she will have to learn more about the inventory software. Along with that expanding the business will need more employee because just one employee will not be sufficient. Most importantly the accounting part which her uncle does she will have to learn them. Lastly expansion will need more products for the store and rent will increase as well so she will have to figure out the cost for those expenses. Alison needed investors when she started her business at first. She made six slots of $25000 each with the options of debt/equity, full equity, or full debt.
Few of her investments went on the first round of inventory, inventory program, and payment for the store location. From my observation I feel she has used her resources brilliantly. She had an idea of how much each process would cost and didn’t give room for the investors to modify her plan. According to what I have observed it was seen that both Alison and Kaolin were very much interested into doing business with anyone else but they both at mom point realized that they are capable of doing it by themselves.
It is seen that both of them bought their initial supplies from the money they borrowed from other people. One of the main differences between both was that Kaolin often had no clue what was going to happen next he was a person of hope and faith but he still managed to carry on with his business. On the other hand Alison had clear and good idea about the things that happens in each stage. From both the cases observed that they both had the passion and will power to chase their dream and make it a successful business.