Business plan for a start-up ( Financial data) Literature review

Business plan for a start-up ( Financial data) - Literature review Example With god business plan, the future of the business is certain and all future occurrences will be met with certainty. For a stat-up business, plan is used by business to determine its future survival and viability. Businesses cannot run effectively without a plan. Most plan make assumptions about the future. Any assumption made should be made with great caution as failure for the assumption to hold, the whole plan might be jeopardized. A successful business plan should be prepared based on past experiences fact and empirical data. It requires lo of expertise to prepare a concrete plan for a start-up business that has no past records experience. This paper will focus on the financial side of a business plan by reviewing overall financial records for all industries that are components of a plan. The financial plan of a start-up business will be based on the size of the proposed business. This means that it will rely mainly on assumptions. Analysis will be done o the future cash flows, i ncomes and expenses, balance sheet, capital, profitability and financial ratio analysis. The major assumption that will be used in the plan will be: The prevailing market and economic conditions prevail. Methodology The plan will be prepared based on projection of financial statements. ... According to Lemieux (2013), The various parameters that have taken into consideration for evaluation of the net income of the firms are the general, selling and administrative expenses, depreciation, regulatory expense, insurance costs of the company, rental charges to be paid for the establishment of the business, cost of advertising, utility bills, etc (Lemieux, 2013, p.39). These expenses are adjusted to the gross earnings to form the net earnings of the company. The net earnings of the company are important for the calculation of the net operating cash flows. The net operating cash flow has been forecasted to be 35500 pounds which is expected to increase gradually in the next two years. There are investment cash flows for firms which would involve cash outflows for purchase of fixed assets of the company and other capital expenditures. The cash out flows on account of investment activity of the business is valued at 16250 pounds. The investment activities are expected to increas e in the first three years as the business would focus on increasing their market share. The cash outflows due to financing activities would be due to the interest payment for the debt incurred from the bank and the interest paid to the creditors. The cash outflow for financing activities of the business would be 15650 pounds that is anticipated to increase in the next two years. The net cash flows for the business have been forecasted to be 3600 pounds which is expected to increase by 10% in the next two years as shown in Table 4 in the Appendix. Uses of the data The profit and loss statement and the balance sheet have been forecasted as a part of the business plan and have been presented in Table 2 and Table 3 respectively in the

Critically discuss 'SWOT analysis is deeply flawed and should not be Essay

Critically discuss 'SWOT analysis is deeply flawed and should not be applied as a modern marketing tool.' - Essay Example The paper also analyses the relevance of SWOT analysis for the purpose of marketing analysis and concludes in dismissing the use of SWOT for strategic decision making process and establishes it as a mere information guideline for managers. The SWOT analysis method is not, by any means, a process that can carry forth any strategic analysis, competitive analysis or an opportunity analysis. The tool is used to represent a structure that calls for extensive brainstorming while making any strategic decisions. As a result of such structure of the SWOT tool, it is possible that the problem being analysed or identified is broken down into life stages and phases. Such brainstorming and breaking down of a problem into phases allows for gaining a huge collection of possible ideas that might have cause the problem or offer solutions to the issue at hand. Such SWOT tool can also be used multiple times (Symes, n.d.). The paper identifies that the SWOT tool is merely a step in the process of business plan or marketing initiative. For issues that need a deeper understanding an evaluation, the SWOT tool appears largely incapable and this is why it is considered to be a broad overview of all the possible factors that might affect a marketing decision. The paper begins with a discussion on the drawbacks of the SWOT analysis tool as a base for modern marketing decisions and discusses its applicability flaws in relation with the marketing objectives. It concludes in stating that the SWOT is a presentation of facts and not a decision making tool. For the purpose of deeper understanding of issues, the SWOT lacks largely and needs to be assisted by other marketing tools (Queensland Government, 2013). It has been argued that the theoretical base for SWOT analysis is very weak. The analysis has been accused of being very superficial and not running deep into the analysis of the context. For example, the SWOT analysis states the facts just like a

Organizations Workforce Diversity And Its Competitive Advantage Commerce Essay

Organizations Workforce Diversity And Its Competitive Advantage Commerce Essay The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of leadership style over the relationship between organizations workforce diversity and its competitive advantage with mission and vision statements as intervening variable. Most organizations are adopting diversity into their policies and procedures to embrace its benefits and there is a growing recognition that it makes business sense to take diversity seriously. The demographics of working population has changed in last two decades with more mature workforce remaining in the workplace, now more female employees are seen in higher positions and there is also a variation in cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it seems beneficial for organizations to hire diverse workforce to meet the demands of customer expectations. Organizations that are flexible and responsive to a demanding marketplace require the service of multi-skilled, adaptable workforce. One clear competitive advantage for organizations having diverse workforce is that it pro vides an environment that values differences among employees and encourages them for different ways of thinking and behaving during work to fully contribute to organizational aims and objectives. Employers providing such an environment get the support of their employees and develop a positive public image. It must be understood that each member of diverse workforce holds his differences and similarities; hence, valuing and managing diversity is about recognizing the unique contribution each employee can make to the organization. It is about creating an environment in which everyone feels valued, welcomed, and able to make an important contribution toward the attainment of corporate objectives. Additionally, companies facing challenges in competing global marketplace for market share can use diversity as competitive advantage in a multicultural environment with a diverse pool of talented and experienced individuals who can bring innovation and creativity to the organization. Literature Review Diversity is not only associated to limited attributes that can be observed but also to those invisible characteristics such as differences in educational background, creativity, understanding, learning style, and problem-solving ability (Nafukho et al., 2011). So, organizational performances and processes can be influenced by an individual or a group representing different categories of diversity within a workplace. (van Knippenberg and Schippers, 2007). Diversity is defined as any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another (Giovannini, 2004, p. 22). Hence, diversity affects the organizations effectiveness and performance in terms of competitive advantage. (Joshi and Roh, 2009; Klein et al., 2011). This presumes that performance has a relation with organizations ability to achieve goals with respect to its mission or vision (Devine and Philips, 2001). In other words, performance is deemed as an outcome which is a result of some purposeful activity to achieve competitive advantage as mentioned in mission or vision statements of an organization. (Swanson and Holton, 2009). As the organization strives to achieve its goals or objectives, conflict may arise within the diverse groups to cope up the challenges of differences among them which keep them from achieving organizational performance. (Østergaard et al., 2011). Since, Human Resource Department (HRD) deals primarily with performance of individuals, groups and organization at large to achieve competitive advantage, so diverse workforce demands the attention of HRD scholars and practitioners on the issues that arise in organization. It can be observed in modern trends for companies to use diverse workforce for completing special tasks which help achieve competitive advantage (Garrison et al., 2010) and there is always potential for the occurrence of conflict among such diverse groups which can derail the organization from achieving effectiveness. Hence, it becomes the resp onsibility of HRD to address such conflicts in advance and use the knowledge of how to build the high performing and productive teams of diverse workforce who can to the overall competitive advantage of organization (Klein et al., 2011). Evidently, most companies find diversity as a way to increase business competency, to improve net income, to gain competitive advantage, to build the effectiveness to compete in global markets, to improve business performance, to achieve higher employee satisfaction, to enhance corporate governance, to attract diverse talents and skills and to retain the workforce that maintains the customer base (McCuiston et al., 2004). Moreover, culturally diverse workforce brings benefits to business economy (Ferley et al., 2003) and leads to better performance of the business (Richard, 2000). According to Adler (1997), a company with a diverse workforce has greater chances for building an innovative working environment. This statement is beautifully expressed in the words of White (1999), who states that creativity thrives on diversity. These benefits can be derived from the proper implementation of diversity-promoting policies (Jamrog, 2002). Many firms today seem to be increasingly embracing r acial, ethnic and gender workforce balance, not for legal or ethical obligations, but as a matter of taking a progressive perspective on economic self-interest (Coil and Rice, 1993). It has been recognized recently that increasing diverse workforce has presented both opportunities and challenges for organizations which are striving for efficiency, innovativeness and global competitive advantage (Barak, 1999). As the global markets are getting more complex, utilization of organizations knowledge, skills and abilities is getting even more crucial in this rapidly increasing competition where organizations want to be more creative and innovative (Ng and Tung, 1998). In order to manage the growing diversity of the work force, organizations need to implement such systems and practices so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximized and the potential disadvantages are minimized (Cox, 1994). In the past two decades several academic researches have been conducted on various issues relating diversity. Richard (2000) examined the impact of diversity on organization and its productivity while Jackson (1993) found the positive relationship between diversity and cr eativity. Diversity research has also addressed the factors involved in assimilating new employees into an organizations culture (Berry and Sam, 1997). However, some argue that by its fundamental nature, assimilating new employees to obtain greater fit between the person and organization is achieved at the expense of diversity (Powell, 1998). In other research, Tsui et al. (1992) showed that race and gender has negative relationship with diversity as compared to age. Other studies have also consistently found that observable attributes have negative effects on outcomes such as identification with the group and job satisfaction at both the individual and group level of analysis (Milliken and Martins, 1996). Further, Milliken and Martins (1996) supported the argument of Tsui et al. (1992) that racial and gender diversity can have negative influence on individual and team outcomes in some cases regardless of age. As an example, they referred to those groups members who differ from the larger group tend to show less commitment, more turnover and absenteeism while at the same time this results in additional costs, such as, group coordination cost, communication cost and training and development cost. So, according to them, diversity results in increase in coordination and control costs. Dadfar and Gustavsson (1992) found that the majority of site managers believed that managers/supervisors are less effective when managing a work group composed of several nationalities. This is because language was regarded as a major obstacle to effective communication among workers of different nationalities. However, Watson et al. (1993) argue that these negative effects may diminish with time and may be offset by better quality and more creative decisions. Having said that, it is important to understand that even for those who decide to embrace diversity as a concept, the road to diversity is not without challenges. Many businesses fail to the see the full picture of diversity or understand all of its impacts on their operations (Farrer, 2004), as leading a diverse workforce requires considerable time, energy and skill. A diverse workforce represents many challenges to management in areas such as workplace authority, trust and commitment, different work ethics, firm structure and work-life balance (McCuiston et al., 2004). Diversity challenges also include training costs, discrimination and conflicts. The increase in training cost results from the needed diversity-promoting programs which need to be administered to all employees (White, 1999). The problem of perceived discrimination arises when a certain group feels that they have been unfairly discriminated against, which leads to a sense of rejection towards the group that was perceived as having unjustifiable benefits, which could lead to an increase in conflicts. According to Jehn (1995), the increase in conflicts possibly leading to tension and animosity occurs when employees do not have similar views on a particular issue and in turn such conflicts could have detrimental effects on performance. These effects include directing the attention of employees to each other instead of the job, increasing stress and anxiety, and it can result in hostile interaction among members (Chuang et al., 2004). Leadership Leadership remained the single most important issue in annual surveys for identifying top management issues during all times (HRI, 2002a). To manage a diverse workforce, organizations need visionary leaders but availability of them is scarce. According to the study by Diversity Inc. (2002), it is forecasted that many top management of many leading companies will lose one in five top managers due to retirement. Let alone, US companies will lose 40 percent or more of their top executives till 2015 (Wellins and Byham, 2001). One solution offered to this scarcity is to develop leaders at every level and in every function in an organization (Hesselbein, 2002). For this solution, Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society (2002) advised the most effective leadership components to manage diversity, which are: Sensitivity and awareness about diverse workforce. Resources to strengthen and improve the quality of diverse individuals Inter-communication skills to solve mutual differences Strategies to maximize the effectiveness of diverse workforce. The goal should be to develop cross-cultural leaders and generate a new crop of multicultural professionals (Yukl, 2002). These leaders are provided with the required resources and authorities to manage workforce. The focus should be to enhance their listening, learning, networking, communication, and experimenting skills to manage a diverse workforce (Melymuka, 2001). Finally an effective strategy must be developed to include diversity at all levels of management, and there must be commitment to diversity at senior levels where it is strategically more important (Conklin, 2001). This strategy must be evident in organizations mission and vision statement and should involve a systemic, results-oriented, business-based approach (Fitzpatrick, 1997). Yet companies do not seek diversity unless this business competency results in increased profit and metrics that substantiate the necessity to expand the emphasis on diversity (Diversity Inc., 2002). Irrefutable measurable benefits can be de rived from properly implemented policies to promote diversity (Jamrog, 2002). The most evident measurable benefits are improved bottom line, competitive advantage, superior business performance, employee satisfaction and loyalty, strengthened relationship with multicultural communities, and attracting the best and the brightest candidates. Competitive advantage defined in diversity as, Recruiting and retaining people of diverse backgrounds who can share a common set of values. . .and approach to business is a priority for todays competitive organization (McCormack, 2002, p. 1). Jamrog (2002) suggested three-point approach to enhance effectiveness of leadership to manage diverse workforce: premise, guidelines and actions. There are three premises that leaders need to value diversity: (1) One size doesnt fit all leaders need to use different approaches for solving problems and developing workers as all situations and individuals are not the same, (2) Not everyone can be a leader organizational should focus only on individuals who have the ingredients of becoming a good leader, and (3) Leaders can be at any level or function anyone who can inspire, influence and guide others in the organization is a leader regardless of position. The five guidelines that leaders need to value diversity are: (1) Communicate, communicate, and communicate share freely your ideas, suggestions, opinions; listen to ideas of others with interest, (2) Build contact into your daily actions and duties Plan your actions, meetings, and duties so as to maximize contact with multiple p eople in the organization. (3) Manage and lead by walking around Be outside the office frequently and interact informally with others of different levels, functions, backgrounds and experience, (4) Champion diversity Bring in the contribution of everyone to increase commitment, innovation and creativity, and (5) Sponsor diversity Defend the decisions, actions and interactions while supporting everyone in the organization. Lastly, the five actions that leaders need to value diversity are: (1) Assessment of leadership potential within the organizations, (2) Provision of training and tools, (3) Inclusion of diversity at all levels, (4) measuring and rewarding efforts, and (5) encouraging the organization to be patient. Conceptual Framework: Research Methodology:

Book Review of Goosebumps Stay Out of the Basement :: essays research papers

I have read a book called Goosebumps Stay Out Of the Basement. It was an intresting book and it was a little confusing because the characters jumped around in the story. Also, when you were reading the story you feel like you missed out on a part and you just have to go along with the story and find things that happen in the past. The author of this book is R. L.Stine. He has written many books in the Goosebumps series and they all hold there scariness in many ways.They are a series of scary and supernatural made up stories.These are some books that he has written:The Abdominal Snowman of Pasadena,Attack of the Mutant,Bad Hare Day,The Barking Ghost,The Cuckcoo clock of Doom,The Curse of the Mummy's tomb,Deep Trouble,Egg Monsters From Mars and many more.The genre of this book is fiction because it has ficticious characters that are not real and are not true including monsters. I chose this book because it looked very intresting and I was very drawn to this book when I saw it. By just looking at the picture on the front cover was very intresting and creepy and I like those things. In the beginning of the story, Margaret and Casey are talking about how there dad a scientist is acting very weird. They notice that he has been down there in the basement with his plants and weird machines for a long time. He had hardly ever come up from the basement to get fresh air. When he did come up he would'nt even want to catch a frisbee. He also did not spend two minutes with either of them when he did come up. They also notice his skin getting a pale green and speaks in very bad manners that the kids have never heard before. Then in the middle of the book they find out some very uncomfortable things about there dad and they feel as if he is not there dads anymore. When the two kids had gone down into the the basement [which there dad had yelled at them and told them not to go down there] they found a whole bunch of weird plants and the air was all mooshy and thick. They kinda noticed that one of the plants were breathing and it was true because when they went near the pla nt you could actually hear it breathing.

Arguing for the benefits of vegetarianism

Be a vegetarian. It is all one can say to another to stay healthy. In the current world that human kind live in, it is very clear that many people have different problems in their bodies. Some people may have cancer, some may have flu and some others may be obese. About 8 million people die from cancer every year and considering the fact that Switzerland has a population of about 9 million people, this country would be wiped out to nothing if the cancer killings only occurred in Switzerland. A simple way of lessening the risk of catching cancer, or rather any kind of disease, is to be a vegetarian. People practice vegetarianism for various reasons. Some being health, religiously, economically and environmentally. But even with all the reasons combined, there still aren’t enough vegetarians to change the future of the world. If we were to be vegetarians, first of all we would be consuming less fat and cholesterol, decreasing the risk for us to get obese. With the advantage of not having too much fat in the body, we would have a less chance of getting cancer as well. Secondly, we would be consuming more beneficial nutrients and minerals such as carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins. The loss of protein can be replenished by consuming beans for vegetarians. The last reason that vegetarianism is good is because it is very environmental. When raising livestock in farms consistently produces CO2 from the animals, vegetables produce oxygen. Hence, it is very environmental although plants produce CO2 as well. The world would be living with less danger if everybody in the world were vegetarians. Also, the Earth would be less polluted than it is right now. But the problem is that in reality, it is not. A research page had a result showing that a mere 5% of the world’s population were semi-vegetarians. The number of pure vegetarians would be less. Many people in the world are not aware of the word ‘vegan’ which is the same term for vegetarian and most of the people know that being a vegetarian is good for one’s health, they just completely ignore that fact and carry on a meat-based diet because it tastes good. If people quickly learned that they could live longer by following a very simple process, it would finally be the time period of the human kind going against bacteria. We humans having the largest brains ever seen on earth have taken control of the earth for thousands of years but bacteria, having no brain at all have been controlling the earth for millions. A solution to this problem of not having enough conceptual awareness about vegetarianism can be very hard to find. Since it is impossible for one to force another to follow a plant based diet, the solution has to be something that triggers oneself to follow it on his own. A way to do this is to advertise the positive effects of vegetarianism. Another method, based on a fact of having unlimited resources, is to invent a technology that would make vegetables more attractive to eat. Most people who dislike vegetables say that they dislike them because they don’t taste very good. By solving the taste problem, we would have a lot more vegetable likers. Be a vegetarian.

As a Mass Communication Student Essay

Mass Communication is a very interesting course. Like what John Phelan said, most of the students want to be in this field because the skills and talents they have fit to this course. It’s more fun and adventurous. You’ll encounter lots of people, ordinary, celebrities, politics. Go to different places. Enjoy foods and new things. And learn cultures of others. But I still can’t figure out what’s gotten into my mind in choosing Mass Communication. I even don’t want to be a public figure. As we all know, public figures doesn’t have privacy anymore. And sometimes they’re into trouble because part of their job is to criticize and give opinion on a certain issue. But that’s the consequence. Even if I work behind the camera, still my name will appear as part of the show or whatever it is that I’m into. Sometimes, to make others realize that what they do is not good anymore we must take actions for them to behave in the way we want and other people wants. And as Media personnel, being responsible is what we must also possess because the audience that we have has no age limit. Kids and youth can see us. We can be part of their growing process and we don’t want to be a bad influence to them. Instead, we want them to learn good things from us. Also for the old ones especially that they depend on us for the service of giving them the right information’s that they want to hear or to see. In return, we can feel the fulfilment that we are an effective Media Personnel. They say that in this field, you can have lots of money. Yes, if you are disciplined, hardworking and determined. But money is not important. What’s important for me now is to gain experience and to learn new things to prepare myself for the future. Those things that Phelan and Schramm said inspired and taught me a lesson not only about the things happening in Media but also about the life that later on we Mass Communication students will have.