Essay Sample on Owner Independence: Key Strength for Sole Business Owners

Introduction

One of my major strengths is independence. As a single business owner, one becomes the boss. There are no chances of getting fired. Besides, to maximize this strength, it is essential to ensure that one is the sole decision-maker in the business (Al-Mubaraki & Busler, 2013). This eradicates the need to consult other individuals to implement new actions, rules, and regulations within your business. Therefore, this strength may be crucial during emergencies when decisions require to be made instantly.

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Another strength is the financial rewards. Despite high financial risks, being a business owner allows me to make more money compared to being employed. The main strength, in this case, is seen through hard work. Therefore, the more I work hard, the more I will earn more profits. Furthermore, to maximize this strength, the lemonade business should employ a number of skilled employees. They would, therefore, help improve the productivity of the company, and in return, it would earn a potential business owner more profits.

Attaining skills and knowledge is also my other significant strength. A business owner is involved in every phase of the business. Besides, such a situation creates many chances to achieve a complete comprehension of different business functions. As a result, I will gain knowledge that increases my experience in operating the business. Additionally, to maximize this strength, it is essential to surround me with successful business people who have operated businesses in the past. They can share important knowledge that can be useful in improving the overall performance of my lemonade business.

Despite the strengths, there is significant weakness associated with being a business owner, such as time commitment. Business people tend to spend more time in their ventures than with their families. Although, in theory, a business owner may have the liberty to take leave from business, in a real situation, there may be no time to take off. Business people are likely to have less free time compared to when working for another company or someone else. Going for vacation will be hard and interrupted if one is a business owner (Al-Mubaraki & Busler, 2013). Therefore, the majority of the business owners have regretted that they have no time for their family, which is a significant weakness in their social life. Besides, to minimize this weakness, it is essential to have different employees positioned in various departments within the lemonade business based on their proficiency. This would give me enough time for social life since he would not be involved in every aspect of the business.

Another weakness of being a business owner is financial risk. The monetary resources required to start and operate lemonade business may be extensive. As a business owner, it may require the commitment of personal savings or going into debt to start it. However, if this fails to go as planned and desired, I may experience a considerable financial loss. Besides, a significant weakness is that there is no guarantee of receiving any income. There may be periods, particularly during the first months, when the venture does not plow back adequate income for the business owner to live on. To minimize this risk, I should approach a friend or family member and convince him for partnership in lemonade business. This would eradicate things such as extensive use of personal saving since they would be sharing the required capital. Therefore, such a partnership reduces the financial risk I am likely to encounter as a business owner.

Stress is also a weakness associated with owning a business. As a business owner, I will be the business. Thus, there are high chances that I will be bewildering a variety of activities to worry and be concerned about, such as customer problems, equipment breakdown, bills, employees, and competition. Since, as a business owner, one is responsible for the aforementioned aspects, there are high chances one may be stressful, primarily when operating the business alone. Nevertheless, to avoid stress, as aforementioned, I will employ various workers and allocate them to various departments or activities within the business where each will be working.

SWOT Analysis

One of my favourite shopping retail outlets is Walmart. It is among the biggest and leading supermarkets not only in Canada but also in other parts of the world, such as the UK and Mexico. It has been able to serve and maintain its customers by effectively reviewing and analyzing its SWOT analysis. From the customer point of view, its SWOT analysis has helped it gain a significant customer base and competitive edge.

Strengths

A significant strength of Walmart is brand recognition globally. It is among the largest retailers globally and has captured millions of loyal clients. There are approximately 60 million products present in Walmart stores, both online and physically. It has expanded its operation oversees with a recent move to the United Kingdom, where it purchased the UK-based retailer ASDA. It has also purchased an Indian e-commerce giant known as Flipkart. It has also established a joint business with the biggest retail store in India, known as Bharti. Therefore, these expansions together, with millions of clients visiting it daily, have proven to be of great prosperity for Walmart.

Another strength of Walmart is the economies of scale. It buys commodities in large quantities and, as a result, enjoys a big discount besides. Besides, this allows it to offer products to its customers at low prices. Clients pay less compared to other retail outlets such as Target. Thus, Walmart attracts many customers due to its low priced commodities.

Weaknesses

A considerable weakness of Walmart is a bad image. Although it is recognized globally, most of it is due to its negative image. They are well-known for not treating its customers appropriately. For example, it common to have few cashiers in its stores open. This causes endless queues of customers waiting to get served, particularly during peak hours and seasons such as back-to-school.

Poor quality is also a major weakness of Walmart. Although Walmart offers cheaper products compared to its competitors, one of the factors is due to its cheap quality. Besides, this is the main reason that retail stores such as Target as mostly labeled as the "higher-end Walmart." It has also been accused of selling unhealthy products. Such commodities have been associated with increased cases such as obesity in Canada. Thus, for the customer who views quality over price in choosing where it to shop, it is evidence that they will not shop in any of Walmart stores rather will go for its competitors providing high-quality commodities.

Opportunities

Walmart stands the opportunity of branching out in numerous ways. It could concentrate on expanding its operations to other markets that have not been ventured, for example, China and Latin America. Currently, Walmart has been significantly being restricted in geographical location. However, this could change by increasing its online presence. Therefore, through expanding its physical stores as well as online offering, Walmart would expand its wings to the rest of the world in the same manner as Amazon.

Walmart can additionally step in the health-conscious bandwagon. It can provide a variety of health-food options, particularly in its grocery sections. Besides, this may spread the increase of wellness trends concerning its products among its customers. Some diets, such as Keto are increasing brand recognition. Similarly, Walmart should exploit providing perfect and healthy meals to customers besides providing something other retail stores are unable to offer.

It also stands another opportunity of partnering with other big retail stores and companies. This would help it is branching into other services, for example, travel agencies, coffee stores, and health insurance. Besides, this is another significant approach to dominating the global market in the absence of dropping retail outlets in new places. It is thus a significant move that has been adopted by companies such as IBM offering analytics for the Weather Company.

Threats

The healthy lifestyle trend is both an opportunity and a threat to Walmart. In terms of threats, it threatens it since the majority of the customers view most of its products as unhealthy, artificial, or inorganic. Although it is an opportunity for Walmart to enhance the standards quality of its products, it is more of a threat since it fails to give priority to health commodities in its retail outlets.

Additionally, stiff competition from both large and small-scale retailers, particularly those operating online, is a treat to Walmart. With the arrival of intense use of the internet and other platforms such as social media, retails can market and find customers for their products. Most customers also are buying online than from physical stores. Therefore, they compete with Walmart and bypass their presence by utilizing their websites to sell their commodities.

Technical problems on the Walmart website is also a significant threat to its operation. Most clients have presented their grievances numerous times that they have experienced different technical problems while using their website. For example, some of the products it offers are not listed in an orderly or organized manner, and the website also runs slowly. While compared to Amazon, that is well-recognized for organized, effective, and fast website, and it stands as an exceptional online shopping store for customers who forego to shop in Walmart.

Critical Success Factors

Achieving Financial Performance

In order to achieve the desired financial performance, our business will focus on improving its profitability. The business will primarily concentrate on strategies to improve profit. For example, decreasing the overall direct costs is an effective approach to increase profitability. It often results in a significant effect on the business's gross margin. Thus, one method of reducing the direct expenses is through negotiating better deals for discounts or prices for all the inputs purchased for processing the lemonades. Another good approach to reduce them is by eliminating unnecessary buying. Also, to avoid this, the management will often perform through an assessment on its direct expenses to identify areas that it is overspending and later determine the best way to avoid such expenditures. Finding new customers is also another strategy to increase profitability. As the business works hard to sustain its current clients a few months of operations, it will also focus on finding new customers in efforts to increase sales. For instance, it will utilize the simplest method to acquire new clients by offering incentives to the current customers and later request them to give referrals for the business.

Meeting and Exceeding Customer Needs

Furthermore, meeting and exceeding customer needs will play a key role in enhancing customer loyalty in our business. One of the strategies that we should do is collecting customer feedback. Besides, this will help in recognizing their expectations before finding approaches to exceed their expectations. Clients' feedback, if leveraged appropriately, gives a clear image of what our brand should be performing to exceed anticipated levels. The business will also concentrate on small things while in contact with the customers. For instance, a thank you, handshake, and a smile. Although these things may appear small, they may be differentiating factors between an average experience and a delightful one. Therefore, while two strategies are combined, they can help meet and exceed client needs and expec...