DAG Group Case Study

Eric Porter DAG Group Case Study B283 Case Analysis Introduction: Chris Hacket and Val Rayzman were at Harvard Business School when they both came to the conclusion that owning a business would be more satisfying and the dry cleaners were a type that could be updated and modernized. They wanted to have a chain of stores that will have good customer service and satisfaction. Problem Analysis: -Major problems and challenges facing employees and organization: One of the biggest questions facing Chris and Val is whether to start form scratch or to purchase an already existing company. One business they were closely examining was Dynasty located in Indianapolis. They were one of the oldest dry cleaners in the US. They went through extensive study to decide whether it would be more worth it to just buy it from them for approximately 3.5 million. They “faked” a survey by calling random people asking what they knew or thought about the company and all that they heard was negative. They would have a mountain to climb trying to rebuild the reputation the company had already destroyed, so they realized that they would be better off looking else where. They eventually went to a chemical supplier convention where they met the owner of Superb Cleaners who was anxious to sell because his store manager had passed away and the owner had little understanding of the business. It was a free standing building which had room for expansion. The down side was that some of the equipment was old and needed repairs. They would also need a lot of investments for minor fixes throughout the store including computerizing the system. The dry cleaners business at first seems very saturated. Their big nitch that Chris and Val want to bring into the industry is quality. More customer complaints arise from dry cleaners than any other business. This is often due to poor management, taking long periods of time to reimburse are replace damaged goods, and unprofessional courtesy from employees. Knowing what often plagues your type of business can save you from making the same mistake, but only if you can find a way to resolve it. The most effective tool in steering a business is its manager. A good manager can build your business or he can tear it down. The article also clearly stated that most of the successful cleaners have their products personally inspected by the manager. No one values the quality of their business as much as the owner. For most owners they see their name stamped on every thing that leaves their facility. If it is faulty, that puts a stain on their name. It would be best for Chris and Val to not only be the owners but to also have a vested interest by working along side the everyday employees and can have the opportunity to see what improvements can be made sooner rather than later. Too often things are done less efficient because the people who can actually do something about it don’t hear about it. -What do “I” think the business is doing right and what do “I” think they need to change. In the dry cleaning sector, price competition is very high. All stores seem to have coupon deals, etc. to try to get an edge. But with a lot of studying they found that the more successful businesses are the ones with steady prices. The cheapest stores would always have a steep decrease in quality to still make a profit. This sacrifice of quality also created a sacrifice in customers. The most revenue for dry cleaners comes from the frequent, but few “Heavy Users”. These people are the constant returning customers who are typically very loyal. They look for quality instead if cheap, which also means you want to please them as much as possible. Chris and Val are making some great plans in this area to please these type of customers by offering a variety of services besides cleaning. They are offering tailoring, same day service, long hours, open Sundays, and the use of credit cards. Nothing says ghetto dry cleaners more than a store full of quarter machines. Conclusion: Purchasing a business with a terrible reputation and very little capital is not wise to say the least. Which is why I think they would be safe to purchase Superb Cleaners. They know that they were running well before the manager died, which means that it has the capability to be profitable. What was lacking was the proper management. In due time they seem to have the drive to get things up and running more efficiently.

Action Hero: RUSS ROSENZWEIG

Russ was very successful early on and realized the importance of sharing his wealth with others. He works company Round Table group advises law firms on the search and referral of expert witnesses. What really got them at first was that they didn't even know who their customers were. It wasn't till they figured out who they would even be serving that the business really started rolling. They began with trying to serve everybody. They would answer the phones and work with everybody, but at a costly mistake. Not everyone was an asset to their company and they needed to find their nitch in the market and learn who to say yes and no to.

Action Hero: Nicole Donnely

Nicole Donnely was not a typical entreprenuer. She spent a lot of time living in poverty, but nessesity was the mother for her invention as she discovered some home made leg warmers were just the cure for her baby daughters diaper rash as well as very fashionable. They were an instant hit with mothers all over. Nicole found that to overcome her fears she needed to just commit to what she was doing. If she went in only half commited she would end up more hurt than if not. And to guide her in the roll of an entreprenuer she would visit a friend who was in charge of a large successful business and noticed that he was very friendly with the workers, very personable and encouraging. Aside from just being able to provide for herself and her family she had a deep desire to help others who were less fortunate and gives as much as she can.

Brigham Young: A Bold Prophet

This article was especially interesting. The beginning quote by President Hinckley was enlightening because I had never thought of Brigham Young as an entrepreneur for his work in Salt Lake. But very quickly I realized that he was very entrepreneurial minded. Maybe much of his vision came from the fact that he could see as clear as day what God had in mind for the valley. When people have a clear vision they will do what is necessary even if they have to start all on their own. But through the article I also learned a lot about the real struggles that they faced. Once they got to Salt Lake they weren't completely isolated. After many false accusations a 1/3 of the US army came to overturn Utah. Through the power of God they were preserved through winter which stopped the soldiers 80 miles from the city. My favorite quote was that from Brigham Young's dream with the Prophet Joseph Smith saying, "Tell the people to be humble and faithful, and be sure to keep the spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice. It will teach you what to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom. Tell the brethren to keep their hearts open to conviction. So when the Holy Ghost comes to them, their hearts will be ready to receive it." Every entrepreneur who wants to be successful should keep an open heart and mind to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Ice Delights Case Study

Eric Porter Ice Delights Case Study B283 Case Analysis Ice Delights Case Study Introduction: Paul Rogers, Mark Daniel, and Eric Garfield are three friends from Harvard Business School who each throughout their own early jobs learned that they wanted to have more control over their lives. They knew they wanted to be their own bosses, make a lot of money, and make it doing something they loved doing. With such high demands it would take a lot of planning and researching to find the right type of business and most importantly how to run it. With so many variables they eventually concluded that they couldn’t wait long to start this venture or they would become too wrapped up in their own lives to do it. With this they also recognized they didn’t have the complete time and know how to make their business from scratch. Problem Analysis: -Major problems and challenges facing employees and organization: Finding funding was a particular dilemma. Paul, who had worked around many people with money, hoped that he could find someone who would be willing to cover their portion of the investment. They checked out the different offers from various franchises to see if Ice Delights was a good deal. It was true that it was a more expensive venture compared to many, but it also had a very good return rate despite that their business plan was not quite proven. Ice Delights was a very organized company, but it didn’t start out that way. After Bob and Andrew first purchased the two shops they attempted to expand it, but it expanded faster than they had thought and the organization dropped dramatically. They needed more time to get the system working right and time to work out the finances as well. With the extra growth they had fallen quite a bit behind so once they finally got everything working in order they became very committed to not letting it happen again. With this the three would need to give extensive persuasion to show Ice Delights that they were worth investing in. -What do “I” think the business is doing right and what do “I” think they need to change. A major mistake these guys made was to not research as much into the market they were going into. They were very unfamiliar with Florida and the locations for the businesses they wanted to run. Eric is the only one who has been to Florida and it was only for a summer vacation. When people are on vacation I think people are more willing to spend more money than when they are constantly living there which view could be clouding his judgment. Both Paul and Mark are worried about the deal, Mark a little more, but there is more at stake than Eric gives credit for. He feels that even if the business fails they still will have learned a lot and they would only be out $75,000 of their own money. But if they do fail all of Paul’s contacts will now be even more skeptic to invest in his entrepreneur ideas. And all of their names will be tarnished for their mistakes. Eric seems to have the least amount to lose which may be why he is willing to take the risks more. They also hadn’t researched their competition. There were plenty of well known places offering ice cream in many varieties. It was good that they wanted to expand and make more like a café with many other services. This could sustain them during different times of the day when ice cream may not be the top choice, but they are still missing many aspects from what culture they desire to any other services they want to offer specifically. They don’t even know how much they each want out of their business because if they figured out how much they each wanted, or were willing to settle with, then they could punch those numbers into the business model to see how much they would need to make to cover what they owed investors, Ice Delights franchise, and regular expenses. After finding how much they would have to sell they could then determine whether it was realistic and further determine if they should continue or not. Conclusion: If they are unable to finish crunching the numbers and finding out more about their future business then they should put things on hold. It would be a set back and probably a slight punch to some of their investors and Ice Delights for using up their time, but I feel that if they were to use their time wisely and search out their demographic as well as real estate, they would possibly gain even more respect from Ice Delights for having the same “cautious spirit” as they and with more paper to show the investors they would be more comfortable and willing to give more than just their verbal commitments.

The Craze

This was the funnest class we've had. The laser tag and "ghetto golf" was fun as well. The interview was also very interesting because for starters I didn't even know that the craze had been through 2 owners. What made the current owner lucky is that the previous owner stayed behind and is even still giving advice and sharing ideas with each other. Not very many businesses have such courtesy. What I also thought was very interesting was how the creator of the Craze started and made a career in UPS and over time realized it was taking WAY too much time from his family. They moved up to Rexburg where they saw some potential for real estate (leasing apartments) and with the extra space down stairs they still didn't know what to do with. So to find out what people wanted he sent out a survey (through the school) and no one wanted a reception hall but there were multiple requests for laser tag.

$100 Challenge Update #5

$100 Challenge Update #5 This week finished off with a bang. On saterday we managed to detail another car, a Toyota Camry, which also included an oil change for $10. Blake and I performed the service at my own home in Sugar City where we had easy access to water and electricity. I was a disappointed that we had only made $195. Our goal was $500 but after starting it was clear that $500 was a little impracticle, especially when the IBC group was running the same type of business and could operate on campus. I think this in itself gave me a little taste of the business world becuase there always some businesses that just have the upper hand. But we got that done and on Monday a miracle happened and we got two more cars to service that night giving us another $30 allowing us to break 200.

Roxanne Quimby Case Study

Eric Porter Roxanne Quimby Case Study B283 Case Analysis Introduction: Roxanne Quimby grew up in an entrepreneurial family. She was taught a lot of self-reliance which came in handy when, through some choices her father didn’t approve of, she was disowned and left to fend completely on her own. She found a bee keeper named Burt Shavitz who was just as broke as she was. They decided to team up, applying her creativity to Burt’s honey and bees wax. It was a hit and everybody wanted their supplies from candles to lip balm across all 50 states. With increasing demand Roxanne didn’t believe they had any more room to grow in Maine. In an attempt to make room for more growth her and Burt purchased a small factory space in North Carolina where they hoped to increase their efficiency as well as their customer relations. However the move brought with it more growing pains that Roxanne had imagined. Problem Analysis: -Major problems and challenges facing employees and organization: The employee culture is cheap in Maine and unskilled while the employee culture in North Carolina is very factory skilled but not cheap. It will probably cost the same to pay one employee in North Carolina as it would cost to pay three in Maine. This is a step out of her comfort zone because for Roxanne, she can do the labor intensive candle shaping, dipping, wax blending work, yet she cannot work the machinery. There is also the critical decision of what products will they continue and what not. Roxanne brings a good point that the work culture is very different. I don’t, however, believe that her options are that limited. Every place has unskilled workers somewhere and she could attempt to continue her line of candle making. Though I do see her point that it is more efficient to use machines and while hand sculpting candles is profitable, it is very labor intensive. This could partly be solved by leaving a small branch of the store open in Maine where people know what to do and can continue doing what they do best which would bring in money while Roxanne attempts to expand the business into North Carolina. Recommendations: Some recommendations are too late to change, but if I were moving my entire company I would put way more planning into it before actually moving. Like what products will I make when I get there? Is the factory adequately equipped for our business? How many employees will we need once we move down there? These and many more questions I would have asked that Roxanne didn’t seem to think through very much. Conclusion: In the end Roxanne offers three futures for her business. To move back to Maine and live with the issues they are currently dealing with. They could stay in North Carolina and try to make it work, even with all the changes they may need to undergo. The final option is selling the business completely and moving onto another venture and another dream in India selling various fashions and crafts. Of the three I completely believe that she should work it out in North Carolina. I believe that she should have made a few more preparations in the move rather than laying off everybody and moving before everything was ready in North Carolina; however she is simply taking the easy road out. Roxanne speaks of freedom being her biggest desire for even starting the company. She wanted to be free from accountability and this business would in many ways tie her down. There is so much potential in the company though that I think she lost a lot of her vision for the company, if she ever had a vision for it. She often calls the business her child and that eventually a child grows up and leaves its mother. Now that the business is just getting into high school and can start playing with the big boys, she fears the extra work and commitment it will take to get it prepared. However it is obvious that she can make it work and grow in North Carolina.

$100 Challenge Update #4

So another week gone. We have found two more customers which will for sure bring us past the $100 mark. For one of the cars we have even agreed to branch out in our services. She has a Toyota Camry and wants us to do a basic detailing service. Aside from that she also needs her oil changed. She bought the oil and filter before memorial day, but while with her family they didn't have time to change it. So now she still needs it done and offered us an extra $10 dollars for the service on top of the $30 for the detailing. Sadly we couldn't do it this week end because the member who had ALL of our detailing supplies couldn't come due to work. So we got a little shafted in that area. Luckily she is fine with postponing till next week. I'm learning we don't want to put all our eggs into one basket, because now the supplies we need are all in one place that only one person can get to and the rest of us are paying the price for it.

The E-Myth Revisited ch. 19- Afterwards

E-Myth Revisited ch. 19-Afterwards There are so many things in this world that we lose ourselves in. "I think that the things we have come to care about are insignificant when placed on the scale that [previous generations] faced." I believe this to be so true. Our world has been made more complex in some ways, but through its complexity our lives have become so much more simple.