Group Case Study

Symptoms * Selling guitars for less than the price to make them * Cluttered shop * Unprofessional * Lacks basic business management skills * Not assertive enough * Paper work stacked in the store front * Pile of unpaid invoices * Unorganized * Lacks proper filing system for paperwork * Treats business like a hobby
Problems
* Due to lack of business experience, Tom is losing money because he is not practicing proper business principles that he learned in his diploma. * Due to being so unorganized and cluttered, Tom is turning customers away and is not being taken seriously through the community. * COMBINE AND ELABORATE * Planning * Has not defined a goal or where he wants his business to be and has no strategy on how to get there. * Organizing * He is his only employee and is very unorganized on what tasks he needs to do first/ prioritize. * Leading * Does not have any subordinates. * Is not assertive in leading his customers which results in him losing money. * Controlling * He is not tracking his business performance/statistics and does not compare his statistics to other guitar business’.
Cause
1. Renting an expensive location without having a clear strategy on how he wants to make his business succeed. 2. Tom does not have the backbone to collect money from his struggling musician friends causing him to max out his corporate credit card. 3. Tom did not prioritize working on the invoices and contacting past due customers due to being distracted by his wordworking tools and fixing guitars.
Alternatives
* Eliminate store front and shift to online * Advantages * Eliminates high rent costs * Allows for wider array of customers * Allows for highly targeted traffic * Less paper