Read the 3 scenario and answer the questions.Please make sure your grammar and punctuation is correct.
Richard Foos of Rhino Records built a multimillion-dollar entertainment experience out of a pile of dusty old records, and did it by sticking to his ideals. Foos fosters ethical practices in Rhino's day-to-day business, supporting numerous charitable groups and promoting community service by Rhino employees. See for yourself how Foos responds to social and environmental issues by going to Rhino's website.
Review: https://www.rhino.com to access the site then answer the following questions:
1. What is the social mission of Rhino Records?
2. What does the Social and Environmental Responsibility Team (SERT) do to implement this mission?
3. How does Rhino Records encourage its employees to get involved in community service?
4. How do Rhino employees communicate the company's social mission to their customers?
Part. 2: Keeping the Air in Blimpie
In 1964, Tony Conza borrowed $2,000 to open his first sandwich shop with two of his old schoolmates in Hoboken, New Jersey. Three years later they had 10 stores. What they didn't have was enough experience to manage the business. The growing losses pushed the partners out, but Conza's self confidence told him to stick with it. He hired an operations expert to help him learn management skills. As the business grew stronger, Tony decided that franchising might be a boost to the struggling company. He hired a lawyer to prepare franchise arrangements. By 1983, there were 150 franchises and revenues approaching $1 million a year. Conza went public (sold stock to the general public) that year, putting Blimpie stock on the open market.
Blimpie added only 50 new franchises in the next five years. This made Tony grow restless. He felt that he let the details of managing his business deflate his entrepreneurial passion. He vowed to change from a manager drowning in day to day details into a leader who could create a vision and inspire his employees and franchisees to maximize their talents. Conza chose a team of his senior managers to revise goals for the company and then delegated the new responsibilities of meeting those goals to his managers. Since then, Blimpie has grown to more than 1900 outlets. Now Blimpie sandwiches are served in such diverse places as on campus at the University of Texas at Austin; in a bowling alley in Collinsville, Illinois; on some Delta airline flights; and in a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Conza adds a personal touch to Blimpie advertising by appearing in national radio and regional television ads.
In 1997, Conza hired a consultant to help find another food brand to franchise in combination with Blimpie. In 1999, some 100 Blimpie outlets installed Pasta Central franchises in their shops. The stores now offer lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and other pasta products on their menus. Conza feels that the combination will build dinner traffic and help the company compete for better retail locations. In the past, the company had to pass up some choice retail sites because they were too large for Blimpie outlets by themselves. With the two brands sharing space, more sites become feasible. Blimpie is not the first company to move to co branding of franchises. Co branding of franchise outlets has helped several franchises stand out in especially competitive and crowded fields. On a busy road in Columbus, Ohio, for example, an all in one Shell Oil/Charley's Steakery/ TCBY caters to shoppers who want to fill their cars and their stomachs in one stop.
Conza's business started as a partnership, changed to a sole proprietorship, changed again to a strict franchise operation, and finally changed to a franchise corporation. Each form of ownership has its advantages and disadvantages.
1. What are the major advantages of franchising for a firm such as Blimpie?
2. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages for a company such as Blimpie changing from private ownership to a corporate form of ownership?
3. What opportunities are created for firms such as Blimpie by entering into co-branding agreements with other franchises? What are the disadvantages of such a franchise union?
Part. 3: BMOC: Starting a Small Business at School
Many students do not wait until they complete school before they try to get their feet wet in small business management. Quite a few go beyond the planning stage and actually run their businesses while still in school. For example, high school senior Jason Bernard runs his drawing firm, called Architectural Rendering, from his bedroom. Other young people look around, see thousands of students, and try to develop small businesses that would appeal to students. For example, some students assemble and sell "home emergency kits" for students returning in the fall. The kits contain items like pens, chocolate chip cookies, aspirin, and other college "necessities." The kits are sold to the parents and distributed to students the first week of class as a start-the-year-right gift from home.
Some students produce and sell calendars with pictures of beautiful women or male "hunks" on campus. Others sell desk mats with advertising messages on the sides. Some students become salespeople for beer companies, cosmetic companies, and other traditional firms. They, too, feel as if they are in their own business on campus, because they have exclusive sales rights but don't have to assume as many risks.
One student earns more than his professors by selling ice cream from a truck. Others try to learn the retail business by delivering pizza or other fast foods. Some students have started moving services, moving students' goods from home to school and back.
Dick Gilbertson considered a number of options when he was a student at Indiana University. He felt students might enjoy having food other than pizza and subs delivered to the dorms. His research showed that students preferred McDonald's hamburgers and Taco Bell burritos. Students said they were willing to pay $1.00 more for delivery of a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke rather than ride the mile or so to McDonald's. Gilbertson's company, Fast Breaks, now serves 13,000 students. Guess who his partner is? A professor of entrepreneurship at the university.
Jimmy Enriquez was busy getting a degree in accounting at the University of Texas when he started two companies. One is a construction site cleaning business run by his sister. It has 15 employees, grosses about $4,000 a week, and has expanded to Dallas and Houston. The other business is a vending company that leases Foosball games. Foosball was dead when Jimmy and his brother Rocky set out. But they started Foosball leagues, let beginners play for free, and built a prosperous business. Jimmy's advice to potential entrepreneurs: "If you wait until you're out of school and working for somebody else, you're going to get used to that big car-and you're not going to want to gamble with that stuff. It's better to start a company when you're a student, while you're still used to driving a junker and living like a dog." Jimmy started a University of Texas entrepreneur club that now has 260 members. It is one of more than 350 entrepreneurship clubs on college campuses across the United States. The Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs published a list of the top 100 businesses started by people under 30. All are worth over $1 million.
College campuses aren't the only places to find guidance in entrepreneurship. The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship to Handicapped and Disadvantaged Youth in Newark, New Jersey, trains former drug dealers, street toughs, and special education students to sell goods and services. Their businesses range from sneakers and lingerie sales to manicures and car repair. Maybe you should consider getting started now, too.
1. What are the advantages and potential problems of starting a business while in school?
2. Though you do not take courses on a traditional campus, entrepreneurial opportunities surface in many areas of everyday life. What opportunities exist for satisfying needs at work or in your neighborhood community?
3. Pick one entrepreneurial idea and answer the following questions:
Garden Clean up and design
A. What need would your business satisfy?
B. Who would be your potential clients?
C. How would you initially advertise your business?
D. What would be the first five steps you would take in starting your business?