Entrepreneurship an Important Aspect of the Business

They left teaching after three years and established the business as an alternative way of utilizing their history expertise This report covers questions on case study which includes all the aspects of entrepreneurship, strength and weakness of family members and other questions which gave an analysis of the case study. Other than this strategic analysis of the company was asked with the introduction and background of the company, IT related marketing plan and the need for hardware and software which is required to cope up with the level of expansion that the company is hoping for and meeting the current trends in the market and recommendations of timescale in order to implement the sources of IT.

Strategic analysis of “Footsteps Historical Tours”; the company and its position in the global tourist market.

Introduction and Background

Footsteps commenced their operations in 1983. it was started by two people that is Rodger and Judith who met in college. After their graduation they both worked in the university as a teacher for three years then they decided to start their own work. They change their hobby into the business. They liked to visit historical places and battlefields. This interest helped them to start their own business as it has helped them to gain some expertise in that area. With the help of their vision and strategy the business quickly matched to earn the same as they earned in their job which satisfied them and they were comfortable with it. They hired two full time employees and two part time tour guides who were PHD students. Currently the company is offering on mature clients and appeal to people who are interested in historical monuments (Halim and et.al., 2017). Ask for assignment help from our experts!

Till now the company has gathered their share Lincoln, York and Edinburgh. They gave their guests quality service which helped them to get more people. They provided them with guides who had every knowledge about that area. Apart from this they made sure that their clients get authenticated food to make the trip successful. Company also organizes theme for holidays for their loyal customers. There are many competitors who are performing on a large scale as compared to Footsteps which they need to keep in mind before expanding their operations on global level (Rahman and et.al., 2016).

Strategic Analysis

They had the vision to change their interest into a venture. Their objective was to be successful in market and provide quality service to their consumers with increasing the factor of growth every year. In order to grow their business they are going to tap those markets where the company can achieve success. Current strategy of the company is targeting mature people but after enabling and taking the help of internet services the company is thinking to change their starter and target audience and that is to target those people who are young in age because they tend to travel more. Apart from this they are also looking for starting single weekends for those people who are aged around 30 rich and single as they will be the one who will be ready to pay for these type of service (Krotov, 2017).

IT based Marketing Plan that will enable company to trade as a successful on-line travel business

Executive Summary: This plan will explain about the ways that can be used by Footsteps so that they can enhance their travel service and mark their presence online. It will also lay emphasis on various marketing strategies that can be utilized by company so that they can grow and enhance their market share. Plan will also emphasise upon the use of updated technology, artificial intelligence, automation in growth of travel business.

Mission: Mission of Footstep is to leverage their strong market and customer knowledge, driving customer satisfaction and retention, with service and fulfilment.

Vision: Footstep is powered by a passion for travel. They want to enable everyone to travel and experience the world through affordable, value-for-experience, midscale hotels to clients wherever they go.

Objectives:

To make company the best online travel organization in coming two years.

To increase profitability of Footsteps by 20% till the end of year 2021.

To enhance consumer satisfaction by 10% in upcoming 6 months.

To increase online presence of company by 5% in 3 months.

Marketing strategy

Product: Footsteps is being engaged in providing affordable travel services online. Services which is being provided by them are of high quality. Footsteps tours have included visits to Lincoln, York and Edinburgh where guests receive an excellent guide to the history and culture of the area (Khan and et.al., 2017). They make sure that travellers who have booked their holidays from them are safe and secure. Footsteps tours are also providing their services online so that they can create a huge consumer base. This will also assist them in enhancing their profitability and revenue. Also this aspect will assist company in creating goodwill in front of consumers.

Price: Footsteps while providing affordable airline services, accommodation services online will put up a price that will be affordable by travellers. They will be making use of premium pricing or skimming pricing strategy. In this Footstep tours will make sure that they are setting price which is lower than their competitors. It will assist them in attracting more consumers online. Also in order to create consumer base, firm will also prepare an app which can be used by customers to book tickets online. They can also provide premium discount to their favourite consumers online. This can assist Footsteps tour in creating customer loyalty and it will have engaged consumers more towards them. It is beneficial for company’s growth. Need Assignment Examples?Talk to our Experts!

Promotion: In order to mark presence online, Footsteps tour will be engaged in promoting their business by using social media channels. They will promote their services with the help of online websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It will also be cost effective for Footstep Tours. Also they will be able to reach out large number of travellers. While promoting online company will also describe about the various benefits which they are going to give to consumers. Like for example consumers who are visiting different places such as Edinburgh, Network through them, will be enable to know about history, culture of those place. An excellent guide will be make available to them. Also they can book hotels and restaurants online with their mobile phone.

 It would be really easy for travellers and it will assist company in increasing consumer’s satisfaction. Automation has assisted Giving business travellers the reigns and implementing a self-booking system simplifies expense management and frees up a lot of time in many areas of a business (Sirgy and et.al., 2018). Also they are working on their websites so that consumers can put feedback over there. This will help firm in analysing gaps in their services. By this they will also think of ways to overcome the gaps. It will assist Footsteps tour in enhancing consumer experience and increase their profitability. Also by using automation in company they will be able to build up relationship with customers. It will also help firm in gaining competitive edge and increasing revenue.

Place: Footsteps tours are now serving in places like New York, Edinburgh and many more. Now the company is thinking of expanding their market share with the help of online tools and services so that they can reach out large number of consumers. It will also assist them in becoming best online travel services. They are also working on providing safety and security to travellers who are visiting these place.

SWOT Analysis

Strength

Strength of the company is to provide reasonable and quality service in the market. Apart from offering touring service they also design the theme of the trip.

Weakness

Footstep does not have enough resources and knowledge to expand their operations and take the help of new technologies which can help them to increase their base of customers.

Opportunities

Company has the opportunity to go online and take the help of new hardware and software to attract more tourists. This will help them to increase their base of customers (Malik, Arif and Abbasi, 2017).

Threats

There are many companies who are operating on a large scale and they have the power to offer more quality service at less price to their clients. Their owners do not possess the required knowledge to operate on a big scale which is a threat for the company as it can affect the business of the company. If the owners of the company do not implement new measures then they will loose their prospective customers in the market.

Financial Information

Monitoring and Controlling

KPI

It stands for key performance indicator and this is a necessary aspect for the company as it will help them to figure out how effective and efficient they are and in what areas they are lacking. KPI can be enabled on a high level or small level. High level will help the company to look after all of their operations whereas low level will look after only in selected areas such as department of sales, marketing, profits etc. This tool will help Footstep to measure their performance on the online tools which will be a relief for the owners of the company as it will save their time to look after other areas which require their focus. This tool will help the company to meet their expected results, measure the progress they have made in the IT sector, increase the sales and revenues of the company and helps to review the performance on monthly basis so that company can make necessary changes in order to improve in the concerned areas (Ditizio and Smith, 2017).

IT inexperience of the current business owners and recommend suitable hardware and software

Current business owners of the company are Judith and Rodger who have been handling the operations of the company for more than 20 years which makes their thought process outdated according to the current trends of market. In order to expand the company into different markets they need to look for sources or new options such as marketing the company with the help of digital marketing and taking the help of online services to expand the operations of the company.

They need to hire an e commerce expert who can help the owners of the company to design their website and take the company to the medium of online which will help the owners to gain one more physical evidence and describe the details about the company. This will make the work of the clients easier as they can easily book for the service of the company online through medium channel. Apart from this the company can take the help of third party sites such as Make my Trip or Go Ibibo to increase their share of customers. These channels will help the company to get those consumers who visit their source which is generally more than what they will be getting from their own website. In order to cope up with the level of expansion requirements of more than 10 PCs will be needed, services of WiFi which will require routers and LAN connection. These facilities are a must if a company wants to increase their scale of operations. On the other hand they will also require many changes in software which can help them to analyze their performance. For instance if the company is taking the help of digital marketing then they will require software such as Google Analytics, Google Adwords to measure the performance and attract more people. Apart from this they will require app developers for the company which is a platform similar to website and can be enabled through the mobile phones of their clients (Cummings and Vaaler, 2019). The application must be developed thoroughly and includes features such as a road map for the journey which covers all the paths they need to visit. The application must be linked through google map as many of the people trust it over their own software.  The application must be developed in a way which provides the clients with proper schedule to where to go at what time so that they don't miss out anything and make their trip remember able.

Other than this they must offer loyalty points on their application which can be redeemed when they booked from the company the next time they are going on a trip. There are many more things which company can add in their application such as to remind their clients about the details of the flight and to keep all the necessary documents so that they don't face any kind of difficulty in the middle of the trip. Some of the people don't like the guidance from tour guides to avoid that company can enable a software which speaks through application and give the historical details about the place. This way client can go to the destination according to his will and interest. Some of the people don't like to follow the indicators and directives which the tour guides offers. Taking the help of online services will be costly and time consuming but it will be beneficial for the company in the long run. These hardware and software will be difficult to establish but they will take the company to the next level in the market (Umrani, Doudpota and Ahmed, 2016).

Recommend timescale for Footstep to implement IT project

Timescale 

It is necessary for Footsteps to grow and expand in the market by shifting from physical business to online one. However, by using technology it will be easy for company to develop an App and provide services to customers easily. In order to implement IT project, it is essential for company to identify that how much time is required for project to be implemented. Furthermore, timescale enable in proper planning and executing IT project activities and tasks. Moreover, project timescale gives an insight that how task are to initiated and completed.

Similarly, in Footsteps the timescale for completion of IT project is to be done in developed in effective way. here, the IT project will be completed within 1 month. In that all activities related to IT project are included in it. In addition to it, for developing timescale project management tool can be used such as Ghantt chart. This will be useful in breaking down project into small parts and then identifying its duration. Along with it, tool will describe each activity time and its start and finish date. With help of it, IT project can be completed within specified time.

It is recommended that timescale of project can allow company to make develop App and monitor it. On basis of that, monitoring can be done and results are analysed. However, business can allot resources according to progress of project. The company should be able to focus on project progress and slowly shifting their entire business online. Alongside, Footstep can decrease time of implementing IT project. This can be done by eliminating those stages that are not necessary.

Timescale

Case Study Questions

What ways do Roger and Judith Iron ridge conform to images of typical entrepreneurial figures?

Rodger and Judith became teachers after their graduation and they worked for 3 years. Then together they started Footsteps which was a startup of touring business. They started their journey as entrepreneurs when they left their job. Judith even sold his family property to start up the business. They both worked hard to make the business a successful venture. They started their operations with two people and slowly expanded their business. With their strategy and vision they matched the level of income which was same as their salary. They divided their fields according to their interest so that they can work effectively and efficiently and manage the operations in time (Cosenz and Noto, 2018).

Ways in which business and family roles overlap in the Footsteps

Rodger was too busy in research which left no time for him to look after his family and the duties that his wife Judith does. He appreciates it but still he is not available when he is needed by any member of the family. Judith had worked up and renovated the office but Rodger was not even bothered to take a look at it. His efforts as a family man was not up to the mark. Judith felt that she was doing most of the work which left no time for her to focus on other areas which could help their business to grow. Judith felt that if Rodger took some time of his research and focus on other areas too it would really help her to save some time and use that where it is beneficial for the company (Birley and Stockley, 2017).

Strength and weaknesses of the Footsteps family members

Strength and weakness of Rodger-

Rodger is the expert in the field of research and collecting the information of different historical places which helps the business to offer a new place and touring spot for their clients. The information that he works on helps them to attract people as many of them are not aware of the spot and the history related to it. Rodger is a star at BBC network which helps them to gather more coverage for the business.

On the other hand Rodger wanted clients who visit the spot with the same level of interest that he has but not every client has the same perception. This affects Rodger and he engages in conflict with the clients which affects the profitability of the business.

Strength and Weakness of Judith-

Judith looks after all the administration work, dealing with clients and taking bookings so that they Rodger can do his research for places and gather the information about it.

In order to grow the business Judith does not have the required skills and even for research she has to depend on Rodger.

Strength and Weakness of Isabella-

Izzy has strong experience under managing the business as she has worked in an American company for 6 years which state that she can take the family business ahead.

On the other hand she was not able to handle the stress of corporate life which made her leave the job.

Opportunities and constraints for this business

Rodger and Judith have many opportunities to expand the business, but they are working in the same small structure because of their skills. In order to expand their business they have to implement new strategies and vision such as diversify their market. They can cover and serve to more people as it is untapped. This will also help them to build the goodwill of the business in different markets (Bandera, 2019). This is the reason why Judith has offered her daughter Izzy to handle the operations and work on expanding the operations. They have the opportunity to make their presence online and avail bookings and offers through that. This will make Judith free and focus on other areas of business which needs attention. Members of the family has decided to take help of Max as he has studied in this field worked in an airline startup and has operated his own business. Max will help them to create an app so that they can work on attracting the people of US who wants to visit UK. Izzy had studied there which made them feel that this idea will help them to grow their business. Apart from this Max also had one more idea which was related to his old dating app business which he wanted to implement here. Both of them made Rodger and Judith clear about this as these are the opportunities they need to avail if they want to convert there business from small scale to large scale. 

Evidence for strategic planning and thinking within the business

In order to grow and expand their business Izzy has a vision to diversify their market which is not tapped and attract those people who are young in age so that they can increase their revenue as young people travel more as compared to old ones. Apart from this they have also planned to penetrate the market so that they can know how much are they successful and from where they can earn more revenues. They have also made the plan to increase their operations and do marketing of the business through the channel of e commerce and taking the help of internet as it helps to cover a large audience. Proper planning and analysis of market with effective measures will help the business to expand their market (Ahamat and Chong, 2020). Ask for Business Dissertation Topics from our experts!

Aspects of entrepreneurship in the Footsteps

Rodger and Judith started the business after they quit their jobs which shows that they have the quality and working pattern of entrepreneur. They had a vision and they followed that 20 years ago with the planning strategically working on the vision, abilities and skills they had at that time which made the venture successful. Judith took a risk when she sold her family property when she didn't know that the business will be a successful (Al-Zoubi, 2016). They took decisions which helped to manage the operations involved. Most importantly they divided their departments according to the area of their interest and expertise. For instance research department and finding more historical places was looked up by Rodger and the administration and office work was looked up by Judith. This division of work was done so that they can manage the effectiveness of work and give quality of service to their clients (Abor, 2017).

Government policies that has developed to support emerging small firms such as Footsteps?

Government is providing the company with fair legal system which will help those enterprises who are running on a small scale by giving them strong rights of property and a system for bankruptcy which will help them to manage the funds from lenders. Apart from this government is trying to reduce the time for registration of business. Entrepreneurs can get the funding for business in less time and apart from that they are also allowed to raise money from which is the reason why they are working on developing the sources of capital. Government is trying to provide even those entrepreneurs who failed at their first chance. They are providing them the resources at less prices in order to support them and boost their morale. In order to grow the sector of small business government is increasing the level of education in the country. This will help to encourage people to start up their own business and the business who are already existing in the market will get the benefit of hiring educated candidates. Laws and policies for immigrants are changing so that they feel welcome in the country and start up their business in different country other than their home. More the laws and policies of the business are simplified more it will encourage the people to start up their own business and contribute in growth of sector of small enterprises (Aaboen and et.al., 2017).

Conclusion

From the above studies it has been concluded that Footsteps need to change their methods and bring new methods and strategies related to IT so that they can meet up with current trends in the market and survive with achieving growth because if they don't then they won't be able to expand their operations and convert their company from a small scale enterprise to large scale enterprise.

There are many factors which the company needs to look after if they need to increase and expand their base of customers. Apart from this there are other factors which needs to resolved that is the family issues between all. They need to listen to Izzy in order to make changes and Rodger must look after other things instead of focusing on research work so that Judith can work stress free. If they are successful in enabling the internet services then it will simplify the work for Judith and she can look after other areas of work. In order to make it successful they need to take someone with experience such as Max who can develop the application with all the necessary features and software.

Also Read- Management Operation Organisation
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