In our last week issue we discussed about Marketing and how to do your Marketing Research as well as Marketing Mix. We emphasized that if you want to engage in your Business activities and succeed in it then you have to know your customers needs and wants and this can be done by doing a Market Research.
In this week’s issue we shall discuss about Operations; this is your business operations. After you have identified your target market and done your research and you are convinced that your good or service is accepted by your market, then you have to start-up your business and in doing so you have to establish your daily activities and acquire all the necessary items such as, raw materials, intermediate goods, equipments, your location etc. All this falls under Operations.
This week our Guest speaker was Mr. Richard Bell from Wananchi and facilitated by Zamzam. We both talked about on the issue of Operations. We all said that it is important for you as an entrepreneur to identify your needs and list down what you need and locate and contact your suppliers through businesspeople, trade associates, directory etc. You should gather data and information about each equipment, supply and inventory items from as many sources as you need for decision making.
When it comes to selecting your site you need to examine the communities’ economy base, look for financial incentives and analyze relevant population data. If for example you are a retailer you have to consider if the area is accessible by your consumer and also consider the nature and location of your competitors. For a wholesaler and service firms they base their site decision on whether or not the consumer will be coming to their places of business. For a manufacturing and extraction businesses look for site with easy access to transportation and to suppliers or raw materials. But starting your business at home can save you a great deal of money in overhead expenses.
We also talked about hours of Operations and that you should set your hours to suit you customers. You have to consider how long it takes you to get to your location? When would it be most convenient for you to contact them? For example, a movie theater might be open from 12 noon – 11.30pm on weekdays and 10am – 1.45am weekends. These are the hours when substantial numbers of people want to see movies. In contrast, a wholesaler might have shorter hours. Office hours might be limited from 9am – 5pm weekdays through Saturday because that’s when customers tend to phone in orders. Delivery hours, on the other hand, might be longer – say 6am – 9pm to accommodate the varying business hours of customers.
You also have to consider the credit policies. Credit policies are part of your pricing strategy. Your credit policy decision will be whether or not you will be offering credit. If you consider credit policies then you have to note that there are different kinds of credit plans; you may prefer credit cards, installments etc. before deciding on who to give; you have to determine who is eligible to receive it. The
formula that you may use is known as the 3C’s of credit. Below are its components:
• Character: - has the customer demonstrated responsibility in paying bills. You can find this out by contacting a credit bureau e.g. banks. Credit bureaus rate people who have granted credit, it can either be good or poor credit ratings.
• Capacity: - based on the customer’s income and expenses, does he / she have the ability to pay? You can find this out by asking credit applicants to report their income and monthly expenses on your credit application.
• Capital: - what are the customer’s physical and financial assets? Again you can find this out by asking it on your credit application.
We also talked about taking good care of your customers, incase there is a complaint in your product or service then how will you handle such a situation? Other businesses have the policy that their customers are always right, and you should always be there to fix any problem that may arise; if you’re a manufacturer you should have a warranty and guarantee your materials and workmanship that go with your products and services.
Mr. Richard as well emphasized on communication and leadership in business. We will further discuss that issue in our next week’s session which is Management.
We welcome any comments, suggestions or ideas that you may want to put forward.
CASE STUDY
Today, I got a real shock. I sat down to pay bills and write payroll checks for my car repair business. It didn’t take me too long to realize that I wasn’t going to have enough money to go around.
And here I thought business was great – I’ve been swamped with customers. I guess that doesn’t make much difference, though, if you are putting out more money for parts and labor than you are collecting for jobs.
Understand, there’s nothing wrong with my pricing or math. People just aren’t paying like they should. You see first, when I first opened my business, a lot of my relatives came in to get work done. If they said, “Can I pay you on pay day?” or “can you wait till the first of the month?” I said, “Sure”. (I mean, how can you say no to your friends and relatives?). Well, I guess my mechanics thought that meant it was okay for everybody to do it. So, they started telling other customers the same thing. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t stop them. They’re good guys, so I thought they’d be able to judge people pretty well.
The problem was that “paydays” and “first of the month” never seem to come around for a lot of people. Now am stuck. I am pretty sure I can get a loan to tide me over. But I have got to figure out where I should draw the line on this credit to stay in business, but how much and who to? And how do I handle it with my customers and employees?
Questions:
1. What happened to the business? Imagine that it was your business what would you have done?
General Comments From Our Delegates
We categorized the sessions into those that were enjoyable and informative and those where the facilitators were good. The delegates felt that the topic was an opportunity while others felt that it was their strength. Overall, the session was rated Good.
Mr. Richard as well emphasized on communication and leadership in business. We will further discuss that issue in our next week’s session which is Management.
We welcome any comments, suggestions or ideas that you may want to put forward
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Introduction to Accounting
In our last week’s newsletter we dealt with Management.
In this week’s session we shall focus on Accounting. What is accounting and why it’s important for a business owner to give due attention to accounting but not on a broad perspective but necessary information.
First we will start by defining accounting. Accounting is a record, analysis and presentation of account transactions.
Our Guest Speaker for this session was Mr. Mulache an accountant and he was assisted by our facilitator Charlotte. He taught us that as an entrepreneur you should at least know a little bit of Mathematics in order for you to succeed, because we trade with money which will require you to calculate how much you need from your consumer and how much earnings or profit you make from your business, in order for you to get the concept exactly rather than estimating you will at least have to know some basic Mathematics which will help you.
The first part the facilitator focused on was the income statement; this is a statement that shows difference between your profit and loss. In order for you to get profit, you will subtract your revenue (sales) from your expenses (costs you incurred)
➢ Revenue – expenses = net income (profit)
Below is an example of an income statement;
Swim World
Income Statement
Year Ended December 31, 2007
Revenue
Sales Ksh. 450, 000
Cost of goods sold Ksh. (250, 000)
Gross profit Ksh. 200, 000
Operating Expenses
Salaries Ksh. 70, 000
Advertising Ksh. 12, 000
Rent Ksh. 14, 000
Utilities Ksh. 3, 600
Loan interest Ksh. 1, 200
Insurance Ksh. 1, 500
Miscellaneous Ksh. 1, 000
Total Expenses = Ksh. 103, 300
Net Profit (before taxes) = Ksh. 96, 700
To make a profit, a business first needs to break-even. This is when there is no profit nor has loss; the firm just covered its production cost.
He also informed us that as an entrepreneur we should prepare a cash flow every month; this will tell us how much cash is available and also show the income statement and a balance sheet to show the net worth of the company.
Below is an example of a cash flow statement;
Cash flow statement
March 31, 2007
Cash receipts Ksh. 45, 000
Disbursement
Equipment Ksh. 20, 500
Cost of goods Ksh. 15, 200
Selling expense Ksh. 27,000
Salaries Ksh. 10, 000
Advertising Ksh. 5, 200
Office supplies Ksh.10 ,500
Rent Ksh. 7, 000
Utilities Ksh. 3, 000
Insurance Ksh. 5, 000
Taxes Ksh. 7, 000
Loan principal Ksh. 40, 000
& interest
Total disbursements Ksh. 113, 900* 1
Net Cash Flow Ksh. 68, 900
If a business has more money coming in than going out then it is said to have a positive cash flow and if it is vice versa then it’s a negative cash flow.
The next step is to prepare a balance sheet; a balance sheet tells an entrepreneur what his or her business is worth at a given time. It is based on the accounting equation which states that businesses assets are equal to the financial rights people have in those assets. The rights are equities and they belong to the owner or the people who have invested in the business.
The Balance Sheet Equation;
Assets = liabilities + capital
Assets are those things of value that belongs to the business while liabilities are what are owed to others. Capital is the owner’s equity.
Below is an example of a balance sheet;
alance sheet
March 31, 2007
Assets
Cash Ksh. 50, 000
Accounts receivable Ksh. 20, 000
Inventory Ksh. 30, 000
Supplies Ksh. 10, 000
Total assets Ksh. 110, 000
Liabilities
Accounts payable Ksh. 30, 000
Notes payable Ksh. 40, 000
Total liabilities Ksh. 70, 000
Capital
Mulache Ksh. 40, 000
Total liabilities & capital Ksh. 110, 000
Using the equation above, we can justify whether the balance sheet is correct through the formula below:
Assets = liabilities + capital
110, 000 = 70, 000 + 40, 000
We can therefore, conclude that an entrepreneur can either do his / her own record keeping or hire someone else to do it.
Comments from our delegates
YES delegates were given a questionnaire during each session and are expected to fill it in by the end of the session. This has been done for all the sessions. The questionnaire encompasses the following questions:
1. How was the session today, did it meet your expectations?
2. Did the facilitator conduct the session well?
3. What improvement would you have liked to see in the sessions?
4. Would you count this topic as your strength, weakness or opportunity?
5. General comments on the session
By using open-ended questions, we allow the delegates to describe their experience in their own words. The following is a weekly summary that captures this information:
All of the delegates felt that the week’s sessions met their expectations. The topic, Accounting, was described as both challenging and good. The conducting of the presentation was good, very educative and the delegates appeared satisfied with it.
The common improvement suggestion was for more case studies. However, the majority either kept silent on improvement or said that there was no need for improvement.
All the delegates indicated positive feelings with regard to the sessions using words such as motivating and encouraging, good, educative and well done. They also felt that the knowledge they had acquired made the topic now more of a strength (19) than an opportunity (4).
Besides the challenge presented by this topic, the topic was still enjoyable and well handled.
In this week’s session we shall focus on Accounting. What is accounting and why it’s important for a business owner to give due attention to accounting but not on a broad perspective but necessary information.
First we will start by defining accounting. Accounting is a record, analysis and presentation of account transactions.
Our Guest Speaker for this session was Mr. Mulache an accountant and he was assisted by our facilitator Charlotte. He taught us that as an entrepreneur you should at least know a little bit of Mathematics in order for you to succeed, because we trade with money which will require you to calculate how much you need from your consumer and how much earnings or profit you make from your business, in order for you to get the concept exactly rather than estimating you will at least have to know some basic Mathematics which will help you.
The first part the facilitator focused on was the income statement; this is a statement that shows difference between your profit and loss. In order for you to get profit, you will subtract your revenue (sales) from your expenses (costs you incurred)
➢ Revenue – expenses = net income (profit)
Below is an example of an income statement;
Swim World
Income Statement
Year Ended December 31, 2007
Revenue
Sales Ksh. 450, 000
Cost of goods sold Ksh. (250, 000)
Gross profit Ksh. 200, 000
Operating Expenses
Salaries Ksh. 70, 000
Advertising Ksh. 12, 000
Rent Ksh. 14, 000
Utilities Ksh. 3, 600
Loan interest Ksh. 1, 200
Insurance Ksh. 1, 500
Miscellaneous Ksh. 1, 000
Total Expenses = Ksh. 103, 300
Net Profit (before taxes) = Ksh. 96, 700
To make a profit, a business first needs to break-even. This is when there is no profit nor has loss; the firm just covered its production cost.
He also informed us that as an entrepreneur we should prepare a cash flow every month; this will tell us how much cash is available and also show the income statement and a balance sheet to show the net worth of the company.
Below is an example of a cash flow statement;
Cash flow statement
March 31, 2007
Cash receipts Ksh. 45, 000
Disbursement
Equipment Ksh. 20, 500
Cost of goods Ksh. 15, 200
Selling expense Ksh. 27,000
Salaries Ksh. 10, 000
Advertising Ksh. 5, 200
Office supplies Ksh.10 ,500
Rent Ksh. 7, 000
Utilities Ksh. 3, 000
Insurance Ksh. 5, 000
Taxes Ksh. 7, 000
Loan principal Ksh. 40, 000
& interest
Total disbursements Ksh. 113, 900* 1
Net Cash Flow Ksh. 68, 900
If a business has more money coming in than going out then it is said to have a positive cash flow and if it is vice versa then it’s a negative cash flow.
The next step is to prepare a balance sheet; a balance sheet tells an entrepreneur what his or her business is worth at a given time. It is based on the accounting equation which states that businesses assets are equal to the financial rights people have in those assets. The rights are equities and they belong to the owner or the people who have invested in the business.
The Balance Sheet Equation;
Assets = liabilities + capital
Assets are those things of value that belongs to the business while liabilities are what are owed to others. Capital is the owner’s equity.
Below is an example of a balance sheet;
alance sheet
March 31, 2007
Assets
Cash Ksh. 50, 000
Accounts receivable Ksh. 20, 000
Inventory Ksh. 30, 000
Supplies Ksh. 10, 000
Total assets Ksh. 110, 000
Liabilities
Accounts payable Ksh. 30, 000
Notes payable Ksh. 40, 000
Total liabilities Ksh. 70, 000
Capital
Mulache Ksh. 40, 000
Total liabilities & capital Ksh. 110, 000
Using the equation above, we can justify whether the balance sheet is correct through the formula below:
Assets = liabilities + capital
110, 000 = 70, 000 + 40, 000
We can therefore, conclude that an entrepreneur can either do his / her own record keeping or hire someone else to do it.
Comments from our delegates
YES delegates were given a questionnaire during each session and are expected to fill it in by the end of the session. This has been done for all the sessions. The questionnaire encompasses the following questions:
1. How was the session today, did it meet your expectations?
2. Did the facilitator conduct the session well?
3. What improvement would you have liked to see in the sessions?
4. Would you count this topic as your strength, weakness or opportunity?
5. General comments on the session
By using open-ended questions, we allow the delegates to describe their experience in their own words. The following is a weekly summary that captures this information:
All of the delegates felt that the week’s sessions met their expectations. The topic, Accounting, was described as both challenging and good. The conducting of the presentation was good, very educative and the delegates appeared satisfied with it.
The common improvement suggestion was for more case studies. However, the majority either kept silent on improvement or said that there was no need for improvement.
All the delegates indicated positive feelings with regard to the sessions using words such as motivating and encouraging, good, educative and well done. They also felt that the knowledge they had acquired made the topic now more of a strength (19) than an opportunity (4).
Besides the challenge presented by this topic, the topic was still enjoyable and well handled.
Introduction to Management
In our last issue we discussed about Operations and ways in which to prepare yourself and what things you will be requiring when you are about to start your enterprise.
In this week’s session we shall discuss about Management and the significance of managing your business as well as your employees’
Management session was very well handled by our Guest Speaker Seline from Ghetto Radio and assisted by our Facilitator Zamzam. We touched on different managerial issues but will just summarize what we
tackled about and the important details which were emphasized.
Once you open the doors of your business, you will begin to wear two hats instead of on. On the one hand, you will continue to wear the hat of an entrepreneur. Your second hat will be that of a manager. In this capacity you will coordinate the people, processes and other resources of your operations on day by day basis. Of course you could hire someone else to manage your business but still you will have to oversee the operation yourself.
As a manager you will deal with much different kind of situations, often at the same time. When managers are managing, they use a series of activities called management functions to meet their objectives. These functions include planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.
As a manager you have to adopt a leadership style. This includes power-oriented, routine-oriented and achievement- oriented.
To manage a business successfully requires human relations, technical, conceptual and time management skills as well as the foundational skills. Excellent managers adhere to some common management principles that include, taking action, listening to customers and encouraging independence and innovation among employees. A working management plan serves as a guide for day-to-day operation of a business.
Introduction to conflict management
Managing conflict is a fundamental managerial function, just like the more familiar areas of planning, controlling, structuring, and directing. Indeed, managing conflict is probably the most difficult management task because most people find it personally stressful. The presence of conflict doesn’t indicate failure of the organization or management.
Sources of conflict are; Increasing complexity and interdependence are the major causes in today’s firms. When there is interdependence, the parties involved must work out their differences either between the individuals or among groups in organizations. There are different forms of conflict; it can either be an individual verses a group or competition between individuals. There are different ways to approach conflict management, you can either establish the source and agree on a mutual solution or emphasize on the philosophy, vision, mission, values and objectives of the organization.
Introduction to Personnel, Financial, Strategic and Management
People are a businesses most important resource. They are especially important in small businesses where each employee has a major impact on the businesses performance. All this falls under personnel management. Staffing a business requires the same steps such as recruitment, screening, setting pay and benefits and providing training and development. Managers influence employees through assumptions about them and use of motivating factors. To handle personnel management dilemmas, a manager needs good communication, human relations and problem solving skills.
A strategy can also be defined as a broad action plan to achieve objections and mission of the organization. It’s a method of competition or a means to an end i.e. a means to achieving organizational goals. There are questions you should ask or answer when formulating a strategy. For example, if it’s related to vision or mission you should ask yourself these questions; who are we? What do we do here? What kind of company are we? What kind of company do we want to be?
1. If it’s related to corporate strategy then you should be able to ask or answer these questions; what is the current strategy, implicit or explicit? What are our growth, size, profitability goals? And if it is related to competitive strategy then you should formulate these questions; what is happening in the industry, with our competitors and in general? How will the selling / buying decisions be made? How will we distribute our products and services? What technologies will we employ?
You can analyze your businesses’ finance by comparing completed financial statements and calculating certain ratios. Analyzing and managing your businesses’ financial position on a regular rather than random basis helps you to spot problems in advance and plan ways to cope with them.
Introduction to case on conflict management
Several of your employees have complained to you that they do not want to work with James, your supervisor. They say he is abusive, obnoxious and sometimes mean. A few have even threatened to quit. All of them try to avoid work situations where James is directly involved. The problem is compounded by the fact that James is one of your oldest and most trusted employees.
Question
1. How will you handle the situation?
Comments from our delegates
YES delegates are given a questionnaire during each session and are expected to fill it in by the end of the session. This has been done for all the sessions. The questionnaire encompasses the following questions:
1. How was the session today, did it meet your expectations?
2. Did the facilitator conduct the session well?
3. What improvement would you have liked to see in the sessions?
4. Would you count this topic as your strength, weakness or opportunity?
5. General comments on the session
By using open-ended questions, we allow the delegates describe their experience in their own words.
The following is a weekly summary that captures this information:
They considered the session educative and they are ready to venture into the world of business. Some say that it was both their strength and opportunity. They liked the presentation from both the facilitator and the Guest Speaker. Through-out the week, all delegates were satisfied with the overall conducting and facilitation of the sessions.
It was good to observe that half the group explicitly noted no need for improvement.
In our next weeks session we will be discussing about Accounting and how useful it is for an entrepreneur to know a little bit of Math while handling his business.
We look forward to your suggestions, opinions, ideas and anything that you may want us to look into
In this week’s session we shall discuss about Management and the significance of managing your business as well as your employees’
Management session was very well handled by our Guest Speaker Seline from Ghetto Radio and assisted by our Facilitator Zamzam. We touched on different managerial issues but will just summarize what we
tackled about and the important details which were emphasized.
Once you open the doors of your business, you will begin to wear two hats instead of on. On the one hand, you will continue to wear the hat of an entrepreneur. Your second hat will be that of a manager. In this capacity you will coordinate the people, processes and other resources of your operations on day by day basis. Of course you could hire someone else to manage your business but still you will have to oversee the operation yourself.
As a manager you will deal with much different kind of situations, often at the same time. When managers are managing, they use a series of activities called management functions to meet their objectives. These functions include planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.
As a manager you have to adopt a leadership style. This includes power-oriented, routine-oriented and achievement- oriented.
To manage a business successfully requires human relations, technical, conceptual and time management skills as well as the foundational skills. Excellent managers adhere to some common management principles that include, taking action, listening to customers and encouraging independence and innovation among employees. A working management plan serves as a guide for day-to-day operation of a business.
Introduction to conflict management
Managing conflict is a fundamental managerial function, just like the more familiar areas of planning, controlling, structuring, and directing. Indeed, managing conflict is probably the most difficult management task because most people find it personally stressful. The presence of conflict doesn’t indicate failure of the organization or management.
Sources of conflict are; Increasing complexity and interdependence are the major causes in today’s firms. When there is interdependence, the parties involved must work out their differences either between the individuals or among groups in organizations. There are different forms of conflict; it can either be an individual verses a group or competition between individuals. There are different ways to approach conflict management, you can either establish the source and agree on a mutual solution or emphasize on the philosophy, vision, mission, values and objectives of the organization.
Introduction to Personnel, Financial, Strategic and Management
People are a businesses most important resource. They are especially important in small businesses where each employee has a major impact on the businesses performance. All this falls under personnel management. Staffing a business requires the same steps such as recruitment, screening, setting pay and benefits and providing training and development. Managers influence employees through assumptions about them and use of motivating factors. To handle personnel management dilemmas, a manager needs good communication, human relations and problem solving skills.
A strategy can also be defined as a broad action plan to achieve objections and mission of the organization. It’s a method of competition or a means to an end i.e. a means to achieving organizational goals. There are questions you should ask or answer when formulating a strategy. For example, if it’s related to vision or mission you should ask yourself these questions; who are we? What do we do here? What kind of company are we? What kind of company do we want to be?
1. If it’s related to corporate strategy then you should be able to ask or answer these questions; what is the current strategy, implicit or explicit? What are our growth, size, profitability goals? And if it is related to competitive strategy then you should formulate these questions; what is happening in the industry, with our competitors and in general? How will the selling / buying decisions be made? How will we distribute our products and services? What technologies will we employ?
You can analyze your businesses’ finance by comparing completed financial statements and calculating certain ratios. Analyzing and managing your businesses’ financial position on a regular rather than random basis helps you to spot problems in advance and plan ways to cope with them.
Introduction to case on conflict management
Several of your employees have complained to you that they do not want to work with James, your supervisor. They say he is abusive, obnoxious and sometimes mean. A few have even threatened to quit. All of them try to avoid work situations where James is directly involved. The problem is compounded by the fact that James is one of your oldest and most trusted employees.
Question
1. How will you handle the situation?
Comments from our delegates
YES delegates are given a questionnaire during each session and are expected to fill it in by the end of the session. This has been done for all the sessions. The questionnaire encompasses the following questions:
1. How was the session today, did it meet your expectations?
2. Did the facilitator conduct the session well?
3. What improvement would you have liked to see in the sessions?
4. Would you count this topic as your strength, weakness or opportunity?
5. General comments on the session
By using open-ended questions, we allow the delegates describe their experience in their own words.
The following is a weekly summary that captures this information:
They considered the session educative and they are ready to venture into the world of business. Some say that it was both their strength and opportunity. They liked the presentation from both the facilitator and the Guest Speaker. Through-out the week, all delegates were satisfied with the overall conducting and facilitation of the sessions.
It was good to observe that half the group explicitly noted no need for improvement.
In our next weeks session we will be discussing about Accounting and how useful it is for an entrepreneur to know a little bit of Math while handling his business.
We look forward to your suggestions, opinions, ideas and anything that you may want us to look into
Introduction to Marketing
In our last issue we had the opportunity to discuss about entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) in detail and emphasized on the role and importance of a good CSR profile and programme for our business.
In this week’s issue we will focus on the Marketing functions of a business.
For any business to succeed and make a profit it must focus all its efforts and energies on satisfying its customers. Every business starts with the basic Marketing concept of selling its products and services for the satisfaction of customers at a profit. However, you can not satisfy all your existing customers and (potential customers) if you don’t know who they are; what they do for a living; where they live and what they want and value.
Basically, in order to know all the above about your present customers and potential customers you need to find out. To be able to find out this critical information, you do a market analysis and or a market research. You begin by examining your market from 2 different perspectives, i.e. identify your prospective customers and determine their buying habits. The next step is to analyze your field of interest or industry and rate your prospects for success within it.
Thanks to our facilitator and our Guest speakers from the Steadman Group, Miss Nabil and her colleague. The marketing concepts they discussed with us was very well understood and was well conducted as they spoke about how to do a marketing research which will help you to identify your target customers or market. Having the Steadman Group was quite effective and own to earth since they themselves focus on consumer research and opinion polls. In this regard, we were exposed to very many ideas and educative tools that have been helpful.
Below are some of the basic methods used when conducting a market research:
1. Quantitative market research: - This method requires very many people and it is about establishing the customers’ characteristics and habits; likes and dislikes in quantities and statistical manner. That is to say and state them in forms of percentages, ratios and ranges etc.
2. Qualitative market research: - This method requires lesser people and it is not complicated as the quantitative market research. It is about finding out and stating the feelings, motivation and other non – tangible aspects of the customers’ characteristics.
Introduction to Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is a concept that entails the logical combination of the entire marketing plan which includes the standard 4’Ps in order for your business to reach your target market or consumer effectively.
Once you have completed your market analysis and market research, you are then said to ready to do a market plan for your business. A market plan is a business document that in a nutshells describes your strategies, activities and the resources you will invest to make your business successfully sale your products and services i.e. the 4 Ps.
1. Product:- You should be able to design your
Product and make sure that its
Quality and relevance is good.
2. Place:- Where the business is located and
Where the products and services
Are to be located.
3. Price:- In order to set your price you should
relate it to product quality and your
target market as well.
4. Promotion:- You can do promotions so that
your products and services can be widely known, you can either Advertise, or you can brand your product etc
Our Guest speaker for the subject on marketing mix was RonaldFrom Ad west. The speaker as well as the facilitator Florent explained the concept very well and since the Guest speaker was a more well - rounded person that is, he has worked in different countries in East Africa. His contributions were not only relevant to the Kenyan market but the East African market at large.
Comments and Relevant Reactions From Our Delegates
"The YES delegates have been giving their feedback through session evaluation forms. There has been a clear positive responses from the delegates to expressing the fact that they are benefiting a lot. This is due to the unique educational nature that highlighted business concerns for the potential entrepreneur. Following AIESEC’s values, the sessions conducted by Guest Speakers and Facilitators are also considered inspirational, enjoyable and participative besides being educative.
The Delegates appreciated the heightened level of business awareness they have acquired as a result of the YES sessions. This will certainly enhance their business acumen, confidence and hopefully lead to better business planning, execution and management. Our sessions have been termed as `inspiring' and 'uplifting'."
In this week’s issue we will focus on the Marketing functions of a business.
For any business to succeed and make a profit it must focus all its efforts and energies on satisfying its customers. Every business starts with the basic Marketing concept of selling its products and services for the satisfaction of customers at a profit. However, you can not satisfy all your existing customers and (potential customers) if you don’t know who they are; what they do for a living; where they live and what they want and value.
Basically, in order to know all the above about your present customers and potential customers you need to find out. To be able to find out this critical information, you do a market analysis and or a market research. You begin by examining your market from 2 different perspectives, i.e. identify your prospective customers and determine their buying habits. The next step is to analyze your field of interest or industry and rate your prospects for success within it.
Thanks to our facilitator and our Guest speakers from the Steadman Group, Miss Nabil and her colleague. The marketing concepts they discussed with us was very well understood and was well conducted as they spoke about how to do a marketing research which will help you to identify your target customers or market. Having the Steadman Group was quite effective and own to earth since they themselves focus on consumer research and opinion polls. In this regard, we were exposed to very many ideas and educative tools that have been helpful.
Below are some of the basic methods used when conducting a market research:
1. Quantitative market research: - This method requires very many people and it is about establishing the customers’ characteristics and habits; likes and dislikes in quantities and statistical manner. That is to say and state them in forms of percentages, ratios and ranges etc.
2. Qualitative market research: - This method requires lesser people and it is not complicated as the quantitative market research. It is about finding out and stating the feelings, motivation and other non – tangible aspects of the customers’ characteristics.
Introduction to Marketing Mix
Marketing mix is a concept that entails the logical combination of the entire marketing plan which includes the standard 4’Ps in order for your business to reach your target market or consumer effectively.
Once you have completed your market analysis and market research, you are then said to ready to do a market plan for your business. A market plan is a business document that in a nutshells describes your strategies, activities and the resources you will invest to make your business successfully sale your products and services i.e. the 4 Ps.
1. Product:- You should be able to design your
Product and make sure that its
Quality and relevance is good.
2. Place:- Where the business is located and
Where the products and services
Are to be located.
3. Price:- In order to set your price you should
relate it to product quality and your
target market as well.
4. Promotion:- You can do promotions so that
your products and services can be widely known, you can either Advertise, or you can brand your product etc
Our Guest speaker for the subject on marketing mix was RonaldFrom Ad west. The speaker as well as the facilitator Florent explained the concept very well and since the Guest speaker was a more well - rounded person that is, he has worked in different countries in East Africa. His contributions were not only relevant to the Kenyan market but the East African market at large.
Comments and Relevant Reactions From Our Delegates
"The YES delegates have been giving their feedback through session evaluation forms. There has been a clear positive responses from the delegates to expressing the fact that they are benefiting a lot. This is due to the unique educational nature that highlighted business concerns for the potential entrepreneur. Following AIESEC’s values, the sessions conducted by Guest Speakers and Facilitators are also considered inspirational, enjoyable and participative besides being educative.
The Delegates appreciated the heightened level of business awareness they have acquired as a result of the YES sessions. This will certainly enhance their business acumen, confidence and hopefully lead to better business planning, execution and management. Our sessions have been termed as `inspiring' and 'uplifting'."
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