The business plan should include the following components:
A: The name of your business
B: A description of your business. Describe your idea; purpose, mission, vision, background information,
and description of the product and or service. The business must be related to the healthcare field (e.g., a
doctor�s office, a home healthcare practice, a new hospital, etc.) Discuss how your business will meet a
significant marketplace need or solve a problem or challenge that currently exists in the community.
Discuss why you believe it is worth pursuing.
C: Targeted location (Where you would propose to establish this business and explain your reasoning).
D: Market analysis: Define the target market for your idea, why you think it exists, what you believe to be
the size of the market demand for your idea, and who your competitors will be. Discuss how you would
bring your product or service to market (how you would go about building or developing your product,
service or idea into a real, tangible product or service that customers would want and buy). Perform a
S.W.O.T. Analysis.
2
Albion Theme Park
Introduction
Company needs to adopt appropriate strategies that can enable it achieve its goals. To be
able to adopt these strategies, it is appropriate to understand internal as well as external or macro
environment factors from which the company is operating. This report focuses on the Albion
Theme Park Company, provides an analysis of the macro-environment, internal analysis, and
proposes appropriate strategies for implementation. The report is based on the notes taken from a
conversation with the company manager and a special offsite meeting of the Park’s Management.
Analysis of the macro environment
The macro environment looks at the economic performance, behaviors, and structures as
a whole (Adenutsi, 2014). It covers various issues in the environment that are likely to affect the
company. Therefore, when planning, businesses are required to put into consideration these
factors. The two factors in the macro environment that might significantly influence the future
development of Albion Theme Parks include technological advancement and the changes in the
interest rates.
The world is adopting technology in its operations and companies that are embracing this
in their operations are gaining a competitive edge over those that have not embraced technology.
3
Technology allows people to access services quickly and in a more efficient way. The Albion
Theme Park stands a better chance to grow and expand at a quicker magnitude if it embraces
technology. In its systems, for instance, the company should come up with a website that would
allow customers to book accommodation (Ching, Choi & Huang, 2011). There is also need for
the adoption of technology to ensure that the long queues that are experienced by the customers
when accessing the various facilities are minimized. Customers are likely to move away and go
to other areas if they are not served within the stipulated time. Therefore, in future, it is important
that this is factored to be able to move at par with the market in overall.
Interest rates also affect the operations of companies. When the interest rates are low, the
company is able to lend money and pay low interests as opposed to when they are higher. In
future, these interest rates will affect the operations of the company in various ways. The
company is likely to invest more through borrowing of loans at low rates when the rates are at
low levels as opposed to when the interest rates are higher. This will also have a trickle effect on
the customers. The process of the services offered is going to increase and many customers will
fall on the way. This scenario will be so in case the loans that Albion Theme Park will borrow
will be with high interest rates.
Industry analysis
Industrial analysis allows the company to evaluate how the other companies in the
similar industry are performing. Therefore, through this industry analysis, the company is able to
adapt to strategies that allow it to gain a competitive edge in the industry (Yi-De, 2008). The
competitive forces in the UK theme parks industries include water, different forms of
entertainment, types of recreational facilities, and amusement park. These parks further provide
4
different forms of entertainment such as movies, sports attractions, and vacation travels
(Balloffet, Courvoisier & Lagier, 2014). These factors make most of the theme parks in UK to
have a competitive edge as they get many customers that visit them to recreate and spend their
leisure time. The competitive factors impact on Albion Theme Parks in many ways. One of the
ways is that they provide alternative recreational facilities that attract more customers. Therefore,
this park is unable to receive more customers that otherwise would have visited it. The second
impact of these competitive factors in these parks is that they give the buyers a higher bargaining
power and this makes the prices of service provision to decrease which impacts on the company
level of profitability. The company is able to accrue profits only if it is able to sell its services at
a considerable price. Because of the alternative source of services offered by other parks, it
makes the competition tight, pushing the prices of the services down (Renko, Sustic & Butigan,
2011). Price is also a competitive factor that affects the operation of Albion Theme Parks. As the
amount of parks increases, it tends to push the prices of the services hence affecting the
company’s profitability.
Regardless of these competitive forces in the UK theme parks, Albion theme park also
has competitive factors that have kept it going and appealing to the customers in the market.
These factors include suitability in location, minimal competition, and provision of variety of
service at low prices among others.
Part 2: Internal analysis
Internal analysis aims at evaluating how the business or the company is carrying out
various activities from the point of view of the company. This analysis is, therefore, on the
initiatives or strategies that the company adopts to transact its business.
5
Marketing Issues
Currently, the company uses conventional methods of marketing to attract customers to
its services. Marketing is important as it is the avenue through which the company and its
services are known to the members or the target audience. Marketing also allows the company to
enhance its image and establish a brand.
The promotional budgets that the company has provided indicate the most preferred
methods. The marketing methods widely used by the company are press, radio and TV which
claims 25% of the budget, cinema which consumes 15% of the budget, direct mail 5%, outdoor
4%, and internet 1% (Case study n.d).
Even though these strategies have been successful to some levels, it is important for the
company to change and adapt to technology if it wants to achieve or accrue profits in the future.
Many people are using the internet and, therefore, it has become the most used medium of
advertisement. Therefore, the company should increase the budget that goes to marketing using
internet to get the potential customer base that uses internet. Furthermore, attracting customers to
the company can also entail improving the quality of the services they provide. This will attract
more clients and make them feel at home and at peace.
Human resources issues
Human resource is important in ensuring that the welfare of employees is addressed to
make them improve in their performance. The company has various officers that execute
different roles in the organization to ensure that the objectives are met. The company’s
organization structure is not complex. It is owned by one individual who acts as the manager. It
is a family business and Jack who works as a marketer and Jackie as an operation manager are
6
the immediate successors of the company. They have their management staff that assist in
governance. The permanent staff are 35 and those employed on temporary basis are around 2000
(Case study n.d). The company, therefore, suffers from employee shortage and hiring challenges
as those with requisite skills are not recruited because of the current system of hiring.
Following the issues concerning human resource, a lot is required to revive the human
resource welfare. The company should consider employing competent individuals to enhance
service delivery. The hiring process should be competitive like that of other competitors (Puiu,
2010). The number of staff on a permanent basis should be increased to reduce the amount of
work that they do. Employees further require training to equip them with relevant skills to ensure
that they understand how to handle some rowdy clients.
Operational issues
The company’s operations are threatened by the superiority war between Jack and Jackie,
the children of Tom. The business operations were at hostage when these two siblings fought
over who should be the boss of the company. This affected the company negatively. The
operations were affected as employees could actually experience the differences between the
two. These wrangles affected the smooth operations of the business. Furthermore, the operations
of the business seem to be at stake with the increase rate of youth using drugs and drinking.
These are areas that require urgent measures if the company wants and aspires to emerge victor.
The operations are also limited and impacted negatively through the increase in number
or customers that lead to long queues. These queues affect the operations of the business.
Therefore, the best solution to help bring into order these operational challenges is to ensure that
Jack and Jackie understand that they are the new managers and that they should work together to
7
bolster the operations of the entity. The customers system should be improved to help reduce the
time it takes to respond to an issue.
Financial issues
Financial issues are also very critical in the functioning of an entity (Nagaoka, 2012). The
companies have had positive returns in terms of revenue, except few years back before 2012
where it ran into losses forcing it to borrow money. The company has received a steady increase
in its revenue as well as in its number of visitors and promotional spending. This, therefore, is an
indication that the venture is promising in terms of investing. The turnover in 2013 was £14,
880,000 up from 2012 where it was £12,064. The tickets are available every day and are sold at
similar prices whether physically or though online. The company is owned by Tom with 60%,
his wife with 30%, and Jack and Jackie 5% each (Case study n.d).
For the company to continue achieving more profits, it is required to come with various
measures that will make it perform better. One of the measures is to increase its marketing
initiatives to help in attracting clients. The company could also consider creating high quality
services that can be able to attract a higher searching quest. Furthermore, to achieve financial
freedom, the company will also be required to consider using fish outlets such as George Burgers
and Farmhouse kitchen (Case study n.d). The company too, should try economies of scale by
expanding the park into an on-site accommodation. Appropriate systems of accounting should be
put in place to ensure accounts are operated well.
Part 3: Conclusions and proposals
Proposed strategy
8
Therefore, for the company to achieve its objectives, it must embrace different strategies
in its business strategy. One is the company to resolve boardroom conflicts and disagreements.
This must be achieved by Jack and Jackie embracing one another and working together as
partners. The other strategy is to adopt technology in their operations because most customers
are becoming technological savvy. The third is for the company to improve its operations by
improvising mechanisms that reduce the amount of time spent on queues. The company,
furthermore, needs to come up with an appropriate financial strategy that will ensure that the
company is able to meet the expenses of the business.
Proposed implementation
Prioritizing changes is required to ensure that the best proposal goes through and is
approved. In this case, it will require the company to prioritize the most important needs before
reaching a conclusion of which tool seems more relevant. In this case, all the proposed changes
will be provided and then members asked to rate the best. From this rating, the most urgent and
very critical area of change is implemented. It is also very important to ensure that the entire
process is taken to ensure continuity of the business venture. In this case, the company should
work on creating a stable financial base followed by an increase in the level of marketing in
other countries, improving operations, and systematically evaluating the financial aspects of the
company. It is important to note that all these changes are important and contribute to the success
of the company. Therefore, it is important that the process is taken with a lot of resilience and
dedication.
9
Reference list
Adenutsi, D 2014, ‘Macroeconomic determinants of workers’ remittances and compensation of
employees in sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 48 no. 1, pp. 337-
360.
Balloffet, P, Courvoisier, F, & Lagier, J 2014, ‘From Museum to Amusement Park: The
Opportunities and Risks of Edutainment’, International Journal of Arts Management,
Vol. 16 no. 2, pp. 4-18.
Case study. Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University.
Ching, W, Choi, S, & Huang, X 2011, ‘Inducing high service capacities in outsourcing via
penalty and competition’, International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 49 no. 17,
pp. 5169-5182.
Renko, N, Sustic, I, & Butigan, R 2011, ‘Designing marketing strategy using the five
competitive forces model by Michael E. Porter — case of small bakery in Croatia’,
International Journal of Management Cases, Vol. 13 no. 3, pp. 376-385.
Nagaoka, S 2012, ‘Financial crisis and its macroeconomic impact to the Islamic economic
system: a theoretical inquiry’, Conference Proceedings: International Conference of the
Faculty of Economics Sarajevo (ICES). 2012, pp. 822-837.
10
Puiu, S 2010, ‘The model of the five competitive forces on Romanian retail market’, Annals of
the University of Petrosani Economics, Vol. 10 no. 1, pp. 289-298.
Yi-De, L 2008, ‘Profitability measurement of UK theme parks: an aggregate approach’,
International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 10 no. 3, pp. 283-288.
