Entrepreneurship Master Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Entrepreneurship Master - Assignment Example Craftadelic was set up in January 2004, a little over two years ago, by an individual who loved to make handmade greetings cards, using items found from her worldwide travels. Following a visit to a local craft store - Hobbycraft - the individual saw that crafts were very popular with other people, and started to think that there may be a future in selling the items she had found on her travels. Many people had commented on her cards, and when she had exhibited at local craft fairs, selling her cards, many people had asked her where the items she had used on her cards were from, and if they could be brought - other people therefore seemed interested in using the same items on their cards, as the items were very unusual, obviously reasonably priced, and of high quality. This fact, coupled with the fact that the local craft store was full of people buying supplies for their crafts, suggested that there would be a strong market for the goods she was thinking of selling. Within a few months of thinking of the idea to set up the business, her personal circumstances had changed, following a car accident, which caused damage to her shoulder and hands, and which left her unable to work on her main job (writing). At this point, she decided to use some of her savings to set up the craft business. She set about buying stock in bulk from her suppliers, whose names/addresses/business terms she had gathered on her travels. She had also located some British suppliers for some craft supplies that were too heavy, and therefore not cost effective, to post from abroad in small, initial, quantities (for example, card). It soon became apparent that in order to be able to buy in bulk from some suppliers, she had to prove her trading status, and so the decision was made at this point to register for VAT, which would give the business credibility, and which would be necessary anyway, as it was expected, from market research, that the business would be trading over the VAT threshold within its first few months of sale, and definitely within the first year of trading. Whilst the supplies were arriving, she made the decision that the business had to be run through an online store front, in order to catch the greatest number of customers, and in order that no initial outlay was made on renting premises, as in this way, the business could initially be run from her home, through the website. She set about using her local contacts to find someone who would be able to build the website for her, as she did not possess the relevant skills, and was not able, anyway, in her physical condition, to work on such a large project, involving such a lot of computer time. After a few months, the website was developed, through a collaborative process between the web designer and the individual. Many issues came up in the design process, such as branding and imaging of the business, graphic design, methods of payment acceptance etc., and in order to deal with these issues at the time of initiation of the business, and in an easily manageable, ongoing, manner, a plan was created by the individual for the development and implementation of these issues. For example, analyzing the set-up costs versus the ease of use, it was decided that PayPal would be used as a payment processor, not any of the more expensive payment processors (such as WorldPay), as many crafters use PayPal, as eBay