Maintaining the Garden as a Viable Business Idea - Essay Example

In the period of intensifying economic recession, a number of businesses have seen failure. This is due to the fact that the purchasing behavior of customers and their basic needs in the priority list have changed. Companies are also cutting down their cost structure and resources and focusing only on those products, services and markets which can guarantee long term profits. So in this period of economic crisis, we have decided to start up a lawn care business. The reason behind choosing lawn care business over millions of other business ideas is that there are still people who are willing to invest part of their earnings in maintaining their gardens because they understand that a neat, planned and lush green lawn is a status symbol and adds pride to their property. Name of the Company: Ladybird Lawn Care Mission The mission of Ladybird Lawn Care is to offer its customers a valuable source for maintaining their lawn and landscaping needs. We believe in exceeding the expectations of our customers by delivering superior quality and innovation. We strive to develop and retain long term relationships with our customers and employees. Vision To be known as the premium landscape and lawn maintenance company in the city of New York; and to expand our operations worldwide. Honesty, innovation and dependability form the foundation for building strong customer relationships. The internal environment of Ladybird Lawn Care considers treating its employees with respect and care which makes their job enjoyable; as a result, the company flourishes. Goals of Ladybird Lawn Care Offering lawn care service to busy or old people who are not able to maintain their lawns on their own Becoming an active part of organic movement in the USA Providing premium lawn care service to residential and commercial customers Generating good profits Preventing the environment naturally without the use of artificial chemicals Contributing towards saving the greens on the planet Cultivating strong relationships with the customers Encouraging more and more people in the neighborhood to grow, respect and protect the green part of nature About the Company Ladybird Lawn Care is owned by Marina Rivera who is the CEO of the company. He holds the vision that maintaining lawns is equally important as maintaining customer loyalty and employee commitment. Ladybird Lawn Care is a USA based lawn care business which will initially provide service to customers in the city of New York and later expand to the suburbs. The company makes sure that the products it uses to treat lawns are organic and free of harmful chemicals. At Ladybird Lawn Care, the employees are highly trained and best quality lawn care equipments are used to exceed customers’ expectations. Ladybird Lawn Care has established its first office in New York. The target market of the company includes lawn owners that fall between the age group of forty to sixty five. The customers are educated and have an income level slightly above average. These customers are usually busy employees or business owners who believe that a well organized lawn reflects their social status but do not find enough time to manage the lawns on their own. Services offered by Ladybird Lawn Care The primary services of Ladybird Lawn Care include lime and fertilizer treatments, lawn cutting, landscaping, turfing, aeration, planting seeds, installing solar lawn lights, yard maintenance, lawn renovation etc. Equipments Required The main equipments required to start up a lawn care business include rakes, trimmers, fertilizer spraying cans, power lawn mower, a trailer, aerator, a small pickup truck or medium sized vehicle and containers for gasoline refills. Management Team The management team of Ladybird includes Marina Rivera as CEO. There will be one Managing Director and separate team head for marketing and advertising team. A financial manager will ensure smooth profit generation by Ladybird Lawn Care. Human resource manager will be responsible for hiring, training, compensation, benefits and performance management of the employees. Customer support and service manager will ensure that customers’ needs are fulfilled and long term relationships are maintained. There would be one supervisor and the maintenance team would be comprised of ten experienced workers. Challenges of Dealing with a Multicultural Workforce Initially, the workforce of Ladybird Lawn Care would comprise of people living inside the New York City. Although the basic values, capabilities and perceptions are diverse but their aim is common-to work effortlessly for the fulfillment of mission and goals of Ladybird Lawn Care. One of the basic challenges that Ladybird Lawn Care can face is prejudice or negative attitudes that employees of various will hold for each other. It is the responsibility of the management to make the workers realize that every individual possess some talent and skills irrespective of his background and he must be appreciated. Some companies believe that conducting training sessions on workforce diversity for a day or two would never change the behavior of the workforce. Communicating the benefits of cultural diversity has to be an ongoing activity which must include everyone. Through practical demonstrations and improved financial indicators, the management must inform the workforce that such success has been possible only because people with different backgrounds have brought in diverse knowledge; skills, creative and analytical abilities and a combination of these all have yield results (Paludi, M, A, 2012).  When Ladybird Lawn Care will expand its operations globally, they will certainly have employees from various religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The employees would be trained on the fact that once their knowledge and experience are combined, miraculous results will be seen. Ladybird Lawn Care believes that in the philosophy of McInnes, R. (1999) that best customer relationships could only be maintained if the employees learn to respect each other’s abilities and talents because if there will be differences, they will be reflected through their performance. Ethics and Social Responsibility Ladybird Lawn Care business is committed to using organic fertilizers on the customers’ lawns. They understand that although use of harmful chemicals will make the lawn look better in less time but the damage it would cause to the soil, useful bacteria and of course the environment shall be irreversible. Ladybird Lawn Care believes that by protecting and maintaining the greens, they are doing a great service to the natural ecosystem in general. By looking after the lawn, they are specifically contributing towards decrease of pollution. Also by the use of their aesthetic sense in turfing and beautiful landscape designs, they are making their customers fall in love with nature. When the lawn would look neat, organized and free of any harmful chemicals, kids and the rest of the family might love to spend family time. Pets would also feel fresh and active in organic lawns. The eye catching landscaping will add originality to the soul and mind. SWOT for Ladybird Lawn Care Strengths The strengths of Ladybird Lawn Care are its minimum over head costs and a very technical and skillful team where each member is aware of his expertise and how to put them into best usage. The target market of Ladybird Lawn Care is solid because customers are ready to avail lawn maintenance services even in times of economic recession. Weaknesses One significant weakness of Ladybird Lawn Care is the limited budgets allotted for various activities. The team members are although very skilled but they all come from various cultural backgrounds which could create prejudices and dirty politics. The brand is not established in the market. Opportunities Fortunately, the market of Ladybird Lawn Care is completely resistant to economic pressures because lawn care is what customers consider as a necessity. In the busy world of today where people are struggling to improve their living standard, they usually look for lawn care companies to take care of their green assets-their lawns. The business can easily flourish through customer positive feedback and referrals. Threats Ladybird Lawn Care can possibly suffer threat from other established lawn care companies. The company could make profits during the season but in winters, profit generation could become unmanageable. Strategy of Ladybird Lawn Care Since the company has to be established from scratch and many competitors exist in the industry that are enjoying loyalty from their customers, so Ladybird Lawn Care has to undertake certain strategies. Firstly, a lot of efforts need to be put into advertising and marketing. For this, flyers could be distributed in residential areas and offices. Door to door marketing could also prove helpful in this regard. Emails and letters could be sent to prospective customers with details of the services offered. Advertisements in the newspaper and billboards could also catch customers’ eyes. A good idea to attract customers is by offering discount rates on the lawn care services offered. People who are handicapped or above the age of seventy will be given a fifty percent off on all lawn care services. Free installation of attractive lawn lights would be done for customers who refer others to Ladybird Lawn Care. The technical staff would consider it as part of their duty to let the customers understand their special landscaping needs as well as make them feel responsible members of the society by allowing the company protecting the greens. Feedback and suggestions from customers would always be encouraged so that Ladybird Lawn Care is able to figure out if it is moving in the right direction. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter could be used to create awareness of the brand among potential customers. The entire team from top to bottom will have to work in collaboration so that all the departments function on a budget and ensure that their decisions are harmonized. Project Three Year Financial Plan We assume that the rates of current and long term taxes are fixed at 10 percent and the monthly break even for Ladybird Lawn Care is almost 4000 dollars from monthly revenues. Income Statement Year 1 (in dollars) Year 2 (in dollars) Year 3 (in dollars) Sales 41000 91000 97000 Cost of Goods Sold 3000 6000 7000 Gross Margin 38000 85000 90000 Expenses Salaries 35000 40000 60000 Sales and marketing 1200 2000 2500 Insurance 1000 1000 1000 Licensing 1100 1100 1100 Taxes on Payroll 5000 9000 9000 Sum of Operating Expenses 43300 53100 73600 Net Income (2300) 37900 23400 The cash flow for year 1 is $6000, for year 2 it is $8000 and for year 3, the cash is 2000 dollars. Balance Sheet Year 1 (in dollars) Year 2 (in dollars) Year 3 (in dollars) Current Assets Cash 6000 8000 20000 Accounts Receivables - - - Total Current Assets 6000 8000 20000 Long Term Assets Long term assets 5000 11000 12000 Acc Depreciation 1000 4000 6000 Total Long term Assets 6000 15000 18000 Total Assets 12000 23000 38000 Current Liabilities 400 1000 2000 Long Term Liabilities 17000 15000 13000 Total Liabilities 17400 16000 15000 Retained earnings (300) (4000) (6000) Total Capital 17100 12000 9000 Total Capital and Liabilities 12000 23000 38000 Net Worth 17100 12000 9000 Employee Retention and Motivation Each employee of Ladybird Lawn Care knows how much value his skills and decisions add to the creation of brand equity. They are empowered to take decisions and benefit the company by implementing their unique and innovative ideas. Every creative lawn maintenance idea is recognized. Bonuses, incentives and reward plans have been designed by the HR management for employee retention. Every employee is aware of his job responsibilities and understands that any act of carelessness on his part could cost Ladybird Lawn Care a lot. Benefits of cultural diversity are communicated to employees on an ongoing basis so that they realize that when diverse ideas and skills are combined, remarkable results are produced. The working environment at Ladybird Lawn Care is pleasant and casual where all employees irrespective of their designation could share their knowledge and creativity for the betterment of the company. As reflected from the mission and vision statement of Ladybird Lawn Care, employees are kept satisfied because only a satisfied and loyal employee could offer best customer service and also help in creating long term customer relationships. Global expansion Ladybird Lawn Care plans to extend its operations outside the border of the USA after the brand is established in New York and other cities. Global expansion is a long term plan for Ladybird Lawn Care. A lot of challenges would welcome the company when considering international expansion. For instance, the already established lawn care companies would be a threat; language barriers; environmental laws; weather conditions; texture and nature of the soil; and suitable fertilizer selection etc. Implementation, Evaluation and Control The customer service and marketing team would take post service feedback from the customers usually on the telephone or emails in order to find out the standard of their service as perceived by the customers. Also the efficiency of the technical staff will be evaluated depending upon the quality of their work and the time taken to perform the lawn care service. Performance evaluation will be carried out on quarterly basis and improvement measures would be taken where necessary. All the lawn care equipments will be checked and maintained regularly so that the best quality standards are delivered to the customers. References McInnes, R. (1999). Workforce Diversity: Changing the Way You Do Business. Available: http://www.diversityworld.com/Diversity/workforce_diversity.htm. Last accessed 20th April 2014. Paludi, M, A (2012). Managing Diversity in Todays Workplace: Strategies for Employees and Employers. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC. Read More