Introduction
The first-time entrepreneurs Angela Peck and David Grieg started Beyond the Bean café, specializing in gourmet coffees and associated beverages, including cappuccinos and tea. The clients enjoyed eating snacks, drinking, renting tables, and playing board tables at the restaurant. Since the partners had a start capital of $60,000, they chose to locate their new venture near Richmond, London. Even though a business can record substantial profits, challenges in preparing an effective venture implementation plan result in its closure.
Environmental Scan
Regarding the competitive landscape, Beyond the Bean is situated in an area that gives it a better business rivalry position as no other ventures provide similar services, such as board games. The direct primary competitors are Fleetway and Palasad North, offering diverse game services, beverages, and food. At the same time, the indirect competitors include Williams Coffee Pub, Starbucks, Coffee Culture Café, and Tim Hortons, which provide different beverages and offer free Wi-Fi to ensure people interact. Concerning the regulatory aspect, the three levels of government are the local, state, and federal. At the municipal (local) level, the legislative policies demand, Beyond the Bean acquire a liquor license from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. The state officials ensure businesses adhere to the laws, including paying the application fee of $1055. The federal government provides a better environment for business operations, including ensuring adequate police patrol.
The economic factors, including the recession, impacted many ventures in London, creating high unemployment levels and thus affecting entertainment expenses. However, the coffee industry grew during the 2008 crisis, and its worth stood at $5 billion. The growth is expected to be similar to Canada’s, and game services would ensure Beyond the Bean becomes more popular. Regarding social trends, most people drink coffee, with the venture’s management mainly targeting university and college students. Even though Beyond the Bean will not offer Wi-Fi, it will promote socialization via board games and coffee. Concerning the technological factors, Beyond the Bean’s customers will be hindered from using their mobile phones as the company does not provide free Wi-Fi, thus providing a competitive edge over its business rivals. Natural factors, including the environment, are inevitable when starting a new venture. Beyond the Bean must comply with proper waste management to curb pollution.
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis
The notable strengths of Beyond the Bean include well-educated management to operate the business, its distinctiveness by offering board games to clients, and the open market. In addition, the biggest venture weakness is that the partners had low startup capital and minimal real-world business work experience. However, the available opportunity for Beyond the Bean venture is the presence of the target market, including young professionals and students interested in playing games, boosting its revenue collection. The Richmond road area is a prospective growth location for ventures due to its unique recreational facilities. The notable threats for the business include escalating prices of coffee and change in seasons, such as summer, where there will be low customer registration.
Problem Statement
The two entrepreneurs, Angela Peck and David Grieg planned to launch a board game café. However, even though they were educated, they had no work experience and had challenges developing a proper implementation plan to propel their venture. Therefore, the major issue facing the Beyond the Bean restaurant was the lack of a robust, well-researched, and feasible marketing plan to generate a viable opportunity to launch the new café.
Alternatives, Criteria/Evaluation, and Analysis of Alternatives
The management must consider four alternatives: postponing the idea of providing alcohol, offering complimentary food with table rentals, incorporating free Wi-Fi into their proposed plan, and integrating technological promotional tools. The postponement of providing alcohol will be measured through the feasibility of the available budget while incorporating free Wi-Fi will be evaluated via customer satisfaction. Offering complimentary food will be measured through the profits made while integrating technological promotional tools will be evaluated by the increased market share. The advantage of postponing alcohol services would minimize the cost of starting a new café. Its disadvantage is that the company would have deteriorated growth as it cannot survive without differentiation. The presence of free Wi-Fi will attract more people; however, it requires additional capital. Modern technological tools will increase the company’s popularity but require extra advertisement fees. The complementary foods will increase product sales but may damage customers’ goodwill.
Recommendation
Since Angela Peck and David Grieg have no enough startup capital, they should make amendments, including forgoing selling alcohol to reduce costs. The partners require adequate training and mentorship as they have no practical work experience to avoid future business risks to manage. The posting of alcohol services will ensure that the business attains its break-even point and can diversify in selling other products, which will supplement the profit generation.
Action Plan and Contingency Plan
Table 1: Action Plan
Table 2: Contingency Plan
Conclusion
The Beyond the Bean café encounters the issue of the management team not undertaking a well-researched and feasible marketing plan to launch the new restaurant as they have no real-world venture work expertise. However, the business can thrive as the business operators are well-educated, and the availability of college and university students with a high preferability rate of playing board games can make the business record more profits.