Hans' Blog

Is the business plan really important for entrepreneurs. According to Bob Dorf, ” new entrepreneurs often focus on the business plan, as they are taught to review during business classes” (Lee, 2012). He states that too many start-ups are spending too much time on business plans even though they cannot predict how well their companies will do. Dorf compared business plans to “cow dungs”, saying that business plans are just fictions and that start-ups will not be able to predict the number of customers that they will have in the future (Lee, 2012). I personally do not agree with Dorf’s statement. A business plan is  the only way that an investor will be able to have an understanding of the future start-up, allowing them to decide if they want to invest in that business. The start-up can easily be presented to investors without business plans, but it will not be as effective. In order for an investors to have a fair decision on investing, he or she must have a clear understanding of the business idea before hearing a presentation. Therefore, even though Dorf’s statement of business plans can be correct to a certain extent, business plans are still a fundamental part of start-ups.

Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nyuentrepreneurschallenge/2012/09/30/throw-out-the-business-plan-bob-dorf/

Few weeks ago, Dollarama released its revenue during the second quarter of the year; it has earned more than $49.8 million dollars during this quarter, which is 32% more than the revenue last year during the same quarter. Dollarama is a Montreal based company which started out selling products at $1.00 each but has now incorporated products that are worth $3.00.  The company started initiating these products during August 2012; surprisingly, the addition of these products did not decrease the sales of the company. As an employee of this company, I would normally expect that as the prices of products rises at a dollar store, the demand for purchasing goods at a dollar store would decease  as consumers expect products to be around $1.00. Moreover, the increase in profit is also increasing the price of stocks for Dollarama. It started out in October 2009 with the price of shares at $20 but has not risen to $70 per share.

In my opinion, Dollarama has shown that even as a dollar store, their revenue can be equally as high as other retail stores. As both an employee and a regular customer of Dollarama, I truly believe that Dollarama has made a statement to their competitors that a low budget company can earn more money than a super store such as Walmart or Loblaws. As a potential investor, it will be a good investment to buy shares of Dollarama as it will continue to rise through the years as it did the past few years.

Sources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/dollarama-profit-jumps-32-as-sales-increase-margins-improve/article4538423/?cmpid=rss1

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Dollarama+profit+jumps+sales+rise/7230245/story.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/dollaramas-growth-is-simply-remarkable/article4541753/

The owner of three Subway restaurants, Anil Dhawan, in British Columbia received the first ever Bad Boss Award for his actions in waving the legal rights of overtime pay of his employees that are working extra hours. Before employees were hired, he made them sign an employee wage agreement where they agree to not having overtime pay.

Clearly, this is an unethical practice that is created by the franchise owner. Not only has he allow himself to receive a horrible reputation as a boss, he is not creating a suitable atmosphere for his employees by not allowing them to receive that pay they should get for working overtime.  In R. Edward Freeman’s video, “What is Stakeholder Theory?”, he tells us to “think about a business whose employees don’t want to be there every day, who aren’t using a hundred percent of their effort and energy and their creativity to make the business better.”  That is exactly what Anil Dhawan did to his employees. Employees play a huge part in a company’s success and business ethics have to be properly followed in order to have employees that want to be there every day, satisfying R. Edward Freeman’s “What is Stakeholder’s Theory?”

More Info :

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/04/10/vancouver-subway-owner-named-bad-boss-by-young-workers/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu0BxfHIX3k

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