Capital Budgeting PROJECT ANALYSIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Capital Budgeting PROJECT ANALYSIS - Essay Example The company’s target market will be the students and friends of the college. The students will be offered the skis at a discounted rate of $250, and the outsiders will purchase the skis at $600. Since the project will be generating revenue, there will be no need of finding other means of funding as the project’s operations are anticipated to generate enough revenue that will be ploughed back as a means of funding. The project was selected for the following reasons: First, project will be beneficial to college in terms of learning and management to the students because they will be exposed to a real-time work environment. The students of Westminster will use the company for their internships where they will be in a position to learn various management and production skills. The company is anticipated to have a stable management that will perform efficiently and effectively because of support and supervision that will be offered by the College’s Centre for Entrepre neurs and the Company’s Board of Directors. If the project is successful, it will benefit the college first, in terms of revenue generation and second, as part of the college the capital invested back into the business will subsequently also increase the asset value of the college. A careful analysis was carried out to inspect the viability of the project in terms of revenue generation, costs, payback, depreciation, rate of returns, and the projects net present value. Initial costs First, an assessment of the costs and commitments that the project will undertake will be as follows. In acquiring the company, the College will incur Total Capital Cost of $ 15,200.35. This amount is inclusive of the equipment and material cost of $15,000 that are required for the continuation of business. The equipment is valued at current market value, and it includes a $2,400 purchase order contract. The costs also involve the total transportation costs of $200, which will be employed in the mo ving truck and labor transport costs. The estimated costs for a single product are computed inclusive of all necessary materials and it is found that for each product to be manufactured the company will be spending $108. The company additionally spends an extra $100 for maintenance purposes. Labor costs have been computed as part of the company’s operating costs, and it is estimated for every three students working for the company, 10 hours a day at a rate of $8 will be costing the company a total of $240 dollars or simply $80 dollars each. Depreciation Factoring depreciation into the investment, it estimated that for the initial investment value to have a fair value of $0, it would take approximately 8 years. The company experiences a sharp depreciation in the second year because this is the estimated time when most of the initial investment materials will be depleted. Cash flow A budget analysis for the company is carried for the first eight years when it is estimated that the fair value of investment will be zero. For the eight years, the company is estimating to have minimum revenue of $10,800. The revenue is generated through a customer base comprising of students and friends of the college who will be buying the skis on a year basis. The students are estimated to buy the skis at a price of $400. The price is discounted because the students are also involved in the manufacturing process. The outsiders will be buying the skis at $600. The estimated revenues the company will

Employee Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Employee Relations - Essay Example BCL has been operating since its origins with this structure with little or no changes made, the new managing director, however, is young and highly educated, and having worked his way through the business, wants to implement changes to the structure and make the business more modern in its approach to all the major functions mentioned above. The writer of this report has been appointed as the new HR Director, whilst a new operations manager, who also happens to be the new managing director’s colleague in university, has been appointed to replace the outgoing manager. Through a consensus, the three senior managers have come to an agreement that major structural changes need to made, by reducing the management hierarchy, and by forming a strategic partnership with a leading high street grocery retailer, Cost-Savers, in a bid to see the business streamlined and cost effective. The new partnership is expected to cut costs down in terms of premises rentals, as BCL will have their shops within Cost-Savers shops. Another key factor is that Cost-Saver and BCL will share a distribution depot while one of the smaller of BCL’s depots will be shut, and where Cost-Savers and BCL are in the same location, the BCL shop will be closed whilst core and flexible staff of that BCL shop will be offered positions at the Cost-Savers shop, and the rest made redundant. Also certain low profit stores of BCL will be shut altogether. The main changes in the management structure include: Reduction of the number of districts from 16 to 12 District managers will be given expanded responsibilities for product placement, identifying new opportunities and increasing sales within their district Each regional manager will be given the added responsibility of providing development opportunities for store and district managers Each store manager will be given autonomy to recruit staff, promote products, stock products on own discretion, and have more direct contact with head office. All managers will be coached to become leaders and not merely managers for their sectors. Staff would be given the added incentive of a profit based six monthly bonus to boost their sense of belonging to the organisation. The main task given to the writer as HR Director is to come up with a plan to make sure the above changes have a positive effect on staff, and that an employment relationship culture of teamwork is brought about through the changes. This would mean engaging the staff in matters related to key decision making, and change the existing non-directional management of individual stores to align with corporate directions. Key Literature Review: From the above introduction, it can be inferred that BCL has decided to go from a hierarchical, and centralised organisational structure to a horizontal and decentralised structure. It is therefore important to understand these terms before delving any deeper. Organisational Structure: The term ‘organisational structureâ€⠄¢ simply refers to the way in which job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated. It involves the processes of work specialisation, where tasks in the organisation are subdivided into separate jobs; departmentalisation, where the subdivided jobs are grouped together; chain of command, which

Costs and Benefits of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

Costs and Benefits of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) FDI 1) General Information About FDI Foreign direct investment (FDI) can be defined by saying: If an investor takes place in far from their home country with purchasing a firm in the landlord country’s border. According to â€Å"The Organization of Economic Corporation and Development (OECD)†, If a foreign investor has more the ten percent of the local company, this means that the foreign investor has control on the local company. One different description suggests that, basically, a company from one country’s doing a substantial investment into structure a plant in a different nation. Foreign Direct Investment plays an important part in global entrepreneurs and businesses. The FDI can easily provide a firm with new business environments and markets, cheaper production facilities, usage chances of newest technologies, cheaper financing and skills. FDI mobility slacked up in 2011 after a short time interval of improvement in 2010. FDI leakage around the world raised in 2011 with around 11% to USD1558 billion contraversely to 24% increase in 2010 and stayed splendid under the most high degree in 2007 ($2190B). There is an significant difference between FDI and foreign portfolio investment (FPI). Foreign portfolio investment means investing of individuals, companies, or policy makers of a nation in foreign fiscal tools (for example government bonds, foreign stocks). making an important wealth piece in a foreign entrepreneurship is not involved. Evaluating the FPI level is more different that evaluating the FDI level and these two of them focus very distinctive topics. There are two strategic kinds of FDI: 1) Horizontal foreign direct investment : If FDI is made in way which in same sector as a company have activity in at home. To give an example for Horizontal Foreign Direct Investment, we can say that If Ariston makes investment on Caribbean and Scandinavian nation it can be countted as horizontal foreing direct investment. Authorities suggest that studying on horizontal foreign direct investment may be very helpful to understand the vertical foreign investment. 2) Vertical foreign direct investment: If a company or multi national establishment (MNE) supplies production resources for a company’s local transactions, or this kind of foreign direct investment can take place with selling the final product of a local company in their company’s country. After briefly defining the foreign direct investment, now on next part, we will be studying on benefits and costs of the foreign direct investment for a country. 2) FDI: Benefits for Economy of Host Country In order to get more positives from FDI freely, improving countries have started to dilate and make more suitable laws and FDI policies and attempted to reach most suitable arrangement to get interest the FDI makers. Professors of economy who supports the liberal market perspective suggest that the gain of FDI to a landlord country so preponderate the costs that practical nationalism is an ideologywhich has been unable to imply. Four determined benefits will be studied on this part for the landlord country: effects on resource – transfer , the effect on employment, effect on balance of payments, and the aspect of competition. 2.1) Effects on Resource Transfer Foreign direct investment can add great amount of value to a landlord economy with providing cash and capital, innovative technology, and governance sources that might the directly invested country does not have and with the help of three important resource the country’s economy’s expanding rate can be increased. That type of source transport can contribute to the stimulating the fiscal expanding of the landlord economy. There are three elements in Resource – Transfer Effect, which are Capital, Technology and Management. 2.1.1) Capital When we get to talk about the capital, multinational enterprises (MNEs) spend money and make investment for long term basis, get into jeopardy and use their corporate identities only when the projects makes money well. After the free capital transfer across nations regulations, capital-holders are very likely to seek highest rate of return. It causes that the countries which are in need of capital, try to attract MNEs to invest. A lot of MNEs , with the help of their big size and financial strength, get accesibility to fiscal instruments and opportunities which may not be ready to use to company’s of landlord nation. These funds are likely to be ready to use for MNEs. That situation is caused by the multi national enterprises’ popularity, huge MNEs more easily access to money from capital markets than host country firms would. That situation helps MNEs to invest their money to host country and get higher return rate with the help of the MNEs, the host country gets the i nvestment. For example, after the seeing that definition we may think, as an example to capital transfer, the efforts of Turkish government to find a partner for their tele communication company of Turk Telekom. That partnership was thought as an opportunity to grow for that company mentioned. One professor suggests three general advantages of FDI on capital, these are ; 1)company presidents have less risk with the help of free flow of capital around the world. With the different financial instruments, president can distribute the risk. 2) If the money and capital markets become worldwide, that situation increase the quality of capital and money governance and management, gathers more modern regulations. 3) With the integration to international system of capital flowing, country’s governments must have some limit to make bad policies. 2.1.2) Technology If a company wants to grow, must be able to use and follow technology very well. That sentence is generally approved by the authorities. Technology can create a movement and mobility in the economy which may be able to facilitate economic improvement and industrialization. There are two different ways of effect of technology to take place in landlord country. Both of the are very valuable and can not be ignored. Technology may take place in a process of production or it can take place in final product (for example., smart phones we use). Although, there are too many nations which do not have enough technology and innovation, they also have to have their own research and improvement for their economic growth. Last sentences is also specifically accurate for less improved nations. It is evident that the having appropriate technology has a great amount of corelation with being improved country or not. If a country has enough technology, they can directly evacuate their technology to different country and make great money. Because technology is an expensive resource. Technologies which are taken from improved countries are more willing to bring modernism and liberalism to the landlord country. 2.1.3) Management Foreign expertise for management which are gained by FDI is very helpful for the landlord country. The mentioned benefits take place with different ways. First, the investing MNE can train the host country’s citizen to expertise on their respectively occupation. This way is thought to be cheaper. Secondly, the investing MNE can bring their own employees from their company’s nation and with making this, the invested company’s brunch may has already trained employees to manage the business in landlord company. These benefits sometimes get less if the mentioned benefits are unique for the investing MNE’s company. That problem cause ineffectivity in managemenet and governance of the landlord’s branch of the company. With creating suitable management team is accepted to increase the efficiency of the company and also the landlord country’s nation’s management traditions. For this concept, one of experienced professor offers three benefits in managerial way. Such as more accurate training and high level of regulations can help to increase effectiveness of managemenet, being skillful on investment possibilities can be increased by entrepreneurial soul, the employees who get training, takes arising externalities. 2.2) Employment Effects Employment is effected by foreign direct investment (FDI) directly and also indirectly. Facilitating of employment is most important effect of FDI in the countries with high working power but having less capital to invest. This kind of impact takes place when the MNE hires a lot of host country’s citizen. This is the direct effect of employment. The indirect effect of employment is creating jobs in domestic resource provider as a outcome of FDI of the MNE and increased local spending. Some argue that that not all the newly created employments established by FDI shows net additions in employment. For example; If we think about FDI by German chemical company in the Greece. , some argue that the employment established by this FDI have been less than break even with creating employment lost in chemical companies from Greece, which have started to lose market share to foreigner chemical investor. As a result of this kind of substition effects the real number of the employment which is created by FDI of the German chemical company may be less than it is expected. That employment effect helps and creates leverage for the investing MNEs when the MNE and the landlord country’s government negotiate about a conflict. Create employment is always important task for a government. 2.3) Balance of Payments Effects Balance of Payment is a country’s balance-of-payment is the difference between the payments to and receipts from other countries. FDI can have beneficial and negative effects on a country’s balance of payment. FDI s effect on a country’s balance of payment accounts is an significant regulation topic for most landlord policy makers. There are three possible balance of payments outcome of FDI. Initial Capital Inflow If a MNE invest directly on a country, that multi national enterprise gathers their own money to spend and invest. Substitute for Imports If a MNE produce goods in a country and If these goods were imported earlier, this kind of situation will look good on balance of payments. Inflow of payments from export of goods and services If a MNE produce goods in a country and If these goods are exported, this kind of situation creates good values on balance of payments. 3) Costs of the Foreign Direct Investment Three costs of FDI concern host countries. They arise from possible adverse effects on competition within the host nation, adverse effects on the balance of payments, and the perceived loss of national sovereignty and autonomy. 3.1) Adverse Effect on Competition This aspect basically be summarized with saying;the MNEs which directly invests to another county.may have â€Å"too much† power and kill off competition. Even though the landlord country’s government seems to be satisfied with the positive effects of the FDI, sometimes they start to have some concerns with the gaining or being too much strength of foreign investor can cause deadly effect on the competition. Eventually, the foreigner investor or the MNE can become the monopol in sectors of landlord country’s economy. This kind of concerns take place in countries which have small amount of big companies operate locally. 3.2) Adverse Effect on Balance of Payments This aspect can be summarized with saying; when a foreign subsidiary imports a substantial number of its inputs from abroad, there is a debit on the current account of the host country’s balance of payments. The landlord country’s company’s balance of payment possibly effected adversely with two concepts showed below. The money and capital generated by the FDI will not be staying in the landlord country’s account forever. Eventually the MNE which invested on landlord country, will take their money and takes their home nation. If a foreign group member country imports great amount of production from abroad, the figures will take place on landlord country’s debit account in balance of payments accounts. 3.3) Does the FDI cause loses in national independence? National sovereignty problems are caused by the having too much power for a foreign multi national enterprise. Some argue that a foreign multi national enterprise with great amount of economic and governmental power would be too active on the landlord nation’s internal businesses. Some take this idea forward with saying that If a county lets a multi national enterprise to have too much power and also be monopol in an sector, that company can be depend on the MNE’s country mediately. For example, If a country’s monopol natural gas provider were foreign, in an conflict situation between MNE’s country and landlord company, that MNE can cut the natural gas out. Conclusion : Critical Discuss on Benefits and Costs of FDI on Emerging Markets With the light of these all information, all we all understand that foreign direct investment can be tricky for different countries. Effects of the FDI for different countries may be different as well. As we’ve seen that even though there are significant benefits in foreign direct investments, FDI also have some costs for the countries. In this conclusion section, we are going to discuss these tricky things for the emerging markets briefly. In order to FDI be beneficial for a country, the country must have a enough working power to facilitate necessary working power, must have suitable regulations which provide good environment for capital to flow freely, countries should have a condition that the MNEs’ power on the economy does not threaten the countries’ national sovereignty, and the countrÄ ±es have to suitable balance of payments values because FDIs may have big amount of influence on these values. That influence may be beneficial but it may also be costly. Some of the emerging markets countries such as Turkey and South Africa are in need of capital badly. FDI provide some of these necessities but the problems of that transactions are according to economy’s situation the money flow can be costly more and other disadvantage of that is these FDI are not in the country to stay. The MNEs which provide FDI can decide to leave the country and take back their invested capital from the country. That kind of situation may create a huge problem for country. As we all see that, a country should not depend to FDI too much. Before demanding the FDI from the MNEs, countries must make their research very solid. As we’ve seen that too much FDI can cause some problems. The graph below shows the FDI distribution to emerging market countries (EMC); References www.oecd.org – global foreign investment trends, country investment guides, investment reviews, analysis www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/business/guides/fordinv.html – a wide range of links to statistical information on global foreign direct investment. OECD (2010), Measuring Globalisation: OECD Economic Globalisation Indicators, OECD Publishing. â€Å"The Effects of Foreign Direct Investments for Host Country s Economy† Selma Kurtishi Kastrati (2013) Hill, C. (2000) International Business Competing in the Global Marketplace. University of Washington: Irwin McGraw-Hill. Feldstein, M. (2000) Aspects of Global Economic Integration: Outlook for the Future. National Bureau of Economic Research.Cambridge, Massachusetts: NBER Working Paper No.7899 Romer, P. (1994) The Origins of Endogenous Growth. Journal of Economic Perspectives , 8(1),3 22. Lall, S., Streeten, P. (1977) Foreign Investment, Transnationals and Developing Countries. London: Macmillan. Aaron, C. (1999): The contribution of FDI to poverty alleviation. Singapore: Ther Foreign Investment Advisory Service. Dunning, J. (1961) The Present Role of US Investment in British Industry. Moorgate and Wall Street 1990-2002, Balance of Payments Statistical Yearbook, IMF

Mary, Queen of Scots by Gordon Donaldson Essay -- Mary, Queen of Scots

The biography that is being reviewed is Mary, Queen of Scots by Gordon Donaldson. Mary Stuart, was born at Linlithge Palace on December 8, 1542, sixs days later she became Queen of Scotland. Mary became Queen of France and soon her greediness grew and she wanted to take over England. Mary was unwilling to stay in France, so she went back to Scotland. There her second husband died and she was imprisoned in England for the suspicion of the murder. Mary had a bad ending to her life. Mary got caught in attempting an assassination of Queen Elizabeth for which she was beheaded on February 8, 1587. In conclusion, Mary had a hard life trying to keep her thrones. The first chapter in the book discusses the reign of King James V, father of Mary Stuart. He became King of Scotland at the age of one after his father’s death at the Battle of Flodden. His marriage to princess Madeleine ended after her sudden death, and James then married Mary of Guise-Lorraine in 1538. This marriage cemented the Alliance between Scotland and France but worsened relations with England leading to the war with Henry VIII, which ended in Scottish defeat in 1542. James V died in Falkland Palace, on December 14, 1542, â€Å"As a worn-out, desperate man, at the age of thirty years†. His daughter Mary, just six days old, was his successor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In chapter two Mary, Queen of Scots was being educated in France, where she was sheltered from the danger of Scotland, England and France and their constant bloodshed. During Mary’s childhood, France, England, and Scotland fought over religious decisions and particularly over who should control the church. At the end of the chapter, the â€Å"Book of Discipline†, comes into effect on setting up a regional organization for the Church. In the beginning of chapter three, Mary is eighteen years old, married and then widowed, and she is Queen of Scotland and France. The King of England, Francis, is dying, and Mary has the thirst for more power by trying to become Queen of England. Mary’s sister-in-law, Elizabeth, also finds the idea of being Queen tempting but by being illegitimate by birth, Mary feels she has the upper hand. She marries Lord Darnley, her English cousin, and is infatuated with him in the beginning, but she soon starts to dislike him and refuses his demands for crown matrimonial. Darnley becomes jealous of Mary’s most trusted fri... ...itness the execution of Sir John Gordon in 1562, faced her own end with calm, courage, and dignity†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The strengths of the book are very apparent. The book provides an in depth description of Mary Stuart from her appearance, to the sports in which she liked to play. Also, the book shows pictures of the castles in which Mary stayed in and also of Mary and her first husband, Francis II. In addition, this book can creatively make you visualize specific events that occurred in Mary’s life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The one major weakness of the book was that it was a to informative for the average reader. By describing the many ruling families of England, France, and Scotland, this book proved to be quite confusing in recognizing which family belonged to which country. Also, the author seemed to jump from one time period to the next without any flowing text.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I feel that this book should mainly be read by above-average reading level students in high school/ college or by people interested in that particular time period. I enjoyed reading about Mary Stuart and her troubled life. It was sometimes hard to grasp the content, however, when I did comprehend the material, it was quite interesting.

PRICE RANGE OF PRODUCTS

PRICE RANGE OF PRODUCTS Above is the price range of all Apple products between the years of 1975 to present. Steve Jobs manufactured products that were not just far advanced than other products in the same category, but they were also out of reach for most consumers. When Apple Computer launch its Apple II in 1977, it cost $1,298 and if you wanted a more powerful version it would cost you a twice that amount. In 1984, Apple Computer released the Macintosh at a price of $2,495. At these prices many consumers could not afford to own a Macintosh.Upon Steve Jobs return to Apple Computer in 1984, Apple products price drop allowing most price conscious consumers to own a Macintosh. The new iMac carry a price of $1,300 which would cost $1800 in today’s current dollar value. As technology advance, the price of Apple Computer products continued to decline. Since 1996, Apple had released the MacBook Air for $900 and MacMini for $600. (Felix Salmon, 2011) Apple now offers products in add ition to Macintosh products. These products have been very profitable for Apple Computer.The products below are sold on Apple store online: Computer technology has enable manufacturers to build cheaper, higher-quality and more powerful computers that are also more accessible and affordable to the average consumer. For example, the iPad 2 has been compared to the 1980’s Cray supercomputer, but at a price that millions of people can afford. Steve Jobs realized that technology had advance to a point that he could now make products that could not just deliver high quality but also be â€Å"price accessible to the broad non-geek middle classes.He could not make his â€Å"NeXT workstation which was value at $6500 in 1990, or $11,267 in 2011 â€Å"which was placed on many workstations across the world† at price that many not only be affordable but hard for competitors to match. For example, the iPad 2 price is $499 and the IPhone 4s is price at $199, both sold at competitiv e price that is hard to competitors to match and within the price range of most consumers. (Felix Salmon, 2011) PRICING OBJECTIVE S OF BRANDAccording to Steve Jobs, â€Å"Apple is breaking the rules in terms of its pricing model,† he told Reuters by telephone. â€Å"It's doing what luxury brands do, where the higher price the brand is, the more it seems to underpin and reinforce the desire. † â€Å"Obviously, it has to be allied to great products and a great experience, and Apple has nurtured that. † (David Cowell, 2012) After all Apple is a luxury brand that demand a premium price and Apple customers do are not looking to save money but to get the highest quality product in the market.This adds up to three main factors that help Apple keep the iPad and other Apple products price so low: 1. Apple stores – Apple makes a large chunk of its iPad sales directly to its customers through the Apple retail stores and the online Apple store, which enables the comp any to keep even more of the profits. While running retail stores are expensive, Apple runs one of the most profitable retail businesses in the US and these direct sales give Apple the ability to directly follow up with customers to entice them with future upgrades. 2.Supply chain – As others have explained, Apple has a major supply chain management advantage. That means that it controls the components that go into its product (and the price it pays for them) better than its rivals do. Apple makes the software, designs the chips, and buys flash memory and LCD displays in huge quantities (in combination with iPhones and iPods). That significantly whittles down the raw cost of each iPad. 3. The 3% factor – Apple sells the iPad to retail partners at a minimal 3% discount (which is likely much lower than competitors).Because of the strength of Apple’s brand and the customer demand of the iPad, retailers are willing to take very little profit on iPad sales in order t o drive store traffic and make money on add-on purchases like accessories and extended warranties. (Jason Hiner, 2011) Apple has been so successful by opening their own stores which has made a huge impact for iPad, when iPad2 was released CEO Steve Jobs said: â€Å"One of the things that enabled us to roll out this technology so fast was our Apple retail stores. They were built for moments like this.They were built to take new technology and roll it out and educate customers about it and be there when they have questions and issues. We have hundreds of Apple stores now, as you know. This is one of our newest ones in Chicago [pointing to a slide]. And, without these stores I don’t think we would have been as successful either. † [ (Jason Hiner, 2011) ] Alternatives tablets from other competitors have not be able to compete with Apple iPad and have had to cut their prices to retailer. Apple has taken notice and has taken advantage of its pricing strategy and has lowered the iPad price to its retailer.Motorola and Samsung may sell their tablets at 97% at retail price but if the product is not as desirable as the iPad the 97% may not make any difference. The margins are more like 5-15% off retail price for competitors. [ (Jason Hiner, 2011) ] DISCOUNT/ALLOWANCES Apple is not currently offering any discount for the iPad but has in the past offer student discounts. For example, it has offered students a discount of $200 for MacBooks. In 2011, Apple also offered a back to school promotion in which students could save about $229 and get a â€Å"free iPOd Touch 8GB with the purchase. (Andrew, 2010) ] Apple student pricing for iPad is $499, just like regular buyers GEOGRAPHICAL PRICING In May 28th 2010, Apple broaden their market to outside of the United States by offering iPad’s to nine other countries which included Canada, Germany, Australia, France, Japan Italy, Switzerland, Spain and United Kingdom. Pricing for these countries were â€Å"the suggested retail price in UK has been confirmed and for WiFi-only model – the 16GB version will be available at ? 429, 32GB version for ? 499, 64GB version for ? 599, while for the WiFi + 3G 16GB model will be available at ? 29, 32GB version for ? 599 and 64GB version for ? 699. † Apple will continue to add more countries by July 2010 by adding Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore to the mix. The price of the iPad was not disclosed but it’s was suggested that pricing for iPad would be slightly higher than the United States pricing. Apple is also trying to expand into the Asian market where tablet are being sold much cheaper than the Apple IPAD. (Wong, 2010) APPLE PROMOTIONAL PRICINGApple continues to offer back to school promotions in 2011, Apple offered free $100 iTunes gift certificate with a purchase of Mac computers. Apple offers are not as generous as most consumers would like them too be but itâ₠¬â„¢s better than nothing at all. Apple offers discounts for MacBooks desktops and laptop every year for students. Apple has created a special Education store link on Apple online which shows current offers and discounts that can range between 8 and 10% of the regular price for MacBooks. [ (Andrew, 2011) ] Works Cited Andrew. (2010, April 23). Is there an Apple Ipad Student discount.Retrieved from Student buying guide: http://www. studentbuyingguide. com/2010/04/apple-ipad-student-discount/ Andrew. (2011, September 16). Last Weekend for Apple Back to School 2011 $100 Gift Card Promotion. Retrieved from Student Buying Guide: http://www. studentbuyingguide. com/2011/09/last-weekend-for-apple-back-to-school-2011-100-gift-card-promotion/ David Cowell. (2012, April 17). Apple Passes Google To Become World's Most Valuable Brand. Retrieved from Huffing Post Business: http://www. huffingtonpost. com/2011/05/09/apple-google-most-valuable-brand_n_859265. html Felix Salmon. (2011, June 06).Reu ters. Retrieved from Reuters. com: http://blogs. reuters. com/felix-salmon/2011/10/06/chart-of-the-day-apple-price-edition/ Jason Hiner. (2011, March 11). The iPad's other big advantage: Retailers only get 3% off. Retrieved from Tech Republic: http://www. techrepublic. com/blog/hiner/the-ipads-other-big-advantage-retailers-only-get-3-off/7880? tag=content;siu-container Wong, S. (2010, May 8). Apple's iPad International Pricing and Availability on May 28th. Retrieved from My Digital Life: http://www. mydigitallife. info/apples-ipad-international-pricing-and-availability-on-may-28th/

Restaurant Business Plan Essay

Entrepreneurs who start new restaurants may overestimate the size of the market in their area and not take into account the tough competition they will face from established restaurants with loyal clientele. Doing a feasibility study prior to investing the time and money to open a restaurant can help an entrepreneur make a more informed decision about the venture’s chances of success. Starting or running a restaurant? These practical tools can help.www.virtualrestaurant.com Obtain Market Statistics Studying demographic characteristics such as age and income will help you estimate the size of your potential market. If you are planning a mid-price, family-style restaurant for example, you need to know how many families reside in your area. A heavy population of singles or college students will probably not support your restaurant. The U.S. Department of Commerce Census Bureau website is a good place to begin your research. Evaluate Potential Locations A high-traffic location is preferable, one close to major streets with lots  of visibility to vehicle or pedestrian traffic. Make sure parking is ample and easy for customers to access. Look for businesses in the area that could create demand for your restaurant — large office complexes, hotels or retail centers for example. Be sure to consider the tradeoff between a location’s suitability and the lease cost. Saddling a new restaurant with a lease payment that is too high can make it extremely difficult for the venture to reach positive cash flow. Related Reading: Business Plan Vs. Feasibility Study Review the Competition Look not only at the total number of restaurants in your immediate area but also at the styles of restaurants that are prevalent. Consider whether your area is already saturated with restaurants similar to the concept you will be offering — similar cuisine, price point and target markets. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each major competitor and determine whether your proposed restaurant will stand apart from competitors and be memorable to customers. Study the Industry Join your state or local restaurant and hospitality organizations. Attend their meetings, talk with other restaurant owners and review any statistical information they publish about the growth and health of the industry. The National Restaurant Association also publishes studies and statistics about industry trends and growth. Decide whether given the current economic environment it is advisable to launch a new restaurant. Find out if any restaurants in the area have closed in the last two years and why. Look at Your Cost Structure Once you have a good idea what type of food you want to offer, break down the cost of each menu item. Determine who your major suppliers will be and ask them for pricing. Software programs are available to help you accurately calculate projected food cost. You may consider reducing the number of items on your menu to keep food cost down. You may also find that given the food cost projections, the prices you will have to charge are higher than your  local market will support. Evaluate Management Capability An entrepreneur contemplating opening a restaurant should take a hard look at whether he has the skill set and experience to make the venture a success. He should ask himself whether he has the eye for detail to maintain high customer satisfaction. He needs to be able to train and motivate staff members who may have limited experience or education. He needs to understand how to make the kitchen operation run smoothly. He may determine that it is not feasible for him to be the general manager of the restaurant’s operations and elect to hire a manager who already has a track record of success in the industry.