Party Craze! Business Management Project

1.1 Reasons for the business venture

At the very beginning of the project, we have brainstormed a number of business ideas such as

online blog shop, small caf, accessories booth and also party organizer. However, we have

come to the decision of party organizer due to several reasons. Whenever parents have to plan

a party for their children, their ideas run out easily and it is always difficult for them to come up

with new ideas that are in the latest trend for children. They also face problems such as props,

decorations and suppliers to get the best bargains possible. This is the part where we, the party

organizers, can step in and provide solutions to their problems and worries.

Firstly, in todays society, children are the main priority of their parents and their parents would

go any length in order to provide the best to create happy childhood for their precious children.

Hence this provides a great business area for us to venture.

Secondly, we hope that our business would not only aim for the profits but at the same time, we

would like to pay back to the society by doing something meaningful such as creating happiness

for the children.

Next, as the Singapores economy is growing positively, people are more willing to spend. They

will be more willing and would want to go for more sophisticated products or activities, instead a

simple one. This is the part which will benefit our company as parents would be more willing and

would love to provide a sophisticated party for their children instead of a simple party.

On the other hand, we would be facing various problems while choosing the party organizers for

our business. We would have difficulties in advertising as this business area is uncommon in

Singapore as they are not seen to be popular and parties are not so commonly hosted as well.

This can be solved easily with the popular networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace to

create awareness and publicize our business. Also with the high level of services we provide,

we are able increase our publicity through the words of mouths by our clients.

On top of it, some parents might not be willing to spend this money which they might view it as

unnecessary money as they may prefer to hold a simple party at home instead of hiring

expertise to organize the party for them which will increase their costs. This can be solved by

establishing partnership with various childcares and kindergartens. In this way, we are able to

capture the hearts of the various groups of parents and children by organizing a class party at a

discounted price. This creates an opportunity to amaze them with our organizing skills and

basically to show them how our company works. Also, it helps to ensure the parents that their

money will be well spent. This solution can also be a way of advertising by reaching out to our

clients through such class parties. Also, by hiring us, they can actually save a lot of time and

effort as all the tedious preparation work will be done by us. Parents need not have to worry

about the funky and crazy ideas for their childs party after a tiring day of work.

1.2 Location of business

Rental Fee

(0.2)

Accessibility

(0.3)

Competitors

(0.1)

Facilities

(0.4)

Rational

decision

Cineleisure 1

(0.2x1=0.2)

5 (0.3x5=1.5) 5

(0.1x5=0.5)

5 (0.4x5=2) 4.2

Vivo City 3

(0.2x3=0.6)

4.5

(0.3x4.5=1.35)

5

(0.1x5=0.5)

4.5

(0.4x4.5=1.8)

4.25

Downtown

East

4

(0.2x3=0.6)

2 (0.3x2=0.6) 5

(0.1x5=0.5)

4 (0.4x4=1.6) 3.3

Siloso Beach,

Sentosa

3

(0.2x3=0.6)

3 (0.3x3=0.9) 5

(0.1x5=0.5)

4 (0.4x4=1.6) 3.6

Rental Fee- 5: Least expensive 1: Most expensive

Accessibility- 5: Most accessible 1: Least accessible

Competition- 5: Least competitors around 1: Most competitors around

Facilities 5: Lots of helpful facilities around 1: least helpful facilities

We will consider Cineleisure , Vivo City, Siloso Beach Sentosa or Downtown East as both the

venue for the party and shop. We have used the rational decision making to evaluate the factors

that will affect our business location. These factors are the rental fee, the accessibility of the

place, the facilities around it and also the competitors locating near our shop.

Firstly, the shop will be located in Cineleisure and the party venue will be at the Scapepark. The

rental fee will definitely be costly, however it is very accessible for customers to locate our shop.

The facilities around it are not very favorable as it is not a children-friendly shopping mall. There

is no competitor locating near our shop.

Secondly, the shop will be located in Vivo City and the party venue will be at the outdoor space

of the Vivo City. The rental fee may be costly, but it is very accessible for our customers and the

facilities such as playgrounds, Toys us locating near it which will be very useful to our business

as it helps to bring more families, who are our targeted customers, to the location for our shop.

Thus, it helps to increase our companys awareness and our business as well. Another plus

point will be no competitors locating near to compete with our business.

Thirdly, both our shop and party venue will be located at Siloso Beach Sentosa, the rental fee

might be lower as compared to the previous two mentioned locations as it is not located in

shopping malls. It is not easily accessible for our customers as it is not located centralized and

requires a long travelling time. Sentosa is more of a tourist attraction, so the facilities locating

near our shop will not be very useful to us as it is mainly beaches and sports activities. However,

there is no competitor nearby our shop.

Lastly, our shop will be located in E-Hub, Downtown East and party venue will be located at an

open space in Downtown East. The rental fee will be more affordable as it is not in a high

density shopping mall compared to Vivo City. However it is not very accessible as it is located at

the very eastern side of Singapore. A good point will be that the facilities around it is pretty

family oriented as Downtown East is a chalet for family to have a holiday within Singapore, thus

bringing more businesses to our company. There is no competitor locating near our shop.

After evaluating the decision making, we have decided to locate our shop and party venue in

Vivo City as it has the best crowd flow for our targeted customers and is high accessible for

customers to locate it. Though the rental fee will be costly, we believe that in a long term run we

will be able to gain more revenue due to the Vivo City location.

2.1 Introduction

Our company is known as the Party Craze. Our mission is to create an unforgettable party

experience for everyone and our vision is to establish the image as the main party organizer

which everyone would link up with whenever they thought of party.

2.2 Stakeholders

Customers

Customers are those who pay to use our companys products and services. As the events

planning industry is a volatile industry, it is essential to advertise aggressively and retain

customers loyalty. They are the main group that our company has to be accountable for and

are interested in employing us to organize and plan parties according to what they desire. Our

targeted audience is mainly the parents or school teachers or advisors. It is important to reach

out to them and convince this group to employ our services. The primary purpose of our

business is to fulfill the needs of our customers and also to make profits. Hence we need to

build a strong relationship with our customers to widen our customer base.

Competitors

Our competitors are other people or companies that compete for customers and resources with

us. It is essential to source for them and keep track of their actions and behavior so as to remain

competitive in the same industry. Examples of other party-planner companies include Fantasy

Parties, Fun Engineerz Pte Ltd, BuddyJane, Back2Bascis Parties. We should analyze their

services or products provided so that we can come up with appropriate strategies to retain our

customers while attract new ones. We would compare our product and services with them

based on prices, location, target audience, promotional packages. In the long run, we aim to

boost customer loyalty through aggressive advertising and attractive promotion packages that

stand out compared to other competitors.

Suppliers

A supplier is a person or an organization that provides supplies such as raw materials, services,

equipment, labour, or energy to other organizations. Suppliers play an important role to our

companys operation. As party planners often have to source for relevant materials and

equipments, we have to work closely to our suppliers and establish a strong relationship with

them so as to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our management. We will work with

Balloon Baron Specialties for the supply of helium gas and balloons, Boston Pizza Company

and Liang food caterer for food caters. Although we have our own logistics like the furniture,

decorations and the AVA equipments, we still alliance with those suppliers to replace them if

any furniture and AVA equipments are worn out. We will be working with Madhatter for the

decorations, tables and chairs. To ensure long term partnership with various suppliers, we

provide their company with some incentives for them, for example, we can give various

suppliers a discounted rate if they need us to plan their corporate party. We will also maintain

good relationship with the various suppliers by constantly communicate with them.

Strategic allies

Strategic allies describe the relationship of two organizations that join forces to achieve

advantages neither can perform as well alone. We hope to promote our services to schools and

various educational institutions and foster a close relationship with them. Our main allies can

range from primary schools to kindergartens and even childcare centres since children are our

main target audience. They can be our companys strategic allies and can hire us for any

subsequent events they would like to organize. This can help us establish customer loyalty and

enhance our companys status.

Local Communities

Our local community is a relatively small market as Singapore is a small nation. However, we

believe that the demand for our services is generally increasing due to rising standards of living

and such service has been a growing trend in recent years. Planning parties or events for

individual families or other educational institutions can help us boost our reputation and promote

our company to other potential customers too. Besides advertising our company through the

media as a medium to reach out to the masses, spreading our reputation by the word of mouth

can also be utilized as an efficient too to increase our customer base.

Financial Institutions

As being a party planner would require a relatively huge amount of capital initially, it is crucial to

liaise with banks, where some would offer services related to Small-Medium Enterprises (SME).

We would then be able to obtain funds to gather and purchase resources for our events. As

Singapore Government is strongly supportive of the setting up of SMEs, several policies have

been introduced, where efforts of public and private sector are aimed to enhance SMEs access

to financing. This is advantageous to us as itll increase the ease of obtaining capital. The

Government has also been catalysing new financing options, examples of which include the

Loan Insurance Scheme (LIS) and the SME Access Loan. Under the LIS, the Government is

able to defray the cost of credit insurance to encourage the banks to be more open in extending

trade financing.

Government Regulators

It is also essential to take Government Regulators into account as they can affect our reputation,

revenue and customer loyalty depending on which organization. For example, the Inland

Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) acts as an agent of the government to assess collect

and enforce payment of taxes. For companies like us, we have to pay corporate tax so that we

are allowed to keep our business running. The amount of corporate tax to pay will affect our

companys revenue which will in turn affect our companys overall profits. Another government

regulator would be the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE). It is a non-profit, non-

governmental organisation that is committed towards protecting consumers interest through

information and education, and promoting an environment of fair and ethical trade practices. We

are aiming to gain recognition from CaseTrust, which can assure and gain trust from our clients

on the quality and management of our company.

Special Interest groups

As our company aim to provide a joyous and memorable experience to our clients whom are

mostly children, we also hope to contribute back to the society by offering our services as a form

of charity to various welfare organizations. These include the handicapped, special needs, or

less fortunate children whom are located in non-governmental organizations such as the

Childrens society and Family Service Centres. Doing charity work for children is our passion

and willingness to help those in need and hope to share the fun and laughter and touch the lives

of children as many as possible. It can also be a way of promoting our services to the wider

masses and to enhance our reputation.

Mass Media

The mass media plays a crucial role towards building our companys reputation. It acts as a

channel between us and the audience and any content published about our company can have

a great impact on us. The public would be more inclined to believe what the mass media reports

due to their stringent regulations on reporting the truth and has gained the trust of the people

through the years. Thus it is crucial to note and find out how the press portrays us. One of our

plan to promote our company was to invite several reporters from different news agencies of

magazine publishers to experience and explore the services our company provides providing a

deeper understanding on what we have to offer. We can also invite the press down to our major

events to help us boost our image and to raise awareness about our company.

2.3 General Environment

We have considered the six general environments forces such as economic, political-legal,

socio-cultural, technological, demographical and lastly international which will affect our

business.

The first factor would be economic force. As Singapore is currently enjoying relatively good

economic growth, this would give the people a sense of stability and prosperity. Thus, people

would be more willing to spend their money on goods and services. As such, this can create

more business opportunities to reach out to more people and expand because more people

would be more willing to use our services. However, there is an increase in tax rates and

interest rates. An increase in taxes will hence increase the tendency of us borrowing costs from

banks. Over time, we will find it difficult to pay back the banks because their interest rates are

also increasing. It may cause damage to our company.

Secondly the political-legal force. In our line of work, we risk getting liability exposure, which is

simply the legal obligation/responsibility. Should we breach any of these obligations, we will

damage ourselves (paying of fines, risk getting sued or even have to go to jail). For example,

because we are a party planner company which caters to childrens parties, alcohol beverages

are strictly out of the question.

There are also the safety/ security issues in which if not managed, we have to face the tortious

liability- obligation to pay compensation to victims due to negligence. We need to ensure that

the children are safe at the party venue (fire/ room safety, ensure the children do not loiter

outside the party venue without supervision)

The third factor would be the socio-cultural force. With Singapore going towards a trend where

there are more double working parents in families, it is increasingly difficult for them to spare

time for their children, let alone the time they are able to fork out to plan a party for their children.

Thus, it makes it more favorable for families to opt for hiring party organizers instead. Therefore,

there is a potential market in this, and we have to ensure that we make ourselves known and is

attractive to potential customers in comparison to our competitors.

The next factor is the technological force. Due to the growing progress of technological

advancements, our company has to keep ourselves constantly updated so as to achieve higher

efficiency and effectiveness. An example is to use the Internet such as the current most popular

websites like Facebook and Twitter to market our services as compared to the norm of through

newspapers and billboards. This provides us an advantage in ensuring we stay competitive in

the market as we are able to reach out to a wider audience and also able to cut advertising

costs. However, technological forces can also be a disadvantage to us as well because other

companies will also use the same means to provide their products and services. Hence, this will

affect our business negatively too.

Next the demographic force. Singapore is currently experiencing a lowering birth rate. This can

affect our business negatively as we cater mainly to children, with an age limit. This can reduce

our business market and we may face a decline in the number of customers. Also our regular

customers may outgrow our market age limit, which can affect our business significantly.

However, children have become the gems of the family, as the population . Thus the parents

are willing to spend a large sum of money as long as they can afford to make their children

happy, especially for their birthdays. Therefore, this ensures us that we will still have the

customer base and business even if Singapore is experiencing a lowering birth rate.

Not forgetting the international force. An example will be the H1N1 virus, during the outbreak,

people all over the world were paranoid about going to crowded areas and tried to minimize the

level of contact with others as much as possible. Everyone was on high alert, wearing masks

and taking temperature check every few hours. They tried to minimize the needs to gather in an

enclosed area such as meetings. Attending party was definitely out of the question. Thus during

such outbreaks like H1N1, our business would be affect negatively by it.

3.1 Organizational Chart

3.2 Roles and Functions of Managerial Staffs

In our company, Our CEO, who is the founder of Party Craze, plays a Figurehead role. She will

represent our company legally and socially during different events be it inside or outside of our

organization. She will also act as a symbol for our organization.

Our Managing Director will play the monitoring role and be responsible for the routine operation

of the company. He will keep a close eye on the companys daily operations and ensure that all

departments are working towards to company goal.

As for our Financial Director, she will be working through the pay roll and create a list of event

budgets for every party. She plays a monitor role by monitoring the accounts and make sure

that everything is in the right track.

Operating Director will play the leadership and monitor role. She will constantly monitor her subordinates progress and responsible for their actions. She will demonstrate leadership by motivating and disciplining her subordinates. Procurement manager plays the liaison role by working with the suppliers, maintain good relationship with them to get the best bargains. They will also play the monitor role to ensure that the different supplies reach the destinations on time. Logistic manager will take care of all the party logistics for example the tables, decorations and the bouncy castles. She will make sure that all the logistics needed are ready before party. Party manager will be the disturbance handler and ensure that all the problems occurred during the party are fixed. He will also play the entrepreneur role by coming out with new party themes.

Sales and marketing Director will oversee the whole sales process and come out with different new innovative campaigns to advertise the company. She plays a leadership role and an entrepreneur role respectively. Assisting her, will be the advertising manager and the sale manager. Other than that, she also plays the disturbance handler role on the media side to ensure that negative news are kept to the minimum. Similar to the procurement director, advertising manager will play a liaison role by working closely with the media companies and get the best deal by playing a negotiator role. Sales manager will close deals with customer and play the liaison role by working closely with them to ensure that all the requirements are hit.

Human Resource Director plays leadership roles over her department. She will motivate her subordinates, discipline and train them. Other than that, she also plays a disseminator role throughout the company where she will understand the problems and complains of all the employees. She will be the resource allocator by looking through the commitment book and set the schedule of the week for all the workers. Training and development manager will demonstrate leadership roles when they train and discipline them and discipline new employees. With liaison role, our recruitment manager will work hand in hand with Recruiting companies such as Recruitment Express. Benefits and compensation manager will be the negotiator by negotiating with various companies to get the best incentives for our employees. She will be a disseminator by collecting all leaves and ensure that the there are still enough human resources to run the company. By doing so, she needs monitor the schedule and therefore, she plays a monitoring role.

To enable our employees to work with us in a happy environment, we will be applying Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory to motivate them. We will be providing our employees with the 5 different levels of needs. We will start by providing them with the most basic human physical needs such as food, shelter and comfort. By doing so, we ensure that our employees are full of energy during work. Employees will be given a break time of 10 minutes every 3 hours. They will also be given 1 hour of lunch or dinner break after 6 hours of work. To secure our employees safety needs, every employee is entitled to 18 days of leave every year. This will prevent them to suffer loss of income through sickness.

After satisfying their basic needs, our company will ensure that psychological needs are obtained. To let our employee feel belongingness, our company will organize a party every twice in a month to ensure outmost communication and interaction between our employees. To act like a team, our employees will perform a company cheer every morning to boost up their morale and emphasize their belongingness and importance to the company. To satisfy their esteem needs, our company employs the use of encouragement when our employees encounter mistakes or setbacks during their work. Praises and recognition will not be hidden in our company. In fact, it will be announced during important meeting as an example of a learning point. This simple act will also greatly increase our employees self-confidence where accomplishment follows.

To help our employee to develop their fullest potential, our company will lend a hand to our employees to help them to excel themselves. This includes allocating of challenging and stimulating responsibilities to everyone.

4.1 Organizational Culture

We would like to operate our organizational culture in the mixture of clan and adhocracy way

because we want the workplace to be a very enjoyable, family-type but at the same time our

employees are able to take the risks to come up with new products. We would want to promote

our workplace as a fun loving and caring environment which will encourage cohesion and

cooperation among our employees as a result they will be more committed in their work.

Everyones voice will be heard and there is always room for negotiation among one another.

Our organization will emphasize on the recruiting and developing of our employees as they are

our valuable resources. Also, we encourage our employees to be risk-taker, creative, innovation

and able to respond to the market changes instantly. This would help us to be able to come up

with the latest coolest party theme to meet our customers requirements.

We will have a standardize polo t-shirt for our employees to let everyone of our employees to

feel bonded as a whole and also create a symbol to remind our staffs on the core values and

beliefs.

4.2 Leadership Style

We would like to employ the Hersey and Blanchards Situational Leadership Model for our

company.

In a R1 situation which our employees have low level of readiness for work and are unable or

unwilling to work together to achieve the companys goals, in such situation we will employ the

S1 method, also known as Telling. We will be guiding and directing our employees onto the right

path. On top of it, we are able to increase our employees level of readiness and thus they are

more able to work together to achieve the companys goals. However, due to the strict guiding

and directing to our employees, it will result to low relationship between our managers and

employees.

Next will be R2 situation which our employees have a slightly higher readiness for work

compared to R1 as they are willing or confident enough but they are unable to achieve the

company's goals. Therefore they still require a more leader-directed style, known as Selling,

also S2, to ensure that they are able to achieve the goals and bring up their readiness level.

They are using the approach of explaining how to get the work done in order to achieve

companys goals and persuading them rather than directing. Thus this will result to a high

relationship between our managers and employees.

Following will be R3 situation which is our employees are able but unwilling to achieve

companys goals and have slightly higher level of readiness. They will need a more follower-

directed style, Participating S3, in order to motivate them to work towards the goals and feel

more secure about what they are doing for the company. They will be using a more encouraging

and problem-solving methods to run the company. This will lead to a high relationship between

them as they are using a encouraging approach instead of a strict one which employees would

prefer more.

Lastly is the R4 situation which our employees are able and confident to work towards

companys goals. They also have the low level of readiness for work. They only require a more

follower-directed style, which is Delegating S4, to observe and monitor them. The employees

are able to work on their own and do not require any guide or even motivation from managers.

However, they need managers to keep check on their work to keep their level of readiness up.

Thus this will lead to low relationship between them as employees do not like to be monitor and

observe always.

With all the leadership styles in consideration, we have chosen R2 situation and S2 leadership

for our company. This is because we would like our employees to have a high level of readiness

for work and also at the same time, a high relationship between them. Also, our organization

culture is to promote harmony in our company. Thus, this is the most preferable leadership style

for our company.

5 Controlling Style

Control is making something happen the way it was planned to happen, while controlling is

monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and taking corrective action as needed

Feedforward Control

Some of the feedforward controls our organisation can implement are the hiring of employees

with qualifications that suits the position after several interviews and selection criteria. Thus, this

controls the quality of human resources entering the organisation. Secondly, when ordering

supplies from any suppliers, we specify rigid standards of quality that we expect. This controls

the quality of the goods that we utilize. Thirdly, all employees will have to go through mandatory

safety trainings. This will ensure that all staff are knowledgeable about the procedures to follow

and are equipped with skills to handle any situations that may arise during our parties, such as

choking, injuries and fire. Fourth, we will also have our staffs to check on the party location

before the event starts and ensure that it is kid-friendly (i.e. no sharp corners, unstable

structures, dangerous items not in reach of children). Fifth, we will have in place at least a first-

aid box and paramedics in proportion to the expected number of attendees at the party. This

thereby ensures that in the case of any emergency, there will be someone to turn to for help.

Concurrent Control

For every event, our organization will have in place at least one direct supervisor for every part

(i.e. food, drinks, entertainment) to supervise the quality and oversea the actions of the staff.

This enables the manager to concurrently monitor the staffs actions and correct problems as

they occur.

Feedback Control

After every event, there will be feedback forms for the staff and also customers to fill in. In this

way, we are able to take note of areas in which we can improve on so that we will not make the

same mistakes for the upcoming future events. From the feedback, we can perhaps revise

standards so as to provide both our staffs and customers a better result.

6 Future Plans

We hope that more people will get to know our organization and slowly build up their faith in us

through our various ways of advertising in the next 3 years. For example through networking

sites like face book and twitter. (strategic planning: long-term goals are determined>more

people get to know us and have faith in us; available resources are identified>networking sites

like face book and twitter)

Measurable- conduct a survey before and after advertising to see whether our popularity has

grown or not (more people know about our organization)

We aim to create an unforgettable party experience for everyone by coming up with unique

themes according to the clients preferences. Our party planners would work together to come

up with some creative themes and create a wonderful party that our clients will remember for life.

Measurable- A meeting will be held every week for our party planners to share their new ideas

so that they can improve on their ideas and come up with more.

We wish to foster good relationship among our employees, to make our work place more

conducive to work in. As we believe that by building strong bonds, this would then enhance their

efficiency. In this way, they could communicate and work more effectively together. This would

in turn have a positive impact on the organization as this would help to gain our clients trust

after they see the dynamics of our organization. This can be done by organizing more bonding

sessions within the employees. By maximizing returns for the benefits of the employees, they

would then be more loyal to our organization and be more willing to work hard for us and build a

strong reputation in our field. (tactical planning: contributions their departments or similar work

units can make are determined work and cooperate together, let others see the dynamics of our

organization)

Measurable- give feedback forms for employees to fill in, to find out whether they think that the

workplace is conducive to work in

In addition, we would like to boost our companys image by trying our best to meet all the

requirements of our clients. We would open a forum for people to leave their feedbacks and

comments. All positive and negative feedbacks are welcomed, as we believe that negative

feedbacks will be beneficial to us as it allow us to reflect and make changes in our organization.

In this way, we will be able to improve on our services and let our customers leave a good

impression of us so that they would patronize us again. (operational planning: specific tasks will

be accomplished>boost companys image; using available resources is determined>internet,

our webpage)

Measurable- survey forms to find out what others think about our organization

We would also like to expand our business by catering to a larger group of people. Our targeted

group now is mainly children as it is easier to start off with a smaller business target group. As

we progress, we hope that we are not only successful in organizing childrens party but also

others like Christmas party, house warming and all. By catering to a larger group of people, it

will create more revenue for us. This can be done when we have established our business in

the childrens party aspect. We can start to introduce and focus more on the other types of

parties. In this way, we will be known as a company that can cater to all people instead of only

children. We wish to establish the image as the main party organizer, so that whenever people

think of organizing a party, they would think of Party Craze.

Measurable- clinched more deals in other aspect of parties, for example Christmas party etc.