Melanies Book Store

1. Develop a beginning balance sheet showing your investment figures; footnote who the shareholder’s are and how much are they contributing which you will attach to your paper.
Look at Excel shits

2. Was Mark prepared to go into business? Specifically, what were the skills that he lacked? [To help you develop your answer you need to work on a SWOT matrix - which you will attach to yourpaper. Necessarily, you should work on pulling together the IFE and EFE matrices, which feed into the SWOT matrix]

Mark was not prepared in any moment to go to business. He ventured into a business that he did not know anything about. He skipped some important steps of research about the business, in order to cut costs, and this at the end proved to be harmful for the business entity. He lackedmanagerial and financial skills. He was not organized at all.

3. What are the main reasons for Mark's failure? Evaluate if Mark's outcome would have been any different had he been able to capitalize on his (S) strengths and (O) opportunities.
The main reasons for Mark’s failure are:
• Lack of knowledge about the business he was getting into.
• The lack of understanding of Mark in creatingan “S” corporation instead of creating a sole proprietorship.
• The lack of personnel for managing the business.
• The lack of a financial manager and accountant that would manage the financial position of a business.
• The lack of control of Mark towards his basic financial operations such as balance shit, inventory control, etc., that would have shown the truth about Mark’s failingbusiness.
• Lack of a Business Plan that would entail the truth about the main goals and purposes of the business.
• He also lacked a complete marketing plan that would have ensured the acknowledgment of his enterprise.
• He lacked personal character and ambition which are thriving forces behind the success of a business. In the same manner he did not take into consideration the advice presented tohim by the SCORE associate.
The Strengths of Melanie’s Bookstore are:
• Best-Sellers books show quality reading.
• Publishers agreed to take back books that do not sell (in prescribed period).
• Publishers gave Mark a term of 30 days of payment for merchandise.
• Mark had experience working as a cashier, receiving and shipping inventory.
• Had capital to start the business smoothly.• Support of SCORE group.
• Support form publisher's sales representatives.
The Opportunities of Melanie’s Bookstore are:
• Melanie’s Bookstore was the only one of its kind in the small new mall.
• It was located in a progressive area.
• Melanie’s Bookstore was the pioneer of a new unexplored market and could easily acquire a market share in that area.
• Since there wasn’t anycompetition Mark had the opportunity to be innovative and give bookstores a new attractiveness, for instance the reading-coffee corner.

4. Why do you think the night manager and Debbie Manos left the company?

We believe that first of all they were fed up with the deficient management instituted by Mark. Also a primordial reason might be that the night manager and Debbie had betterknowledge of the actual financial situation of the business. They knew that it was in financial hardship and that it would not make them progress in their careers, therefore the best alternative was to leave the company.
Another factor that might be a possible reason why the employees left was that they realized that Mark might have lied to the banks for the acquisition of a new loan, to pay debt. Theywould not like to be in a business that would sustain so much loss and that would not grow.
The final factor might have been that Mark never demonstrated any concerns for their needs and did not remunerate them correctly, that was why they did not feel happy in their current positions.

5. Is it possible for a family person to go into business without failing? Or must family life be...