10. RECOMMENDATION
Although Cendol Mami is famous and well known, the owner is never snobbish and she treats all his customer well. Cendol Mami has become so well known and successful you will barely notice any flaws in their business. However there is always space for improvement, even it’s just a small amount.
10.1 LEARNING CURVE
There are some things they can do to improve their individual performance based on learning curve. Firstly, is motivation. Increased productivity based on learning curve is not achieved unless there is reward. Prizes can be money (individual group of infective plans) or nonmonetary (month reward employees, and many more).
In addition, I suggest they just do one or a few jobs at a time. Learning will be faster for work done at a time to completion at one time rather than doing a lot of work simultaneously.
10.2 MARKETING
Cendol Mami is well known among locals mainly because they get recommended by 7customers to their friends. To gain more customers, I recommend them to promote their stall more via social media, newspapers and more. This maybe will gain attention of a famous food critic and hopefully boost their business.
10.3 FINANCE MANAGEMENT
To improve finance management in their business, I recommend them to monitor their financial position. They should regularly monitor the progress of their business. On a daily basis, they should know how much many they have in the bank, how many sales they are making and their stock levels. They should also review their position against the target set in their business plan on a monthly business.
10.4 HIRING EMPLOYEES / STAFF
Being able to find talented individuals with the right skills set is key for business wanting to grow is just the first step, businesses need to provide a working environment that is desirable in order to retain talent.
Usually a small business like Cendol needs an individual who is talented and well known the processes of making the dessert. The major concern for a small businesses in nowadays is hiring such employees that can really help out their business to grow and willing to service non-stop, a long-line of customer during lunch break between 12.00 noon to 2p.m.
Worse comes to worst when they have such limited funds, it’s even harder to compete with the larger business for the same talent. The key is to motivate them of ‘desire’ to build and grow the business together.
10.5 COMPETITION
Cendol is one of the most desirable traditional desserts in Malaysia. In addition, Malaysia’s weather benefits from a tropical climate with high temperature throughout the year. Therefore many Cendol stall could be found almost everywhere especially in Kuching where they are often famous in Cendol.
In addition, it is very challenging to compete to those existing shops some are already around for quite some time as they gain more trust and loyalty from customers. In order to overcome this problem, they must either have some feature or recipe that some different from others and make their dessert stand out among the other competition so that they could attract more customers and to persuade more customers.
10.6 COMPANY’S FLYERS
If they have a permit for a certain location, be sure they attract customers from their direct radius. People can get flyers or coupon from the workers, shoppers, etc. Especially if they operate in a commercial area, they can attract regular customer. Invite them to try your food for an introductory discount. So here I recommend them the flyers that I had made.
10.7 THE VENUE BEING RISK
The location of any food stall plays a big part in the success of their food stall. In many major cities, there are food stall located in strategic area around town, such as near the central business district, popular shopping district, etc. But the location of Cendol Mami being risked because it beside the road and make the air pollution. So I suggest the Cendol Mami to move their food stall at other place that more strategic to do the business. Each location of food stall have their advantanges and disadvantanges.
10.8 COMPANY BUSINESS CARD
Whether it is just a short market encounter or a regular one, always be sure to have some business card ready. Cendol Mami can hand them out to customer when the customer buy something at food stall, and even if they don’t, still give them business card. The business card allow customer have a potential to have a something to remember and contact the Cendol Mami.
10.9 HYGIENE
Cendol Mami was stated in low hygiene because their location neared the drains. Sometimes the drains make the odor and looked dirty, it disturb the customer. So, I suggest them to hired a specific cleaner to do their duty to clean the food stall.
10.10 SMALL SPACE
Cendol Mami had a small business because their business was operated at their own house compound. I suggest them to enlarge their food stall space to add more table and it can increase more customer to come in. Other than that, they can renovate their counter that located near the entrance that disturb people passing by.
...(download the rest of the essay above)