Reference no: EM132308208

Life on a farm Jack Jones lives on a farm and goes to school at Maltini primary. The farm is 90 kilometres from the nearest town, Manzani. Jack’s school organised an entrepreneurship day. The learners were expected to come up with original ideas of goods to sell at school on the day, for example handmade items. Jack spent many hours thinking about it, and eventually decided to sell syringes filled with condensed milk, but this time with a difference. The year before, a fellow learner sold condensed milk syringes with great success. This year Jack offered ‘sweet’ milk with a twist. His mother is a baker, and he thought about using some of her flavourings and colourants to make a pink vanilla and a blueberry variation. Jack’s idea worked. He was sold out in 30 minutes even though he charged a bit more for the differently coloured sweets compared to the plain condensed milk variety. He realised that if he had known in advance how popular it was going to be he could have made many more to sell, and made much more money. This was the early beginning of the young Jack Jones. Jack started his first ‘real’ business buying poultry chicks to rear, then sell as grown broilers to the local community. He decided to explore this venture, first because of the high demand, and second, knowing that the chicken farmers in the area sold to wholesalers only. Another motivator was that the people in his area, including his own parent, had to drive a long distance to the nearest town to buy only low quality chicken, and at a high price. Jack went to a nearby chicken farmer, Malcolm McKay, to gather advice about chicken farming. He studied the farm from one end to the other, read all the books available about chicken farms, and did not hesitate to ask for advice and support. Jack started his little business by buying two hundred good quality, healthy chicks. He reared the chicks according to Malcolm’s scientific method, and had no difficulty re-selling them, and at a reasonable price. In fact, the demand was so high that he had to buy two hundred chicks every week. Very soon he had to double these volumes to fill the growing orders. Fortunately, the buyers came to him which eliminated delivery costs. However, even though his sales turnover grew he was concerned about his profit margin. For every R1 invested in the business he managed a return of R1.20 only. Jack decided to make use of the profits to improve the chicken coops, to buy better chicken food, and to improve the whole system of the farming operation. His goal was to reduce operating costs and expenses without compromising on quality. In addition, he went into the community to research pricing, and to gain a better understanding of his customers and their needs. Jack was hoping to identify opportunities to expand his business, and to make it more profitable, at the same time. Jack went back to his mentor, Malcolm, to share the lessons learned from his research. Even though it had been a valuable experience for Jack to speak to members of the community, he was still uncertain about the direction his business should take. At this juncture Malcolm mentioned to Jack that he had overheard some of his workers saying they would appreciate packaged chicken, frozen or fresh, prepared and ready for cooking. Questions: 1. Reflecting on Jack’s early days at school and his current venture, 2. Jack wants to expand his business. What steps could he follow to concretise his thinking? Explain the steps.