Executive Summary
This paper is a project review report on a small business which deals with supply of fitness equipment and accessories. The business uses internet to sell its products, a move that is highly expected to combat the intense competition that is typical of this industry. It is believed that online sales have become extremely popular and hence the project viability is likely to be pretty promising. The company which is referred to as Fitness Express Pty Ltd will be based in Australia and is slated to start in 2012. The company is envisioned to deliver sporting and fitness outfit to its customers, as efficiently and quickly as possible; in both New Zealand and Australian markets. Fitness Express Pty Ltd has undertaken an extensive market research and revealed that the opportunities in the industry are extremely vast as most of the Australians own computers as well as unlimited access to internet. In addition, the company is expected to register substantial revenue and market share growth within 3 years (Larson and Gray, p. 56).
Attainment of feasibility is a primary goal of this project, something that calls for justification of all costs which includes wages, distribution, marketing/advertisement, and warehousing and maintenance costs. As such, the establishment intends to reach an agreement and obtain at least four operations related contracts in order to meet these outcomes. Relationships with reliable and cost effective suppliers from China are one of these contracts among others.
Project objectives
- To offer middle class quality, affordable and fit for purpose products with a customized approach that delivers fast.
- To achieve a growth rate of 3% in revenue and market share.
- To conduct an extensive advertisement in order to establish a leading brand name.
- To use online platform to establish a strong fitness and sports outfit sales destination.
- Penetrating the market by offering low priced products without compromising quality.
Achievement of planned objectives
- quality and outfits supplied with customized approach to the targeted clients
- online used successfully to market the company products
- Extensive advertisement enables impressive popularization of company’s products across the world.
- The company manages to offer quality products that satisfy the needs of the clients.
The assumptions that affected the realization of objectives
We anticipated that the cost of production could not increase drastically in the near future, and hence hoped to produce and supply products at relatively low prices to our middle class customers. Unfortunately, several factors which triggered inflation increased the cost of our input hence failing to supply our products at very low prices as expected. As such, some customers could not afford the products due to high cost (Larson and Gray, p. 56).
Factors in realization and non-realization of objectives
Ideally, the high market potential and opportunities for this kind of business contributed to its success. Furthermore, adequate market research had been conducted hence enabling the company to produce products that meets the customer needs. Above all, the abled and knowledgeable team of management that offers visionary leadership steered the company to tremendous growth.
Particularly, the achievement of the set goals did not go without obstacles. For example, the integration of web based aspects into the business created many complexities in terms of target marketing through a new medium and advertising. In addition, the company is entering an industry that has some established competitors with well established brand names. Consequently, Fitness will have to contend with stiff competition which is particularly costly to maneuver. Finally, the company has been troubled by lack of adequate funds and resources to carry out its operations, especially because it is still in its initial stages where profits are not forthcoming (Longenecker et al. 20).
Time
Tasks operated on and ahead of schedule
Tasks operated behind schedule
The assumptions that affected the schedule
There was an assumption that all the members will attend all the group members. However, at some stage, some members became uncooperative hence resulting to program lagging behind schedule. On the other hand, the presumption that the meetings will be organized on specified days and time without giving allowance for extension possibility saw some tasks being finished ahead of the schedule.
Costs
Costs that exceeded estimates
Costs that is lower than estimates
Details of incorrect assumptions that affected actual costs against estimates
We had estimated that the cost of most of the items could remain constant but unfortunately the skyrocketing inflation that hit the country during that particular time led to substantial discrepancies in the estimated figures.
Details of patterns/common factors in exceeding/reducing costs
Radical increase in market price of most inputs was the major factor that caused differences between the planned and the incurred costs. On the other hand, factors such as unexpected changes in Tax policies, overestimation of human labor, and overestimation of equipment requirements resulted in reduction of costs.
Lessons learned
Review of the project shows that there are considerable number of unexpected outcomes as a result of implementation of the project proposal. Most notable deviations are experienced in the amount of resources set aside as well as time scheduled for completion of different tasks. Most of these deviations have been found to result from both external and internal factors.
In future, it is important to gather enough information on the general status of the economy so as to predict frequent changes such as those that results from inflation more accurately. In addition, it is important to apply the modern models of estimating the labor requirement so that estimation of resources can be more accurate.
Recommendations
The progress of the business shows that it is a pretty viable project, despite some few challenges. In particular, most of the positive indications of business opportunities have realized positive results. As such, the business should be steered forward, only that the management needs to learn lessons from the current mistakes so that they can improve things in future. Most encouraging is the fact that the anticipated demand has virtually been satisfied and even exceeded. Previous anticipation that there could be high demand of our products and services from business such as gyms and other associations has been proved positive and hence the future is perhaps promising (Larson and Gray, p. 56).
Fitness Express has been proved viable for web-based fitness and sports goods as a results of extensive primary data research, though there were some hitches that resulted in slight differences between the actual and the planned. To improve this in future projects, it could be advisable to integrate secondary data to supplement the primary data (Larson and Gray, p. 56).
Works cited
- Larson, Eric and Clifford, Gray. Project Management: The Managerial Process. NY: McGraw-Hill Education, America, 2008. 56. Print
- Longenecker, Justin, et al. Small business management: launching and growing entrepreneurial ventures. NY: Cengage Learning, 2008. 768. Print.