Hazel Case Essay

1.Hazel’s customers will most likely judge her quality based on how well their lawns are doing and by looking at the state of her other customers’ gardens as well. The customers will also weight the services she provides with the price she’s asking for. And the most important is her knowledge about gardening and how committed she is. Lawns should be taken care of regularly so she should manage her time precisely not to miss an appointment or neglect a certain garden. 2.a. Like any other business forecasting is a vital part of the operations. Forecasting is needed to manage inventory, time and cash expenditures. With forecasting Hazel will be able to predict demand thus will be able to book her two part timers for certain dates. With forecasts she will also be able to get enough quantities of the fertilizers and tools she needs for the job. A forecast will also tell her when there will be available time required for her machine’s maintenance. b. The inventory Hazel must have is fertilizers and seeds. One of the most important decision that Hazel must do on a regular basis is how much to order of each based on the shipping cost of each order and the available space she has for storage in order to minimize her cost (Economic Order Quantity). Hazel must also pay attention to the fertilizers and seeds’ expiry dates so that they don’t go unused. c. Hazel needs to schedule her appointment and her machines’ maintenance time. Once appointments are set for each employee she has to assign the time slots between herself and her workers. Weather conditions can drive her to reschedule as well as health conditions if she or one of her part time workers get sick and can’t go to the appointment and something personal of importance comes up suddenly. d. The quality of her work especially in the industry she chose is very important. Based on the quality of her work more customers will come asking for her services and she can then raise her prices. e. The maintenance that Hazel has to do is for the equipments she uses. She has to make sure all machines are in good conditions and that all the blades and scissors are sharp enough. 3.a. Working for a company brings a steady foreseen income but is subject to the risk of getting laid off like it happened to Hazel before or maybe salary cuts during economic downturns. On the other hand working privately has the risk of not getting any orders for a period of time. The private business thing requires full commitment even if she has to skip some of her personal obligations; on the other hand working for a company has defined working hours. b. Not expanding the business would limit Hazel’s revenues and profits and losing one customer would have a significant negative impact on her operations. In contrast, expanding the business might also have some drawbacks because it will require an initial capital injection from her side to buy more equipments needed, she will have to hire permanent employees to run the business, she will be required to pay close attention to the quality of service that her employees are performing. All of these extra expenses might outweigh the extra profit she will get from the expansion so forecasts will play an vital role in her decisions on whether to expand or not. c. Launching a website would help Hazel reach a clientele she can’t possibly reach via marketing between her neighbors. However, the website she launches might get her more orders than she can possibly fulfill with her current capacity. Another important factor is that the website will need someone to monitor it and tak e care of it and if not enough orders come from the website then it won’t be worth its extra cost. 4.If the ordinance is passed Hazel can offer a new service to her clients which is moving their clippings. The advantages of the new service would be that it will bring her extra profit and it will be considered a dependent line of business that she can offer not only to the clients she cuts the lawn for but for anyone interested. The disadvantages would be the cost of getting new vehicles and new employees for the new business line and the complexity of running two different business lines simultaneously. 5.I think Hazel should send him the check first because she had given them her work (even if it wasn’t documented) and second because this would encourage other workers to share their ideas and not fear that she won’t pay them given they are only part timers. Another important thing is that this worker can spread the word that she didn’t pay him which will create a bad image of her in the market. The cost she will be incurring is the monetary value of the check . 6.a. The business Hazel deals in is affected by many other factors other than her work such as weather conditions and plants reactions to fertilizers. This outside effect requires more attention from Hazel’s side to make sure her quality does not vary dramatically because if that happens she might lose her credibility. b. If weather conditions are favorable then demand would probably decrease but if the conditions are unfavorable then the lawns would require more care from her side. According to the demand her inventory levels have to be set. 7.Hazel can consider offering a one month package, or a 6 month package or an annual one where the clients sign a contract with her for the whole period. Hazel can also offer bundle services in which she offers two of her services at a discounted price. Such offers would help Hazel attract more customers, will help her predict demand and will eliminate the risk of getting no new orders for a period of time.