Father Greg Boyle or Father G

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PART 2 (B) SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

- INCREASE SALES OR REDUCE EXPENSES.

Improving the net margin through increasing revenue can be one of the option. Homeboy Industries can consider expanding its merchandise lines which includes T-shirts, children’s and baby’s clothes, bags, mouse pads, wallets hats and coffee mugs, improving ordering and delivery services for example direct marketing which allow easy excess for the customers. Also, by raising the price of products or by selling more of them like the Homeboy merchandise, businesses revenue can increase. However, businesses must be cautious of alienating customers with inflated prices as many customers of Homeboy Industries are patronizing their products out of goodwill.

When determining the price, prudent pricing strategy must consider what the market will bear in terms of supply and as well as price. While increasing sales revenue is valuable to the bottom line, it would have a better outcome by increasing sales and decreasing expenses simultaneously. One of the expenses to reduce is operating expenses because most of the expenses incurred are hugely from the day-to-day running of the business and the production of goods for sale. Another way to control costs is to find cheaper sources for the raw materials for example the material used in silkscreen without compromising its quality.

- SETTING BUSINESS GOALS BY CREATING A LONG TERM AND SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVES.

Homeboy Industries main mission is to help at risk and former gang-involved youth to be contributing members of the community. Therefore, leading Homeboy Industries to venture into silkscreen, bakery, merchandising, etc. However, what was missing in Homeboy Industries was that it did not incorporate profitability measures into part of their long-term goal which is the goal set to increase profits by a certain percentage to ensure it to be self-sufficient. This, in long run, will help in the growth of the organization which ultimately helping more youth by creating more job opportunities and training.

In achieving the long-term goal, Michael Baca as an operation director can use the S.M.A.R.T method (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) in achieving its short-term goal. For example, if he would to expand its merchandise business, he must be very specific on what kind of target customer they wish to pursuit and as for the outcome, it has to be measurable in terms of dollar or profit. the goal set must be achievable with their available resources. Making goals can be challenging, but availability of resources for example in terms of manpower and raw materials, must be taken into consideration so that the outcome he wishes to achieved is relevant and a specific time or deadline can be set to keep things on track.

- INCREASE RECRUITMENT OF STAFFS.

Homeboy industries has to find new avenues to recruit more employees. Besides giving opportunities to “homies”, they can consider opening its door to more people who wish to work in Homeboy Industries whether is for a permanent or temporarily positions. Besides that, what Homeboy industries need was having more permanent recruitment to fill the managerial position in the organization as some of the Homeboy industries business units did not have full time general managers. Besides hiring new employees, Homeboy industries need to retain employees by offering a combination of good wages, health benefits, bonus programs, training, and retirement plans.

PART 3 (A): EVALUATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITY

Hills and colleagues (Hills , Lumpkin, & Singh , 1997) referred the opportunities as either the possibility to create new businesses or significantly improve the position of an existing business, in both cases resulting in profit potential. Homeboy industries is a nonprofit organization. It runs with the concept of social enterprise, where their businesses are applicable from commercial strategies to improve the well being of individuals rather than creating enterprise for profit. Homeboy is an organization with many true social enterprises where trainees are paid to learn job skills and take advantage of comprehensive services. Their goal is to help former gang members redirect their lives and become contributing members of their families and the community. Thus, homeboy industries is the largest and most successful gang intervention, rehab and re entry program in the world and has become a model for other organizations and cities.

In the view of homeboy industries case analysis, our group had come to the suggestion that homeboy industries consists of highly entrepreneurial opportunities in successfully running a profitable business. To support our group decision, We had conducted a SWOT analysis on the homeboy industries entrepreneurial opportunities as below

STRENGTH

- Social enterprise - the company focus on helping the society, not profit oriented.

- Operating fund supported by celebrities and government

- Have Talented and committed manager to help manage the homeboy industry

- Ability to provide free services to the homeboy such as tattoo removing and job placement services to the homeboy

- It has a strong team of highly committed and faithful spirit to contribute their energy and time to ensure the homeboy industries is operating in a better way.

- Father G managed to recruit a few talented business minded entrepreneur to help to manage the operation.

- A few popular celebrities are willing to help to expand the homeboy industries financially and promote homeboy products through their popularity.

- Homeboy have more than enough human resources to run profitable business. Among their top profitable social enterprises are bakery, home girl cafe, catering, merchandising and homeboy cafe.

- Meaningful products with faithful story become the strong selling point to the customer

- The larger business profit by homeboy industries, the more homeboy could provide help to the society.

WEAKNESS

- Lack of marketing skills

- Not enough confidence to venture into new business

- Lack of experienced business personnel

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