Case Study: When Faced With Growth

Jayne's Sandwich Stop is one of the best-known and most loved sandwich concessions in town. In business for about five years, she sells sandwiches and other lunch items made from locally produced food from her mobile food trailer. Jayne's passion and talent for creating reliably fresh, tasty lunch fare popular among a business clientele (largely employees and shoppers) has made her small enterprise a booming success.

In the last year, Jayne added three bicycle-towed concessions that travels to different strategic locations in town, selling her popular sandwiches to customers who work beyond walking distance of Jayne's Sandwich Stop. She now has a total of six employees, all part-time, working the concessions. Because she caters to urban customers, her concessions operate on week days from 10 am to 2 pm. To promote word-of-mouth advertising, Jayne uses Facebook to publish her daily menus and the locations of the bicycle concession.

As a sole proprietor, Jayne has been pleased with her lunch business success. Now it's time to get serious about the future of her business. In the short and medium term, she wants to see it grow into a potentially more lucrative enterprise, implementing a greater variety of food products and services, and increasing her competitive edge in the region. Ever the ardent entrepreneur, Jayne's long-term dream is to develop her creative, health-conscious culinary skills and services into a wider clientele outside the region.

An opportunity has arisen to lease restaurant space about 20 miles away from her trailer concession location, close to a mall and the suburbs and nearer to her local food producers. Jayne has jumped at the chance. While she has hired professional business consultants to help her set up the space, design the menu, and implement the opening of the restaurant, she must also consider the short- and long-term financial, HR, and management needs of such an expansion. Jayne is particularly sensitive to her relationship with her customers, employees, and the community.

Growth Strategy

What steps should Jayne take to organize and prioritize her business growth strategy?

Business Form

• What business form might make sense, given her expansion plans, and why?

Financial Assistance

• Focusing primarily on Jayne's short-term goals, what kind of financial assistance might be available to Jayne? Which options would you recommend, and why? How might Jayne's staffing needs change? What kind of organizational structure do you think Jayne's expanded business should have?

Organizational Structure and Staffing Needs

• What is the best way for her to organize, orient, and train her restaurant staff (e.g., functional categories, units, teams, flat or vertical hierarchy) to meet the needs of her new business?

Customers and Promotion

• How should Jayne deal with her current customers in regard to the change? What kind of promotion should she consider in attracting customers to her new location?

Ethical Issues and Social Responsibility

• What are the ethical issues and potential social responsibilities highlighted by this change? (Consider customers, employees, the current and new communities, and other stakeholders.) How might these issues be dealt with most appropriately?