New Business Venture For Watch Us Grow Childcare Centre

Company Profile

Discuss about the New Business Venture for Watch Us Grow Childcare Centre.
 

Malta is an island, densely populated and is a member of European Union (EU) of which it became a member in 2004. The country’s population is approximated to be 452,215 with population density of 1,431 habitats per km2. This is on the higher side as compared to countries of European Union.

Presently, there are educational reforms undertaken where the ‘streaming’ model is going to be replaced with mixed-ability classrooms. This is going to present numerous opportunities in addressing many challenges that are present in the country.  The need for education has greatly gone up. In 2014 the population of 23 years to 54 years registered 54% interest in education and schooling and 8.6% for people in the range of 55 years and 74 years showing that the young people are getting to like education. (Van der Voet, 2014),  

There are complaints received from parents, learners and teachers regarding the quality of education in Malta. This created a concern and hence the adoption of the mixed-ability model on the ground that the model lacked focused individually-tailored education (Cornelissen and Werner, 2014).

 This gained strong confrontation that instructors cannot encourage an education system which supports the most grounded people in the society family, and denies the weakest to realizing and obtaining their education right. Therefore no education system is favorable to any particular people for all citizens.  In addition, there are signs that negative education performance is nearly connected with financial foundation and training to the tertiary level is likewise firmly associated with the instructive foundation of parents.

One other thought concerns the resources made accessible to the education system to guarantee its prosperity. Mixed ability classrooms in themselves cannot ensure standard instruction, unless the quantity of instructors per student is radically brought down from its present proportion. Smaller classrooms with more instructors are part of the model requirement needed. Furthermore, it includes greater interest in schools, better working conditions for educators, and more strategic and resources support in a consistent manner.

The problem of the education in Malta is not only aligned to the reform of the education system but also the infrastructure offered by the government.  There is in ability of the government to cope with the increasing demand for education and there are arguments for home schooling and school environment. It is point out that schools are better since they present an amble environment where learning will not only take place but allows inculcation of social skills to the learners. With this understanding and the need for educational quench, parents in Malta prefer taking their children to school irrespective of the challenges encountered and this applies to all children from day care to upper classes.

Vision and Mission

The day care is a great concern since this is the beginning of education life of the child and government has put more emphasis.  In order to solve these issues, the government of Malta provides free childcare education to parents who are working or are in school. These services are provided through the services of the government or through care centers that are registered by the government.  It is through this opening that we saw an opportunity to start a day care center in Malta. 

The business venture will be WUG Group (Watch Us Grow Childcare Centre). The organization will be based in Malta. Education system in Malta is under transformation and the stakeholders in the education sector are4 concerned of the need for quality education. The WUG Group is set to be part of this transformation in taking education in Malta to a different level. The organization is a start-up and is owned by Ryan Xerri and Alena Abela Xerri. The company is going to invest in kindergarten schools and childcare facilities. As part of the childcare initiative set by the government, the WUG Group is going to form part of the government free childcare scheme. The business is going to be a limited partnership because of the two owners. The reason of adopting partnership is due to its inexpensive, simple, there is shared control and management, sharing of losses, present more opportunities for planning, easy to dissolve, and requirements for reporting are few. The WUG Group offers solution by providing services to children ranging from 1 year to 6 years with the aim of caring, developing the skills of young children through learning of new skills as well as strengthening skills already learned. The program will run only during the day.

The WUG Group venture got conceived through the urge to give back to Malta people. The turbulences in the education system reforms that have not stabilized compelled the owners to look into the young children whose life is yet to be defined. At this tender age, young children require proper direction and guidance so that a strong educational pace is set while still young. Therefore history of the organization gets placed on building the lives of young children with emphasis of making better people for tomorrow.

The vision of WUG Group is to provide distinctive quality services to the customers for good growth of young children.

Management and Organizational Structure

The mission of WUG Group is to be a childcare centre of excellence in meeting the dynamic needs of young children for better tomorrow.

According to Van der Voet, (2014), the performance of the organization depend on the structure arrangement in issues relating to line of authority and Cornelissen and Werner (2014) supports that framing in an enterprise contributes much on its performance. Therefore, the management of WUG Group will be structured to follow the decentralized functional system of management where the line of authority is not centralized to one position but to spread across all the units. The WUG Group will have the CEO at the top, followed by the directors, then managers/principles/head teachers) of every unit, and then the lower level of employees that will constitute the teaching and sub-ordinate staff (Appendix 1).

The LLC framework has the individual risk security advantages of an enterprise without having all the required regulatory and administration methodology. Tin order to acquire LLC status, WUG Group will apply to a state by presenting an application with a yearly charge (Haigh, Kennedy and Walker, 2015). With the state-affirmed LLC, there will be an agreement — organization laws. These will be the general principles for WUG Group administration. By and large, the state’s agreement is agreeable, particularly in the event that WUG Group is a solitary part LLC (Welch et al., 2016). The LLC structure gives a separate entity from owners’ personal assets and these assets will not get attached in case of issues with the LCC Company. The LLC company have all it legal instruments independent from the owners (Haigh, Kennedy and Walker, 2015). WUG Group will review and model the operating agreement to ensure it fits WUG Group circumstance with an understanding and agreement among the co-proprietors.

According to Burns (2016), the location of a business plays a critical role in strategic planning as well as putting clients at a very convenient point of attraction thereby permitting rapid growth. The WUG Group will be located in Malta at the superb of the city where there is cool, quite serene environment suitable for learning. The reason for selecting the location is because there is accessibility in terms of transport system and therefore customers will have no difficulties in getting to the place. Additionally, the location provide a spacious ground where child can play and the company can have space to put up children play facilities and for expansion. 

Legal Structure – Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Strategic Alliances

As per Brouthers, Nakos and Dimitratos (2015) strategic alliance is an association between two organizations coming together in order to accomplish certain vital objectives in cases where there is no capacity to accomplish individually. The accomplices keep their status free for any partner, share the benefits and mechanism over the relationship, and keep obligations to the relationship until the point when it is ended. The alliances are established for the purpose of entering to international market situated in various parts and where a single entity cannot venture alone. The benefit is the relationship is the learning of new skills, cost sharing, creation of competitive advantage through combination of resources and skills and improve the influence and adopting into the global market (Jiang et al., 2013).

At the beginning WUG Group is going to enter into strategic alliances with any organization because in order to concentrate on penetrating into the Malta local market and gaining a big market share. Additionally, when the WUG Group has established well and amassed enough resources, they will put into consideration the option of venturing into foreign markets into countries like Libya, Tunisia etc.

 The WUG Group goal is to establish a childcare centre the endeavor to provide distinctive quality services to the customers for good growth of young children.

The objective is to strive for excellence with the focus of meeting the dynamic needs of young children for better tomorrow.

The political situation in Malta is stable and is permitted by the parliamentary democracy dominated by two parties. The amble politics fosters the business investment. The political system focuses on drawing in external direct ventures and the foundation of a protected, steady and open business condition; a contemporary as well as transformed economy in light of global services; safe external working condition (Magnússon, 2013).

The tax administration of Malta is extremely adaptable in spite of being multifaceted. For instance, in its un-truncated situation, the Maltese corporate assessment remains at 35% – which is the most elevated in Europe. Nonetheless, a few differential reductions on workforce, research, and taxation measurements significantly diminish the expense and are reduced to 5%. This is so on the grounds that the aggregate tax discounts is not supposed to surpass 6/7ths of the corporate expense base rate (Vella, 2014).

The Maltese workforce is profoundly talented and profitable. All Maltese originate from bilingual instructive systems and are conversant in English with cutting edge learning skills of other European languages. The island has an incredible capacity to give a staff of exceedingly qualified experts at all levels, from specialists to plant administrators. The elevated expectation of living likewise guarantees that it is difficult to pull in talented work from abroad (Grech, 2015).

Location

The monetary condition of the island is incredible and has shown from its strength, and the capacity to flourish. The Government has built up a system for long term and manageable financial achievement, through the use of Vision 2015 and beyond program, where key areas with high potential are the focused on development. The business sections that have significant action incorporate banking, finance administration, investment, management of trust and venture holding. The Maltese laws permit different types of organizations to exist and operate business in Malta (Briguglio, 2017).

The international organizations focused on putting resources in the country and settling operation are taking the advantage from the twofold tax collection treaties entered with 58 nations which is a blend that enables investors to achieve an effective financial condition. These laws consider the global holding organizations. Presently, there are in over 200 organizations from outside and for the most part comes from the EU who have interest in putting their resources in Malta; some are currently operating from Malta e.g. Lufthansa, Playmobil, Baxter among others (Georghiou et al., 2014).

Currently, the ICT in Malta is a standout among the most refined and dependable in Europe. The country has extraordinary innovative infiltration figures with the PC clients remaining at 16.6% for every 100 occupants, Internet clients at 70% for every 100 tenants and phone clients at 54.8% for each 100 tenants. The cell phone entrance into the country indicates 42% which is an astounding increase (Borg, 2014).

The standard of living in the country is excellent and gets attributed to the healthcare system that is funded by the government. The index on human development is 0.839, an income disparity of 14, and life expectancy of 79 years (Pace, Vella and Dziegielewski, 2016).

The per capita income of Maltese is approximated to be $33,215 which is on the higher side among European nations. This figure, combined with the high populace thickness of the island, put Malta to be an attractive area for setting up a business  and create competitive and creative products and enterprises because the purchasing power of the people is high (De Vries, 2013).

The country in general has suitable conditions for investment that if favorable for both the local and the international enterprise that is supported by the government’s FDI coupled with flexible taxation policies. 

Malta’s become the key area well positioned has made the island a standout among the most calculated location globally. The nearness of the transportation frameworks and port offices for cargo and travelers add to the global acknowledgment of this position. For example, the nation has the biggest ship registry of the European Union and one of the biggest around the world (Pace, Vella and Dziegielewski, 2016).

In the childcare industry, the market is growing rapidly because parents are getting time to study and work thus paving way for the need of caregiver’s services as opposed to babysitters. At Malta, the trend in the market for child care is growing due to the expanded usage of care centres by parents. This is augmented by the lack of time for keeping children due to commitments like work. While this pattern accelerates the requirement for more care services, it likewise creates interest for centres that concentrate on the development of the child because parents have little time for child development and this aspect will be an advantageous to the child because of modern learning systems (Borg, 2014).

Guaranteeing that each individual from the staff members is legitimately prepared, affirmed, and authorized to offer care to various kids. Verify that a caregiver does not have a larger number of kids than they can deal with. Look for signs that staff might get exhausted. It is important to employ another caregiver because it is essential to pay another worker than chance losing customers due to bad care services (Sheth and Sisodia,  2015).

Besides the food for nourishment planning, the larger part of the task is on instructive and play-related activities. There is need to ensure that everything is age fitting. Moreover, offer a wide assortment of things to keep kids possessed (Solomon et al., 2014).

Sleeping is good and possible by ensuring that the kids are on a general sleeping plan sooner or later in between their stay at the center; keeping in mind that a child with enough sleep is simpler to deal with. The sleeping hours additionally give the teacher time to rest (Kumar et al., 2013).

There in need to ensure that there arranged timetables for nutritious food that are appealing to kids and will make them have the need to eat. This is possible though utilization of different products assortment to get the youngster’s consideration (Sheth and Sisodia, 2015).

Security dependably needs to start before anything else. There is need to ensure that all toys and other play products are in decent shape and well repaired. Also, it is a requirement to instantly dispose of anything that may be risky. Moreover, keeping children of different age set is good to managing them by ensuring small items are not left for very young children and ensure that that a medical aid unit is promptly accessible (Solomon et al., 2014).

• A compelling learning system for quality.
• The learning programs are compelling that employee’s take an interest in. 
• A learned client base that readily takes the advantages that WUG Group offers.

• The lack of imperceptibility due to new operations
• The difficulty of pulling in and keeping workers with expertise.
• The absence of figuring out the demanded services with respect to the available staff at any one time. 

• A growing sector with huge clients who are not yet aware of WUG Group.
• Increased income due to increasing large clients who are working, with no time to watch over their youngsters in day. 
• As kids served increases, the overheads reduce because they get spread over with bigger client base.

• Rivalry from stable competitors that enhance their services contributions to be more antagonistic to WUG Group. 
• Threats on child care services which are not founded. 
• Legal obligation issues, it is possible that one extensive suit against WUG Group, or huge increments in premiums because of changes of working condition in business.

The WUG Group is focusing on one particular client gathering-the parents. This constitutes the lower class and middle class families. The reason is became the group have no time to take care of their kids due to engagement which can be work or education. They are willing to spend for their children and looks for quality services (Solomon et al., 2014).

The WUG Group plans to focus on the two waged working families since they are the section that can quickly carry the expenses of day care, need day care services because of their work nature and commitments, value the care, learning as well as improvement that the WUG Group brings to the table for their children, and finally it is the growing portion of the segment at Malta (Kumar et al., 2013).

The segment requires provision for care of their young ones especially when both parents are engaged. They focus a more organized learning condition. Having the two parents as experts, focuses on the need to have their children get the best education and childcare being the start forces them to take their children to centres offering quality and concerned with the development of the child. This accelerates the demand for the need of more care centers emanating from large number of parents bestowing all the responsibility to the care givers (Sheth and Sisodia,  2015).

The WUG Group is going to position itself as a day care that is advanced with the benefit that it offers interesting learning and formative projects for young children. This is going to be by utilizing:

 This is the distinctiveness the company presents in terms of it product brand and uniqueness that is augmented by well-equipped daycare with modern state of the art instructing equipment and children play tools (Urde and Koch, 2014).

The facility must be in the same class as the instructors. As a result of this, the WUG Group has a specific aspect for learning that all educators and associates are put acroos in order to be capable at instructing the specific projects that WUG Group has created for babies’ age one year to five years (Prinsloo, Groenewald and Pelser, 2014).

Ordinary learning programs for little children currently centers around particular attribute and work on one characteristic/expertise without delay. While this is fruitful in boosting skills, it is regularly problematic for the young child to understand the relationship of distinctive abilities. Subsequently, the kids learn in the expertise, but experiences issues when applying the aptitude when presented with various stimuli (Tang and Wezel, 2015).

The WUG Group offers solution by providing services to children ranging from 1 year to 6 years with the aim of caring, developing the skills of young children through learning of new skills as well as strengthening skills already learned. The program will run only during the day (Urde and Koch, 2014).

With regards to settling prices for WUG Group products, WUG Group will guarantee that they put pricing in accordance with what is accessible in the day care industry. WUG Group is exceptionally mindful that they must lower prices with the goal that they will have the capacity to draw in more clients as we try to get recognition as new entrants. At the point when this is accomplished, the concern is that the clients will get genuine fulfillment when they get their children to WUG Group (Prinsloo, Groenewald and Pelser, 2014).

WUG Group’s marketing technique will be founded on a promoting exertion and key cooperation through alliances with associations who are identified with the care of youngsters.

The WUG Group will run notices to raise awareness and recognition with respect to the WUG Group and its products to potential clients who are may not be aware of WUG Group (Tang and Wezel, 2015).

The main reason is to create relationship between organizations that have a business dealing in the line of young children. The reason is that it permits that organization to use the resources as well as the available customer base from the partners so that WUG Group gain credibility as time goes. The alliances will be made by co-supporting parents’ instruction courses. By sharing knowledge, research, and frameworks that WUG Group utilizes, it will have data that will be alluring to parents, and also to the association themselves (Prinsloo, Groenewald and Pelser, 2014). While systems administration can be compelling, WUG Group perceives that it must offer something of worth to the associations in order to make a motivation for them to shape relationship together and the co-supporting of instructive relationship is only one strategy (Urde and Koch, 2014).

Marketing Objectives

• Develop the quantity of clients by 10% every year.
• Assemble client reliability through prevalent administration and instructive/advancement systems.
• Assemble WUG Group brand to greatness with prevalent kid care in the Malta city.
• An increase of 5% referrals

Resource Management

According to Burns (2016), the location of a business plays a critical role in strategic planning as well as putting clients at a very convenient point of attraction thereby permitting rapid growth. The WUG Group will be located in Malta at the superb of the city where there is cool, quite serene environment suitable for learning. The reason for selecting the location is because there is accessibility in terms of transport system and therefore customers will have no difficulties in getting to the place. Additionally, the location provide a spacious ground where child can play and the company can have space to put up children play facilities and for expansion (Burns, 2016).

The initial expenditures are as follows:

Land – $500,000, Classroom construction – $300,000, Equipment and play Tools – $400,000,  Salaries for three months – $100,000, Miscellaneous – %50,000. The total expenditures are $1,350,000

The WUG Group will get instruments of operations first by registering with the Ministry of education so that they get a letter of authority to open and run the day care school in Malta.  In addition to these, the organization will seek the advice of the public health bodies and get a letter of approval to run the school after setting up so that any health and environmental concerns get gathered for prior to commencement (Haigh, Kennedy and Walker, 2015).

The organization will require a manager, an accountant, a secretary and 10 teachers. The management must have a Bachelor’s degree in management together with a professional course and an experience of one year. The accountant on the other hand should have a diploma certificate in accounting together with professional certificate. The secretary on the other hand will have a diploma in secretarial studies. The task is now on teachers and because we are looking to offer quality services, teachers to teacher day care must have Diploma certificate in early learning and childhood education that must be combined with experience in a comparable position (Bratton and Gold, 2017).

The WUG Group offers solution by providing services to children ranging from 1 year to 6 years with the aim of caring, developing the skills of young children through learning of new skills as well as strengthening skills already learned. The program will run only during the day (Vella, 2014).

The organization is going to set risk mitigation measures so that it guards the company against any occurrences of risks. In marketing, the company will have varied alternatives of marketing so as to apply any of them in case one fails to work for the company. The organization will employ teachers on permanent terms in order to avoid stopping of teaching when teachers decide to quit. The other positions will have assistants so that when one is not around the assistant will step in thus avoiding stoppage of operations (Prinsloo, Groenewald and Pelser, 2014). The other aspect is sustainability of a positive cash flow for the organization. The remedy is to aggressively engage and invest in marketing and adopt strategic alliances with players who are offering services that have a connection with children. The reason is to tap on the alliance’s market base (Dzhandzhugazova et al., 2015).

The sources of financing the WUG Group is personal saving and family sources. Ryan Xerri and Alena Abela Xerri each will contribute $400,000 and the remaining $550,000 will be borrowed from family members and friends (Dzhandzhugazova et al., 2015).

Conclusion

The Malta business environment is good and allows business to thrive well. Even through there is competition in the industry of child care services, WUG Group is going to position itself uniquely through the use of brand novelty. Also, the company is going to engage in strategic alliances in order to capture the market by using companies who have already build enough customer base. 

References

Borg, A., 2014. A CIAR study in a male dominated ICT Company in Malta which looks at work-life issues through the masculine lens: a case of: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? (Doctoral dissertation, Middlesex University).

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Briguglio, L., 2017. Sustainable tourism on small island jurisdictions with special reference to Malta. ARA: Revista de Investigación en Turismo, 1(1).

Brouthers, K.D., Nakos, G. and Dimitratos, P., 2015. SME entrepreneurial orientation, international performance, and the moderating role of strategic alliances. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 39(5), pp.1161-1187.

Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.

Cornelissen, J.P. and Werner, M.D., 2014. Putting framing in perspective: A review of framing and frame analysis across the management and organizational literature. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.181-235.

De Vries, J., 2013. Between purchasing power and the world of goods: understanding the household economy in early modern Europe. In Consumption and the World of Goods (pp. 107-154). Routledge.

 Dzhandzhugazova, E.A., Zaitseva, N.A., Larionova, A.A., Petrovskaya, M.V. and Chaplyuk, V.Z., 2015. Methodological aspects of strategic management of financial risks during construction of hotel business objects. Asian Social Science, 11(20), p.229.

Georghiou, L., Elvira Uyarra, A., Saliba Scerri, R., Castillo, N. and Cassingena Harper, J., 2014. Adapting smart specialisation to a micro-economy–the case of Malta. European Journal of Innovation Management, 17(4), pp.428-447.

Grech, A.G., 2015. Understanding the macroeconomic impact of migration in Malta (No. PP/04/2015). Central Bank of Malta.

Haigh, N., Kennedy, E.D. and Walker, J., 2015. Hybrid organizations as shape-shifters: Altering legal structure for strategic gain. California Management Review, 57(3), pp.59-82.

Jiang, X., Li, M., Gao, S., Bao, Y. and Jiang, F., 2013. Managing knowledge leakage in strategic alliances: The effects of trust and formal contracts. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(6), pp.983-991.

Kumar, V., Bhaskaran, V., Mirchandani, R. and Shah, M., 2013. Practice prize winner—creating a measurable social media marketing strategy: increasing the value and ROI of intangibles and tangibles for hokey pokey. Marketing Science, 32(2), pp.194-212.

Kwak, M. and Kim, H., 2013. Market positioning of remanufactured products with optimal planning for part upgrades. Journal of Mechanical Design, 135(1), p.1-1007.

Magnússon, M.Á., 2013. The engagement of Iceland and Malta with European integration: Economic incentives and political constraints (Doctoral dissertation).

Pace, C., Vella, S. and Dziegielewski, S.F., 2016. Long-term care of older adults in Malta: influencing factors and their social impacts amid the international financial crisis. Journal of Social Service Research, 42(2), pp.263-279.

Prinsloo, H., Groenewald, A. and Pelser, T., 2014. Market positioning of branded meat products: A case of the feedlot industry in South Africa. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), p.129.

Sheth, J.N. and Sisodia, R.S., 2015. Does marketing need reform?: Fresh perspectives on the future. Routledge.

Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Pearson.

Tang, Y. and Wezel, F.C., 2015. Up to standard?: Market positioning and performance of Hong Kong films, 1975–1997. Journal of Business Venturing, 30(3), pp.452-466.

Urde, M. and Koch, C., 2014. Market and brand-oriented schools of positioning. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 23(7), pp.478-490.

Van der Voet, J., 2014. The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), pp.373-382.

Vella, J., 2014. A tax regulatory framework for food-related taxes in Malta: an analysis (Master’s thesis, University of Malta).

Welch, E.P., Saunders, R.S., Land, A.L., Turezyn, A.J. and Voss, J.C., 2016. Folk on the Delaware General Corporation Law: Fundamentals. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.