Managing a fashion boutique

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  1. You just bought a fashion boutique in downtown (or your hometown—you pick) that’s been around since 2012.

These businesses are fictional, but you are free to incorporate actual local and regional data when writing your paper. For instance, assume that your store exists along with the other stores that also currently exist in downtown. Helpful information about your downtown is easy to obtain online (census data, for instance), or is just a short walk away (maybe you want to see what buildings are currently available for lease, for instance).

For any of the three businesses above, the basic financials are as follows:

• 2016 gross sales: $630,000
• 2017 gross sales: $750,000
• 2018 gross sales: $670,000
• 2019 gross sales: $650,000
• 2020 projected gross sales: $620,000

Over that time, your store has also averaged the following:
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) has averaged about half of gross sales (50%). So COGS was about $315,000 in 2016, for instance.
• Payroll has held steady at about $180,000 per year. The previous owner took a modest $30,000 salary (but was also entitled to all the profit as the sole owner of the company).
• The owner retired and no longer works for the company. There are two other full-time employees who are each paid $35,000 per year (no commission). One has been there 5 years and one has been there 1 year. There are also 6 part-time employees—mostly college students. They have each worked at the store an average of 9 months.
• The profit margin has held steady at about 6% per year of gross sales. Example: the profit in 2019 was 650,000 x 0.06 = $39,000.
• You paid $116,000 for the business, along with an additional $103,000 to purchase the unsold inventory and equipment in the building. You put 1/3 of your personal savings down ($73,000) and borrowed the remaining amount from the bank at 5% interest on a 10-year loan.
• You rent the 1,500 square foot building for $1,200 per month. You have 12 months left on the existing lease; the lease period has renewed every 5 years.

Pros & cons

Before deciding to purchase the business, you made a list of pros and cons, but you know this list is not comprehensive.

Notes that you took prior to purchasing the business:

• The business is consistently making money, but you’d like to increase your profit margin.
• Gross sales have been trending downward.
• You have a small pocket of loyal customers, but you suspect most customers are infrequent visitors to your store. You don’t currently have data to support this.
• The business did very little marketing (including promotion) prior to your ownership. The previous owner spent maybe $2,000 a year on un-itemized “advertising” expenses. Maybe that’s okay?
• The location is okay. Nothing great. The building is old, but doesn’t have a lot of problems. The business has never been in another location.
• One full-time employee is very experienced, but not very “nice.” The other full-timer is nice, but not experienced. Your impression of the part-timers is that 2 of them do nothing, 2 of them are rising stars (but are likely only sticking around until they graduate, or until summer comes), and 2 of them are somewhere in between.
• The previous owner wasn’t around much. She was the only person with the “manager” title. The other experienced full-timer would step in and boss people around as needed. The managerial hierarchy is relatively flat.
• The business really hasn’t adjusted its strategy or done anything new in the last 5 years.
• For the most part, the culture is hard to pin down from your limited interaction with the employees. They seem to get along okay. They get the job done, but they don’t seem to go above and beyond, with the exception of a couple employees. You wonder why they lack motivation. The more experienced, more senior employee belittles the younger employees when they “work too hard.”
• You’d like to learn more about the sense of direction, communication, mission, and leadership within the organization. When you spoke with employees about their job duties, the answers were mixed, or you got a, “I dunno, I do a little of whatever, I guess.”
• Nothing spectacular about the business immediately stands out, but you assume that it must be doing something right to still be in business and making a profit.
• You believe that competition comes in various forms, both locally and online.

Your job: Write a plan for how you will manage your new business. Think about both the short term and the long term when making decisions.

  1. Use APA or Chicago format. You may start with the APA paper template that I uploaded to Canvas.
  2. Each milestone should be approximately four to five pages in length, and your final paper will likely be 16 – 20 pages in length. Make your paper double-spaced, and in 12 point font (Times New Roman or Arial).
  3. You should cite the textbook approximately 10 times in each milestone. Also incorporate at least one additional reference (ideally a scholarly journal article), in addition to the Williams textbook in each milestone. Use citations appropriately and according to the APA or Chicago style that you chose. You MUST incorporate outside sources in order to have your paper be considered for an “A.” In addition, good papers will cite the Williams textbook over and over again, demonstrating that you have a good understanding of the textbook content and that you know how to apply it in a practical way to your business.
  4. Include at least one new figure, chart, or graph with each milestone. It is best if you create your own. Here are just a few ideas: charts showing anticipated sales data, market trends, confidence indices, census data, marketing pieces, your proposed management hierarchy, financial statements, a calendar timeline, SWOT (required). Feel free to incorporate your own ideas.

Answer/incorporate all of the following when writing your paper. These questions cover content from Chapters 1 – 14. Be sure to justify your decisions (back them up with reasoning, including sources from the book, data sources, and outside journals.) You will need to be thorough, but concise.

Milestone #1

  1. For this Milestone, you must have your paper formatted correctly according to APA or Chicago style, including title page, running head, bibliography section, etc. Remember to use headings and sub-headings frequently. Table of Contents and abstract is not required.
  2. Look back on the history of management (Chapter 2). What specific lessons can be learned from other historical leaders in management and how will you apply these lessons to your new business?
  3. What will be your managerial role in the new business and will there be other managers? What types of managers will each of you be? (team leader, top manager, etc.; Chapter 1). Based on your own self-evaluations and self-reflection conducted throughout the semester, what do you think your strengths and weaknesses will be as a manager? Where might you need to hire help to make up for your weaknesses?
  4. Discuss the general and specific environment for your type of business. Reference Chapter 3. Remember the PESTEL analysis we discussed? Utilize outside sources specific to your industry as well as the general economy, such as online industry reports, consumer confidence indices for the state and other business confidence indices. Here is just one other example for evaluating your environment (come up with your own): is your industry made up of a lot of small stores with high competition and low margins, for instance? What does it look like locally? Are you highly regulated? What role do suppliers have in your business that might affect the way you manage? Etc. Etc. Again, these are just examples. Reference Chapter 3 for more ideas about what to analyze in the “environment” and consider searching for information about a PESTEL analysis to make this process easier for yourself.
  5. Also from Chapter 3 . . . what problems and opportunities do you see with your business’s culture and what do you plan to do about them?
  6. Describe the specific policies and procedures you plan to put into place to ensure your business lives up to your ethical expectations (Chapter 4).

Sample Solution

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Genitourinary problem

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Discuss the Mr. Payne’s history that would be pertinent to his genitourinary problem. Include chief complaint, HPI, Social, Family and Past medical history that would be important to know.

Mr. Payne is a 45-year-old male truck driver that presents with a two-week history of low back pain that radiates down his left leg to his ankle that started after lifting a box while at work. He does have a history of back pain that he states usually goes away within 2-3 days of onset. He states “this is the worst pain I have ever had. He describes the pain as sharp, stabbing and rates it a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale when at its worst. Initially he used ice and took Ibuprofen 400 mg every 6 hours for three days and then tried Naproxen 250 mg once daily for five days. He states that this initial treatment worked, but then he played softball with his daughter and pain returned and has become more constant and not relieved by medication. Pain is aggravated by any movement and sitting for long periods of time. He states that lying down relieves his pain. His job requires him to sit for long periods of time and requires lifting 20-35 pounds 4 hours a day. He has a 20-pack year smoking history but quit 2 years ago. He reports no IV or recreational drug use but does drink a “couple of beers” every now and then on the weekend. He has a history of diabetes, HTN and hyperlipidemia. Current medications include Metformin 1000mg PO twice daily and Glyburide 10mg PO twice daily for diabetes, Amlodipine 2.5 mg PO daily and Lisinopril 40 mg PO daily for HTN, and Simvastatin 40 mg PO daily for hyperlipidemia. He reports no drug allergies. He denies any numbness or weakness in legs, urinary frequency, dysuria, problems with bowel or bladder control, fever or chills, nausea or vomiting, night pain, recent trauma, or weight loss.

Describe the physical exam and diagnostic tools to be used for Mr. Payne. Are there any additional you would have liked to be included that were not?

The physical exam of Mr. Payne included a detailed history of his pain, vital signs, auscultation of the abdomen to assess for bruit (which could indicate an abdominal aortic aneurysm), palpation of the abdomen to check for any masses or tenderness. A standing sitting and supine back exams were also performed. During the standing exam, the patient was observed for any abnormalities in gait, posture, contour, and symmetry of the back. Range of motion and palpation for tenderness were performed. The V. scoop test was also performed. This is where the patient squats from the standing position (this will relieve pain with spinal stenosis). The sitting exam assessed deep tendon reflexes, muscle strength, and sensation of lower extremities. The Supine back exam included abdomen exam, straight leg test, and FABER test to which only the straight leg raise elicited a positive response. At this time, it has only been 2 weeks since the pain has started and there are no red flags that would indicate any further testing such as fever, loss of bladder control, pain that wakes him up at night, or weight loss.

Please list 3 differential diagnoses for Mr. Payne and explain why you chose them. What was your final diagnosis and how did you make the determination?

The three differential diagnoses that I initially went with were lumbar strain, Herniated disk, and degenerative arthritis. According to the differential for low back pain section in the case study, the symptoms of these three diagnoses are very similar and can manifest as pain in the lower back with potential to radiate down the leg. I chose my final diagnosis of herniated disk due to his reported history and the findings during the physical exam. According to The Mayo Clinic (2019) a herniated disk is when the jell like center of the spinal disk leaks out through a tear in the tougher exterior containing it. This irritates the nerves in the spinal canal causing pain. “The most common cause of radicular pain to the lower extremities is a herniated lumbar intervertebral disc” (Dunphy, Winland-Brown, Porter & Thomas, 2019, p. 824). The findings of a positive straight leg raise on the left and negative on the right, tenderness of the left paraspinous muscle, acute onset while lifting, pain that gets worse while sitting and relieved by laying down, and his history of previous back pain and occupation as a truck driver are all indicative of herniated disk according to the case study.

What plan of care will Mr. Payne be given at this visit, include drug therapy and treatments; what is the patient education and follow-up?

The plan of care for this initial visit is to put the patient on conservative care since he has only had pain for two weeks. According to the case study, this includes aspirin, NSAIDs and/or muscle relaxers, local heat/cold therapy, and physical therapy. The patient was given a referral to physical therapy and instructed to increase his dosage of Naproxen to 500 mg orally BID. He was also prescribed acetaminophen with codeine. According to drugs.com (2020) the dose should be the least amount to be effective, so 300mg/15mg orally every 4 hours for pain will be the initial dose prescribed. He will only be given a 7-day supply to minimize chances of dependence. Patient education would include reassurance that most cases of acute low back pain resolve within 6 weeks. I would also instruct the patient that he is to take naproxen with food and to take the acetaminophen with codeine at night and with severe pain. He will be instructed to avoid taking any other OTC medications with Tylenol in them and to make sure that he does not exceed 4000 mg of acetaminophen within a 24-hour period. Patient will be instructed to call office immediately if he starts to experience any loss of bladder/ bowel control, develops a fever or severe pain that wakens him at night, or experiences muscle weakness. For his job, I would do education on proper lift technique and posture to help avoid future injuries.

With the follow up visit, the patient states that treatment is not helping, and pain is getting worse. It has now been over a month and further treatment is need. MRI is ordered to confirm diagnosis. The MRI dose confirm diagnosis and patient is given the option to be referred to a surgeon to discuss a surgical intervention or a referral to an osteopathic physician for osteopathic manipulation. The patient states that he would like to avoid surgery and is referred to an osteopathic physician. This treatment is effective for the patient and he is also put on a walking program to help with weight loss and increased activity.

References

Acetaminophen / codeine dosage. (2020). https://www.drugs.com/dosage/
acetaminophen-codeine.html#Usual_Adult_Dose_for_Pain

Dunphy, L. M., Winland-Brown, J. E., Porter, B. O., & Thomas, D. J. (2019).

Primary care: The art and science of advanced practice nursing-An

interprofessional approach (5th ed.). F.A. Davis Company.

Herniated disk. (2019). https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/herniated-

disk/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20354101

Sample Solution

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“What’s your truth?” by American Linguist Jamila Lysicott.

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Preparation: Watch the video by American Linguist Jamila Lysicott. Reflect: What does Lysicott say about her linguistic skills and how they are percieved by others? Evaluate your own linguistic resources by filling out the Language Self Evaluation form. Then read the poem by American poet Langston Hughes and listen to the poem by American poet Rhina Espaillat. Reflect: what is Hughes truth? What is Espaillat’s? Writing: Now think of 3 things that are fundamentally true about you. Use the Google Doc “My Truth” for your work (just write in it or upload material and when you are done click submit). In your own words in English, and mixing in other languages or registers if you wish, tell us about them. You can write a poem 20 (line minimum), or a paragraph (300 word minimum), or even make a video and supply a link (3 minute minimum), or record a spoken word poem (3 minute minimum). It can be about your languages or anything you believe is true about you. Due: Sept Tuesday 22 midnight

https://www.ted.com/talks/jamila_lyiscott_3_ways_t…
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47880/theme…

Sample Solution

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Greek and roman myth

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In chapter 11 of Morford and Lenardon’s Classical Mythology we learn a little about the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. What part of the oracle fascinated you the most? Explain.

Sample Solution

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