ACTIVITY: To be pass upon resumption of classes.

About the company

C’est la Vie’s Vintage Outfits

1. C’est la Vie’s Vintage Outfits is an online-only business that sells unique and affordable
replicas of vintage designer outfits for men and women.

Although the business is new, owner Celestine Mayer has been a seamstress and a seller for
15 years. She operates C’est la Vie’s Vintage Outfits through some known online stores and
hopes that it will become successful enough that she can quit her other job and run her dream
company full-time.

Given the brief background of the Company,

1. Identify 2-3 of each element of the SWOT analysis

2. Give some potential strategies you can suggest for Growth of the Company.

Market Penetration Strategy

One growth strategy in business is market penetration. A small company uses a market penetration

strategy when it decides to market existing products within the same market it has been using. The

only way to grow using existing products and markets is to increase market share, according to

small business experts. Market share is the percent of unit and dollar sales a company holds within

a certain market vs. all other competitors.

One way to increase market share is by lowering prices. For example, in markets where there is little

differentiation among products, a lower price may help a company increase its share of the market.
Market Expansion or Development

A market expansion growth strategy, often called market development, entails selling current

products in a new market. There several reasons why a company may consider a market expansion

strategy. First, the competition may be such that there is no room for growth within the current

market. If a business does not find new markets for its products, it cannot increase sales or profits.

A small company may also use a market expansion strategy if it finds new uses for its product. For

example, a small soap distributor that sells to retail stores may discover that factory workers also

use its product.

Product Expansion Strategy

A small company may also expand its product line or add new features to increase its sales and

profits. When small companies employ a product expansion strategy, also known as product

development, they continue selling within the existing market. A product expansion growth strategy

often works well when technology starts to change. A small company may also be forced to add new

products as older ones become outmoded.

Growth Through Diversification

Growth strategies in business also include diversification, where a small company will sell new

products to new markets. This type of strategy can be very risky. A small company will need to plan

carefully when using a diversification growth strategy. Marketing research is essential because a

company will need to determine if consumers in the new market will potentially like the new
products.

Acquisition of Other Companies

Growth strategies in business can also includes an acquisition. In acquisition, a company purchases

another company to expand its operations. A small company may use this type of strategy to expand

its product line and enter new markets. An acquisition growth strategy can be risky, but not as risky

as a diversification strategy.

One reason is that the products and market are already established. A company must know exactly

what it wants to achieve when using an acquisition strategy, mainly because of the significant

investment required to implement it

2. What are the expected impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic to Small
Businesses & Marketers? What are the external environment factors affected? As an
Entrepreneurship student, what are the strategies that you can suggest to help them
effectively survive the turbulent times coming ahead in 2020?

More than 99% of all businesses are small businesses1, and they employ about
half the US workforce. Most small businesses lack the cash reserves to weather a
month-long interruption, and forecasts indicate more than 2 million workers
could lose their jobs in just one week as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
There’s also the possibility of a "startup depression," wherein new companies
don't enter the job market because of the pandemic. What’s the impact on
business?

Where a stringent policy response is deemed necessary,

business will inevitably be impacted, with both near-term
effects and less-expected longer-run consequences.

 Travel restrictions and quarantines

affecting hundreds of millions of people have left
Chinese factories short of labour and parts,
disrupting just-in-time supply chains and triggering
sales warnings across technology, automotive,
consumer goods, pharmaceutical and other
industries.

 Commodity prices have declined in response to a

fall in China’s consumption of raw materials, and
producers are considering cutting output.

 The mobility and work disruptions have led

to marked declines in Chinese consumption,
squeezing multinational companies in several
sectors including aviation, education
 abroad, infrastructure, tourism, entertainment,
hospitality, electronics, consumer and luxury
goods.

Overall, China’s GDP growth may slow by 0.5 percentage

points this year, taking at least 0.1 percentage point off global
GDP growth. This will ripple through developed and emerging
markets with high dependencies on China – be that in the form
of trade, tourism or investment. Some of these countries
exhibit pre-existing economic fragilities, others
(acknowledging an overlap) have weak health systems and
thus lower resilience to pandemics. Many Asian and African
countries lack surveillance, diagnostic, and hospital capacities
to identify, isolate, and treat patients during an outbreak.
Weak systems anywhere are a risk to health security
everywhere, increasing the possibility of contagion and the
resulting social and economic consequences.

We have in mind COVID-19 potential impact on your business. Therefore, using the

experience of our team, we would like to present you with this informative note
drawn up from perspective of Polish law, which contains an indication of the most
important issues that cannot be forgotten in running a business today.
Considering the extraordinary and unpredicted situation, all recommendations
included in the document are the current and existing possibilities but subject to
this dynamic situation any measure, proposal or recommendation may change in
the following days. We will keep you updated in case of any change or modification
will occur.

Labour law
It is recommended to implement prevention program containing e.g.:

 clear rules on remote working;

 procedure for isolating an infected employee from the rest of the crew until
the relevant services arrive;
 places to which people at risk should not be sent on business trips;

 actions necessary in case of detection of coronavirus infection at the

workplace;

 ways to keep the company running even in the absence of large numbers of
employees.

Employee rights and obligations:

 an employee cannot refuse performing remote working;

 an employee cannot decide for himself (without prior consent of an employer)
to perform remote working;

 right to additional attendance allowance for 14 days – for care of child under
8 years of age (does not count towards the general limit of 60 days for the care
of a child under 14 years of age);

 right to refuse to work in an unsafe environment;

 If an employee is stuck abroad (in quarantine or if there is no way to get out)

during a business trip - payment of accommodation, diet, etc. at the employer's
expense.
Banking and finance
The declaration of an epidemic emergency and the emergency measures and
restrictions implemented by the public administration shall not be without impact on
the economy, businesses and households. In order to mitigate the negative effects
of this situation, banks are working on short and long term solutions to relieve
borrowers.

16 March 2020 The Polish Bank Association announced the "Communication on aid
measures taken by banks in connection with the coronavirus pandemic COVID 19".
According to this communication, the package proposed by the banks includes a
number of solutions addressed to both businesses and individuals, including the
following:
 The banks shall facilitate the deferral (suspension) of the repayment of
interest and capital instalments for a period of 3 months,
 For entrepreneurs who were creditworthy at the end of 2019, and their
financing expires in the coming months and have been affected by the effects of
coronavirus, banks will renew the existing financing for 6 months,
 No fees will be charged for the motions covered with the above measures,
the banks will enable filing those motions without extensive formalities, and
remotely,
 Similar rules will be applied by leasing and factoring companies which are
within groups of the banks.

Corporate
As many of entities active on the Polish market are governed by persons not
physically present in Poland at the moment, it is advisable to develop contingencies
in case declarations must be issued, contracts are expected to be signed or
executive decisions of any other kind are necessary. 

Because of the travel restrictions, entities active on the Polish market, whose
representatives are not physically present in Poland, should consider actions to
ensure proper representation. Those may include:

 appointment of proxies in Poland,

 executing agreements by exchange of signed copies,

 obtaining qualified electronic signatures

It must be noted that Poczta Polska, the Polish postal operator suspended accepting
international consignments, therefore any powers of attorney, contracts or other
documents should be sent by messenger/courier service.

As we are nearing the end of Q1 of 2020, making preparations for the ordinary

shareholders’ meeting or general assembly may be advisable. As a rule those
should take place in Poland, therefore shareholders may consider for example
appointing proxies in Poland or reviewing the bylaws to determine whether
participation by electronic means of communication is possible.
Contractual law
A COVID-19 pandemic in a contractual relationship may be classified as force
majeure (unusual, external, impossible to prevent event, which is not an ordinary
accident) or may exclude liability for non-performance or inadequate performance
due to lack of fault.
Therefore, we recommend that you immediately commence gathering all kinds of
evidence that could in the future prove the occurrence of force majeure or lack of
fault on your part. This consists, among other things, of taking note of your
performance, as well as the performance of your contractors, recording why any
when any dips in performance or faults occur, in a manner which will allow you in
the future to be clear whether or not such events were connected with the current
pandemic.

Tax law
The government is working on special law aimed at alleviation of negative financial
consequences of coronavirus for the employers / entrepreneurs (so called
‘protective package’). Respective proposal of amendments to applicable acts is
planned to be announced in the coming days.

According to the declarations, the preferences will be available for every single
company / entrepreneur suffering negative consequences of coronavirus situation
and will include the following:

 individual tax reliefs (details have not been agreed so far and are still
discussed);

 postponement or redemption of social security contributions for the period of

effective suspension of a company’s activity;

 shorter terms for VAT refunds to the taxpayer;

 postponement in implementation of upcoming formal obligations (standard

audit file / registry of beneficial owners).

Public procurement law

The Polish government is working on a support package for companies affected
by the outbreak. The discussion includes, among other, the introduction of
temporary suspension of contractual penalties connected with the delays in the
realization of public procurement contracts.
Implementation of the Act dated March 2, 2020 concerning specific solutions related
to the prevention, counteract and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases
and the crisis situations caused by them (“Special COVID-19 ACT”) allowed to
introduce some special suspensions in the applicability of public procurement law
and construction law.

In the current state of epidemic threat introduced by the Polish government, the
Public Procurement Office declared that an online transmission from bids opening is
sufficient to comply with the rule introduced by art. 86 section 2 of public
procurement law.

Keep Safe and God bless everyone!!!