Running a Model Agency - Research Paper Example

A model agency is a business in the model industry dealing with fashion models. The start-up of a model agency is just like the beginning of other businesses only that they are in different industries. There are essential factors for consideration while starting a business, promoting it through marketing, analyzing the market and establishing solid strategies that would improve its sustainability. Creating agencies earn commissions depending on the kind of agreements that it enters with the head agency or company. Running a model agency begins with partnering with a company that deals with modeling, assembling the required resources, business permissions, and the management towards the desired levels.

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Establishment

Successful entrepreneurs know how to create a foundation of their business even having not begun it. They do so by a creating a business plan of the kind of business that they see lucrative or have identified a market opportunity. A business must have a description that entails the name, strategies for success, location, mission, objective, available resources, promotion models, premises, services and other essential features of the business (Casson, 2010). Having considered the most crucial factors such as resources, labor, facilities and the market opportunity, an entrepreneur can easily determine whether the business ideas is viable or not.

Despite the fact that an entrepreneur is interested in becoming an agent of a particular model firm he or she needs to come up with a name in which the company will be using to refer to the agency. It requires having a plan on the kind of goods and services that it wishes to offer to meet the customer expectations and needs in line with the company. Depending on the size of the agency, the business must be prepared to offer the primary services and products offered by the parent company since it is operating under another company (Webb, n.d.). The agent is a link between the distant customers and a particular company, and therefore it should offer all the services offered by the parent company.

Registration Process

Before getting started with an agency, one ought to meet some formal requirements to make the business termed as legal. There are strict requirements between the owner of the firm and the company that the agent wants to operate under. These requirements act as security for the business as it makes it legitimate to enter a particular industry and operate in a specified location (Steingold, 2006). Every state has a certain protocol followed before beginning any business or agency, and adherence to it makes sure that the business is on the safe side from any legal confrontations.

While opening an agency model business, the entrepreneur requires presenting the desire to the company of choice which in most cases requires that the investor goes in person. The head of agency provides crucial information about the company and its stand to its agencies; how it operates them (Webb, n.d.). The entrepreneur must strike an agreement with the model company on how they will carry out the business together. He or she will be required to sign an agreement, usually written by the model company towards all of its agencies since in most cases they operate similarly (Webb, n.d.). The entrepreneur should make sure that everything is clear and he or she gets the certificate of operation as an agent of the company.

The entrepreneur must be conversant with all the registration processes that the governing authority of the state or region requires. In some parts, it is necessary that the investor seeks a license or business permit from specific boards before the operation (Steingold, 2006). The permit is much important as it establishes the kind of business that an entity transacts and any complaints would also reconsider the license.

Marketing

Marketing is important to every business as it is the driving force of attracting new customers as well as retaining the existing. After the start-up of business, the most important thing to every new business is to market its products and services. Fortunately, in this case, the entrepreneur will have an easy time in marketing since he or she is selling an already existing product that the parent company is marketing. Many companies achieve their visibility through the use of media such as televisions, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, radio, commentary, articles, social media and others (Edge, 2012). Therefore, it wont cost the agency too much to advertise its services.

However, the entrepreneur has to work a little bit to establish the business in the locality. This marketing would involve the newest customers or friends who would refer each other to the agency. Most of the agencies, target population of a particular region and they have to put up sign boards that direct clients to their business.

Before the Earnings Come

Sometimes, it becomes challenging before a business establishes itself. This difficulty is characterized by insufficient cash flow since the business idea is yet to entirely become a reality due to other unexpected cost variations and additions (Edge, 2012). With higher costs of services than the revenues, the agent will have to rely on the reserves if it has it. Establishment of a realistic cash flow budget would have adequately predicted of such outcomes (Webb, n.d.). The agency would have prepared itself and reserved to manage the first phase of the business. A financial institution such as a bank would have contributed so that the business acquires financial reserves that would enable it to undergo the phase of low returns and high costs.

However, many companies may experience periods of on-going expenses with almost empty bank balance. Therefore, when starting a business, it is important to have a good relationship with financial institutions so that one could contact them in case business problems arise and one needs to solve the crisis. Sometimes, businesses diverse their services in a bid of keeping them alive if they are not doing as expected (Edge, 2012). This is the time that one would go for bank overdrafts or soft loans to reinvest further into the business.

Invoicing

Money management is one of the primary factors that determine the success of business. Excellent money management is likely to result in the success of business while poor management would attract losses and eventual close up of business (Correia, Flynn, Uliana, Wormald & Dillon, 2015). It is, therefore, important to introduce systematic invoice routines from the first day of the business operation. It is imperative to seek advice to successful entrepreneurs more so from those that have started similar businesses. The agency should seek advice as it prepares to introduce new procedures that would satisfy its requirements as well as those for the company and the business. Thus, the agency should control and administrate the amount of goods and services produced within a particular range of time, and they are included in the customers invoice.

The entrepreneur should consider on how often the agency should invoice, the most convenient and appropriate terms of payment, preferably the ones used by the parent company, and how to pay the incoming invoices (Correia, Flynn, Uliana, Wormald & Dillon, 2015). The agency should regard both the outgoing and incoming invoices as valuables that the business must uphold. They have to be treated accordingly.

Office Work and Accounting

Every business or organization contains office work and aspects of account no matter its nature. There may lack physical premises to carry out this work, but office work and accounting ensures that all the functions of management apply and application of financial management (Correia, Flynn, Uliana, Wormald, & Dillon, 2015). It is a recommendation that the agent acquires a decent office where it can serve its customers better. At first, finding a practical manner of organizing all the incoming and outgoing paperwork might be hard. But, currently, there are various software designed to offer solutions for both small and big businesses. Sometimes, they turn out to be much expensive but contacting the agency network, or the company would be the best way. In fact, most of the agencies operate with equipment provided by the parent businesses and therefore, the agent should ask for assistance from the company first.

The Accounts

In most countries, it is a law that all business keep accounts; these accounts are referred to as the bookkeeping act. It serves the role of submitting document returns and statements as required by the parent company and the authorities particularly the revenue authorities (Correia, Flynn, Uliana, Wormald, & Dillon, 2015). Moreover, statements give a clear picture of the business financial situation and performance over a given period. Bookkeeping paves the way for business reporting, budgeting, accounting, salary and cash settlement.

The agency should recruit an accountant or employee employees who at least would be doing the account keeping. In most cases, financial records prepared through accounting become the basis of all the business decisions since almost all the business operations require money (Edge, 2012). The accounting process must be professionally administered to avoid any legal suits in the future since in some states bookkeeping is reserved for the accounting firms.

It is important that the agency consults the parent company on its practice towards bookkeeping. Some organizations will design a particular practice that should be followed by all its agents and other affiliates. Therefore, it is imperative that the agency consults the company before settling on the bookkeeping.

Competitor Analysis

While starting a new business, it is important that the entrepreneur carries out a marketing analysis to determine if there is a need to launch the project or not. Understanding the market needs and the current climate of the market provides an entrepreneur with key information that is crucial in developing a particular product or service and its marketing plan (Casson, 2010). In most cases, businesses end up spending too much while launching a business with limited market due to stiff competition. The proprietor may be forced to critically reevaluate his or her strategy and determine if there is another room for other business.

Despite the fact that marketing analysis and marketing can both be identified as particulars for information, they have to be understood. Marketing entails all the actions for the promotion of a product or service while marketing analysis encompasses the actual assessment of the competition, target population and the diverse need for product or service marketing (Casson, 2010). In the model agency case, since the business will operate under another business, marketing may not be a big issue. However, the investor must be well prepared to enter a market with few competitors providing the similar products and services.

The agency requires garnering sufficient and reliable knowledge before identifying the location of the business. He or she need to understand how to carry out a market analysis. The investor must be able to define the kind of industry that he or she intends to enter by understanding its competitors (Casson, 2010). The investor must have the capacity to identify the target population as well as his or her competitors. Also, he or she has to identify the key factors for success and the competitive edge. Finally, the investor must weigh all the factors, weigh them and rank the competitors according to the factors identified.

Growth and Sustainability

Every business, whether a new one or an existing one strives to grow in many dimensions among them increased revenues, diverse products and services, increase the labor force, and so...