Start-up case study - Petmeds

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An excellent case study in The Sunday Times today tells the story of how Ricky Thomas set up Petmeds after spotting an opportunity from a change in legislation…

The story of the Petmeds start-up has lots of useful insights, particularly for AQA AS Unit 1 & Edexcel Unit 1 students starting their courses in the next couple of weeks.  Some of the points I highlighted are:

Source of business idea - change in legislation allowing pet owners the freedom to choose where they get their pet prescriptions supplied

Importance of cash flow forecasting and management - the danger of overtrading if sales rise too rapidly

The workload challenge faced by entrepreneurs - Ricky had to cut his honeymoon short in order to handle the work (not a good move!)

Strong competition - a start-up business plan should always assume that the competition will be harder to beat than first thought.  This caused Petmeds to sell “loss-leaders” do they could attract orders

Start-up losses - £80,000 in the first few months

Employing people - getting high quality people to support the business (e.g. advisers) takes some of the workload off the entrepreneur

A great case study to add to your SOW.  To find out more about the business, visit the Petmeds website

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