ASSIGNMENT 1

NAME: RIJA ASHFAQ

SUBJECT: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS METHODS

ROLL NUM: 24971

DATE: 17TH OCTOBER 2020

ANSWER 1:

Roxanne Quimby has been through so many ups and down during her life and due to which she always
thought of a black sheep in her family. At a very young age, her parents got divorce so she started living
with her boyfriend, but late on even he disowned her. She also had two sisters and they both were
working with different people. But she was never into business and never even thought of doing
business.

In 1975 she got married to her boyfriends and moved to Guilford, Marine – an hour Northwest of
Bangor. They brought a small house to start their life which was even without electricity, running water
or even phone. After 2 years of marriage she had twins and then the real struggle started and she felt
like disappearing into pots of boiling water. Later on, when her twins were of age 4 she also get divorced
which was a completely turning point of her life. She decided to pick up her things and she near to a
friend’s house. She use to earn $150 a week in which she and her children use to survive.

In 1984, she began to question her lifestyle and realized about her kid’s responsibility that she need to
do something, and for this she had to make change and this was the time she decided to make real
income. So she hooked with Burt. Just like Raxanne, even Burt was disappointed from his life and was
facing difficulties. He was a New York native and ex-photographer for Life and New York magazines.
They met in 1984 and their bond was immediate. Quimby talk about Shavitz’s role at Burt Bees. She
convinced Burt for this enterprise and he believed in it but unlike Quimby he was bit emotionally
detached and uninvolved. Therefore, he had great idea and was more into taking risk. He use to give
moral and psychological support.

They started her business by making candles with beeswax which was a turning point of their journey
and then she keep on reinvesting the profit and her savings into business and brought different product
lines like honey and beeswax business, soaps, skin care products and lip balm.

To conclude the story, I would say that one should never be disappointed with what has gone in his life
or should judge him / herself because of his past. There is always a way for everything and taking risk
and finding opportunities and trusting the journey make things easy. The path which Roxanne chose
wasn’t an easy one, she even seen her company not making a single profit that year but for her it
doesn’t make any different, she tried to come up with better options and she reinvested in different idea
to make her plans and dreams work.
ANSWER 2:

The link between the strategy of Effectuation Principle and Burt Bee’s business which became into a
great success is:

1- The first principle is The Bird in hand which says that whatever resources we have, we have to
choose from it. Linking this principle with Burt Bee success is that both Roxanne and Burt used
their available resources and they work hard to earn reward from it. They believe that they can
do wonders and they trusted the journey which turned into a great business story.

2- The second principle is Affordable Loss, this principle talks about the financial stability of a
business that one should invest as much as he is ready to loss. Here Roxanne always had the
theory of no debt policy which made the company profitable throughout the years. She initially
invested with less more but later they keep on diversifying their product line into different other
products.

3- Crazy Quit was the third principle which says that entering into a new partnerships can bring the
projects new funds and new directions which we can link with Burt Bees’s business that they
diversify their product line by investing into different product ranges.

4- The forth principle was Lemonade principle which says that mistakes and surprises are
inevitable and can be used to look for net opportunities. Here we can link it with Burt Bees
business that keep trust in their journey no matter their were days when they had no sales too
but despite of being disappointed, they trusted in their business and waited to have better
results which opened vast business opportunities for the,

5- They last principle was Piloting the plan, this is the principle which says that their partnership
was the best decision they have ever made which made their business a successful one.