Alison Barnard Case Study

Week 2 Case Study

Alison Barnard was a 27 year old business owner in Boston, MA. Alison owned an upscale boutique located in Boston’s North End. Her store, “in-jean-ius” specialized in jeans and shirts, and catered to much of the area’s professional and wealthy women. Alison had an uncanny eye for assessing customers, their needs, and pairing them with the perfect pair of jeans. She came from a enthused entrepreneur mother, and knew what it took to see her vision come alive.

Alison attended college at the University of Richmond, and earned a masters degree in Business Administration at Babson. Throughout her pursuit of a MBA, she worked on her boutique idea, and got advice, and researched the field. She was able to assess her opportunity and make changes to make it a more attractive idea. While working part time at a similar boutique, Alison was able to do even more research and find out what women actually want, and how to develop her store to cater to those needs. I think Alison became experienced enough to start her boutique business. She had an exceptional amount of school experience, as well as experience in the field, and the research to back it up. She new what the market catered to, as well as what women look for when shopping for products like hers. I think she is qualified enough to start her own business, and in a position to continue to further that by learning more along the way. It is very important to have experience and knowledge of the industry before you start a business in the same industry. You need to be able to understand how your product or service will benefit the target market, as well as how the business can become profitable in that market as well. They need to evaluate their competition, and put their business in a position to be successful. Without proper knowledge leading into the start of the company, it’s hard to have a future within that industry.

Alison's business would cater to the working class to higher...