The Impact of the Business Environment at Southern Culture

 The Impact of the Business Environment and Stakeholders at Southern Culture
If you're a business owner, every major decision you take must consider the factors in the environment, which present opportunities and challenges. You must understand that six categories of factors in the business environment determine whether you will succeed or fail: economic, technological, competitive, social, global, and political or legal (McGraw Hill, 2021). All these factors, in one way or another, shapes the decisions you make while trying to improve business performance.
Southern Culture is a packaged mix business initially owned by Erica, and just like any other business, factors in the environment shape its operations. Two important factors relevant to Southern Culture are competitive and technological forces. As shown in the episode, Southern Culture has to compete with other companies in the same line for spaces in grocery stores (Lemonis, 2018). Packaging, product taste, and marketing contribute to the competitiveness of the company's pancake and fried chicken mixes. As a vital factor in the environment, technological forces determine the number of customers attracted to its products. In the episode, Erica manages to promote the company's products on Facebook with the help of Marcus. The company also seeks to appear on the website mouth.com to attract more customers.
Marcus' intervention helped turn around the company's fortunes, but I think the company can further improve by increasing its visibility on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Pictures and videos of its prepared foods can attract more customers to its website and products. In today's age, technology and particularly the internet, has become an integral part of the business environment.
Blog Post 2: Inside the Numbers at Southern Culture
Despite having sales of about half a million dollars, Southern Comfort had severe financial issues that, without Marcus' intervention, could have led it to bankruptcy. With the company having debts amounting to $500,000, one can easily forgive Erica’s husband, Andre, for constantly complaining about the financial issues (Lemonis, 2018). It is clear from the episode that Erica lacked financial discipline, which prevented the company from taking off on the journey toward profitability. The colossal debt wasn't the only critical financial issue. The company's loans were of high interest, with one of them having an interest rate of 40%.
The financial issues weighed down on the key stakeholders of the company, the owner, Erica, being the most impacted. As noted in the episode, other key stakeholders are her husband, Andre, her mother, customers, and creditors. The financial issues significantly impacted Erica because it not only strained her marriage with Andre it also meant that she was constantly worried about bills such as rent. On the other hand, Andre was also significantly affected since he was the only one who regularly injected cash into the business to keep it going.
I would have definitely invested in the company if I were Marcus due to its potential and Erica's determination. The company makes unique products that can easily appeal to many customers, given a little bit of marketing. The appeal is do...