Free Essay with an Interview with Patricia Florina, Clothing Store Owner, and Manager

Entrepreneurship has changed over the recent years, and more women are now taking active roles in owning businesses. Today in America, entrepreneurship has become diverse hence providing business owners an opportunity to provide for their families. Patricia Florina owns a women fashion clothing store in Anaheim, California. The name of her business is Amore Italia. Patricia was born in Italy and moved to America at the age of 24 to pursue her career in the fashion industry. Her passion for fashion saw her work for several jobs in fast-fashion stores such as Zara and also doing modeling. Her experiences while working at fashion stores made her realize she could express herself more if she owned a women fashion store. Her success has allowed her to create a foundation of knowledge and teaching to young women back in her home country. Personally, I admire her because she has achieved a lot at her age while still she possesses the qualities of a successful business entrepreneur. Throughout the interview, it was evident that Patricia runs her business with work ethics and organizational culture that reflects the dominance of Italian names in Fashion.

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Patricia formed the clothing store business back in 2011 as a sole proprietorship. One main factor that I found to be a driving force towards her entrepreneurship is that she cited she has no one to answer to. She has been an employee for franchises and corporations before, and that is why she became flexible. Impressively, Patricia's husband owns a car rental business and out of his experience, she also had some advice for negotiations on buying a car. Talk of family entrepreneurship. This is Patricias advice when buying a car.

Before approaching the car dealers in your area, make sure to do research on the car pricing online. It puts you in a proper position to negotiate and bargain effectively. In addition, knowing what others are paying for the brand is helpful. A good online source of retrieving the dealer pricing is by looking at Edmunds.com.' the website will provide the buyer with retail prices, dealer invoice, and for the packages that are available. Depending on the car you want to buy, there may be cash back rebates. Therefore, you need to know if the car you are buying has rebates, and if they are in advance. This will affect how you begin your offers to the dealer. Also, find out if the dealer has an incentive for the type of car you are planning to buy.

This advice from Patricia demonstrates what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Her knowledge of the car business is attributed to her experiences as a wife to a husband who is conversant in the car rental business. Back to Patricias business, I found out that she is also willing to be in a joint business as long as the partner is the right person. Growing in Italy considered the home of fashion has significantly attributed to her starting up Amore Italia clothing store. It all began when her father was fortunate enough to give her an empty building he had kept for her business. Patricia thought it would cost about $10,000 to jump-start the business, but it was not the case. The building needed major remodeling not to mention the costs of legal documents and licenses that she had to obtain. The total cost of starting up the business was $35,000.

When I asked Patricia the experiences she had with contracts or administration, she responded that the only legal bindings she had were with her employers such as the designers and manager. Otherwise, the place of business was acquired from her father at no cost. However, there are also various challenges she has encountered such as developing unique products for clients. She cited that starting her clothing store was the most fascinating thing in her life yet the most challenging. She has laid out a set of standards and polices regarding the products in the store. For instance, all her clothing products have to be made from the finest materials which she handpicks from Italy. In terms of customer satisfaction, she indicated that she feels more responsible with a dissatisfied customer because it motivates her to please them at the end. In an ethical perspective, Patricia believes that holding up to her customers is the right and ethical way to operate a business.

According to Randolph (2014), the ongoing litigations by major fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, and Topman depict how fashion laws have emerged as lucrative but absurd battlegrounds for the legal profession. In this light, I asked Patricia if she has been involved in any litigation. She mentioned that, fortunately, she has not filed any lawsuits. Another question I raised was if the U.S employment laws affect his relationship with the employees. Patricia employs a non-discrimination policy on all his staffs. She has a diverse staff who are made up of different races, religion, and age. The U.S constitution provides protection of employers in discrimination practices such as compensation, harassments, bias in hiring, and job termination. Patricia indicated that she is more aware of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employee discrimination affecting work relationship. Having employed more than 15 staffs, Patricia maintains a personal relationship with all his employees regardless of their age, size, gender, or race.

Amore Italia operates in a marketplace that is highly competitive. It focuses on delivering the customer satisfaction of very high levels so as to continue its expansion and growth. Its approach to recruit individuals with right competencies and skills assists it to achieve its objectives and targets. It offers continued training and development so as to keep the core skills in the enterprise so that its employees can progress along a career path that is long-term. The recruitment practice of the company is designed to mirror the diversity of the societies in which they operate. Patricia highlighted that it makes its adverts through a broad range of media. Furthermore, its process of selection aims to determine the best individual for the job. The HRM employs the standard formats to match the applicants skills and merit to the jobs. These entail;

Person specifications that display the summary of the personal qualities that is required for the job.

A job description that highlights the role of the job, and it also lists the core tasks of the job.

As a business that is service oriented, it usually recruits individuals with the skills that are needed by the business in the long run. More so, it establishes and offers to train the existing staff, maintaining the primary skills inside the enterprise. It ensures it selects the right employees with apt skills so as to attain its objectives.

Technology has not really played a significant role in the operations of the business. On a global impact; the store has managed to bring women Italian fashion in the streets of U.S. when I asked her if she is willing to expand the stores in other states she mentioned that for now she is comfortable with the one store. On a personal reflection, I commend Patricia for how she operates her clothing store business. She is ethical and develops an interest in her employees and customers. Despite her competitors who also sell women fashion, Patricia's store maximizes on the Italic fabrics hence giving her a competitive edge. A positive thing the business is also doing is CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Patricia has a soft spot for children, and she indicated that she does philanthropic CSR activities such as donations on children care centers. However, as a recommendation, to increase her sales and brand awareness, Patricia might consider the need to incorporate e-marketing techniques such as social media marketing.

The interview with Patricia depicts the beauty of owning your business. After the interview, I was amazed at how far the business has grown. With no lawsuits yet and employment discriminations, I can attest that the future seems bright for her business. To conclude, the interview with Patricia was an eye-opener for individuals to become entrepreneurs and be their bosses.

Reference

Randolph, E. (2014). Fashion Law Is Becoming A Ridiculously Profitable Industry. Business Insider. Retrieved 21 November 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-law-gets-fashionable-as-labels-learn-to-love-litigation-2014-11