The onset of each business year is marked up by the setting of the different companies or business goals and objectives. Most of this meeting held by different companies may highlight the possible risks that their businesses may face. But due to a lot of factors, such risks are not usually shared in the public domain due to the need to maintain a positive rapport with their clients and also the business may want to keep a closer look at what their competitors are doing among many other reasons. That notwithstanding, there are a lot of big risks that the shoe repair companies may experience in 2018. Moreover, this company have not been performing well in the recent years and the problems that they might face may be more or less of the same problems that this business has faced in the previous years of their operation. If the answer is yes to the latter query, then a majority of the shoe repair businesses may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire as a lot needs to be done if the shoe repair businesses are to come back to the same position that they were some recent years ago. Some of the risks that will be addressed in this article include:
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Loss of potential clients
Most client s are now shifting from the repairing of their shoes to the purchasing of a new alternate form of shoes which have proved to be cheaper. There has been a large influx of shoes from different countries that specializes in shoe production on a large scale platform. Due to economies of scale, this company’s end selling their products at a cheaper price to their clients with them still making a lot of profits. Clients have really signed to their tunes as moreover, who will want to repair an old shoe for a price more or less of the same as that of purchasing a new set of shoes. On top of that, whether refurbished or not new shoes have that apparent look that differs a lot from old repaired shoes regardless of the quality of the shoe Repair Company or cobbler at hand. The loss of customers may be detrimental as they are the basis for their success in the shoe repair business. The shoe repair industries here have to be smart and find alternative ways to beat this large influx of imported shoes by either diversification of their shoe repair services to offering shoemaking and branding services to their clients. But with the pace at which new shoe manufacturing business is mushrooming in some developed and developing countries, I see the possibility that this shoe repair business may be burned down to the grass in the next future ten years.
2.Closure of some of the shoe repair outlets
The past five years have been crucial for the shoe repair business. Most of the shoe repair industries have struggled to balance their book of accounts and this has been majorly caused by the improvement in the economy where individuals have a large amount of personal disposable income that they can afford the purchasing of new shoes rather than repairing the old ones. Besides the latter factor, cheap imported footwear products have barricaded the growth of this industry and it’s estimated that if the same principle goes on, more than half of the now operating shoe repair business may be forced to limit their scale of operation or possible close down some of their businesses outlets. That may be the sole reason why there is an estimated number of about 4300 shoe repair companies from a previous 100,000 plus shoe repair companies in 1930.
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Shoe importation Risks
The importation of goods to a country is controlled by a lot of aspects. Firstly, the government have their role to play in either facilitating or hindering the importation of shoe commodities and other accessories if they deem so. Imported shoes to different companies may be sold at a cheaper price for a lot of reasons. One of them is the cost of labour that was used in the production process. This can be well orchestrated in the 1970 case scenario when Americans shifted from the purchase of cheap Asian shoes which was produced at lower wage cost. The government here has a role to play and or restrict the amount or imported shoes into different countries. Moreover, the government can provide subsidies to the local shoe repair firms to boost their business.
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Shopping for fashionable shoes by clients.
There is a huge demand for given type of fashionable shoes irrespective of the quality of the material used in the shoe making process. This is a big risk that the shoe repair business may face in 2018 as I don’t think the 21st-century youth will prefer to just amend some type of shoes that they used 3 years ago. Possible reasons may be the need for them to conform to particular fashion group, be liked and avoid instances whereby they will be ridiculed by the friends as being anti-fashionistas. To be on the safe side here, the shoe repair business should adapt to the latest shoe repair designs that may sometime look awkward but liked by a lot of clients. Mostly, celebrities are to blame for the wooing of a large number of clients who may want just to enumerate their shoe designs wear without knowing the sole reasons why the celebrities choose the given type of some designs in the first place.
In conclusion, there are a lot of factors that have led to the dwindling nature of the shoe repair industry globally. The importation of cheap shoes from other countries are to blame for the falling out of some of the shoe repair industries which not only provided shoe repair services but also aided in environmental conservation and protection. However, we expect some of the well-performing shoe repair industry to fight back the major risks that they may experience for the good of the environment.
