Weaknesses

Main “Victorio Cakes” weaknesses are:

· It’s a niche product and custom-made cakes are generally more expensive than normal sponge cakes, so there will be a limited demand for them.

· There are customers who might have brand loyalty or preferences to other firms that are also producing custom-made cakes.

· “Victorio Cakes” has a limited budget and, therefore, cannot afford to invest money into new equipment and programmes for accounting and keeping finance records, unlike other firms with bigger budgets, which means it is going to be more difficult for “Victorio Cakes” to keep a record of all their finances, and it will take more time to workout, than if they bought a computer with a programme which would be doing it for them and employing an accountant, because this would lead to higher costs, so that they might see decrease in profits, or not break-even, which could have put it in danger.

· Rapid growth can lead to cash flow problems in “Victorio Cakes”, so that they might either have to manage their finances more effectively making sure that everyone pays on time, or taking loans in banks for a period of time, while they’re waiting for the money to be paid for the cakes sold, because they will still need to buy raw materials and pay other costs of producing cakes such as electricity bills, salary and etc.

· Limited product range due to limited budgets, limited space, members of staff and other factors of production needed to have a wider variety of products, unlike in some other firms that already exist on the market.