To what extent does profit motivate the owners of small shops? Why people set up their own business? The answer to this question will have a priority word, which is profit. A person who carries out a business, wants the highest profit possible as their main objective, in addition to having freedom to make decisions. Having profits, makes them survive and feel secure, as well as completing other objectives such as personal satisfaction, income, funds for retirement, personal wealth or children’s inheritance.

However, there is another factor which makes owners feel even more motivated, which is the shop having a good reputation. All these factors are linked, as if there is a good reputation, then is likely to be higher sales, and as a result big profits, which will help the owner complete their objectives. These risk takers, will feel well motivated if there are high profits and a good reputation, always depending in the type of business and its situation. I did an interview to the owners of 4 small shops in Las Palmas. The owners which I interviewed are the following: Mr.

Perez Hidalgo (Bounty, a clothing shop), Mr. Martin (Base, a sport shop), Mr. Vega (Estanco Vega, a corner shop) and Mr. Godwani (Foto Expert, a electronic shop). All of them are owners of different types of small shops. Bounty was opened only 1 year ago, and it has having high sales from the starting. This is helped the shop to have high profits, and to survive. Mr. Perez Hidalgo feels really motivated about this fact, as there is a high competition in this market in Las Palmas, where many shops sell old fashion clothes of luxurious brands such as Armani, Versace, D;G…

I did a survey to see the opinion people have about Bounty1, as it can be seen that the shop has a very good reputation. This makes Mr. Hidalgo feel more motivated, he feels that his carry out his job very well, and giving people very well their demands. His next objective is growth as a way to feel more motivated, and this can be done thanks to its high profits and good reputation. Base was opened 4 years ago, and I usually buy my sport clothes from here.

It can be said that the reason for having profits and being able to survive is because they meet very well customer’s demands, they are always updated to the latest sport things. Profit figures satisfy Mr. Martin, but what makes him feel fully motivated is knowing that the shop’s reputation is good. He likes to see that customers are happy with what they have purchased, and they will come back again. This means that Mr. Martin cares a lot about profit, but what makes him fully motivated is to see a smile in the customers face, which increases the shop’s prestige.

Estanco Vega is a corner shop, which sells snacks, sweets, magazines, newspapers, alcohol… It has been running for 8 years approx. and Mr. Vega is proud of having being to keep surviving. “The high incomes are what keeps me motivating to run this shop and without it, I wouldn’t feel motivated to keep handling this job and it would have been closed”, said Mr. Vega. Reputation isn’t a important factor in this type of business, because the products being sold have a low elasticity of price and demand. Lastly, I interviewed the owner of Foto Expert, a electronic shop owned by Mr. Godwani, which is situated in the south of Gran Canaria.

This shop has been running since 1989, and constantly has been having success. Mr. Godwani said that, what he really cares is too have as much profit as possible, which according to him, can only be achieved by having a good service, and responding as best as possible to customer’s demand. If this task is well carried out, then prestige will increase alone, although isn’t a big motivation factor for him because what he really wants is the highest profit possible.