Analyze the problem
Cash flow problem
1. AW wanted to hire additional employees to provide technical support and customer service, but was unable to afford them.
2. The lower priced product AW network required much more administrative support than AW professional edition did ( Action Wagon Case, p17 ).
Legal Problem
Although Joshua had been careful in the language used in any agreements with customers, stores who used the AW Network software (and associated service) presented a potential problem. If customers would be considered franchises under the law, those customers would be entitled to certain franchisee protections-protections that AW could not afford to provide ( Action Wagon Case, p18 ).
Competitors
Competitors were a issue for AW when it was a retailer, now AW became a software company they still got the advantage as a pioneer.
Time issue
Since AW ran out of operation fund, Devin stepped down as Chief Operating Officer in April 2004, primarily because the store could not pay him enough for him to meet his personal needs, after We’ll Sell It Inc. bought the retail company from AW, Joshua asked his brother David to run the software company together, they handled as many sakes inquiries as they could, but programming demanded their attention, customers needing service or technical support demanded their attention too, they did not have enough time to handle everything ( Action Wagon Case, p18 ).
Conclusion According to the Action Wagon case, I can see Joshua was simply a programmer, he was able to develop two wonderful programs for customer to use, even press praised Action Wagon’s business, but I think Joshua did not do enough research before he began the business. For example,
1. He underestimated the cost to run the business.
2. He did not know the regulation about drop-off stores, pawn shops and secondhand stores.
3. He underestimate the services requested by AW Network program, and had no solutions when the problem came out. A lot of issues