You own JM Pharmacy, a pharmacy that you have been working for the past 7 years as

Fantastic news! We've Found the answer you've been seeking!

Question:

You own JM Pharmacy, a pharmacy that you have been working for the past 7 years as soon as you completed your pharmaceuticals studies at the University of Malaya. Your pharmacy is located in Changlun, a small town, located on the norther tip of the Kedah state. It sells a wide variety of medicines and related products including medical support equipment as well as food supplements and vitamins from various leading brands. Your pharmacy gets quite a favorable reception from the local population and further helps you to survive year after year. In addition to Changlun, your customers also come from nearby towns that do not have pharmacies such as Bukit Kayu Hitam, Napoh and even Kodiang.

You rent a two-story shophouse in Changlun midtown for your pharmacy operation. The ground floor is used to house the business office, cashier counter, medicine store and also the pantry room for your employees. In addition, various types of medicines and related products are also sold on open shelves at the ground floor. There is a small corner on the ground floor that has a table with related equipments for the purpose of checking blood pressure and blood sugarlevel of customers. The upper flooris used for the exhibition and sale of medical supportequipments. Some of the medicines and related products sold in your pharmacy are locally produced whilethe rest are imported.

You are assisted by 5 employees namely Mimi, Aini, Tengku Zaini and Azwani who act as sales assistant while Fitrihani works as an account and administration clerk. All bookkeeping and financial statement preparation of JM Pharmacy is done by Fitrihani. They are committed employees and havebeen serving your pharmacy since its inception.

Your pharmacy was founded with a capital of RM300,000 obtained through a bank loan at a rate of 2.4%per annum. The loan still has a remaining period of 3 years to be settled.

Initially, JM Pharmacy was the only pharmacy operating in Changlun. However, in the last 5 years, as many as 3 new pharmacies have appeared around Changlun town. Stiff competition has somewhat reduced the profit margin of your business when you have to play with the pricing aspect to ensure that the price offered remains competitive.

Recently you heard a rumor that a giant pharmacy company,JorgeTown Pharmacy, is likely to open another branch of their pharmacy either in Changlun town or Kodiang. Although the validity of this news has not yet been confirmed, this matter is of great concern to you becauseJorgeTown Pharmacy is well known among the market players as one of the pharmacies that is able to offer the lowest prices that are not yet able to be matched by any small and medium scale pharmacy at the moment.Currently, JorgeTown Pharmacyhas 38 branches located in the states of Perak, Penang, Kedah and Perlis. JorgeTown Pharmacy's large scale of operation has enabled it to achieve economies of scale where its operating costs have been successfully minimized in line with its high sales volume.

Based on your observations, the prices of medicines and products sold at JorgeTownpharmacy branches are much lower than what your pharmacyand other pharmacies in Changlun are able to offer. In the current uncertain economic situation, consumers are seen as more inclined to buy from businesses that provide lower prices. The shrinking purchasing power of consumers makes them more cautious in making purchase decisions.

Should this happens, it is expected that JM Pharmacy as well as 3 other pharmacies operating in Changlun will experience a significant decrease in daily sales amount. It is feared that this will have a direct impact on JM Pharmacy's cash flow and will cause JM Pharmacy to experience serious liquidity problemsin the long run. Your ability to pay bank loan installments and debts to suppliers will also be affected. In addition, your ability to cover your pharmacy's operating costs will also be affected. Should this situation continue, there is a possibility that your pharmacywill not be able to sustain and will have to be closed down if the countermeasure plan is not carefully crafted. The same fate will also befall 3 other pharmacies operating in Changlun should they have failedto respond accordingly to the possibilities that will happen.

You begin to think of plans on how to reduce your business operation costs to face such a situationif it happens. Among the plans you are considering is downsizing your business whichwill involve laying off 2 of your 5 employees. This plan is believed to be able to save part of your operating costs. The savings obtained because of these layoffs are expected to be used to cover the fall in your profit margin resultingfrom price competition with JorgeTown Pharmacy.

Mimi, Aini, Tengku Zaini,Azwani and Fitrihani each have theirown advantages. Mimi is good at serving customers. She is married and has 2 children who are each still in primary school. Her husbandworks as a rubber tapper.Aini is still single and is good looking. She is the mascot of JM Pharmacyand often attractsyoung people to come and buy necessities at JM Pharmacy.Aini is the eldest of 7 siblings. She now lives with her mother since her father passed away four years ago.

Tengku Zaini is a diligent and efficient person in her work and is always available when needed. She is always willing to work overtime if needed without expecting any additional remuneration. She lives with her son since her divorce with her husband. Her another son is currently studying at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in the field of Finance. Azwani is an expert in the ins and outs of traditional medicine. The knowledge she has comes from her father.Her father is a traditional medicine practitioner. You often ask for the help of Azwani's expertise in dealing with traditional medicines when it involvesclients who are having problems with diseases that are difficult to treat with modern medicines. Fitrihani holds an accounting diploma from Tunku Abdul Rahman College.She is the backbone of your pharmacy especially in matters involving bookkeeping. However, Fitrihani is having asthma and also suffers from hypertension.

This layoff will have an emotional and psychological impact on all your employees. This is due to their close relationship. Everyone seems to have alreadybecome part of one big family. The layoff will most likely affect the quality of work and focus of the remaining employees, but this may be temporary. As of now, you still haven't made up your mind about who you're going to retrench since they all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Your pharmacyhas one fixed line phone for officialuse. You also have a private mobile phone for personal use. Also, thereare 2 air conditioning units in your pharmacy, each one is powered by 2HP. One of them is installed at the ground floor while the other is installed on the first floor of your pharmacy. There are also ceiling and wall fans downstairs and upstairs in your pharmacy. The upper floor of your pharmacy is rarely visited by customers except for those who need certain items sold on that floor.

In addition, you are also thinking about the possibility of reducing rental expenses by renting only the ground floorfor your pharmacyoperation. The first floor will be vacatedand returned to the owner of the shop house. However, this has not yet been decided because previously your wife had voiced her views to you to renovate the upper part of the rented shophouse to become a medical clinic that will be run by your eldest daughter, Nora. You have a total of 3 children namely, Nora, Ikhwanand Daniel. Nora is currentlyin the final semester of her studiesat the University of Malaya (UM) in the field of medicine. If this becomes a reality, your pharmacy will have an added value that no other pharmacyhas because it is also equipped with a medicalclinic that is closely related to the medicines sold in your pharmacy.

Ikhwan and Daniel are each attending school at Sekolah Menengah Bandar Baru Sintok. In additionto studying, Ikhwanis actively runningonline business by becoming a dropship agentfor several leading sellers. He also has several social media accounts with over 100,000 followers. Daniel, on the other hand, is very interested in videography. He is earnings income on YouTube® through contents created from recorded videos. He also helps promote the programs organized by his schoolthrough the videoshe created. Your wife is a seniorlecturer and works at the School of International Studies (SOIS), UUM.

In May 2023, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced an increase in the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) to 3%. This indirectly causes the monthly installment of your bank loan to increase as well. It is expected that the OPR rate will increase again in the future. Should this happens, it will increase the monthly installment payment of your existing loan and affecting the liquidity of your business significantly. Your loan outstanding balance is RM76,999. Your wife is offering her savings totalingRM50,000 for you to make a full settlement of your loan balance to prevent you from being burdened with the increase in monthly loan installments due to the increase in OPR. You also have savings totaling RM30,000 in your Tabung Haji account. However, this savings is reserved to help you performing the Hajj which is scheduled in 2025. Should the money from this account is withdrawn, you need to replace it again before 2025 to avoid your turn to perform the Hajj being forfeited.

You have a 2-acre land located at the Pantai Tengah, Langkawi Island. You inherit the land from your late father. The full commitment given to the JM Pharmacy has left the land uncultivated. Two years ago, a friend of yours, Amy Mastura once offered to lease the land from you for 20 years for a chalet construction project. You still haven't made any decision so far though. As the lessor,the lease will entitle you to receivepayment amounting to RM60,000 per year from Amy Mastura for 20 years throughout the lease period. The current value of the land is RM1.5 million and it is expected to continue to increase at a rate of 5% per year in the future.

The drop in the value of the Ringgitalso has a direct impact on your pharmacy. You now have to pay more to obtain medicine supplies and medical equipment imported from abroad. Your profit margin is shrinking. To overcome this problem, you have to raise the price of imported medicines and medical equipment to maintain your profit margin as before. This situation is feared to affect your sales. Some of your customers, especially the poor ones, may turn to the nearby government owned public health clinic for treatment and medicine instead of buying it themselves from pharmacy. This is also feared to have a direct impact on your sales and subsequently the liquidity of your business should the situation continues. Most people living in Changlun are consists of farmers and self-employed individuals. A quarter of them are civil servants who works with UUM, Kolej Matrikulasi Kedah (KMK) and the nearby schools.

This morning, while you were driving in midtown Changlunto JM Pharmacy, you accidentally saw a two-story shop lot unit being renovated. In front of the shop lot hung a large banner that read, "JORGETOWN PHARMACY - OPENING SOON". As the owner of JM Pharmacy, what will you do?