Enterpreneurship and Management

Entrepreneurship is The process of initiating a business venture, organizing the necessary resources and assuming the associated risks and rewards.

Entrepreneurship as an option. For many years there was many worries surrounding the idea but recently there has been an outbreak of entrepreneurs making money and living a better quality of life. Women and minorities are now starting their own businesses more than men because they have been discriminated in the corporate world and decided to go out on their own.

Entrepreneurship and the environment-people used to be worried about small businesses surviving now there are about 23 million out there. Since our economy is rapidly changing it creates new opportunities for small business owners everyday. New technology has opened thousands of new opportunities and especially with the Internet making a small business available to thousands of people around the world.

Definition of a small business by the SBA is typically a business with 500 or less people or it can depend on annual receipts or the number of employees in certain categories such as manufacturing, retail and services.

Impact of Entrepreneurial companies: about 600,000 new companies are incorporated every year. The SBA reports that small businesses employ more than 50% of the workforce and generate more than half of the nations' GDP.

Who are Entrepreneurs?? They are people that have a vision and want to achieve something. They need tolerance for ambiguity, self confidence, desire to succeed and a high energy level.

Starting an Entrepreneuial firm

To start off you need a new business idea. Coming up with the idea is the easy part. Then you need to develop a business plan. It is a specific plan detailing every aspect of your new business. It provides financial projections, target markets, risks associated with the business.

Then you need a legal form. This determines whether you will be a partnership, proprietorship or a corporation.

Financial Resources-two ways to finance the business is debt-financing or equity financing. Debt-financing is borrowing money that has to be paid back at a later date. Equity finacing is done with venture capitalists in which they become part owners of the company.

There a re 6 main tactics people use to become a business owner they are to start a new business. Buy an existing business. Buy a franchise. Participate in a business incubator. Be a spin off or try using globalization.

Getting help-there is assistance available form SCORE. They are all retired business executives which helps small businesses grow. The SBA (small business association) also helps small businesses and has a web site with tons of useful information.

Stages of growth-There are five stages of growth. Existence, survival, success, takeoff and resource maturity.

Planning- The primary goal of planning is to stay alive. In the early stage of existence it is basically non-existent.

Organizing is important in the first two stages of growth

Leading- this is important because small firms most of the time have a hard time hiring qualified employees. Usually they are hurt by labor shortages.

Controlling-financial control is important in each of the firm's initial growth.

Intrapreneurship in a growing business-an intrapreneur in a company must encourage action, use informal meetings whenever possible, be persistent in getting an idea to the market and must reward or peromote innovative employees

CHAPTER 21

Information technology