Reference no: EM132314025

BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS

Discussion Question: 400 WORDS

Imagine you are thinking of starting a restaurant in your community. What are the most critical two to three challenges you believe you would face? Discuss these challenges, your reasoning behind each, and the approach you would take to address them.

Assignment: 3 PAGE PAPER

1. Imagine you are a local businessperson who has to deal with the issue of outsourcing. You want to begin with the facts. How many, if any, jobs have been lost to outsourcing in your area? Are there any foreign firms in your area that are creating jobs (insourcing)? Consider using the Internet to help you find the data you need.

2. Look through your local phone book to find five businesses that provide services in your area in a domain of interest. List those businesses and, for each, describe how social trends might affect them in both positive and negative ways. Be prepared to explain your descriptions.

3. U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could have school voucher programs that give money directly to parents, who could then choose between competing schools, public or private. The idea was to create competition among schools. Like businesses, schools were expected to improve their services (how effectively they teach) to win students from competitors. The result would be improvement in all schools, private and public, to benefit many students.

a. Do you believe economic principles like competition apply in both private and public organizations? Defend your answer.

b. Are there other public functions that might benefit from more competition, including competition from private firms? What key things would lead you to exclude certain kinds of business?

4. Many people say that business people do not do enough for society. Some students choose to go into the public sector instead of business because they want to help others. However, business people say that they do more to help others than nonprofit groups do because they provide jobs for people rather than giving them charity. Furthermore, they believe businesses create all the wealth that nonprofit groups distribute.

a. Find the middle ground in this debate and show that both business people and those who work for nonprofit organizations contribute to society and both need to work together more closely to help people?

b. How could you use the concepts of Adam Smith to help illustrate your position?

Assignment: 3 PAGE PAPER

1. Select a small business that looks attractive as a career possibility for you. Talk to at least one person who manages such a business. Ask how he or she started it. Ask about financing; human resource management (hiring, firing, training, scheduling); accounting issues; and other managerial matters. Prepare a summary of your findings, including whether the person's job was rewarding, interesting, and challenging--and why or why not.

2. Select a small business in your area or a surrounding area that has failed. List the factors you think led to its failure. Compile a list of actions the business owners might have taken to keep the company in business.

3. Imagine you are considering starting your own business in a domain of your personal interest. Consider your answers to the following questions:

1. What kinds of products or services will you offer?

2. What talents or skills do you need to run the business?

3. Do you have all the skills and resources to start the business, or will you need to find one or more partners? If so, what skills would your partners need to have?

4. What form of business ownership would you choose--sole proprietorship, partnership, C corporation, S corporation, or LLC? Why?

Which of these topics are the most important for an entrepreneur to address and which are less important. Prioritize the list of topics, explain the rationale for your prioritization, and provide supporting evidence.

4. If you have entrepreneurial traits and decide you would like to start your own business, you'll need to develop a business plan.