Planning a business start-up
Develop a business plan for a start-up business.
What’s it about?
In this micro course you will prepare a business plan and presentation for a startup business including reference to legal forms of business, and moral, legal and ethical business behaviours.
What will I learn?
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Review legal forms for a business
- Identify the questions to ask when choosing an appropriate form of ownership for a business
- Select and justify an appropriate form of ownership for a selected business startup
- Recognise different approaches for developing a business plan and the role of prototyping a product or service
- Analyse an example of a business model startup
- Prepare a business plan for a selected startup
- Prepare a business presentation based on the business plan
- Differentiate moral, legal and ethical business behaviours
- Discuss how ethical behaviour impacts on business decisions for a selected business startup
- Investigate the relationships among entrepreneurial intentions, culture, gender and new venture creation
- Appraise the value of mentors and professional advisers for a business startup
What’s involved?
There are four learning pathways, each containing numerous resources and activities. The learning pathways are:
- Legal forms of business
- Business ethics
- Business mentorship
- Business planning
This micro-course forms part of the larger Introduction to Entrepreneurship course of study coupled with IENT101 and IENT103. On completion of the three associated micro-courses, if learners wish, they can be assessed for academic credit.
Prerequisites?
Anyone is free to participate in this course. An internet connection and basic web-browsing skills are recommended, with the ability to create a blog and use online communication tools (instructions and self-study tutorials provided.) You are requested to keep a personal learning journal, as reflection has been shown to markedly increase learning.
The course and assessments are conducted in English. This is a university level course and you should be able to communicate fluently and accurately in spoken and written English.
Image credit: Business plan mind map, by Rawpixel, dedicated to the public domain.
Carol Cooper-Taylor, is an independent consultant with extensive experience in e-learning design. Carol was commissioned by the OER Foundation to lead the design and development
Read More
Dr Wayne Mackintosh, is the founding director of the OER Foundation and is the designated UNESCO and ICDE Chair in OER at Otago Polytechnic. He is
Read More
Claire Goode, is a member of the Learning and Teaching Development team at Otago Polytechnic, and a Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy.
Read More
Simonne Wood, is an Educational Technology Specialist within Otago Polytechnic's Learning and Teaching Development Team. She has many years' experience in tertiary institutions in the
Read More
The course materials were assembled from the curriculum outline developed by Thomas Edison State University.
