VUSSC/Content/Entrepreneurship/Starting Up a Business/Introduction

1. Introduction
Welcome to the first Unit of the Business Management course. You have made a wise decision to embark on this programme of study, and we are certain that the ideas will help you start up your own business.

Any aspiring business person has to come to terms with basic concepts associated with a business. Throughout this course, we intend to discuss concepts like 'entrepreneurship', 'the entrepreneur', 'an enterprise', 'the business idea', and factors that influence your intention to start up a business. For a given country, the factors could be cultural, economic, political, or environmental.

As you interact with the ideas introduced, you will be conversant with the different skills related to Business Management. This is so because, for any business venture to succeed, business management skills have to be properly applied. This will be related to your understanding, as a newcomer to the business world or even if you already are a business manager, of the categories of businesses available namely, product-oriented and service-oriented businesses.

Entrepreneurs are found not only in the business, but also in the social, political, education and even in the existing business ventures as employees. They are called Social entrepreneurs, political entrepreneurs or the intrapreneurs, who develop new fields within the existing enterprises. Intrapreneurs perform all the functions of the entrepreneurs, minus the riskbearing and rewards of the new stream. they are an asset to the entreprise, in which they are employed. If you are an employee, you may practice intrapreneurship instead of entrepreneurship.