Vartul univarsity

Virtual University

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 '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.

VUO objectives

•explain to someone the concept of business management •use appropriate terms that are related to business management •suggest reasons for setting up businesses •identify business ideas •compare the potential of different business ideas •differentiate between business types •describe factors that influence the starting of a business, and relate them to your situation

'2.A. How do we define Business Management?'

There are several definitions for Business Management. The definitions vary depending on the perspective of the person giving the definition.

 First, let us look at these definitions for business: 

•Business is defined as an organization operated with the objective of making a profit from the sale of goods or services. •An enterprise, commercial entity, or firm in either the private or public sector, concerned with providing products (goods or services) to satisfy customer requirements. If we look closely at these definitions we will see that there are certain words which appear in both

'Key points'

Now, look at these definitions for management:

•Management(from Old French ménagement "the directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand") characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organisation, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). •Mary Parker Follett (1868 - 1933) defined management as "the art of getting things done through people." •One can also think of management functionally, as the action of measuring a quantity on a regular basis and of adjusting some initial plan, and as the actions taken to reach one's intended goal. This applies even in situations where planning does not take place. From this perspective, there are five management functions: planning, organising, leading, co-ordinating and controlling. In some cases though, these definitions, while useful, are far too narrow. The phrase "management is what managers do" is also prevalent, conveying the difficulty with which management is defined, the shifting nature of definitions, and the connection of managerial practices with the existence of a managerial cadre or class. You can see that there is no single definition for Business Management. For this course we may define Business Management as the process of p

'Definition

. W'hy do we need to define Business Management?

The structure and demands of business management are constantly changing. As a result, it is important that we determine what it means to us at a particular point and time. Once, we have decided on a definition; that definition should: 1.... provide the business owner with areas of focus for his/her business. 2.... indicate the perspectives(areas of focus) of the writer(s)you may choose to as your "guide". 3.... allow you to compare the different perspectives to that of your own. 4.It may also help you to clarify your own thoughts on which perspective you should take

'4. What is meant by Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is what the entrepreneurs do! And they are present in any field - not only making profits, but also working in the not for profit NGOs, in the field of education, social reforms economic development, polity of the locality, state,country or even the world polity.The entrepreneurs working in the social spheres are called social entrepreneurs and those, who are working in the corporate sector as employees, but do something usually done by entrepreneurs, are called the Intrapreneurs. Now, what do the entrepreneurs do? why do we need them? The accumulation of factors of production per se – be they knowledge, physical or human capital – cannot alone explain economic development. They are necessary inputs in production, but they are not in themselves sufficient for economic growth to occur. Human creativity and productive entrepreneurship are needed to combine these inputs in profitable ways, and hence an institutional environment that encourages free entrepreneurship becomes the ultimate determinant of economic growth. Thus, the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship should take center stage in any effort to explain long-term economic development. The Economic theory, however did not lay proper attention to the entrepreneur and to the entrepreneurship. A. Define the term Entrepreneurship?

There has been a great deal of attention paid to the subject of entrepreneurship over the past few years, stemming primarily from the discovery by economic analysts that small firms contribute considerably to economic growth and vitality. Entrepreneurship, can be defined as, the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified opportunities. Generally, the new organisations started by Entrepreneurs are Small Businesses.That is why, sometimes small and medium enterprises are reffered to as the seedbed of entrepreneurship. Some experts distinguish between an entrepreneur and a business person. Difference is the innovation in the business activities. Innovation is not the R&D stuff or inventions in the normal sense, but it involves commercial application of an idea. It is not difficult to learn.

B. How do we define Small Business?

A small business is "one that is independently owned and operated and which is not dominant in its field of operation." Small Businesses are defined using size standards. Different countries have different standards which are used to determine the size of a business. These standards include: 1.Number of Employees 2.Amount of money used to start – Start up investment 3.Rate of turnover - average annual receipts of the business For example: •St. Vincent & the Grenadines: A small business is one that employs ten persons or less and has an initial investment of Twenty five ($EC25,000.00)or less. •Belize: A small retail business is one which has annual sales receipts under $ 2 million. •European Union: A Small Business has less than 50 employees and a turnover of less than 10 million Euro. The EU also defines a medium sized enterprise as one which employs less than 250 people and has a turnover of of less than 50 million Euros and a micro enterprise as one with less than 10 employees and a turnover of less than 2 million Euro Typical examples of small businesses include: small shops, hairdressers, tradesmen, solicitors, lawyers, accountants, restaurants, guest houses, photographers, small-scale manufacturing etc.

'Self Assessment

Make a list of all that comes to mind as you try to: 

•find your weak points •ind your strong points •decide how you can improve your weak points

decide how you can make use of your strong points in order to succeed

'Activity

•Give three characteristics which you have that will make you a good Entrepreneur. •Name two entrepreneurs in your area/district. 5.what are the different Business types