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SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT- ENT 348

Fall 2009-

Professor: Dr. Ronald Cook Office: Room 234, CBA

Voice mail: (609) 895-5522 Office Hrs:M/W- 2:45-4:15pm

Sec: (609) 896-5051

Email:

Fax: (609) 896-5304

Required Text: SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT-AN ENTREPRENEURIAL EMPHASIS (2008) - Longenecker, Moore, Petty, Palich, 14th edition (South Western Publishing).

Other Reading Materials:

The library has a bibliography for small business listed on its web site, you should use this resource to research your project. Examples can also be viewed on the Blackboard site for this class.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR UNDERSTANDING AND FOLLOWING THE RULES OF THIS COURSE. READ THE SYLLABUS CAREFULLY-- IMPORTANT- CELL PHONES MUST BE OFF DURING CLASS (unless cleared in advance by me for that day)!

Academy Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty includes any unauthorized collaboration ormisrepresentation in the submission of academic work. In all writtenwork, whether in class or out of class, the student’s name on the workis considered to be a statement that the work is his or hers alone,except as otherwise indicated. Students are expected to provide propercitations for the statements and ideas of others whether submitted wordfor word or paraphrased. Failure to provide proper citations will beconsidered plagiarism and offenders will be subject to the charge ofplagiarism.

Similarly, students are expected to adhere to all rules pertainingto exams. These regulations are designed to insure thatthe work submitted by the student on exams is an honestrepresentation of that student’s effort and that it does not involveunauthorized collaboration, unauthorized use of notes during the exam,or unauthorized access to prior information about the exam.

Course Objectives:

To provide students with an introduction to the world of small business and an understanding of what is needed to start/run a small business.

To state that the small business is the most dominant form of business in society is not an overstatement: over 98% of the businesses in the country employ less than 100 people. Therefore, the majority of you will most likely be either starting, owning, or occupying a significant management position in a small firm sometime in your lifetime. Those of you who choose to work in large organizations will still be heavily involved with small businesses. This occurs because of the reliance of larger firms on smaller companies. Politicians, government agencies, banks, insurance company, etc., can all benefit from a better understanding of small business. Therefore, regardless of your career path, increasing your awareness of a vital part of the economy can only benefit you.

Small Business Management is a required course in the CBA’s undergraduate Entrepreneurial Studies (ES) concentration and major. I am the Entrepreneurial Studies Department Chair, and Dr. Chaganti is the student venture fund coordinator. The ES major is 6 courses, and ES concentration is 4 courses that must be taken with any other CBA major. Both programs are designed to help students who want to start their own firm, work in a small business, join a family firm, or develop entrepreneurial thinking. Please see me, Dr. Chaganti, or the Entrepreneurial Studies web page for further information.

Teaching Methodology:

In this course, the quality of the project work you submit is held very high. You will submit work that is of the highest standard, work that a consultant or executive could be proud of, for your grade. If it doesn’t meet this standard, you have to redo it. Poor quality is not acceptable.

How this works: I will hire you as consultants for this course to do assignments and you will earn consulting dollars. You will also earn consulting dollars for attendance, participation in class, and exam/quiz scores. At the end of the semester, you will receive the highest grade based on your consultant fees earned:

$17,600 or more= A

$16,750= A-

$16,100= B+

$15,500= B

$14,900= B-

$14,300= C+

$13,600= C

$12,800= C-

$12,000= D

Under $12,000= F

The following is the maximum amount you can earn in consulting dollars per category:

Attendance / - / $2,000
Participation / - / $1,000
2 Exams / - / $8,000
Market Research Homework / - / $1,000 each for $2,000 maximum
Final Market Research Part:
Group Part
Individual Conclusion / - / $1000
$3000
Quizzes / - / $1200
Student Success Center / - / $600

See the following sections for further explanations.

Attendance Dollars

You will earn dollars for the number of classes you attend during the semester. The dollar penalty increases as the number of classes missed increases. Once you miss a certain number of classes, I subtract a fee from your total dollars earned in the course. Your 1st miss applies to any missed class for any reason.

Classes Missed / Fee Earned
0 / Bonus of $100
1 / $2,000
2 / $1,900
3 / $1,800
4 / $1,650
5 / $1,450
6 / $1,200
7 / $700
8 / $0
9 or more / $-500/time

Participation Dollars

You can earn an additional $50 per class (maximum $1000 total) by coming to class prepared to discuss the readings. If you sign the participation side of the attendance sheet, you are telling me that you are prepared to discuss the readings for the day and I may call on you at any time. You must sign it to earn the $50 for that day. Otherwise, I will only call on you if you raise your hand (which is encouraged but will not automatically earn you dollars).

Participation is important because you need to be able to explain your ideas to others, and to learn from others. This is an opportunity to try out your ideas with little risk. Even if you don’t like speaking in public, you need to practice and learn to be more comfortable with doing it.

Caution: If you sign up to participate and it is clear to me that you are not prepared, then you lose your $50 for that day and a $100 penalty will also be charged. I also reserve the right to give up to a $300 bonus in participation dollars at the end of the term to individuals who have consistently volunteered good comments.

Exam Dollars

There are three exams. I will take the scores of the best two. The first two will be during the semester and the third will be in finals week. If you are satisfied with your score of the first two exams (and are not taking the final), simply let me know. They are worth $8000 total. There are no makeups for exams- I will be dropping the lowest grade anyway.

Market Research Project and Homework Dollars

General: You will work in groups of 3 or 4 people and develop a comprehensive market analysis of a business idea of the group's choosing. This course is designed to "learn by doing" and by the time you have completed this analysis, you will have an understanding of how to screen an idea and identify the key issues that may make or break the concept. I will schedule class time in library for you to work on your projects and ask me specific questions about your idea.

You can select the people you want to work with based on schedule, experience, personalities, etc. If the groups have problems, someone can resign from the group and finish up as a solo project and/or group members can also be fired: if a team member is not pulling his/her own weight, the remaining members of the group can fire that person. This means two things:

  1. The fired group member has to complete the project on their own.
  2. The rest of the group has to complete the project and will be judged by the same standards as other groups.

Market Research Homework: There are two major homework assignments based on your project. First, you will receive one of three amounts for these assignments: 1) if the project is of professional quality, the team will earn the full $1,000. 2) if the project’s quality is decent (some problems but overall good), the team will earn $850. 3) if the project’s quality is poor, you must fix it within one week. If it is redone correctly, you will receive $750. If it is still not acceptable, I will you $350 dollars for trying. Remember, I judge projects on content, flow and appearance- writing skills matter!!

Final Market Research Project: The final group assignment is putting your homework sections together and ensuring that it makes sense. The group portion of the final project is worth $1000. It should have the previous homework assignments (with whatever improvements are done from the draft parts) with page numbers, a table of contents and a bibliography. Then, each member takes this final project and develops his/her own conclusion, based on the analysis.

If the group portion is judged to be of "professional quality," I pay $1,000. If it is not professional quality, I look to see if it is of “decent quality” and will pay $850. If the project’s quality is poor, I will pay $350 and individuals have the option of correcting the problems and earning back part of the monies when they submit their individual portions.

Individual Conclusion: For the final project, you will develop your conclusion, based on the analysis. The focus is on understanding whether or not the industry is a good field to enter, and in either case, what could be done to improve its potential. This is worth $3000 maximum.

Student Success Center (SSC) and Quiz Dollars

If the group uses the SSC to review the two group homework assignments, all members of the group will receive $400 ($200 per time). Individually, you can earn $200 more for having your conclusion reviewed by the SSC. Therefore, a person can earn up to $600 for using the SSC.

I will be giving 6 brief quizzes at the beginning in class during the semester based on the readings for that day. Each quiz will be worth $300. I will take the best 4 quiz grades out of the 6. If you are absent when a quiz is given, you get a 0 for that time. There are no makeups for quizzes. I simply drop your lowest 2 scores.

SMALL BUSINESS COURSE OUTLINE –Fall 2009

Assignments listed are what is due for that week.

Week One – September 7:

1) Go over outline and syllabus

2) Begin group selection process

Week Two – September 14:

1) Read chapter 1

2) Library session- meet in library instructional room at class time- 9/16

3) Form groups for project

Week Three –September 21:

1) Read chapters 3 & 4 in text

2) Homework- final topic for group project- 9/21

3) Student Success Center Speaker- 9/23

Week Four – September 28:

1) Read chapter 6 &7 in text

2) Provide writing guidelines for project sections

Week Five – October 5:

1) Read chapter 8 in text

2) Look at example of industry analysis on web site.

3) Hands on research in the library- 10/5

4) Turn in library summary- 10/7

Week Six – October 12:

1) Read chapter 9 &10

2) Guest speaker

Week Seven –October 19:

1) Exam review

2) Exam-October 19

3) Homework – Industry Trends and Demographics - 10/17

Week Eight- October 26:

1) Read chapter 11 in text

2) Return homework, meet with teams

3) Return exam

4) Library session – 10/26; library summary- 10/28

Week Nine – November 2:

1) Read chapter 13 in text

2) Homework- Competition and Competitive advantage section – 11/4 3) Guest speaker

Week Ten- November 9:

1) Read chapter 15 in the text

2) Return homework, meet with teams

Week Eleven – November 16:

1) Exam review

2) Discuss individual conclusion portion

3) Read chapter 16 in text

Week Twelve – November 23:

1)Exam 2

2) Homework- Final group portion due- 11/23

Week Thirteen- November 30:

1) Read chapter 18 in text

2) Guest speaker

3) Return group portion of final project

4) Return exam 2

Week Fourteen- December 7:

1)Final exam review

2)Read chapter 19

Final Exam: The final is optional, cumulative, and will be held during exam week.

Individual conclusion is due by final exam time.