Entrepreneurship

Develop and realise your own abilities.

People become entrepreneurs for many reasons. Some want to escape a stifling career, or transition from an unrewarding job. Others want to be at home but still earn an income. Others want to pursue a personal dream, have more control over their creativity or destiny.

Entrepreneurship can be exciting, but running your own business is difficult. In fact, many companies started by entrepreneurs go out of business. This can be due to poor planning, lack of business knowledge or entrepreneurial characteristics and choosing the wrong business or incompatible staff.

Often the skills required to be a great entrepreneur such as having an abililty to 'think outside the square' and to capitalise on opportunities are different to those required to efficiently manage the day to day running of a business. Recognising your limitations and filling gaps in expertise by outsourcing, training or hiring complementary personnel are part of being a successful entrepreneur.

This course provides a practical foundation on which to build your entrepreneurial skills and experience.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Scope & Nature of Entrepreneurship
   • What is a Entrepreneur
   • Types of Entrepreneurs
   • Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Success
   • Sources for Business Ideas
   • Intrepreneurs
   • Ethics
   • Entrepreneurial Process
2. Is Entrepreneurship Right for You
   • Reasons for Becoming an Entrepreneur
   • Skills Needed by Entrepreneurs
   • Determining How Suited You are to Being an Entrepreneur
3. Assessing opportunities
   • Questions To Consider
   • Assessing Opportunities
   • Entrepreneurial Lifecycles (Opportunity Recognition, Opportunity Focussing, Resource Commitment, Market Entry, Full Launch and Growth, Maturity and Expansion, Liquidity Event)
4. The Role of Market Research
   • Obtain, Analyse, and Interpret the information necessary
   • Who Will Buy Your Products and/or Services
   • What Do They Want
   • Market Research Steps
   • Types of Market Research (Market Research, Product Research, Promotions Research, Sales Research, Company Research)
   • Gathering Data (Primary Data, Secondary Data)
   • What Needs Research (Physical Attributes, Behavioural Characteristics of Customers, Identifying Best Prospects)
   • The Research Process
   • Statistics
   • Researching Competitors
   • Tracking Trends
   • Staying Ahead of Trends
   • Questionnaires
5. Intellectual Property
   • Copyright
   • Contract Law
   • Public Domain
   • Right to Privacy
   • Law & the Internet
   • Electronic Publishing
   • Patents
   • Designs
   • Trademarks
6. Legal & Ethical Concerns
   • Types of Business (Sole Trader, Partnership, Private Limited Companies, Public Limited Companies)
   • Terminology
   • Legal Obligations
7. Operating a Business
   • Goals and Objectives
   • Resources –Premises, Equipment, etc
   • Stock & Suppliers
   • Identifying Business Functions
   • Thinking About Expenses & Costs
   • Dealing with Fluctuations in Demand
8. The Business and Financial Plan
   • What is a Business Plan
   • Venture Capital
   • Forcasting
   • Setting Goals
   • Policies
   • Scheduling
   • Budgeting
   • Developing Procedures
   • What to include in a Business Plan
9. Marketing
   • Gathering Information
   • Identifying Key Issues
   • Developing Strategies and Actions
   • Market Opportunity Analysis
   • Determine a Target Market
   • Engineer a Target Market
   • Market Objectives
10. Launching a Venture
    • Launching
    • Start Up Assistance
    • Being Prepared for Change
    • Prepare Contingency Plans in Advance
    • Using Assets Well
    • Think Laterally
    • Core Business Focus
    • Taking Calculated Risks

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Discuss the concept of entrepreneurship and identify the effect entrepreneurs can have on the economy.
• Identify requirements to become a successful entrepreneur.
• Clarify personal expectations, values, skills and experience.
• Identify methods of investigating business opportunities that are in line with personal and business interests and values.
• Discuss the importance of market research in order to understand potential customer requirements and market needs for a product and/or service.
• Explain the legal and ethical aspects of ownership of ideas, designs, etc.
• Explain and have the knowledge of relevant legislation and regulations affecting entrepreneurs.
• Identify and explain all factors and costs that need to be considered in starting up and managing a venture.
• Explain the essential elements of a business plan and the importance of financial planning.
• Explain the key concepts of marketing to enable the student to develop and plan marketing strategies relevant to his or her entrepreneurial venture.
• Describe various means available that can be used to launch and publicise a new venture.

Do You Have What it Takes to be an Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs try to identify and meet a need for a product or service. Entrepreneurs come from all types of backgrounds, may be of any age, and create all kinds of businesses.  Some own tiny craft shops, while others own huge construction companies.  Entrepreneurs try to identify the needs of the marketplace and to meet those needs by supplying a service or product.  When they succeed, their businesses flourish and the profits go to them.  When they fail, their companies decline and they may have to go out of business.

Stand Out from the Crowd!

Entrepreneurship is a process of looking at things in such a way as to make solutions to problems and perceived needs.  Such as, is this idea feasible? Will this idea work?

It is also the willingness to take risks involved with the starting and managing of a business.  It is also the qualities needed to function effectively in a business, profit-making context, that is, the ability to identify business opportunities and make deals.   Entrepreneurship also refers to the ability to take risks on your own initiative and be able to work in a cost effective way to make a profit. 

There are many opportunities for entrepreneurs in each type of business.  Manufacturing businesses actually produce the products they sell.  Using resources and supplies, they create everything from automobiles to paper.  Wholesaling businesses sell products to people other than the final customer. Retailing businesses sell products directly to the people who use or consume them. Service businesses sell services rather than products.  They include hotels, hairdressers and repair shops. Entrepreneurship benefits the economy by filling unmet needs and increasing productivity. It also benefits the economy by providing employment to local inhabitants, paying taxes to government and council and often buying materials from other local businesses, which circulates money around the geographical area. In many cases, the most successful entrepreneurs started businesses that are today large corporations.

OPPORTUNITIES

The world is full of opportunities for entrepreneurs. Some take existing businesses and turn them into something bigger. Some start new enterprises from the ground up.

As you study this course, opportunities will arise. It is important to not get ahead of yourself though. You are rarely going to miss an opportunity of a lifetime, just because you waited to complete your studies. You will however have a decreased chance of success if you attempt something before you are prepared properly.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING – AND SO IS EDUCATION

Flexible Study

Choose how you study, where you study, what you study, how much you study, and when you study.

• Work fast or slow –you choose the intensity of study

• Start, pause or restart according to changing demands of work, family or lifestyle.

• Mix and match modules so you only study what you want or need to learn - Customise your own learning program by bundling 100 hour modules. Discounts are provided for combining modules int his way
  

• Options in assignments allow you to focus on things with greater interest to you.

• Study electronically (online or using a CD); or using printed notes.

• Use (or don’t use) supplementary services for extra learning want –unlimited access to tutors,  an online student room, social media, bookstore, etc

• Orientation video and student Manual at the start of your course will provide a clear guide to how you can study and get all sorts of support no matter where you live.

Why Distance Education is Better

Classroom based education today is in crisis. Funding is under pressure, teachers are often stressed and increasingly, text books that were the back bone of courses in the past are becoming unavailable as electronic publishing impacts on the print media industry.

These pressures (and others) have resulted in the quality of classroom education diminishing. At the same time, technological advances have been allowing distance education to get better and better every year.

ACS started in 1979, and by 1982 was using computer technology to write and print courses. We have developed our school alongside a global technological revolution; adopting and applying new technologies to distance education as those technologies have emerged. Our experience has taught us how to deliver education in the most effective way, using modern technology; and allowed us to build a reputation that sets our graduates apart in the global marketplace.  

• Too many courses today are stuck in the past; giving graduates qualifications (often accredited), but leaving them with out of date skills and often unemployed.

• Too many students commence courses with their sights on a job that exists when they start studying, but not recognising the fact that industries are changing so fast that by the time they finish studies, their job prospects may be completely different (The job they started out chasing might not even exist by the time they finish studying).

Fantastic Opportunities

This fast changing world of ours can be unsettling for some. We all prefer to set our sights on a long term goal, and achieve it. The reality is that the ability to live that way is diminishing every year that passes.

You have two choices in your education –

• One is to ignore the changes underway in our world; and hope that studying something that has worked in the past, will work for you in the future.

• The other is to recognise that that there will be unforeseen opportunities in the future, and then prepare yourself as best you can to capitalize on those opportunities. 

Graduate Outcomes

• Being prepared to capitalize on future opportunities in your field of study.

• Awareness of the subject and the industry

• Understanding of how to use what is learnt in real life situations

• Ability to communicate with greater confidence and accuracy

• Capacity to solve problems related to this subject