BUS 350 - Entrepreneurial Finance

Credits: 5
LEC hours per week: 5
This course will focus on clearly instructing students on the process of formulating, planning, and implementing a new venture; taking students through the Entrepreneurial Perspective, from an idea to an opportunity, from an opportunity to the business plan and from the business plan to funding the new venture. Students will understand the relationship between risk and return, cost of capital, start-up structures and governance. Students will understand and evaluate the legal forms of business ownership. The course will also cover how to fund a start-up through informal investors, corporate investment, and private investment.
Recommended: ACCT& 201 or AGBS 220.
Course Outcomes:

Explain the concept of entrepreneurial action.
Recognize the risks when starting a new venture.
Compare strategies an entrepreneur can employ to reduce risk.
Identify various sources of new venture ideas.
Analyze important issues related to contracts, insurance and product safety and liability.
Discuss the scope and value of the business plan to investors, lenders, employees, suppliers and customers.
Understand the relevance of industry and competitive analysis to the market planning process.
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the legal forms for organizing a new venture.
Prepare a financial plan appropriate for a start-up organization.
Evaluate risks and benefits of funding options available to a start-up organization.

Course Topics:

The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set
Generating and exploring new entries
Creativity and the Business Idea
Protecting the Idea and Other Legal Issues for the Entrepreneur
The Business Plan: Creating and Starting the Venture
The Marketing Plan
The Organizational Plan
The Financial Plan
Sources of Capital
Informal Risk Capital, Venture Capital, and Going Public
Choosing a Legal Form for your Business
Creating a Corporation
Structuring a Partnership Agreement