BAEP423-374 Th Syllabus
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BAEP423: Management of Small Business Syllabus and Course Overview Page 1 BAEP 423 - 14374 Management of Small Businesses Spring 2014 Syllabus and Course Overview Instructor Course Overview Greg Autry, Ph.D. BRI-1 (Bridge Hall basement) BAEP 423 surveys the challenges and skills required to launch and [email protected] operate a successful small business. Such businesses may either be Cell: 714.366.8920 (use with discretion) growth focused or lifestyle focused. They may be non-profit enterprises Time as well. The objective is to design businesses that are personally Thur 4:00-6:40PM fulfilling as well as financially fruitful – an objective that must be Location individually defined. Students will develop a realistic perspective of the WPH101 skills they must master and the resources they must secure to realize Office Hours their entrepreneurial aspirations. Thu: 12:30PM – 1:30PM nd Tue: After 2 class, 7:40PM if needed Learning Objectives and by appointment 1. Know what you want out of life and business 2. Identify opportunity and vetting concepts 3. Risk management 4. Marketing and sales 5. Legal structure, accounting and taxes 6. Operations 7. Finance 8. Employees, family, management and leadership 9. Sustaining your business and developing exit strategies BAEP423: Management of Small Business Syllabus and Course Overview Page 2 Specific Skill Goals 1. Be able to understand how various departments of a business operate independently yet work together to add to a company’s profitability. 2. Read and analyze financial statements. 3. Understand effective execution of your business concept. 4. Gain knowledge of how to market and promote a company’s product or service. 5. Expand your awareness of how to finance the launch and expansion of a business. 6. Learn ways to establish a balance between your lifestyle and financial goals 7. Develop personal finance skills and learn techniques to maximize the long-term financial return from a small business 8. Learn to understand the role of the business cycle in small business success Development of hard and soft business skills 1. Analytical skills: thinking, problem solving, and decision-making: a. Demonstrate primary and secondary research skills b. Analyze and critically evaluate alternative courses of action c. Find and use resources to answer your questions d. Form conclusions supported by evidence 2. Oral and written communication skills including your ability to: a. Present and participate successfully in class b. Write well-structured, clear, and concise documents c. Create powerful and informative videos To achieve these objectives, a combination of methods will be used in the course, including lectures, case studies, individual projects, student presentations, a field trip and guest lectures. BAEP423: Management of Small Business Syllabus and Course Overview Page 3 Required Materials I will endeavor to learn each student’s face and history. However, I have Required Books three sections of 423. You MUST display your Tent Cards (name cards) every single class session. If you don’t have one or loose it, make one I can read from the podium. Failure to do this everyday will ruin your class participation score. Texts 1. Mariotti, Steve and Glackin, Caroline, 2013. Entrepreneurship: Starting and Operating a Small Business. 3E. Pearson. This text is referred to as “SOSB” in this syllabus. Note: If you choose to use any alternate version of this text you are responsible for making sure you are reading the correct material. Some versions of the text have different chapter numbers. Look at the chapter description. (I will NOT be assigning homework questions from the text.) If you purchase the Kindle edition from Amazon you will be fine. 2. Komisar, Randy, 2001. The Monk and Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living. HBS. Cases and Additional Readings will be posted on Blackboard. Relevant news stories or publications by the instructor will be added as they appear. Required readings may be found in this syllabus, in the course calendar and/or via a Blackboard announcement. You are responsible for reading them all. When in doubt, email me. Communications Course communication will take place through announcements in class, emails, and Blackboard (http://blackboard.usc.edu/). Many of the emails sent by the instructor will go through Blackboard. It is imperative that you have a fully operational Blackboard account with an email address that works all the time. Keep your inbox from being “full.” All material posted by the professor in Blackboard will be assumed to have been communicated to students. Students are responsible for checking blackboard and managing the notification process. If you wish to reach me, email ([email protected]) is my preferred method of communication, but feel free to text or call me on my cell phone (714.366.8920) if the matter is urgent. Do us both a favor and try to resolve issues well before they become a crisis. BAEP423: Management of Small Business Syllabus and Course Overview Page 4 I get a lot of email (six email accounts) and it is critical for me to sort it efficiently and correctly, so that your questions get answered and you receive due credit. Please help me by always sending me separate emails, with clear subject lines. 1. Don’t reply to an email on one subject to discuss another topic. 2. Don't cover more than one topic in a single email (i.e. “I've got a question for the guest speaker AND I've got a question about the midterm AND here is my late assignment AND I’m gonna be late . ” J Technology in the Classroom Laptops Down The professor, guest speakers and your fellow students deserve your full attention. For two hours each day, you and I will resist playing MineCraft, checking email, updating Facebook, posting to instagram, text messaging, etc. Laptops will be closed except when I require them. Notes are rarely required during my lectures. Engagement is ALWAYS required. Phones will be on silent and put away. Honestly, I’m a tech- head and I know that disconnecting is hard, but if you are incapable of unplugging, drop this course. End of story. Clickers We will be using dedicated Turning Point Clickers during class. They are numbered and you will be using the same one each day to enable tracking of your lecture participation and to grade quizzes. It is your responsibility, as it always has been with paper, to not look at your Lectures and quizzes in this course will neighbor’s answer and to conceal your answers from roving eyes. If you use Turning Point audience response piCk up a seCond CliCker to answer for a friend it will treated as a Case of clickers provided by the instructor. You are responsible for collecting your serious academic dishonesty. If you observe any inappropriate sharing assigned clicker at the start of class and during the quiz, notify me anonymously and I’ll review the data. If I note returning it after each class session. a statistically unusual correlation of answers between neighbors I may reassign seating. The clickers are the personal property of the professor and you are responsible for returning yours each day. Technology A web enabled laptop, tablet or phone will be required for the midterm test. Your essay will also be typed, so consider that in the selection of your device. It is your responsibility to insure that you are on the network, free of viruses, etc. I was an MCSE, but I don’t debug Windows these days. Contact me ASAP if you don’t have a device. BAEP423: Management of Small Business Syllabus and Course Overview Page 5 Guest Speakers An eclectic assortment of entrepreneurs and experts will be featured – you will have the opportunity to learn from the success and failure of others. Attendance at these sessions is critical. Do not be late or leave early when we have a guest speaker. Be prepared to ask intelligent and challenging questions. Be 100% focused and give our guests the respect their valuable time deserves. Failure to show respeCt to a guest speaker is the best way to reCeive a mark down in your Class partiCipation sCore. Questions: Be prepared with an appropriate and intriguing question for our guest speakers. Google these guys and find out something interesting about them. You should always be prepared to ask the speakers a good question and if the room gets quiet, I will cold call students or make these graded assignments. Thank You: Please write a professional thank you letter to at least two of our guest speakers. I will post a mailing address on Blackboard. Assignment Submission and Grading Policies: Electronic Submission – No Printing Other than the in-class assignments, student deliverables will be submitted online to Blackboard. If you are ever in doubt, email me with the attachment so you have a time stamped record of your submission. Save the trees! Except where otherwise noted (Bio Form and speaker thank you notes) I will never require or desire a “hard copy” of any assignment. I will not be responsible for any printed materials you claim that you handed to me. Save a tree, email me. Do not bring in 77 Copies of a presentation to hand out to the Class. All due dates and times are assumed to be in Pacific Time, planet Earth. No Late Work It is my goal to be responsive in grading so that students can accurately ascertain where they stand in the course. For this to be effective student work must also be submitted on time. I’m not a fan of late work and chronic procrastinators will suffer in this course.