Reflection on Introduction to Business Studies

A business, an enterprise, or a firm is an organization designed in an attempt to create value through recognition of business opportunity by the management of risk taking opportunity, and through communicative and management skills to mobilize human, financial and material resources necessary to bring a project to success (García, Domingo and Salvador 68). A business is brought into existence by an entrepreneur, where an entrepreneur is the person trying a new opportunity or starting the new project (Bygrave and Zacharakis 37). Entrepreneurship is therefore the process of establishing a business venture in which the owner aims at getting profit (Bygrave and Zacharakis 37).

An entrepreneur accepts financial ricks, undertakes new financial venture by focusing on innovations and creativity, and transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture by operating within organizational environment (García, Domingo and Salvador 68).

Business success does not depend entirely on capital money but also on personal attributes of the entrepreneur (Bygrave and Zacharakis 37). This implies that business success is goal oriented and can be attained through entrepreneur’s self-confidence, self-reliance, creativity and innovation. The entrepreneur must be willing to take initiatives and be persistently committed to initiatives taken in order to succeed. Moreover, he/she must be driven by the desire to be independent, and less afraid of failure (Bygrave and Zacharakis 37). Entrepreneurs are quite passionate about achieving goals and more alert to the existence of new opportunities and drive to take risks; within this context, an entrepreneur can be viewed as one with a spirit of recognizing opportunities. An entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur must be ready to take risks by investing resources in order to achieve meaningful results through creativity; he should be innovative enough to increase productivity and efficiency of his business. An entrepreneur should have a vision and a mission for his business to guide his operations; including short term and long term business plans in order to prosper. Furthermore, he should develop his business growth with the basic knowledge of equilibrium of goods and services (Bygrave and Zacharakis 37).

Studies have revealed that business success is a continuous growth process that is governed by a very detailed and well-established set of rules that evolve throughout business time line (García, Domingo and Salvador 18). The initial business growth stage is the start up stage. At this stage, the entrepreneur acquires general awareness and orientation towards small business and the self-employment (García, Domingo and Salvador 18). At start up stage, the entrepreneur identifies the need to acquire motivation and confidence as well as self-appraisal of managerial and personal responsibilities. In addition, start up stage requires the entrepreneur to increase his/her awareness, understanding and insight in the business that he intends to pursue (García, Domingo and Salvador 18).

The next stage for the business development is the business creation (Greene 57). The business creation stage involves testing of a proposed business idea against the competences and the interests of a potential entrepreneur (Greene 57). A potential entrepreneur make a defined commitment to become self employed and begins to prepare a business plan of the proposed business venture; listing the resources required (Greene 57). The key factors that should be involved in this stage are building of a business personality, being self-motivated, and gaining commitment to the business, technical and personal availability for the business, business building and managerial skills and acquisition of business resources including a business plan (Greene 61).

The importance of a business plan is to help the entrepreneur to focus on ideas and visibility study of the business (Greene 62). A business plan is a viable tool for managing the business; it empowers the entrepreneur with knowledge required to prepare his business for success (Greene 62). A business plan is therefore a strong communication tool that helps to define an enterprise, how the enterprise is managed and the personnel concerned in the enterprise management (Greene 62). A finished business plan provides the basis for financial background and enables the entrepreneur to look at a business in an objective manner while acting as a strong reality check for the business. In addition, the plan helps the entrepreneur to cope with changes that may occur in a business over time (Greene 62). Regular review of the plan helps to evaluate past decisions and planning, effective business plan ensures that the team is committed to defined business goal. The benefits of a business plan cannot be ignored in the world of entrepreneurship because an entrepreneur can even use a well-structured business plan to acquire a loan from a bank for the business capital (Greene 62). Furthermore, the business plan serves as a disclosure document for ones knowledge of the business (Greene 62). This knowledge is profitable to me as an aspiring entrepreneur because I will use the guidelines to plan my business and use the business plan as a viable tool for acquiring capital for my business.

The next stage is called business survival stage or the business maintenance stage, at this stage the entrepreneur has mastered the product and production, markets and basic management of the enterprise. Interventions at this stage include consolidating the production process and product quality, consolidating the existing market, consolidating the management control system, upgrading technical skills to maintain standard, refine production process and upgrade marketing strategies that can help keep the market at high standards (Greene 62).

The final stage of the business development is the business growth stage; this stage involves the growth of enterprise (Greene 63). At this time, the entrepreneur gains advanced experience and the business can then expand as it experiences growth, making a small business become large.

I have learned that a business should have a business description, which entails what the business does; including a description of the entrepreneur, what the business offers, what are the market needs in relation to the issues the business will address and whether the business idea is viable. A business description sections include an overview of the business, description of the business products or services, an entrepreneur’s position and the pricing strategy. As an aspiring entrepreneur, this information is important to me because it empowers me to position my enterprise for increasing market competition and to offer innovative products that meet the demands of my clients; thus keeping me ahead in market competition.

This course has given me an understanding of the importance of a market plan in business. I have the understanding that market plan describes the market or services to be marketed to make a profit and that successful marketing depends on the understanding of the nature of the products and services, the controllable variables such as promotions, price, products that the company puts together to satisfy a given market (Bygrave and Zacharakis 74). Based on market plan, I will have enough facts to convince investors, potential partners and other interested parties that my business has enough customers in a growing market and can gain more sales despite the existing competition.

Marketing is one of the most important parts of the plan, taking into consideration current market size and trends, it requires extensive research because decisions that follow from manufacturing to marketing to the amount of money needed will be based on sales estimated in the marketing plan (Bygrave and Zacharakis 74). Additionally, the market section includes information on competition and estimate sales, market size and the market trends (Bygrave and Zacharakis 74). These details will enable me; as an entrepreneur to position my enterprise for competition and also come up with disruptive innovations that will make my products unique in order to increase my customer base.

Financial plan of a business is important because it identifies the amount required and how the money will be used in investment. It also shows how the capital will be raised (Bygrave and Zacharakis 74). Management and the organization plan of the business are necessary as they show how the business will be organized and managed; such that the major strategies like key management personnel and their qualifications are observed.

In conclusion, this class has empowered me with great knowledge and understanding that I intent to implement as an entrepreneur to guarantee the success of my business. Success in business does not come in a silver platter but it has to be planned and appropriate steps taken to implement the plan. A business plan depicting core elements of a business such as financial plan, market plan and management plan among others; if well implemented will lead to enterprise success.