Finance, Marketing, and Management Essentials

This unit develops core financial literacy, marketing, and management skills for early-stage and growing businesses. Students learn to interpret budgets, balance sheets, and income statements; evaluate funding, investment, and risk; and design marketing, promotion, purchasing, and workforce strategies while addressing legal and ethical considerations. It builds on introductory concepts and prepares students for advanced strategy, financing, and capstone work in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze budgets, balance sheets, and income statements to assess financial health, identify anomalies or misleading practices, and recommend corrective actions.
• Evaluate early-stage and expansion financing options, stock investments, and investment risk metrics to recommend appropriate capital strategies for a given business scenario.
• Apply marketing and sales techniques—including market trend analysis, marketing plan development, promotions, events, telemarketing, and web selling—to create a targeted promotional plan that aligns with business goals.
• Demonstrate managerial and operational decision-making by designing workforce empowerment and motivation strategies, purchasing choices, basic risk-management measures, and legal/ethical compliance steps, and by setting measurable goals and monitoring progress.