Foundations of Small Business

This unit introduces core concepts for launching, buying, and operating a small business, focusing on mission development, startup finance, basic marketing, legal and tax considerations, and early-stage decision-making. It synthesizes self-assessment, financial forecasting, and due diligence skills to prepare students to create a preliminary business plan and move into deeper planning and implementation in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and compare small business entry pathways (start-up, buy existing, franchise) using personal readiness, market factors, and risk criteria to recommend the most suitable option.
• Apply basic financial tools to estimate start-up cash needs and prepare a simple projected cash-flow statement and break-even estimate to inform funding decisions (bootstrapping, loans, investor capital).
• Evaluate legal, tax, and operational requirements (entity selection, licensing, franchise issues, purchase contingencies) and assemble a compliant pre-launch checklist for a selected business scenario.
• Develop a concise customer-focused go-to-market plan—including mission statement, target market, lead-generation and retention strategies—and create a preliminary business-plan outline to guide next steps.