Operations, Finance, and Ownership Decisions

This unit equips students with intermediate operational, financial, and legal decision-making skills required to run and sustain a small business. Students investigate taxes and cash management, ownership and exit options, staffing and compliance, vendor and inventory systems, and promotion and distribution strategies, building on prior planning work and preparing learners to implement growth and sustainability strategies in the final unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze personal and business financial data—including cash flow versus profit, key ratios, expense controls, inventory impacts, and tax implications (e.g., pass-through deductions)—and produce prioritized cash-management and expense-reduction recommendations for a given case study.
• Evaluate and compare ownership, organizational, and exit options (sole proprietorship, partnership, incorporation, franchise purchase, buying an existing business, MLM, and work-from-home models) and recommend the best legal/tax structure for a provided business scenario with justification based on risk, cost, and operational fit.
• Demonstrate operational management competence by creating a plan that includes a flexible organization chart, hiring and firing procedures with employment-tax compliance, selection of management tools, and vendor and inventory control policies for a simulated small business.
• Apply marketing, distribution, and due-diligence practices to develop a go-to-market plan that selects appropriate distribution channels, promotion tactics, trade association involvement, and vendor relationships, and justify choices using target-customer and cost-benefit reasoning.