Often people talk about the value of a college education over a high school diploma, this is even true for the small business owner. In the article it states "according to Hiscox Director Kevin Kerridge, new business owners often have energy and passion for their products and services, but tend to neglect basic business skills." I am very surprised how business owners seem to general business skills. “Cash flow, human resources, marketing and insurance issues can seem boring, but are hugely important,” Kerridge said in a statement accompanying the survey results. It's great that all of these topics have been included in my major. Believe it or not even I get bored in class (hard to believe), but it's actually going to be relevant material regardless of what path I decide to take after college.
Also contained was a list of ten common errors made by starting entrepreneurs:
1. Going it alone
2. Asking too many people for advice
3. Spending too much time on product development, not enough on sales
4. Targeting too small a market
5. Entering a market with no distribution partner
6. Overpaying for customers
7. Raising too little capital
8. Raising too much capital
9. Not having a business plan
10. Over-thinking your business plan
I think these are all great tips from this WSJ article. I do not understand how people can decide to go into business without having a plan, it seems like common sense, but I guess not. Using some of these tips should help an entrepreneur swim and not sink in this recovering economy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467004575463460389523660.html
Zac Long
Dr. Sheep's feedback for your team:
ReplyDeleteIn general, you are off to a relatively good start on your blog. Your posts are interesting in terms of raising issues and questions. However, there are some improvements needed if your blog is to be more in line with the assignment.
First, while all of your members have found some interesting material, only two of your members have actually been intentional or specific about relating the issues in their posts back to course concepts or theories in OB. Of course, posts about small business in general are interesting, but they are not what this assignment is about (see assignment and criteria). Unless you relate them specifically to a topic or concept(s) from OB (either that we have already studied or from future chapters), then it is not about OB (at least not in any way that you have pointed out), nor does it analyze anything from an OB perspective. Thus, while some of your posts are variously specific at “reporting,” they do not rise to the level of analysis—applying OB course concepts in a specific, meaningful way to gain insights on the material in way that shows the connection clearly.
Two of your members have made a good attempt to make that connection clear (for example, the posts about Daxko and Badger). The other members of your team can learn to do this, as well, if your blog is to improve in terms of adding value to the MQM 221 class as an online discussion that specifically pertains to Organizational Behavior topics. Small business is a wonderful context in which to study OB topics, but you need to be much clearer about how these topics can be applied to small business.