Introduction
Students learn different courses at the universities in a bid to gain white collar employment at the end of it. This is meant to bring food to the tables and perhaps make some savings for future investments. In most occasions, people supplement their white collar jobs with a bit of self employment in order to make ends meet.
This is championed by the fact that most employments do not earn employees enough cash to meet their budgets. Sometimes, employees need to secure their financial stability by starting other independent businesses apart from the employment they already have.
Recent statistics indicate that self employment is probably the most common form of job creation in the United States of America (Tyler, 1949). It is important to note that this case does not only apply to the United States of America but also to quite a number of nations across the globe.
This is so because self employment offers an extent of convenience and satisfaction that cannot be easily achieved by other forms of employment. Additionally, people tend to have the urge to have private businesses alongside their jobs in order to increase their income.
The unemployed society in a given country is also more likely to think along business lines as opposed to seeking employment elsewhere. All these play a significant role in increasing the number of private businesses (Knowles, Holton, and Swanson, 2012).
The ability of a businessperson to come up with a business idea, create and manage the business may be termed as entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur may also be referred to as a businessman. One who intends to start a business must first be well acquainted with business procedures, setbacks and management policies.
Even though starting a new business is usually a big risk, it pays off well if managed because the entrepreneur always has the freedom to manage his/her own business. That aside, the businessperson is able to balance his/her personal life by creating a business schedule that best suits him/her.
On the other hand, private businesses always need funds for their inception. This could be quite a challenge especially for first-timers. The incorporation of risks in private businesses is also another challenge that might hinder people from starting businesses (Tyler, 1949).
An entrepreneur can only maneuver his/her way through all these variables by learning how to manage a business. The curriculum created on how to manage private businesses will play an integral part in this paper. This paper is meant to give an insight on the course.
The most relevant concepts of the course
There are quite a number of relevant concepts in the course. They play a vital role in ensuring that an entrepreneur comes up with just the right business idea in his/her niche and evaluate whether the business is viable or not.
The concepts also assist businesspeople in making relevant hypotheses concerning their businesses. These concepts include the following.
Marketing segment
This involves the simple details of a proposed business plan.
It incorporates things like business name, slogan, targeted customers in terms of their ages, gender and sometimes financial status, ways of reaching the customers and perhaps the competitive advantage the proposed business would have over other related businesses.
This is important in ensuring that a business idea is well scrutinized without leaving any loopholes (Barrow, and Brown, 2012).
Feasibility study
This is always done after coming up with a business plan and establishing the location of the business and perhaps its competitive advantage.
This study involves presenting a few potential clients with questionnaires that focus on the viability of the business. It is meant to give feedback and sometimes recommendations from the perspective of clients. It is important in customizing the business in relation to customer specific needs and wants.
Marketing plan
This is intended to give a blueprint on the advertising and promotion ideas meant to market the business to its potential customers. Entrepreneurs must be aware of the available marketing strategies.
They are important in getting the business idea to the clients. Some of these promotion ideas include business cards, posters, flyers, brochures, internet marketing, sales calls and mailings amongst others (Barrow, and Brown, 2012).
Legal issues of the business
There has to be legal obligations in any particular business. These include licenses, certificates for ownership and many others. In some occasions, the ownership of a business may be sole proprietorship, corporation, partnership or a non-profitable organization.
All these types of businesses are accompanied by their specific legal obligations. A businessperson should, therefore, be aware of the legal requirements for his/her business.
Capital
This is the most fundamental concept of a business. Before someone knows how much he/she needs to start up a business, it is important to determine all the items needed to commence (Biech, 2008). It is from these that prices will come in and perhaps transportation costs.
The manner in which the concepts impact on me professionally
These concepts have significance to me. Even though I do not have employment experience, my family business has nurtured me in the field of business and taught me the basics. I have worked in an acting capacity in the family businesses of real estate, supermarkets and gas stations.
I have thus gained some considerable experience in finance and marketing. The concepts in the course have enlightened me on how to come up with the most comprehensive marketing and funding segments. They have advanced my knowledge in the key areas that need strict observation while coming up with a business idea.
The marketing strategies, for instance, have expanded my scope of thinking. Initially, my perception of marketing had been limited to business cards alone.
Today, however, I have known the convenience and affordability of using other marketing strategies like interment marketing and mailings. I have understood that these are the most reliable means of marketing a business.
The things that have made professional impacts on me for the past three months that I have been progressing through the course
Apart from knowing the basics of initiating a business and measures of ensuring that only a small percentage of risk is involved, I have also had other experiences that have made professional impacts on my business career.
For instance, the course has provided comprehensive strategies on how to attract, satisfy and maintain clients. When I get back to actual work, this will form an integral part of my daily operations. I have learnt the importance of trying to encourage first time clients to revisit.
In business, first-time clients are not as important as revisiting customers (Friere, 2000). This has impacted a lot on my strategy to apply all measures possible to ensure that a customer is satisfied and that he/she revisits another time.
The things contained in the course that are most likely to have an impact on me as I move forward with my career
Quite a number of things contained in the course will have a great impact on my career as I carry on. I have a special interest in the finance department and the things I learnt concerning finances will have a considerable impact when applied in the real life.
For instance, annual and quarterly financial projections contained in the course will have quite some impact when I apply them practically. The projections in terms of sales and expenses are forecasted financial goals that are supposed to be met given the different variables put in place for this purpose.
I am certain that these will assist in coming up with obtainable goals in my business. They will also provide the right channels for applying all the necessary machineries to ensure that objectives are met.
The costing procedures provided in the course are bound to have an impact in my career too. They are systematic and easy to understand.
Unlike the previous, complex procedures I used to apply, these simple formulas will most definitely ease my work especially when I get back to Saudi Arabia to manage one of our family supermarkets (Biech, 2008).
The things that I would do differently from now onwards considering the fact that I know what I know from the course
The very first thing that I will do differently from how I used to is the marketing strategy. I was so fond of using business cards alone. They had negligible effect as far as marketing our family businesses was concerned.
However, I kept using them because I had limited or absolutely no prior knowledge on the other viable strategies for marketing a business. I am glad I now know that internet marketing, especially through the social media, is able to draw enormous traffic to a business.
I will most definitely apply the use of internet marketing as well as other forms of marketing like direct calls and mailing in order to grow my business (Tyler, 1949).
Conclusion
In conclusion, therefore, it is imperative that most if not all of the business strategies and ideas mentioned in the course are applied in order to meet organizational goals. Just like me, other colleagues have had so much to learn concerning incepting and growing a business. We all shall apply the things learnt from the course.
References
Barrow, C., Barrow, P., & Brown, R. (2012). The business plan workbook. London: Kogan Page.
Biech, E. (Ed.), (2008). ASTD handbook for workplace learning professionals. Danvers, MA: ASTD Press.
Friere, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Knowles, M. L., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R.A. (2012). The adult learner (7th Ed.). New York: Routledge.
Tyler, R. W. (1949). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.