BUS 4401 University of The People Entrepreneurship Journal – Description
INTRODUCTION
“And I would argue the second greatest force in the universe is ownership.” –Chris Chocola
Choosing the right form of business ownership is an important decision. Why? Because the form of ownership you choose will determine how your business is viewed on the outside, what kind of societal contribution it is associated with, how it is organized, how the money that flows in and out of your business is managed, how your business is taxed, and how you can expand it. Think about it. Would these reasons not indicate that this type of decision would have many consequences? Wouldn’t this decision be a business-identity building decision? Wouldn’t it have daily consequences and be as important as your invention?
Yes, you have explored many of these questions in Entrepreneurship 1. In this unit you will refresh your memory on different types of ownership and use chosen elements that you will incorporate into a global franchise plans for your business. The reason? We have big plans for you and your business. The big plans that we want you to explore in this unit involve expanding your business via global franchising. Imagine the possibilities of having your present business franchised and being as visible as McDonalds, FedEx, Apple, Subway, and so on and so forth. Well, maybe it is an exaggeration, but you get the picture…This exciting task embraced in this unit will involve adopting your present business to suit your own design of a global franchise and making it an international success.
Perhaps this design on how you will adapt your present business to be a successful franchise can become an inventive addition to your already established business—like in the case of intrapreneurship, or social entrepreneurship that you will also learn about in this unit. Yes, you can combine many elements in your design. Moreover, you will be able to immediately verify what your peers think and deduce from that what reception you might get in the wider world. Properly chosen business ownership (or elements of it) can help your business flourish, while engaging in a misaligned form of business ownership can destroy your business in a very short period of time. Just like that.
In this unit we will be comparing several types of forms of business ownership common in North America and opening the floor to your creativity and diverse experience to find other forms of business that might flourish anywhere and everywhere. To get you started we will quickly look at traditional forms of ownership as well as franchising, intrapreneurship and social entrepreneurship as relatively new notions.
Remember, this decision making process is designed to help you formulate the best form of business ownership, no matter where exactly you would be starting or evaluating a small business– somewhere in the world or vicariously online. Therefore, please, choose wisely and do not limit yourself to North American elements only. Explore, and, if possible, invent. To those who are skeptical the author has a personal story of few years ago: organizing with a group of friends a co-operative of internationally trained professionals in Ottawa. The co-op embarked on a very collective feasibility study as their first sponsored project: preparing the study in parts by many co-op members. Revolutionary? No. Inventive? Sure. Please do not allow present circumstances or established paths to limit your creativity in any business choices. Ever.
In the next module we will be exploring online business, so please concentrate on the studied forms of ownerships with special emphasis on franchising and let us all wait until next week to delve into online strategies of attracting business clients. Global business has its privileges.
READING ASSIGNMENT
Chapter 1 : Reading Assignment
First, let’s refresh our memories to recall and appreciate what the major forms of Business Ownership choices are. When reading the materials, please make written notes in reference of your present business and business idea. Compare it to other forms of business. What it means is to envision your business having some elements of all the described above business ownerships. So, to give you an example: when you are reading about the sole proprietorship you will need to know what elements of this form of ownership your business already has, and what elements will you be losing if you chose to switch from this form to a franchise. You will need this information in this unit as well as for the final exam (hint, hint).Do not forget to note your findings in this week’s Learning Journal.
There are essentially four forms of traditional business ownership in North America:
the sole proprietorship
the partnership
the corporation
and the cooperative
To read more about these options, please visit: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/formsofbusinessownership/a/formbusinesshub.htm
There are two less traditional forms: franchising and intrapreneurship.
To find out information about franchising, including franchising-pros and cons, please visit this link.
To find out information on intrapreneurs, please read: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2012/05/21/move-over-entrepreneurs-here-come-the-intrapreneurs/ (Click “Continue to Site” in upper right corner)
To read about social entrepreneurs, please visit: https://www.ashoka.org/en/focus/social-entrepreneurship
Globalizing your business:
In order to prepare for this task, please read the following:
http://www.i7marketing.com/small-business/globalize-new-product/
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