Individual Report (3000 words)
Individual Essay (3000 words)
Please write an essay on any one of the following titles:
1. Capital is difficult for small businesses to access for several reasons. It’s not that banks are against lending to small businesses – they want to – but traditional financial institutions have an outdated, labour-intensive lending process and regulations that are unfavourable to small businesses. Critically evaluate the opportunities and challenges faced by small businesses when accessing funding through a. Business Angels, b. Crowdfunding, c. Micro-financing and when to use different types of funding.
2. Big or small, innovations involve solving problems and challenges, whether with products or services, internal systems and processes or changes in the marketplace. What are the opportunities and barriers to innovation that small businesses face when they are focused on growth? Support your discussion with both examples of successful and unsuccessful small businesses.
3. Having a great marketing strategy in place is key to the success of any business. Critically analyse the advantages and disadvantages of three (3) different marketing strategies (for example, Email marketing, Social Media Marketing, Webinars, Joining Local Business Groups etc.) employed by small businesses.
Your answer should be written as an essay with a length of 3000 words. Please remember that when writing an essay, you should include an introduction and conclusion and you should only use headings occasionally in your work.
Three key pieces of advice to complete the essay
• Ability to integrate theory and practice is crucial. For instance:
o In essay 1, you need to discuss initially why small businesses find it difficult to get access to funding. And then critically highlighting the opportunities and challenges of funding options mentioned, using real life examples to illustrate your points.
o In essay 2, you need to assess the opportunities and obstacles faced by small businesses embarking on their innovation journey and supporting your answer with real-life successful and unsuccessful businesses.
o In essay 3, you need to critically evaluate the pros and cons of different marketing strategies by providing examples of small businesses that have adopted these strategies.
• Ensure you use the word-count (3000 words) wisely. For instance, introduction and conclusion can be anywhere from 100 -150 words each and the main body of the essay can be 2700-2800 words which would include your core discussion (with examples) around the topic.
• Your opinion matters! Critical evaluation of literature/evidence is needed to justify your arguments.
In order to write a balanced essay, try look at a variety of sources including journals, market data, periodicals, credible texts, and other relevant sources. Supporting your analysis with evidence is key to writing a good response and developing a well-informed evaluation. Developing definitive conclusions will demonstrate the depth of your understanding and confidence in knowledge.
Whilst describing facts, cases and commenting on theory is useful, they should not be used exclusively.
Before writing, you should do as much reading as possible and then structure your essay. This will help you with clarity and present your argument in a more convincing fashion.
