BUSN415 WEEK1: COMPANY IDENTIFICATION

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    Prompt:
    The purpose of this first week is for you to gain insight into the operations of a local small business. In week 2, you will be completing an initial interview, so you will want to begin making contacts now with a small business owner in your area who will agree to three separate 1-hour interviews over the course of the next eight weeks. Start by finding a small business that (a) is of interest to you, (b) you may have had business dealings with, and/or (c) with which your family may do business. Some ideas for a small business to make contact with are: your family’s insurance agent, HVAC service company, a local restaurant you may frequent, an ice cream or frozen yogurt shoppe, a local dry cleaning operation, a local music instrument store, or, possibly, any other family owned business you know of in the area. After identifying the small business and making contact with the owner or key operating manager, you will be putting together an outline of the interview questions you wish to ask. As this course focuses on “Small Business Growth and Development,” and you will be asking for three interviews, make sure that you are clear about the topics of each of the interviews.

    Interview #1: Background of the Business

    Interview #2: Challenges/Barriers to Success

    Interview #3: Survivability/Recommendations

    This course will be a challenge to your time management skills. There is a lot to cover each week, not unlike running your own business. Plan your weeks carefully and get started quickly finding the small business owner or manager you want to interview. Finally, be sure to review the reading materials supplied in the Reading & Resource section under Contents each week.

    Instructions:
    The deliverable for this week’s assignment is to write up your choice for the project, the name of the person you will be working with and his/her background, and submit it by Sunday midnight. Your paper should be at least 700-1050 words as your initial background will be several pages in length once you write it all down. The first section of the paper should be the name of the company you will be interviewing, the street, city, and state address, the owner/manager you will be working with and his or her title.

    Other areas to consider:

    Legal structure of the company (what and why)
    Primary products and/or services offered
    Years in business and years current entrepreneur has owned
    Financing used (original and ongoing)
    Budgeting process used
    The market area
    Customer base
    Routine advertising
    Company assets (building, rolling stock, etc.)
    Inventory and inventory management
    Management organization
    Employees
    Licenses required to operate
    Skills needed by the owner/operator

    NOTES FROM ME:

    Busniess will be a doctors office
    interviewing a pyschologist
    name Jay, Smith
    15 Marygold Lane (fake address)

    this assignment will be the first of many 8 all assignments will build on from this.

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