Week 4 Assignment - Creating a Small Business

Assignment 1 Rubric Detail

Creating a Small Business - Maximum Grade – 135 Points

1.   Develop an idea for a prospective small business and select a name for the company – 27 points maximum.

Develop an idea for a business and select a name for it. If you have an idea, terrific!! If you don’t, think about some pain points you experienced last week with retailers, servicepeople, restaurants, etc. Is there an idea there that you can use to start a new business?

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/six-stages-develop-business-ideas-42025.html

https://www.toptal.com/finance/business-research/business-idea-development

2.   Identify its key competitors and summarize the strengths and weaknesses of one of the competitors – 27 points maximum.

Find the competitors for your new business. If they are a publicly held company (i.e., they are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDASQ), just do a search for their competitors.

If they are not publicly held, then do a search for companies in that industry; they will probably be local, but that is fine.

https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/market-research-competitive-analysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitor_analysis

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/814236807604284567/

https://www.bostondigital.com/insights/how-do-you-stack-competitor-analysis

 

3.   Prepare a mission statement that encompasses the purpose of the business and considers its target market – 27 points maximum.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/inspiring-company-mission-statements

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-write-a-mission-statement-2948001

 

4.   Identify the ownership form for this business, taking into consideration tax implications, liability exposure, managerial ability, and cost of formation – 33.75 points maximum.

See Table 17.6 (in the text) for forms of Legal Organization. Typically, most small businesses can be a Limited Liability Company (LLC), as they offer excellent personal liability protection. In addition, most can be setup online at your states Secretary of State portal.

In that same vein, Sole Proprietorships are NOT an appropriate legal form of organization because of the personal liability. As an example, let’s assume you sell a product, and it fails and in injures someone. They sue and collect a judgement. As a sole proprietor, you can lose all of your assets (save your house in many states), and have future income garnished to pay the judgement. If you were an LLC, the judgement could only cover business assets, leaving your personal assets untouched!!

 

5.   Include at least two references outside the textbook. For help with research, writing, and citation, access the Strayer Library or review the Bachelor of Business Administration Library Guide – 6.75 points maximum.

This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course – 13.5 points maximum.