Week 3,4 Discussion 1 & 2

Week 4 - Discussion Forum 2

Required Resources

Text

Glackin, C., & Mariotti, S. (2020).  Entrepreneurship: Starting and operating a small business  (5th ed.). Pearson.

· Unit 3: Show Me the Money: Finding, Securing, And Managing It

· Chapter 7: Understanding and Managing Start-Up, Fixed, and Variable Costs

· Chapter 8: Using Financial Statement to Guide a Business

· Chapter 9: Cash Flow and Taxes

· Chapter 10: Financing Strategy and Tactics

· The full-text version of this ebook is available through your online classroom. This book is a comprehensive text on entrepreneurship in small companies and how to start and run a business. Chapters 7 through 10 discuss how to manage a start-up business and the financial costs associated with it. These chapters will assist you in your Funding Sources discussion forum, Balance Sheet discussion forum, and Financial Concepts Evaluation assignment this week.

Multimedia

Rhoton, D. W. [Brother Rhoton]. (2015, September 11).  Introduction to financial statements (Links to an external site.) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/4sGEtZcLdx8

· This video provides information about the layout and purpose of financial statements and why the statements are required and will assist you in your Financial Concepts Evaluation assignment this week. This video has closed captioning and a transcript. Accessibility Statement (Links to an external site.) Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

 

Recommended Resources

Books

Benjamin, G. A., & Margulis, J. B. (2005). Angel capital: How to raise early-stage private equity financing. Wiley.

· The full-text version of this ebook is available through the Ebook Central database in the Ashford University Library. This book provides information about raising capital for entrepreneurs and may assist you in your Funding Sources discussion forum this week.

Chishti, S., & Barberis, J. (2016). The fintech book: The financial technology handbook for investors, entrepreneurs and visionaries. Wiley.

· The full-text version of this ebook is available through the Ebook Central database in the Ashford University Library. This book provides information about raising capital for entrepreneurs and may assist you in your Financial Concepts Evaluation assignment this week.

Green, C. H. (2014). Banker’s guide to new small business finance: Venture deals, crowdfunding, private equity, and technology. Wiley.

· The full-text version of this ebook is available through the Ebook Central database in the Ashford University Library. This book provides information about raising capital for entrepreneurs and may assist you in your Funding Sources discussion forum this week.

Articles

Berman, E. (2018). Welcoming small business: When it comes to startups and entrepreneurial ventures, credit unions are discovering a demand for business funding. Georgia Trend, 33(9), 60–64.

· The full-text version of this article is available through the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library. This article provides information about raising capital for entrepreneurs and may assist you in your Funding Sources discussion forum this week.

Saulsbery, G. (2019, May 6). Finding funding: Why small businesses are leaning on fintech more than ever. NJBIZ, 32(18), 16–17.

· The full-text version of this article is available through the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library. This article provides information about raising capital for entrepreneurs and may assist you in your Funding Sources discussion forum this week.

Instruction

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Unit 3: Securing Capital from the course textbook  Entrepreneurship: Starting and Operating a Small Business . Frame your reading with the view that financial considerations frame all significant entrepreneurial activities and decisions, and the balance sheet is a rich source of information needed to inform significant business decisions and identify significant risks.

We can analyze a balance sheet to determine how a business is financed, and this analysis enables us to draw conclusions about risks we have because of the capital structure developed from choices about debt and equity financing.

Analyze the spreadsheet Balance Sheet and create an initial discussion post that addresses the following:

· What conclusions about how the business is financed can be drawn from the composition of the organization’s capital?

· Based upon the defined capital structure, assess the risks facing the entrepreneur responsible for this business because of the capital structure.

· What can one conclude about the business’s financing based on the composition of the organization’s capital?

To aid your analysis of capital structure, access the balance sheet for this discussion, and compute the debt to equity ratio as follows:

· Add (current portion of long-term debt) + (long-term debt net of current portion) to obtain long-term debt.

· Debt-to-equity ratio = Long-term debt/total shareholders’ equity.

· Use the computed ratio to respond to the above questions.

Offer a link to a video or an article that supports your analysis and conclusions.