Course Catalogue

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This course will develop students' skills in the Financing and planning financial structures for an SME and examines the alternative forms of Finance and the risks involved in each. The course will also discuss how to protect the company assets and the effect of government.

The course will be taught over a 6 week programme to allow students to undertake individual work, the lecture and discussion programme will be 4 hours per week for 6 weeks.

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Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course introduces students how Finance for business works. The course includes an introduction to issues such as  business decision making, using financial techniques, and procedures applied to entrepreneurship in SME settings.

Students should be equipped to understand the financial environment in which entrepreneurs exist and to make strategic, investment and business decisions by considering critically the stages of a venture's life cycle, resource allocation, investment and financial options.

The active management of failing companies is made clear to students. Other topics include understanding financial statements and cash flow analysis, business valuation models, and funding structures and raising capital in the context of developing a business plan.

The importance of a Business plan in securing finance is critically examined.

The students should examine how regulation and government influence can affect financial issues e.g. the protection of assets, taxation, money laundering.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Examine critically appropriate sources of finance for an SME.

■ Identify the stages of a business life cycle and use business valuation models across life cycle stages.

■ Identify and use accounting data and financial techniques for a range of entrepreneurial business (resource allocation) decisions including working capital management, investment and planning.

■ Evaluate the risk of investments and causes of failure for an SME and identify how enterprises can be turned around.

■ Develop and prepare a business plan, with specific reference to resource planning.

■ Evaluate simple financial proposals from investors.

■ Understand how company structures can be used to protect assets.

■ Understand how regulation works and SMES can comply with it ,eg money laundering, taxation, etc.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.