This course exposes students to the business decisions, financial techniques, and procedures applied to entrepreneurship in SME settings.

7 x 3 hour lectures over 7 weeks

3 x 2 hour tutorials.

None

25% group work including presentation and 75% examination. The examination will consist of questions designed to test both the comprehension and abilities of students in the key ILOs. The presentation is of a single group business proposal including marketing and strategy as well as finance, to cover all three core subjects. This is assessed at 25% of each course.

This course introduces students to 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.

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

1. Examine critically appropriate sources of finance for an SME.

2. Evaluate financial proposals from investors.

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

4. Develop and present the financial components of a business plan, justifying the reasoning in the pricing, costing and resource planning calculations.

5. Create financial projections utilising management accounting concepts with the aim of securing investment

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