Review and Reflection

Review and reflect on what you learned in the past 8 weeks.

• What is the most practical and easily applied lesson you learned?
• What was the hardest to grasp? Why?

Below is a list of all past lessons for your reference.

week 1 – the power of entrepreneurship

week 2 – opportunity recognition

week 3 – developing a strategy

week 4 – Case Analysis: Maker’s Mark

This case is mostly for fun. Maker’s Mark grew out of a small family bourbon business, founded in 1780. Building the company from a small, traditional family business into the enterprise Maker’s Mark is today, is an interesting study in entrepreneurship. The problem is how to market the new, high-end products. The case is in a .pdf file in this week’s folder.

week 5 – Case: P’kolino Financials

This case (found at the end of chapter 9) consists of the financial exhibits from the P’kolino case analyzed in a previous lesson. The P’kolino financials are pretty detailed; they should begin to acquaint the new entrepreneur with the sort of financial planning needed to get a substantial enterprise off the ground. Please pay special attention to the financial assumptions?numbers alone are just gobbledegook. They need to be based on real assumptions connecting projections to the real world.
Please answer the following questions in the discussion:

1. How do the common-sized income sheet ratios compare to industry standards? Can you explain the variances in a way the makes the projections seem sound?
2. How do the revenues per employee compare to industry standards? Again, can you explain the variances?
3. Do the financial projections accurately capture all the expenses that are implied in the written plan (refer back to the previous case)?
4. Is the proposed financing sufficient to cover the company’s cash flow needs? What happens if sales are not as high or quick to materialize as expected?

week 6 – Case: Better Living Patio Rooms

Better Living Patio Rooms is a well established small business that installs add-on patio rooms. The owner has a chance to get another territory from the dealer but is cash constrained. Case is a .pdf file in this week’s folder. This is a wide open discussion. Describe the situation and advise the owner on what he should do.

week 7 – Case: David Perlman

David Pearlman recently left his old firm to start his own company. Only a week into his new business, and still working out of his parents’ house, he heard a knock at the door. It was a summons?his old employer was suing him for $100,000 and seeking to shut down his new business. (Perlman Case)

After he gets up from the floor, what should he do? Could he have taken steps to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit when he left his previous job?or is this just a rick of doing business? What do you think? What would you do?

NOTE: This is for a discussion forum. 75-150 words are required.