Ever wonder what it takes to own your own business, be your own boss and write your own paycheck? Entrepreneurship helps students examine their readiness and passion for such an undertaking. Students will learn what entrepreneurship is all about, develop a business idea, conduct a feasibility analysis, identify their primary customer, learn about financing a business and write a business plan. They will also learn about how to manage their business, including the hiring process, operations, inventory controls and production management. The final step will be developing their strategic plan for the future to help bring their entrepreneurial dreams to reality. Prerequisites: None
Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students will be able to do the following:
• Recognize that entrepreneurs possess unique characteristics and evaluate the degree to which one possesses those characteristics.
• Analyze customer groups and develop a plan to identify, reach, and keep customers in a specific target market.
• Apply economic concepts when making decisions for an entrepreneurial venture.
• Use the financial concepts and tools needed by the entrepreneur in making business decisions.
• Recognize that entrepreneurs must establish, maintain, and analyze appropriate records to make business decisions.
• Develop a management plan for an entrepreneurial venture.
• Analyze the effect of cultural differences, export/import opportunities, and trends on an entrepreneurial venture in the global marketplace.
• Analyze how forms of business ownership, government regulations, and business ethics affect entrepreneurial ventures.
• Develop a business plan.
Course Outline:
Unit 1 What is My Potential as an Entrepreneur
Unit 2: Deciding on a Business
Unit 3: Getting Started with Your Business
Unit 4: Choosing a Business Location and Layout
Unit 5: Marketing Your Business
Unit 6: Financial Feasibility
Unit 7: Organization and Management
Unit 8: Running Your Business
Resources Included: Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.
Additional Costs: None
Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue transcripts or diplomas. A final score reported as a percentage of total points earned will be sent to students upon completion of a course. Your school mentor is also able to access this score within the Student Learning Portal. Schools may use this score for conversion to their own letter grading system.
Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.
Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube.
Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/
Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.
Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at [email protected] or by phone at (888) 889-2840.
Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments.
Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:
- Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
- Download and install software
- Use a messaging service similar to email
- Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
- Open attachments shared in messages
- Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
- Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
- Save a file as a .pdf
- Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
- Insert images or links into a file or html editor
- Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
- Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
- Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
- Use presentation and graphics programs
- Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
- Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
- Create and maintain usernames and passwords
Additional Information: N/A