Bus 321 Ch: 2

Planning Style

5 ways to plan: Comprehensive planners take a long0term view, develop long-range plans for all aspects of the business, are comfortable with planning, and act based on the plans they've developed Critical-point planners: Plan around the most important aspect of the business first, act on it, and then consider if additional plans are needed. Not very long term-approach to planning Opportunistic planners: Generally start wit ha goal and look for opportunities to achieve it. Very short-term Reactive Planners: Completely passive, waiting for cues from the environment to determine what actions to take. Focus is entirely short-term Habit-based planners: Do not really plan at all because their actions are dictated by their routines. They do today like they did yesterday. **Comprehensive planners do the best, then critical-point planners and opportunistic planning types. Reactive and habit planners generally do very poorly in business, even if they manage to get their firms started**

Passion

An intense positive feeling an entrepreneur has toward the business or the idea behind the business

Set-asides

Gov contracting funds that are earmarked for particular kinds of firms, such as small businesses, minority-owned firms, women-owned firms, and the like

Promotion-Prevention Focus

Promotion: Attention to maximizing gains and pursuing opportunities likely to lead to gains Prevention: Attention to minimizing losses, with a bias toward inaction or protective action to prevent loss

Determination competencies***

Skills identified with the energy and focus needed to bring a business into existence

Opportunity Competencies***

Skills necessary to identify and exploit elements of the business environment that can lead to a profitable and sustainable business

Existence***

The 2nd stage fo the life cycle marked by the business being in operation but not yet stable in terms of markets, operations, or finances

Success***

The 3rd stage of the business life cycle marked by the firm being established in its market, operation, and finances

Resource Maturity***

The 4th stage of the life cycle. It is characterized by relatively stable or slowly rising sales and profits over several years. In a firm that has a takeoff stage following the success stage, the resource maturity stage occurs after takeoff

Resource Competencies***

The ability or skill of the entrepreneur at finding expendable components necessary to the operation of the business such as time, info, location, financing, raw materials, and expertise

Perseverance

The ability to stick with some activity even when it takes a long time and its outcome is not immediately known

Professionalism

The extent to which a firm meets or exceeds the standard business practices for its industry. Expert business professionalization: A situation that occurs when all the major functions of a firm are conducted according to the standard business practices of its industry. Specialized business professionalization: A situation that occurs when businesses have founders or owners who are passionate about one or two of the key business functions, such as sales, operations, accounting, finances, or HR, and pursues those functions in a professional manner Minimalized business professionalization: A situation that occurs when the entrepreneur does nearly everything in the simplest way possible, rather than in a professional way

Emergence***

The first stage of the small business life cycle, where the entrepreneur moves from thinking about starting the business to actually starting the business

Succession

The process of intergenerational transfer of a business