Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management Sequence

Special Information Box

News Copy

 

The Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies provides learning opportunities for students including the Entrepreneurship Small Business Management sequence (ESBM) and outreach service to the non-university community. Consulting teams, comprised of senior undergraduate or graduate students, work with small businesses to gather data, analyze business problems, and make oral and written recommendation reports.

During the first weeks of the term, all IES student teams meet with Management and Quantitative Methods (MQM) faculty, covering assigned readings, discussing the idiosyncrasies of the small businesses, and performing simulations in small business management.  During the second week, each team makes its initial visit to the client's place of business and sets specific objectives for the project.  Starting the third week, teams and clients schedules meetings at mutually agreeable times to plan their activities and to discuss completed research and recommendations.   Throughout this period, the student teams meet with their faculty member and the Assistant Director for the IES.  The project concludes with a formal presentation of all findings to the client.

Typical projects entail the following:

Accounting

Record keeping, credit and collectible policies and procedures, insurance, taxes, regulations, financial statement analysis, policy setting, techniques of internal control, analysis of possible acquisitions.

Finance and Law

Financial planning, long term investment analysis, resource allocation, wage determination, forecasting, price determination analysis, working capital and income management, legal business environment

Management and Marketing

Personnel, inventory and control systems, analysis of physical distribution systems, product planning, advertising and sales promotion, purchasing, location and layout analysis, market research and feasibility.

Rural Community Economic Development

Some projects involve working with communities in the Bloomington/Normal area. These projects usually involve helping a community assess its current situation, envision a desirable future and plan ways to accomplish the sought-after change.