NCTI

Train up.

Delivery: Onlinecourse cover image for introduction to business

Estimated Length: 34 seat hours

Price: $890

 
 
Introduction to Small Business Management is designed for prospective and current small business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers who want to understand the basics of running a successful small business. Managing a small business can be quite challenging, and this course provides an overview of small business operations, including business planning, legal issues, financial management, human resources, managing people, marketing, and customer care. Small business owners and managers should be better prepared to effectively deal with common problems and capitalize on market opportunities based on what they’ve learned.
 
 

Completion Time:

The estimated completion time for this course is thirty-four hours. The maximum allotted time is four months from enrollment.

Benefits:

  • receive an industry-recognized NCTI certificate of graduation

  • earn 3 hours college credit

Upon completing this course, students will be able to:

  1. explain the U.S. business system and how business is conducted
  2. describe the global context of business
  3. discuss conducting business responsibly and ethically
  4. explain how to manage and organize a business
  5. describe entrepreneurship and the small business
  6. explain managing human resources and labor relations
  7. discuss motivating, satisfying, and leading employees
  8. explain marketing processes and consumer behavior
  9. outline pricing, promoting, developing, and distributing products and services
  10. describe quality improvement and production management
  11. explain accounting and information systems
  12. discuss money and banking
  13. explain securities and investments
  14. compare the relationship between marketing processes and consumer behavior
  15. describe the processes for developing and pricing products
  16. explaian how to manage human resources and labor relations
  17. demonstrate how to organize, motivate, and lead a business group

Course Outline

The  U.S. Business Environment     

The concept of business and profit, the external environment of business, economic systems, the economics of market systems, and economic indicators

Understanding Business Ethics and Social Responsibility               

Ethics in the workplace, social responsibility, areas of social responsibility, implementing social responsibility programs, and the government and social responsibility

Entrepreneurship, New Ventures, and Business Ownership           

What is a small business; entrepreneurship; starting and operating a new business; trends, successes, and failures in new ventures; non-corporate business ownership and corporations

Understanding the Global Context of Business      

The contemporary global economy, international business management, the cultural environment, and barriers to international trade

Managing the Business            

The management process, types of managers, management roles and skills, strategic management: setting goals, formulating strategy, contingency planning and crisis management, and management and the corporate culture

Organizing the Business          

What is organizational structure, the building blocks of organizational structure, establishing the decision-making hierarchy, and basic forms of organizational structure, and the informal organization.

Operations Management and Quality            

What operations means today; creating value through operations; business strategy as the driver of operations; operations planning, scheduling, and control; quality improvement and total quality; management and adding value through supply chains

Employee Behavior and Motivation

Forms of employee behavior, individual differences among employees, matching people and jobs, basic motivation concepts and theories, and strategies and techniques for enhancing motivation

Leadership and Decision Making      

The nature of leadership; early approaches and the situational approach to leadership; leadership through the eyes of followers; special issues in leadership; the changing nature and emerging issues in leadership and management; decision making

Human Resource Management (HrM) and Labor Relations             

The foundations of HRM, staffing the organization, developing the workforce, compensation and benefits, the legal context of HRM, new challenges in the changing workplace, and dealing with organized labor and collective bargaining

Marketing Processes and Consumer Behavior        

What is marketing; target marketing and market segmentation; understanding consumer behavior; organizational marketing and buying behavior; what is a product; developing new products; identifying products; the international marketing mix; small business and marketing mix

Developing and Pricing  Products    

Developing new products, product life cycle,

Distributing and Promoting Products              

Wholesaling, retailing, physical distribution, promotions, and personal selling

Information Technology (IT) for Business     

A driver of change for business, IT building blocks, harnessing the competitive power of IT, IT risks and threats, and IT protection measures

The Role of Accountants and Accounting Information        

What is accounting, the accounting equation, financial statements, reporting standards and practices, analyzing financial statements, accounting ethics, and internationalizing accounting

Understanding Money and the Role of Banking       

The U.S. financial system, how financial institutions create money and are regulated, the Federal Reserve System, and international banking and finance

Managing Business Finances               

Maximizing capital growth, investing to fulfill financial objectives, the business of trading securities, the risk-return relationship, financing the business firm, becoming a public corporation, and regulating securities markets