The numbers are staggering. Two-thirds of new businesses fail in their first decade of operation according to the Small Business Administration. How do you become one of the prosperous few? How does a promising idea survive the startup phase, pass the break-even point, and eventually grow into a flourishing enterprise? What do entrepreneurs need to succeed?

The answer is crucial. An entrepreneurial spirit is important to society.

• Great businesses depend on the ability of entrepreneurs to handle unpredictable challenges and seize unrecognized opportunities.
• Entrepreneurship applies not just to businesses, but also to many areas, including education, non-profit organizations, sports, and government.
• The world is teeming with breakthrough ideas, but it takes entrepreneurial skills to make them happen.
• Entrepreneurs have created more wealth, more jobs, and more progress than any other force in society; they are truly indispensible.

The rules are simple and the payoff is gratifying if you take a risk on a new business. A set of tools that helps you build your way to success starts with an idea, a few basic principles, an organizational checklist, and a research plan.

The toolkit for entrepreneurs. Is that resource teaching you how to get started and overcome the many obstacles on the path to a profitable and rewarding venture? These 24 half-hour lectures give you the background and skills to get ahead in today’s competitive marketplace, taught by Professor Michael G. Goldsby of Ball State University, who heads one of the nation’s premier undergraduate and graduate programs in entrepreneurship.

You can embark on your own enterprise with confidence if you follow Professor Goldsby’s proven path. His presentation is filled with useful tips, case histories, and personal anecdotes, along with a wealth of recommendations for websites and other outside resources, which are cited in the lectures and the course guidebook. Sources of vital information such as patent databases, industry standards, and government regulations that apply to your business are included.

A course for entrepreneurs of all ages.

We have a lot of dreams, goals, and projects on the back burner. The toolkit for entrepreneurs. Are you able to make these dreams a reality? Professor Goldsby gives a detailed plan for starting, nurturing, expanding, and eventually selling a business. Those who will benefit from Dr. Goldsby’s presentation.

• anyone thinking of going into business, whether it’s a freelance career, a small store, a franchise, or an ambitious startup;
• those already in business who want to rejuvenate their organization and make it thrive;
• employees who want to get ahead in their present company, using the tools of entrepreneurship to build their career;
• teachers, ministers, club presidents, and others in leadership positions who want to make a difference in their field;
• people who deal with entrepreneurs, from screenwriters pitching a movie to sales representatives trying to win a contract; and
• anyone who loves a rags-to-riches story—because the annals of entrepreneurship are filled with inspiring biographies.

Get the big things right.

It takes a lot of attention to start a new business. The future of your organization depends on getting the big things right. The toolkit for entrepreneurs. You can focus on the most important elements. The preliminaries include coming up with an idea for a business, market research, establishing the feasibility of your idea, and choosing a business structure.

One-third of the course is devoted to the business plan, which is like a global positioning system for your enterprise; it lets you know where you are, where you are going, and how to get there. It is an essential document for investors, lenders, potential partners, and big customers, and it helps you think through your venture and define and meet your goals. Dr. Goldsby explains in detail the financial sections that give many beginning entrepreneurs the most trouble, including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.

How to get financing, how to make a home office prosper, how to start a family business, and how to buy a franchise are some of the important questions addressed in the next lectures.

Professor Goldsby devotes the final lectures to ensuring the growth of your enterprise as well as your own personal growth as anentrepreneur, having guided you through the steps in the startup phase. Intellectual property, employee relations, customer relations, entrepreneurship in the bigger picture, entrepreneurial exhaustion, how successful entrepreneurs think, and what’s next in your career are covered in these lectures.

There are role models for business.

Some of the most famous entrepreneurs launched their ventures on a shoestring. Hewlett-Packard was founded in a nondescript garage in Palo Alto, California, in 1939 by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in a small garage in Los Altos. You hear a lot of these stories. The toolkit for entrepreneurs. Including.

• Walt Disney : “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing,” advised this legendary showman, who is unusual in exemplifying the entire spectrum of entrepreneurial traits analyzed by Professor Goldsby in Lecture 21.
• Edwin Land : “If you can define a problem, it can be solved,” said this gifted inventor, whose development of instant photography and the Polaroid camera inspired Steve Jobs to create products that his competitors could not even imagine.
• Nick Saban : How is the head football coach of the University of Alabama a model entrepreneur? Nick Saban revived the storied glory of the “Crimson Tide” by bringing the discipline and organization of a Fortune 500 company to his struggling team.
• Bill Gates : Lecture 24 addresses the role of entrepreneurs as philanthropists, illustrated by Bill Gates, who retired from Microsoft to devote his life to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to fighting malaria and other global problems.

Professor Goldsby says that the entrepreneurial skills that helped bring success and fulfillment to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and so many others can be learned by anyone who is willing to build the right toolkit to get it done.

24 Lectures

How to come up with a great business idea. Understanding your market is 2nd. There are 3 prototypes that make your idea a reality. Defining your business model is important. Picking the business structure is important. You should start your business plan. Market analysis and marketing strategy. Business Logistics and Operations. There are 9 management teams. Balance sheets and income statements. Performance Measures and Cash Flow Statements. Conducting risk analysis Your business plan is done. How to finance your business From your home office to social media. It is possible to start a family business. Purchasing a franchise or other business. Intellectual property can be understood. Human resources are managed. The customer’s experience and your brand. There are 21 entrepreneurial perspectives. There are 22 Entrepreneurial Exhaustion. There are 23 entrepreneurial leaders. The successful businessman.