With this book, a team of experts combined their knowledge and experience to create a practical guide on how to develop business ideas to establish an enterprise. The practical guidelines are supported by entrepreneurship theory and practice.

Drawing on our personal experience as entrepreneurs, business advisors and subject specialists we

• introduce the entrepreneur, the most important person in the world of business
• provide a comprehensive introduction to the world of business and its most important role-player – the entrepreneur
• explain basic business concepts to ensure understanding of the business environment and business in general
• illustrate what successful entrepreneurs do and what contributes to successful entrepreneurship
• demonstrate the steps in the entrepreneurial process – the feasibility study, the viability assessment and the development of a business plan.

The most important and essential business management functions relevant to a start-up and new business is addressed in this book. These include marketing, finance, operations, human resources, and purchasing.

We used an accessible approach to guide you on how to be positive yet critical, creative yet practical in your search for business ideas, and ultimately to research business ideas thoroughly to ensure an income for yourselves and a profitable business.

Chapter 1 Basic business concepts and the business environment

Chapter 2 Entrepreneurship and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in perspective

Chapter 3 The identification of feasible business ideas

Chapter 4 The viability of a business idea

Chapter 5 The business plan

Chapter 6 Product decisions

Chapter 7 Price decisions

Chapter 8 Distribution: getting the product to the customer

Chapter 9 Promotion: communicating with your market

Chapter 10 Advertising your business

Chapter 11 Operations management

Chapter 12 The human resource function

Chapter 13 An introduction to financial management for entrepreneurs

Chapter 14 Financing the capital requirements of a small business

Chapter 15 The break-even analysis

Chapter 16 Budgets

All courses in Entrepreneurship from basic to intermediate. It will also help a start-up entrepreneur to understand the basics.