Starting A Business & Managing Finances

Description

Pursuing an online course ‘Starting a Business: Managing Finance’ at the University of Leeds has been an interesting and educative life event. The entire experience exposed me to elaborative educative sources on the issues regarding the start of a business and how resources i.e. finances can be managed properly. Also,I interacted with the worldly experience of the concept through video sources which provided an in-depth illustration on how one can start a business and manage finances properly. The online learning activities included video lectures, written assignments, and quizzes among other educative materials on the topic. As a student, my role was to go through the entire learning process by conducting researches about how to start a business and find better means of financial management performing the online quizzes and carrying out course assignments. While taking the course, I planned and shared my ideas with other online learners documenting thoughts in a basic plan of business. My primary purpose of taking this course was to learn about the to financial data that gives evidence to support decision made regarding a business and also make easier the justification of such decisions when presented with other people. In this way, the course provides essential skills for starting a business and managing finances.

Self-Analysis

This ILETS course has significantly contributed to my life hence being critical to my career goal. Before the course, I thought that starting a business and managing finances was a basic task assuming that one could literary buy goods with some little penny, then invest the returned value, and use the profit for other purposes. However, after starting and proceeding with the course, I realized that besides being an art, business and the management of finances require strong skills. The reasoning behind taking this course was to understand why some firms fail while others are excelling, creating a confusion of thought. Primarily, business has been my dream career. Hence, the course is very relevant to my present and future personal development. Specifically, it will enhance my PDP ambition of becoming a specialist in industrial financial management. Before completing the course, my thought about financial management was negative as I was thinking that working with partners would leak my skills to them. Having accomplished all the online tests about the topic, my perception changed into positive. For instance, the essence of financial advisors and partnership are key factors for a business’ success (SAP, 2016). Therefore, the online course has contributed significantly to my life and general development.

Analysis of Learning

Following ‘Starting a Business 5: Managing Finances’ course, I realized that financial management is a concern for every business, as efficient management of money is crucial to maintaining the volatile economy. Businesses, especially small ones, should exercise caution with finance-based decisions from the very start of the firm (HDI, 2016). In this regard, a profitable financial structure should be formed in every industry to maintain its credibility (Half, 2014). With the best money management skills attained at the online course at the Leeds University, I can now quickly turn my venture into success as a potential entrepreneur. Having a business, it is crucial to distance oneself from the business’ finances to maintain control and track the outlays appropriately. Notably, opening a saving account for the firm is critical as far as financial management is concerned. This report makes easier the transfer of a given amount of money from every payment received hence gradually building a considerable corpus. Significantly, some of this money can be used to pay taxes. I also learned how to cut costs, measure and monitor the business’ performance, and consider the importance of hiring professionals to help in general management and running of the firm’s activities. A general conclusion regarding this online course is that as far as owning and operating a business may be an exciting life experience, the activity may never be wracking, especially in regards to the handling of money in a more productive manner (Morgan, 2016). However, the success of business depends on professionals, frequent monitoring, and measuring of performances followed by appropriate adjustments, proper cut of costs, and acquisition of general skills in financial management.

Application in Context

Taking the online course has transformed my life positively. Two main learnings from the studying materials are the cost cut-off as well as monitoring and measuring performance skills. These two ideas relate to the previous knowledge and the theory/framework considerably. In regards to reducing cost, it is notable that entrepreneurs should stay tight-fisted to check the expenses without hampering with the satisfaction of customers (PWC, 2016). There are two types of costs endured by business – variable and fixed. It relates to the framework and the previous knowledge because it guides the proper management and planning through cost cutting. For instance, besides buying an expensive branded product, i.e. software, one can still operate efficiently through free cloud-based software that is financially efficient. On the other hand, monitoring and measuring performances ensures that tabs on money movements are crucial. This activity provides efficient management of finances by projecting for the future revenues, their expenses, and the flow of money (Michael, 2016). Evidently, there exists a strong link as everything is geared towards effective financial accountability and management helping better understand the previous knowledge. Having a career goal of starting managing and transforming a business to top global rank, my current aim is to look for a job in a high performing business and assist in financial management having gained sufficient skills on how to manage finances through the online course.

Evaluation

As noted earlier, the two most important learnings from the online course are the skills of cost cutting and monitoring and the necessity and expertise of measuring the performance of the business. All these learnings were not only healthy but also productive and efficient.

Reflection on Self-Assessment Tests

Having gained cost-cutting expertise and learnt performance measuring techniques, I agree with the results because based on self-transformation, the program is useful and essential for general financial management development. The course tests require one to engage practically by starting and managing finances amicably in business.

Self-Concept

During the course, I made a significant progress in business that I can use in future. Now, I can confidently participate in partnership and manage business’ finances properly. The skills acquired enable one to gain maximum insights into handling funds distinctively set for the firm. In this regards, I can now distance myself from mishandling business’ money and hence manage it properly. Significantly, performance-measuring skills are also crucial to future firm’s projection and general fund management. Having been enlightened on the importance of hiring personnel to aid in the general management of business, which I can now do differently, includes sharing ideas and hiring staff to help in distinct levels of the firm as far as management of finances is concerned.

Action

I applied my online studies on ‘Starting a Business 5: Managing Finances’ was in internship program that lasted three months and worked out excellently. During my internship, I managed funds properly and advised the company to hire an additional specialist to assist in measuring the performance of the firm among other related activities. Hence, this is a proof of a relevant application of the learning (Doyle, 2016). Finally, my plans of actions regarding the learnings entail starting, managing, and transforming a personal business to top global rank.