International University for

Science and Technology (IUST)

Small Business Management

Module Director: Dr. Majd Sackour
 Who am I?

Educational Background
 PhD in St Mngt, Exeter Uni ( UK).
 Mphil in St Mngt, Exeter Uni ( UK).
 MSc in International Mngt, Exeter Uni ( UK).
 MBA, Damascus Uni.
 Dip in International Projects,
La Sapienza Uni (Rome/Italy).
 Dip in BA, Damascus Uni.
Employment Information
 Ministry of Transportation, SYR.
 Zaied Alhussain Est, KSA.
 RGIS Inventory Group, UK.
 Royal Mail Group, UK.
Current Job
TIFB Manager and Lecturer at:


Damascus Uni, IUST, SVU, OLS.

 Teaching and Learning Methods
 Lectures, case studies, online class debates and
discussions.

Assessment Methods
 Assessment 1: Presentation and 10% of grade
 Assessment 2: 2Mid-Term Exam 40% of grade.
 Assessment 3: Final Exam - 50% of grade.
 The ten important characteristics
of a business:
 Economic activity:
 Buying and Selling:
 Continuous process:
 Profit Motive:
 Risk and Uncertainties:
 Creative and Dynamic:
 Customer satisfaction:
 Social Activity:
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 Small Businesses
 Are privately owned corporations,
partnerships, or sole proprietorships that have
fewer employees and/or less annual revenue
than a regular-sized business or corporation.
 Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of
being able to apply for government support
and qualify for preferential tax policy varies
depending on the country and industry.

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  Small business owners are responsible
for managing all aspects of
their company.
 Management is commonly defined as
the alignment and coordination of
multiple activities in an organization.
 Business owners use management skills
to accomplish the goals and objectives of
their company.
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 Small Business Management
 Managing staff
 Dealing with suppliers
 Marketing the business
 Registering the business
 Working within a budget
 Adhering to strict procedures and protocols
 Ensuring that everything is done in accordance
with the business laws of the country
 Performing basic administrative tasks
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 Small Businesses Criteria
 Can be classified according to:
 Numbers of employees, annual revenues,
shipments, sales, assets, or by annual gross or
net revenue or net profits,
 The number of employees and Financial
capital are the most widely used measures.

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 SB-Criteria
 Business size definitions (by number of
employees)
 AUS US CAN EU
Minute/Micro 1-2 1-6 1-4 <10
Small <15 <250 1-99 <50
Medium <200 <500 100-499 <250
Large <500 <1000>500 <1000

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 the Characteristics of a Small Scale
Business
 Lower Revenue and Profitability
 Few Employees
 Small Market Area
 Sole or Partnership Ownership and Taxes
 Fewer Locations

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 Assignment
 Describe and study Small Business in Syria
in terms of:
1. Size criteria
2. Distributions in Syrian governance
3. Distributions in Sectors
4. Your own view about their future

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 The
The Foundations
Foundations of
of
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship

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 What Is an Entrepreneur?
One who creates a new business in the face
of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of
achieving profit and growth by identifying
opportunities and assembling the necessary
resources to capitalize on them.

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 Characteristics of
1. Entrepreneurs
Desire for responsibility:
 Entrepreneurs feel a deep sense of personal responsibility for the
outcome of ventures they start.
 They prefer to be in control of their resources;
 They use those resources to achieve self-determined goals.
2. Preference for moderate risk – risk eliminators:
 Entrepreneurs are not wild risk takers but are instead
calculating risk takers.
3. Confidence in their ability to succeed:
 Entrepreneurs typically have an abundance of confidence
in their ability to succeed.
 They tend to be optimistic about their chances for success.
4. Desire for immediate feedback:
 Entrepreneurs enjoy the challenge of running a business
 They like to know how they are doing and are constantly
looking for feedback.
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 5. High level of energy:
 Entrepreneurs are more energetic than the average person.
6. Future orientation – serial entrepreneurs:
 Entrepreneurs have a well-defined sense of searching for opportunities.
 They look ahead and are less concerned with what they did yesterday than
with what they might do tomorrow.
7. Skilled at organizing:
 Entrepreneurs know how to put the right people together to accomplish a
task.
8. Value achievement over money
9. High degree of commitment:
 Entrepreneurship is hard work, and launching a company successfully
requires total commitment from an entrepreneur.
10. Tolerance for ambiguity:
 Entrepreneurs tend to have a high tolerance for ambiguous, ever-changing
situations, the environment in which they most often operate.
11. Flexibility:
 One hallmark of true entrepreneurs is their ability to adapt to the changing
demands of their customers and their businesses.
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 Benefits of Entrepreneurship
1. Opportunity to Create your own future:
1. Owning a business provides entrepreneurs the independence and the opportunity
to achieve what is important to them.
2. Opportunity to Make a difference:
1. Increasingly, entrepreneurs are starting businesses because they see an
opportunity to make a difference in a cause that is important to them.
3. Opportunity to Reach your full potential:
1. They know that the only boundaries on their success are those imposed by their
own creativity, enthusiasm, and vision.
4. Opportunity to Reap impressive profits:
1. Although money is not the primary force driving most entrepreneurs, the profits
their businesses can earn are an important motivating factor in their decisions to
launch companies.
5. Opportunity to Contribute to society and to be recognized for your
efforts:
1. Often, small business owners are among the most respected and most trusted
members of their communities.
6. Opportunity to Do what you enjoy and to have fun at it :
1. Most successful entrepreneurs choose to enter their particular business fields because they
have an interest in them and enjoy those lines of work.

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 Drawbacks of Entrepreneurship
1. Uncertainty of income:
 Opening and running a business provides no guarantee that an
entrepreneur will earn enough money to survive.
2. Risk of losing your entire investment:
 The small business failure rate is relatively high.
 Before “reaching for the golden ring,” entrepreneurs should ask
themselves if they can cope psychologically with the consequences
of failure:
1. What is the worst that could happen if I open my business and it
fails?
2. How likely is the worst to happen?
3. What can I do to lower the risk of my business failing?
4. If my business were to fail, what is my contingency plan for
coping?
3. Long hours and hard work:
 Business start-ups often demand that owners keep nightmarish
schedules.

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 Drawbacks of Entrepreneurship
4. Lower quality of life until the business gets established:
 The long hours and hard work needed to launch a company can take
their toll on the other aspects of the entrepreneur’s life.
5. High levels of stress:
 Starting and managing a business can be an incredibly rewarding
experience, but it also can be a highly stressful one.
6. Complete responsibility:
 It’s great to be the boss, but many entrepreneurs find that they must
make decisions on issues about which they are not really
knowledgeable.
7. Discouragement:
 Launching a business is a substantial undertaking that requires a
great deal of dedication, discipline, and tenacity.

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 The Cultural Diversity of Entrepreneurship
1. Young entrepreneurs:
 Young people are setting the pace in starting businesses.

2. Women entrepreneurs:
 Small business has been a leader in offering women opportunities for economic
expression through employment and entrepreneurship.
3. Minority-owned enterprises:
 Another rapidly growing segment of the small business population is minority-
owned businesses.
4. Part-time entrepreneurs:
 Part-time entrepreneurs have the best of both worlds: they can ease into business
for themselves without sacrificing the security of a steady paycheck and benefits.
5. Home-based businesses:
 Several factors make the home the first-choice location for many
entrepreneurs:
 Operating a business from home keeps start-up and operating costs to a
minimum.
 Home-based companies allow owners to maintain a flexible lifestyle and work
style.
 Technology, which is transforming many ordinary homes into “electronic
cottages,” allows entrepreneurs to run a wide variety of businesses from their
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 The Cultural Diversity of Entrepreneurship
 Family businesses:
 A family-owned business is one that includes two or more members of a
family with financial control of the company.
 Copreneurs:
 Copreneurs are entrepreneurial couples who work together as co-owners of
their businesses.
 Social Entrepreneurs:
 Use their skills not only to create profitable business ventures, but also to
achieve social and environmental goals for the common good.

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 Ten Deadly Mistakes of Entrepreneurship
1. Management mistakes:
 In most small businesses, poor management is the primary cause of business
failure.
 The owner lacks the leadership ability, sound judgment, and knowledge necessary
to make the business work.
2. Lack of experience:
 Small business managers need to have experience in the field they want
to enter.
 Ideally, a prospective entrepreneur should have adequate technical ability
(a working knowledge of the physical operations of the business and
sufficient conceptual ability).
3. Poor financial control:
 Sound management is the key to a small company’s success, and effective
managers realize that any successful business venture requires proper
financial control.
 Business success also requires having a sufficient amount of capital on
hand at start-up.

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 4. Weak marketing efforts:
 Building a growing base of customers requires a sustained, creative marketing
effort.
 Creative entrepreneurs find innovative ways to market their businesses effectively
to their target customers without breaking the bank.
5. Failure to develop a strategic plan:
 Too many small business managers neglect the process of strategic planning
because they think that it is something that benefits only large companies.
6. Uncontrolled growth:
 Growth is a natural, healthy, and desirable part of any business enterprise, but it
must be planned and controlled.
7. Poor location:
 For any business, choosing the right location is partly an art and partly a science.
8. Improper inventory control:
 Normally, the largest investment a small business owner makes is in inventory, yet
inventory control is one of the most neglected managerial responsibilities.
9. Incorrect pricing:
 Establishing prices that will generate the necessary profits means that business owners must
understand how much it costs to make, market, and deliver their products and services.
10. Inability to make the “entrepreneurial transition”:
 After the start-up, growth usually requires a radically different style of management, one that
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entrepreneurs are not necessarily good at.
 Avoiding the Pitfalls of Small Business Failure
1. Know your business in depth:
 Get the best education in your business area you possibly can before you
set out on your own.
2. Develop a solid business plan:
 Without a sound business plan, a firm merely drifts along without any real
direction.
3. Manage financial resources:
 The best defense against financial problems is to develop a practical
information system and then use this information to make business
decisions.
4. Understand financial statements:
 Every business owner must depend on records and financial statements to
know the condition of her or his business.
5. Learn to manage people effectively:
 Every business depends on a foundation of well-trained, motivated
employees.
6. Keep in tune with yourself:
 The success of your business will depend on your constant presence and
attention, so it is critical to monitor your health closely.
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