DHS - Micro-Enterprise State Certification Flashcards
A new hire that is a person the entrepreneur could like and respect.
Compatible
A principle or standard by which something may be judged or decided.
Criteria
The act of checking and changing measurements in order to ensure results are in an acceptable range. The process of making an action objective and as fact-based as possible.
Calibration
Ability to develop strategies and techniques to deliver or make products/services in the most cost effective and timely manner.
Operating Efficiencies
The capacity of a business to produce desired results with minimum expenditure of time, money, personnel, and materials.
Administrative Efficiencies
The ability to get more output from the same resources or getting the same output from fewer resources.
Financial Efficiencies
Developing and implementing policies and procedures that help your company recruit, compensate, evaluate, grow, and retain top performers.
Human Resources
Conceiving and implementing activities that increase revenues and profits.
Marketing/Sales
Developing and implementing policies and procedures that keep your customers satisfied and loyal.
Customer Service
Completing all the reports and activities that enable a company to maintain appropriate records, track financial results, pay appropriate taxes, and maintain adequate levels of “liquidity” (available cash) as well as positive credit.
Finance/Accounting
Completing the activities required for an organization to operate day to day including but not limited to real estate (for office space and/or production facilities), legal and purchasing.
Administration
Developing the internal and external technology capabilities required in today’s economy for a company to operate effectively and interact with customers in ways they prefer.
Technology
Completing the productive activities of the enterprise.
Operations
Giving control, authority, or jobs to another person.
Delegation
Major accomplishments that indicate that a venture’s level of success, and/or a point at which the venture must start considering a new approach.
Growth Milestones
Start-ups and small companies often face the choice between hiring employees to accomplish a task for using third-party vendors.
Make/Buy
Working directly with a single vendor, rather than evaluating bids from multiple vendors before deciding on the firm you’ll work with.
Sole Source
The network of vendors that enables a company to complete the development/assembly of its product or service.
Supply Chain
An investment or initiative is sustainable when the financial results are positive and replicable.
Sustainability
Interacting with other people to exchange information and develop contacts, especially to further one’s career.
Networking
The act of composing, talking, executing, or arranging anything without previous preparation.
Improvisation
Continuing a process without interruption.
Perpetual Cycle
A future expectation. A potential customer, investor, mentor, etc.
Prospective
Networking - to develop, learn, master new skills and habits.
Financial - to purchase an asset or object.
Acquisition
An activity or action that will maximize use and turn into a benefit.
Exploit
Misleading. Having an appearance of another but differing from the original or future development.
Spurious
Wordy. Expressing in more words than needed.
Verbose
To make a statement that is more understandable. To express a clear position.
Clarify
Out of ordinary and breaking the routine.
Discontinuous
Different than anything else. Attracts customers and generates sales that is different from other businesses.
Differentiated Offering
The intended group of customers you want to serve.
Target Market
A one-page financial projection that lists your major revenue sources and expenses.
Pro Forma
How you intend to communicate to large numbers of customers, motivating them to learn more about your business. Ex. Advertising is a tool.
Marketing
How you move specific customers to buy from you. Ex. A special event in your store’s parking lot featuring discount prices.
Selling
A detailed “to do list” of steps you’ll need to take to go from concept and funding all the way to business launch. The more detailed you make a it - specific tasks, projected costs, targeted task completion dates and the team member responsible for each step - the better you can measure and manage the process it takes you to launch your business.
Launch Plan
Software program to track financial information like budgets, expenditures, invoicing, and payroll.
Accounting System
Income. The amount of money earned from the sale of products/services.
Revenue
The cost required for an item or service. The outflow of money to another person or group to pay for an item or service.
Expense
The cost that it takes to produce a product or service. Includes materials and labor.
Cost of Goods
Money paid by an employer to an employee for work done during a period of time.
Personnel Cost
The amount of money it takes to supply heating, cooling, electricity, and water to a place of business.
Facility Cost
The amount of money spent to sell product or services. Includes advertising materials, promotions, public relations, and other expenses like salaries and travel.
Marketing/Sales Cost
Cost of running the business that does not lead to the generation of profit. Examples are accounting and legal expenses, administrative salaries, insurance, property taxes, rent, and utilities.
Overhead Cost
The value of funds in accounts or tangible machinery/production equipment.
Capital
The trust that allows one party to provide money or resources to another party where that the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately.
Credit
A risk or daring journey or undertaking.
Venture
The annual cost to you of your insurance.
Premium
The amount you will pay before the insurance company reimburses you for a loss.
Deductibles
Is a short, simple document that provides a clear summary of a proposed business venture.
Business Concept
Similar to an elevator speech, a concise, compelling description of the proposed venture.
Vision Description
A person or entity that may be interested in providing capital for your business venture.
Prospective Investors
A “hockey stick” projection is a revenue growth line sort of looks like a hockey stick - flat at first, and then a straight line up.
Hockey Stick Projections
Product or services that experience regular and predictable changes that recur every calendar year.
Seasonality
How your customers and competitors responding to your marketing and selling strategies.
Competitive Reactions
The ability to go beyond your customers into markets that have not been in your typical plan. For example, a restaurant offering private catering or a restaurant selling their signature desserts through local grocery stores.
Expansion Markets
An idea that is accepted as true or as certain to happen without proof.
Assumptions
A separate section in your Pro Forma that allows you to make varying assumptions that will help you avoid introducing errors in calculation into the pro forma spreadsheet. It allows you to determine which assumptions have the greatest impact on the bottom line.
Sensitivity Analysis
A financial term that means “big enough” to care about. An effective pro forma spreadsheet should only include line items that are big enough that they have a “material impact” on your overall financial projections.
Materiality
Insignificant changes that do not hurt the overall performance of a business.
Ex. The cost of a business license. You know that you are going to have a to pay for one or more city and/or state business license. The cost will likely be a few hundred dollars a year. You can project this cost with great certainty. But it’s not material - a few hundred dollars more or less won’t make or break your venture. So it’s better to lump together licenses, use taxes, insurance and utilities into “overhead costs” and round up to the nearest thousand dollars what you believe these costs will be in the aggregate.
Material Impact
The action of spending funds.
Expenditures
Cash in and out of the business over a period of time.
Cumulative Cash Flow
A venture spends much more money than it takes in as it establishes its operations, “captures” its first customers, and launches the marketing efforts necessary to create a market presence. The rate at which the company is losing money. Known as negative cash flow.
Burn Cash
The lowest point of cumulative cash flow. It is the minimum amount the venture will require in order to work through its early stages and emerge a vibrant, successful organization.
Nadir
Cost that vary depending on the rise and fall of production. Ex. Wages and Material
Variable Cost
An acronym for Information Technology.
IT
A worker that works independently by selling work or services by the hour, day, or job with no intent to pursue a permanent or long-term arrangement with a single employer.
Free Lance Consultants
A phrase that means to add up or to make economic sense.
Pencils Out
Bringing about strong emotions or feelings.
Evocative
Possible to do easily or conveniently.
Feasible
Needs of customers that are currently not being addressed by your company or any company.
Unmet Customer Need
unexpressed
An advantage you have and can sustain over your competition. Financially sustainable and difficult for competitors to copy.
Defensible Competitive Advantage
The expectation of money earned based on amount of investment.
Attractive Return on Capital
Owner of information, knowledge, patent, copyright, trademark. Others are forbidden to use it.
Proprietary
A work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as manuscript or a design to which one has rights an for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.
Intellectual Property
Every investor invest in people. Investors always evaluate the quality of the human capital in a venture when they assess whether a business concept is doable.
Tenacious talent
A team of talented, driven individuals led by a prove-effective business leader.
Human Capital
A future event or circumstance that is possible that cannot be predicted with certainty.
Contingency
The quality or fact of being able to endure and continue with determination.
Tenacity
The ability sustain prolonged physical or mental effort.
Stamina
A situation involving exposure to danger. In the context of an entrepreneur, the “danger” is lost of capital, as well as the loss of time, effort, and personal reputation in a failed venture.
Risk
Risks associated with the success of a single venture.
Business Risk
Risks in a market sector that impact all competitors in that sector.
Market Risk
Risks associated with the financial standing/performance of a venture.
Reputational Risk
Risks associated with the financial standing/performance of a venture.
Financial Risk
Risks associated with the geography in which a venture operates.
Political Risk
Risks associated due to government passing laws or regulations that could impact the ability to operate.
Regulatory Risk
An action plan for implementing to identify, prioritize, and implement actions to reduce risks.
Mitigation Strategies
Funds contributed by owner.
Financial Equity
When an entrepreneur or small business leader work long hours for little or no pay to make a new venture succeed.
Sweat Equity
A value proposition that they believe delivers benefits in excess of the costs required to offer their product or service. An innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.
Value Proposition
A business created from scratch.
Start Up
An existing business purchased from its owner. The entrepreneur/small business leader is acquiring the business because he/she believes the future potential of the business justifies the purchase price.
Acquisition
A proven business concept, an established brand, and all types of management support (accounting systems, personnel training, marketing campaigns, technology packages, etc.)
Franchise
The person or purchasing a franchise.
Franchisee
The person or entity offering the sale of a franchise.
Franchisor
Money owed to a franchisor per contract agreement.
Royalties
A new business launched by two existing businesses. Both businesses contribute something of value to the new venture, and serve as partners in making the joining venture succeed. Typically, a joining venture enables JV partners to pursue business opportunities they couldn’t pursue alone.
Joint Venture
An existing business purchased from its owner. The entrepreneur/small business leader is acquiring the business because he/she believes the future potential of the business justifies the purchase price.
Acquisition
A proven business concept, an established brand, and all types of management support (accounting systems, personnel training, marketing campaigns, technology packages, etc.)
Franchise
The person purchasing a franchise.
Franchisee
The person or entity offering the sale of a franchise.
Franchisor
Money owed to a Franchisor per contract agreement.
Royalties
A new business launched by two existing businesses. Both businesses contribute something of value to the new venture, and serve as partners in making the joint venture succeed. Typically, a joint venture enables JV partners to pursue business opportunities they couldn’t pursue alone.
Joint Venture
Maximum efficiency in representing information.
Economy of Expression
The hands-on pursuit of excellence, where dedicated leaders provide excellence, where dedicated leaders provide vision and inspiration to their team members.
Leadership
To bring about or cause a feeling.
Engender
The quality of being clear and understandable.
Clarity
The process of removing unwanted elements or improving something by making small changes.
Refinement
Guiding principles that dictate behavior and action.
Core Values
Operating and communicating in a way that is easy for others to see and understand actions.
Transparency
Reaching out. Attempts to convert or change opinions.
Proselytizing
Overly concerned with procedure at the expense of efficiency or common sense.
Bureaucratic
Shock or excite someone into taking action.
Galvanizing
Communicating information so that actions are intended and complimentary.
Internal Clarity
A set of beliefs that embody the strategic vision of the enterprise, and that guide team members in all their behaviors and business decisions.
Company Culture
When a person/leader treats others like he would like to be treated. This is a powerful way to build culture, loyalty, and dedication.
Golden Rule
A way for a small business owner or an entrepreneur (or a consultant serving one of these business leaders) to assess where their enterprise stands versus the culture they would like to create.
Company Mapping
Commonly held standards of what is acceptable or unacceptable, important or unimportant, and right or wrong.
Culture Value
A gap between two belief systems which hinders an understanding or relations.
Culture Gap
Offering objective and helpful feedback to an employee to improve and change their actions on the job.
Performance Review
The quality of being honest or a group that is undivided in beliefs.
Integrity
A reduction in workforce because of employees leaving, retiring, or termination.
Attrition
Hiring employees that bring skills that add to the entrepreneur’s capabilities, forming the foundation for solid growth.
Complimentary
Developing and implementing policies and procedures that keep your customers satisfied and loyal.
Customer Service
Major accomplishments that indicate that a venture’s level of success, and/or a point at which the venture must start considering a new approach.
Growth Milestones
Gathering original data.
Primary Research
Finding information developed by others.
Secondary Research
Data obtained by providing an experience or an observation.
Experiential
Results available only to the owners of the data.
Proprietary Results
A non-representative sample of responses included in a survey. They don’t belong because they are not intended market or do not provide valid information about your market.
Unscientific Responses
A representation that is misleading or unfair.
Skewing
A representation that is in favor of or against an idea, person, or group.
Bias
Research data that misrepresents results because of the inappropriate way questions were asked.
Intervention Bias
A demographically diverse group of people assembled to participate in a guided discussion about a particular product or service before it is launched. Can be used for providing ongoing feedback.
Focus Group
A group of experts that have specialized knowledge. Used to gain specific input and opinion.
Expert Panels
Analysis. Efforts to determine market size and trends, customers preferences and needs, product features and costs, pricing and promotion.
Marketing
Engagement. Efforts in customer contact and persuasion, building relationships, account coverage, and product knowledge.
Sales
Creativity. Efforts in communication that combine imagination with high impact messages that are distinctive and memorable.
Advertising
A presentation by entrepreneurs or small business owners to an audience they need to persuade.
Business Pitch
Repeated performance of an activity to acquire or maintain proficiency.
Practice
Doing something over and over again.
Repetition
To give serious thought or consideration.
Reflection
The act of correcting and adapting to make presentation more effective.
Revision
