Assignment 1: You Are an Entrepreneur!

Student life does not generally afford a great deal of free time to pursue your personal interests; however, at one point, you may have considered turning a personal interest or hobby into an official enterprise. Today, you have finally decided to turn that hobby into a business but have realized that you need start-up capital from a lender or investor.

To obtain funding, you need to convince a lender / investor that your business is more than a hobby. You need to demonstrate that you have a firm grasp of your business, the accounting practices that impact your business, the controls needed to safeguard assets, and which accounting system will produce accurate and relevant financial information.

Write a seven (7) page business plan in which you:

1.     Describe the type of business you have created including:

a.      The product or service, and general staffing plan. Provide a rationale for your plan.

b.     The form of your business and the benefits it offers your particular business,

c.      A chart of accounts specific to your business, including a rationale as to the selection of each account. (Note: The chart of accounts is a blueprint of your business for the lender/investor. It should report the expected resources that you will consume in your business (assets), the sources of those resources (liabilities and equity), the sources of revenue, and expenditures that you expect to incur to earn those revenues. You may build a detailed chart that includes business units, divisions, product lines, etc.)

2.     Based on the form of your business, analyze whether or not you will be required to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting methods and how the IFRS / GAAP convergence will impact your business. Suggest how you will incorporate any changes into your books and records. (Note: You need to demonstrate to the lender/investor that you have recognized possible changes to GAAP that may impact the accounting and reporting of your accounting events.)

3.     Prepare a pro forma balance sheet and income statement providing the assumptions made and support the valuations assigned.

4.     Considering the value of assets (assigned per your balance sheet) used within your business, recommend two (2) specific internal controls that you will implement to protect your company assets and resources, justifying how each will provide assurances to management. (NOTE:  Safeguarding assets and protecting personal data are paramount to ensuring the viability of a business.  Demonstrate to the lender/investor that your assets will be safeguarded and customer information (if applicable) will be protected.)

5.     Based on the internal control recommendations that you made, suggest how you will implement each within your business environment, indicating how challenges or resistances will be overcome.

6.     Evaluate the impact of the regulatory environment, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulatory requirements, on your business venture, giving considering to how you intend to comply with the requirements and the general impact to decision making within your business.

7.     Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the
• title of the assignment,
• the student name,
• the professor name,
• the course title,
• and the date.

The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Examine accounting principles and concepts used in businesses.
• Assess appropriate internal controls, regulatory requirements according to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and fraud prevention and detection.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in financial accounting.
• Write clearly and concisely about financial accounting using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.