Managing Growth, Risk, and Transition

This capstone unit focuses on advanced small-business management topics including diagnosing operational and HR problems, applying current tax and accounting rules, leveraging external resources for growth, and preparing exit or succession plans. Students synthesize previous lessons to produce practical, up-to-date solutions that improve profitability, compliance, and long-term viability.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze operational and human resource challenges (e.g., poor hiring decisions, motivation mismatches, nonperforming employees, role transitions, and outdated organization charts) by diagnosing root causes and proposing at least three prioritized corrective actions with timelines and measurable success criteria.
• Apply current small-business tax and accounting provisions (including equipment expensing, automobile depreciation limits, limited interest deductions, meal/entertainment deduction changes, and revised net operating loss rules) to compute and compare tax and cash-flow outcomes for at least two entity-selection or expense-treatment scenarios.
• Evaluate growth and exit options and external supports (business incubators, SBDCs, SCORE, and other small-business information resources) and produce a one-page strategic recommendation that compares at least two growth paths and one exit strategy with resource needs, risks, and implementation milestones.
• Demonstrate operational readiness by creating or updating core business documents—organization chart, employee manual, accounts-receivable collection procedure, and a basic sales plan—and justify recommended training or capital investments using a brief cost–benefit analysis.