Business is about adventure: seeking the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It is about creating wealth and building organizations that make our society strong and our people prosperous. For me, those who best epitomize these qualities and therefore deserve our greatest respect, are entrepreneurs. The stories of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook or Larry Page and Sergey Brin who founded Google to become billionaires by the age of 31, are legendary.

But perhaps you have not heard of Dr. V who has provided vision to hundreds of thousands of people or Professor Yunus who has built a bank that provides loans to landless villagers. Click the links to learn about these individuals.

Classes begin Friday, August 25 and we will begin our readings and assignments in full swing from the start. The course is divided into weekly modules which you will find on the side menu.  You can find the Course Syllabus on the right side bar.  The course has been divided into 15 modules. Each module will cover an important aspect of what is required for an entrepreneur to create a new product or service. We will apply the lessons that we learn in each of these modules to develop an outline of a new product/service that interests us. At the end of the semester, the different parts of the assignment will come together in a final portfolio that develop a model of your business.

You DO NOT have to buy a textbook for this class.This is an Open Education Resource (OER) course that is trying to reduce the cost of textbooks for CUNY students. You will find an e-book titled Startup Smart: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs for for you to download and/or print under the tab labeled ‘Book’ on the left. It is free from copyrights and, therefore, possible for you to download.  In addition, I have a curated set of readings and videos that I have especially chosen for the different modules of the course.

Your assignments for this week are at the bottom of this page. There are two for this week. 

I look forward to interacting with you throughout this course. If you have any questions or would like to chat with me, please connect with me by coming to my office hours with are held between 4:00 and 6:00 pm on Thursday evenings and join the session. My office is in the Business Management Department at Fiterman Hall (F-730A) at BMCC. You can also set up an appointment ahead of time for a phone or online conference.

Professor Mahatapa Palit

Assignments – Week 1:

Go to the Discussion Board link on the right side of this page titled Bio and introduce yourself

Print and review the course syllabus

Complete the online survey: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1003126/Distance-Learning-Contingency-Plan

Add your blog links here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jJ5UG4Qi2qdWqtvUaQbnV1S6IhLGwIEZBVNQ2MxGj1E/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks.

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