Executive Summary
The Community Issue
Small businesses contribute to a large percentage of employment in the United States by creating new jobs for USA citizens. Unfortunately, many of new startups tend to fail within the first two years in operations mainly due to lack of managerial experience, and incompetence. According to the Statistic Brain Research Center (SBRC), 25% of new startup businesses in America fail in the first year in operations and 36% during the second year. The number one reason why new businesses fall apartis because of owners and management “incompetence.”Incompetence contributes to 46% of business failure. Owners and Management tend to be inexperienced in product pricing, planningand record keeping. Managerial inexperience contributes to 30% of business failure (SBRC). New startup owners do not know much about loan granting. New business owners tend to obtain loans without planning or knowing if their business will be successful. In many cases the loans are too large and not enough profit to pay it back.
Design, Implementation and Cost:
Accounting 101 Workshops will be a low cost program because it will rely mainly on employees and shareholders participation. The program will promote teamwork, leadership, and personal growth. To engage and motivate employees to participate, non-monetary incentives will be awarded, for example employee of the month, achievement recognition at monthly staff meetings, or work from home Fridays. The program will teach and educate small business owners and new start-ups the basics of accounting. The main focus would be cash reconciliations, revenues, and expenses recording in QuickBooks Online. The monthly trainings will also briefly discuss cash and accrual financial reporting. The workshops would be taught in the office training room on the first Friday of each month, starting on May 1 through December 1of 2016. Due to room capacity limitation, only 20 attendees would be allowed per session. Attendees would have the option to sign up online through the company’s website or through telephone by contacting Carol Brown the office and workshop coordinator. Training sessions will last 60 minutes,at the end of each session a 20 questionexamination will be given. The examination will help to determine how much the attendees are able to retain and recall information.
The workshops will be taught by a different employee or partner each month. The firm will be responsible for developing and standardizing all presentation materials but not limited to PowerPoint presentations, information sheets, and examinations. The day before the workshop session, the employee in charge will have the day available for rehearsal. The firm will incur an additional $150 a month in breakfast and supply expenses. Workshops will start at 9 a.m.; SC&H Group will provide attendees with hot coffee and doughnutsfrom Dunkin Donuts. Breakfast will consist of 2 boxes of coffee which cost $13.99 each, and 2 boxes of doughnuts which cost $5.99 each. Additionally,
