- advisory board
- group of advisors that helps an organization make strategic decisions about the business, and brings certain knowledge and experience that can bring a new perspective on issues without having the actual authority to vote or govern
- copyright
- grants the creator of a work the exclusive right to reproduce the work, typically for a specified period of time
- decision tree
- flowchart diagram used to explore the outcomes of different decisions
- economic factors
- inflation, interest, employment, and currency exchange, rates, (among many other factors) that impact the business owner’s pricing of goods or services, the demand for such services, and the cost of production
- funding sources
- monetary resources used by the entrepreneur in the operation of the initial startup and early business
- human resources
- people hired by the entrepreneur to perform various duties in the business, provide customer service, or produce the goods
- independent contractors
- (also, freelancer) people or businesses that provide work similar to an employee without being part of the payroll for the contracting business, and who pay their own taxes and pay for their own benefits
- intangible resources
- assets that cannot be seen, touched, or felt, such as intellectual property, patents, designs, and processes
- line of credit
- lending of funds in exchange for a promise to repay
- outsourcing
- hiring an outside company or third party to perform a specific task, job, or process, or to manufacture goods
- PEST
- framework that can be used to distinguish political, economic, sociocultural, and technological factors influencing access to needed resources
- political factors
- stem from changes in politics, such as the policies of a new presidential administration or congressional legislation, as well as of state and local offices
- pre-launch costs
- cost of all the resources needed to open the business to the public
- quota
- specific number of units allowed into a country; sometimes quotas are limited to one source, such as one country, and sometimes the limit is placed on aggregate quantity regardless of source(s)
- resource dependence theory (RDT) model
- creating networks with business partners through mergers, vertical integration, joint ventures, or engaging in joint political activities to slow dependency among member groups
- service mark
- word, phrase, symbol, or graphic that identifies the origin or source of a service
- sociocultural factors
- changes in how society is moving and the direction of that movement as it relates to a customer base and potential new markets
- tangible resources
- assets that have a physical form as they can be seen, touched, and felt
- tariffs
- taxes or duties that are added to imported goods from another nation
- technological factors
- technological equipment and tools the enterprise needs to be sure it operates efficiently
- trademark
- registration that provides the owner the ability to use a name, symbol, jingle, or character in conjunction with a specific product or service, and prevents others from using those same symbols to sell their products