1.     Why do ethics matter in entrepreneurship?

Ethics in entrepreneurship matter not only as a matter of legality but a matter of morals and trust as well. If you start a business venture that is ethically or morally corrupt, and violates certain laws, sooner or later it’ll land you and your venture in legal trouble, saddling you with legal fees, and additional financial strains. Even if you don’t break the law, the ethics are still questionable, it will still hurt the image of you and your venture, harming business, and potentially causing business partners or sponsors to pull out.

2.     How does my own personal budget related to an entrepreneurship budget? How are they different?

If someone has issues handling and managing their own personal budget, I don’t think handing them an entrepreneur’s budget is a good idea. A personal budget is for your own personal wants and needs, but an entrepreneur budget is for business venture costs only. It’s unethical to use it for any sort of personal gain, or personal pleasure. If you absolutely half to, wait for the venture to pay off, take your cut of the profits, and do whatever with it.

3.     Why do businesses need a budget or financial forecast?

Businesses need a budget forecast to plan out their spending, or at least get a rough idea of what they need to plan to spend funds on. They need to plan for opportunities, required spending, upkeep costs, and emergency funds in the event of unforeseen expenditures. Without a forecast, they could start spending at random, leaving them open to a financial disaster, or the could not spend enough, and not make the most of their financial resources.

4.     What is your definition of social entrepreneurship? Give an example of an enterprise you read about from the Schwab Foundation website (Module page ” Social Entrepreneurship vs. Business Entrepreneurship-2). 

Social entrepreneurship to me is a business venture that isn’t only out to make money, but its goal is to improve society as well. An example being from the Schwab Foundation site, Tulin Akin, who co-founded a Turkey’s first communication, e-learning, and e-commerce site to help farmers, suppliers, and companies. They founded an enterprise to help connect these different aspects of their society, help improve communication, education, and economics, and assist farmers in their agricultural goals. She also helped create the first “smart village” to increase productivity, and address issues facing smaller community villages in the modern day.

5.     What are the most significant legal issues entrepreneurs face?

I think two of the biggest legal issues facing them are trademarks/copyright, as well as if they need any business permits. Local governments might require permits for an entrepreneur to pursue certain actions or hold certain events, and I can tell you from experience, they are absolute headaches to get sometimes. As for trademarks and copyright, you must make sure an idea hasn’t been created and copyrighted already before pursuing it. It could cause a whole host of issues, and you may be accused of intellectual theft unintentionally. Not only that, if you create an idea, you have to go through the process of having it patented, before someone tries to steal your idea and portray it as their own.