Researched Autobiography Purpose: To become familiar with Library sources to help tell the story of your life. Outline: Introduction: Introduce your autobiography with a personal story, a meaningful quotation, or a significant statistic. Thesis: For a narrative essay, the thesis is different than in making an argument. In this case, you need to answer the question “What is this autobiography about, and why is it important to me/a person close to me/my community?” Remember, you’ve chosen either to write about some aspect of your own life, the lives of some of your interesting ancestors, or the life of your community. Body: Tell the story, incorporating facts you’ve learned from your research. Use the facts to support the main story you have to tell, not to tell it for you. Follow MLA style for this paper. Conclusion: So what? Why does this story matter to you, your family, or your community? Reflect on this. Whether you’re writing about self, family or community, how does this have a bearing on who you are today? Works Cited: Sources listed alphabetically by author’s last name. ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE: Midterm 1) Entrepreneurs who establish and go on to create new ventures must classify types of financing that are in sync with the development stages that the eventually grow through in its life cycle. While exploring an opportunity phase of a new plan a firm does not experience significant operating costs, but during further stages of venture development, financing is crucial. During the research and development phase, the firm will need major levels of investment as R&D for innovation of new products, this can be very expensive. In this stage, bootstrap financing techniques may prove productive. An interesting example of this type of financing involves the entrepreneur himself/herself having to put up his/her own resources and funds (also known as skin in the game). Furthermore, the entrepreneur may receive funds from their respective families and friends. During the Start- up stage of a new endeavor, significant efforts are aimed towards initiating a marketing strategy and launching production of the company’s offering. Even though at this stage the company is ready to launch and is experiencing its first revenues, is not profitable. As a result, outside investors (angels, venture capitalists) are required to help support the firm’s operating costs and expenses. An angel investment would serve as they are generally in smaller quantities and can also be presented in accordance with milestones which are established and agreed upon by investors as well as the entrepreneur. During the early-growth stage of the new venture, the business plan has proved successful so far having launched successfully. The firm must now expand its operations by recruiting new employees and developing a marketing plan. As a result, a source of financing in this round could be forthcoming private equity investors and ...

1. Researched Autobiography
Purpose: To become familiar with Library sources to help tell
the story of your life.
Outline:
Introduction: Introduce your autobiography with a personal
story, a meaningful quotation, or a significant statistic.
Thesis: For a narrative essay, the thesis is different than in
making an argument. In this case, you need to answer the
question “What is this autobiography about, and why is it
important to me/a person close to me/my community?”
Remember, you’ve chosen either to write about some aspect of
your own life, the lives of some of your interesting ancestors, or
the life of your community.
Body: Tell the story, incorporating facts you’ve learned from
your research. Use the facts to support the main story you have
to tell, not to tell it for you. Follow MLA style for this paper.
Conclusion: So what? Why does this story matter to you, your
family, or your community? Reflect on this. Whether you’re
writing about self, family or community, how does this have a
bearing on who you are today?
Works Cited: Sources listed alphabetically by author’s last
name.
ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE: Midterm
1) Entrepreneurs who establish and go on to create new ventures
must classify
types of financing that are in sync with the development stages
that the

2. eventually grow through in its life cycle. While exploring an
opportunity phase
of a new plan a firm does not experience significant operating
costs, but during
further stages of venture development, financing is crucial.
During the research and development phase, the firm will need
major levels of
investment as R&D for innovation of new products, this can be
very expensive.
In this stage, bootstrap financing techniques may prove
productive. An
interesting example of this type of financing involves the
entrepreneur
himself/herself having to put up his/her own resources and
funds (also known
as skin in the game). Furthermore, the entrepreneur may receive
funds from
their respective families and friends.
During the Start- up stage of a new endeavor, significant efforts
are aimed
towards initiating a marketing strategy and launching
production of the
company’s offering. Even though at this stage the company is
ready to launch
and is experiencing its first revenues, is not profitable. As a
result, outside
investors (angels, venture capitalists) are required to help
support the firm’s
operating costs and expenses. An angel investment would serve
as they are
generally in smaller quantities and can also be presented in
accordance with
milestones which are established and agreed upon by investors

3. as well as the
entrepreneur.
During the early-growth stage of the new venture, the business
plan has proved
successful so far having launched successfully. The firm must
now expand its
operations by recruiting new employees and developing a
marketing plan. As a
result, a source of financing in this round could be forthcoming
private equity
investors and/ or via asset-based lending. Asset-based lending
occurs when a
substantial loan is provided to the firm in exchange for an asset.
During the rapid-growth stage of the new venture, the firm has
now reached
and crossed the breakeven point but is not yet sustainable. If the
business is
one of high-risk one but has potential for rapid growth, a
method of financing is
an investment by a venture capital. The entrepreneur will
receive the infusion
of funds needed as well as receive assistance from the VC (the
general partner)
in adding significant value to the company.
During the final equity stage, financing that is undertaken is
usually by the
means of an exit strategy such as an initial public offering, the
acquisition of
the new project by an established firm or a management buyout.
This

4. empowers early investors to receive a return on their
investment.
2) A venture capital fund is an investment fund which is
structured vis-à-vis a
limited partnership. They are investment fund that manage
money from
investors seeking private equity stakes in startup and small- and
medium-size
enterprises with strong growth potential. Numerous partners and
one general
partner constitute a venture capital fund.
The limited partners provides almost all the financing and
funds. Whereas the
general partner is responsible for managing the investment fund
through
various efforts. These firms target companies that have great
potential, with
high risk and high reward.
During the capital development process of a start-up, the
venture capital fund
is usually a means to raise capital during the rapid-growth stage
of the venture.
They will offer financial backing to a new company to ensure
that it continues
to grow and expand in value.
A venture capital fund adds value to the business in several
ways. First and
foremost is the fact that VC’s or general partners usually work
inside an
industry which they know about or are familiar with. They
identify value
drivers i.e., prioritizing the allocation of resources within the

5. firm. They also
establish milestones for the firm i.e., product testing, first
competitive
reaction, first redirection and bellwether sale. The VC also adds
value by
formulating a strategic plan to assess each step in the growth of
the firm. The
VC also ensures that there is a professional mindset infused in
the business by
identifying and hiring management members or personnel to sit
on the Board.
The VC contributes to a business by providing it with essential
industry contacts
and more importantly, providing them with sources for later
financing. Finally,
the VC ensures that they monitor trends and developments
within the
competitive environment inside which the firm operates.
3) The cost of capitals refers to the expenses and funds used for
supporting a
business.
However with regards to new ventures, the cost of capital refers
to the method
by which financing was undertaken. For example, suppose a
company was self-
financed during its initial stages by means of obtaining a loan
from a
commercial bank, the cost of capital would simply be the
interest rates and
risk premiums that the financial establishment would demand.
4) Rapid growth influences the manner by which an

6. entrepreneur will make
sacrifices while considering financing options. For example, if
the product
market strategy has caused this rapid growth due to the quality
of the product
offerings and its high price level, this essentially means the
venture is in need
of a larger organization and thus this impacts organizational
strategy. As the
organization expands in order to meet the demands of the rapid
growth it
experiences, it is likely it will require outside investment, hence
impacting
financial strategy. Thus, it can be observed that there is an
interdependency
between all of these three strategies (product market,
organizational and
financial).
An example of a new venture that realized the interdependency
between the
three of these strategies is Honda. By focusing on a high-
volume and low
product-price marketing methodology, Honda was able to take
advantage of
trade credit on the components it purchased and this allowed the
firm to attain
numerous efficiencies and reductions in price, thereby allowing
it to acquire a
larger market share.
5) Forecasting revenue is the logical starting point for preparing
a new ventures’
financial statements as the primary objective is to estimate the
business’ cash
flows. By the use of a forecast of future revenue, an

7. entrepreneur is able to
work backwards through a decision tree model in this case, to
gauge the cash
flows from decisions and efforts that are taken prior to it and
thereby establish
if additional financing is required to support the new endeavor.
Forecasting
revenue is also the logical starting point for preparing a new
venture’s cash
flow statement, income statement and the balance sheet of the
firm.
6) The income statement details the manner in which the
liabilities and assets of
the firm were used in a given accounting period. The cash flow
statement
reveals the inflows and outflows of cash. The balance sheet is a
financial
statement which lists the firm’s assets, liabilities as well as
shareholder equity.
For a new venture that needs to project cash flows, they will
first formulate a
balance sheet and income statement to establish the pro forma
statement of
cash flows. These statements are used together by the
entrepreneur to
forecast the process used to calculate the free cash flow of a
company.
7) To calculate the cash flow of a new venture, the
entrepreneur must first
create and have access to the income statement, the balance
sheet and the

8. cash flow statement. Cash flow is used to determine financing
necessities and
also serves to estimate valuation. In order to calculate the cash
flow, the
entrepreneur must first determine the net cash flow from
operating activities.
After this the entrepreneur must figure out the net cash flow
from financing
efforts (either by debt or equity financing) and this can be found
in the income
statement. Lastly, the entrepreneur must figure out the net cash
flow from
investing activities. Apart from this approach, there are other
methods to
calculate cash flows. EBIT or EBITDA (Earnings before
interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization) are nontraditional tools to
estimate the cash
flow of a firm.