Course will address the needs of students considering starting their own business or purchasing and managing a business or franchise. Areas to be covered during the class are as follows: Idea generation ? differentiate or die; discuss the importance of ?differentiation? and why most new businesses underestimate this critical concept. Choosing the appropriate business structure: Limited Liability Company, Subchapter C Corporation, Subchapter S Corporation. Developing the business plan: gathering and preparing the proper information to attract financing. Funding your business: identifying sources of funding such as Venture Capital, Private Equity, partners, lenders. Human resources: hiring your first employee, evaluating potential sales people, choosing incentive programs. Successful marketing strategies: numerous examples of creative and effective marketing decisions propelling companies forward. Successful sales strategies: numerous examples of tactics designed to get consumers to buy. Exit strategies: selling to private firms, going public, maintaining partial ownership while remaining in management.

This course is designed to help students meet the demand for effective writing and speaking skills in the professional workplace. Topics include rhetorical considerations involving audience and purpose, writing style and tone, organizational strategies, research skills, evidence-based writing, and page design, along with assignments in professional correspondence, report writing, and public speaking and visual aids. This course satisfies the University's junior year writing requirement.

This course is designed to prepare students for success in the following career and professional development competencies such as networking, internship/job search, professional etiquette and industry research. Specific activities will include but are not limited to: resume building, interviewing skills, dressing for success, utilizing social media platforms, developing elevator pitches, building professional connections, increasing knowledge of industry and career areas and navigating career fairs.

In this first-semester seminar, students begin their Isenberg journey by building community, developing strong academic habits, and learning about the many resources available to support their success. Guided by an upper-class TA, they practice practical communication skills - such as crafting an elevator pitch and writing effective emails - while exploring their interests, strengths, and goals. Through conversations, activities, and one-on-one meetings, students learn to navigate college life and establish a sense of belonging at UMass and within the Isenberg community. The course emphasizes connection, curiosity, and confidence as students lay the foundation for a meaningful first year.

This course provides an introduction to business intelligence and analytics, including the processes, methodologies, infrastructure, and current practices used to transform business data into useful information and support business decision-making. Business Intelligence requires foundation knowledge in data models and data retrieval, thus this course will review logical data models for both relational database systems and data warehouses. Students will learn to extract and manipulate data from these systems using Structured Query Language (SQL). This course also covers visualization, reporting, and dashboard design with experiential learning using leading industry applications.

Quality control concepts including: fundamental computer and statistical concepts: Statistical Process Control (SPC) using control charts; methods for quality improvement; acceptance sampling; industrial experimentation and reliability.

This course introduces fundamental concepts and computations for statistical analysis of business data and real-world problems with an emphasis on understanding and interpreting statistical information, and using it to form sound judgments in business situations. The course covers basic descriptive statistical methods, sampling methodology, how to draw inferences from samples to larger populations and how to make predictions based upon historical relationships between variables. Theoretical background in descriptive and inferential statistical methods will be used support knowledge of the appropriate statistical test to perform in a given situation. The statistical methods that are covered in the course equip the student with the analytic reasoning and quantitative arguments that applies to all areas of business and management.

Examines information technology from a business enterprise perspective. Topics include: the components and development of business information technology systems, their use in enhancing and facilitating management practices and decision making and their impact on management decisions.

Areas in banking that require application of analytical tools and techniques in bank decision-making process.

Application of financial models in the business environment. The use of computer-based spreadsheet and simulation packages in business analysis.