The Amazing Study Guide For Entrepreneurship and Management of Small and Medium Enterprises Exam

BMS is about to end, what do you want to do? Dhandho karvo che!

Beg your pardon? Business, business daalna hai!

After 3 years of rigorous studies you want to give it all up and sit in a shop? No man, that’s not what I mean..

Then what is it that you mean? I want to do something of my own, you know like my very own thing not working under someone I want to be my own boss!

Good good, jokes apart career bolo baba..? three years of learning all about commerce, work, companies and I can’t even talk about starting my own thing.. if only BMS taught us something worthwhile!

It surely does! BMS aka Bachelor of Management Studies has this one big and super important subject in your final year and mind you it’s a compulsory subject that will teach you to become independent on your own right and this is the Subject called Entrepreneurship And Management Of Small And Medium Enterprises.

So what is this complicated spelling thingy you ask, and hello spelling galat likha toh marks katega nai na? lol surely katega!

But that apart an entrepreneur in simple words is a business man, some one who starts her own thing, invests in the required capital, employs people and gets them working in order to earn profits and take liability of all the losses made herself.

Someone who is a leader and a risk taker, this brand of people they don’t fear losses, they just don’t fear anything, they have a passion for whatever they do and they want to make a career out of it. So if you are passionate about clothes and you start your own cloth manufacturing unit, maybe a small one but if you do it yourself instead of working under someone then you are an entrepreneur. 

Not all of us are that fire brand risk takers in life, some of us prefer stability and so you shall ask me why in the name of heaven isn’t this an optional subject?

Well, we all are the masters of our own lives and subjects like entrepreneurship make sure that we harness the qualities of independence and leadership within us. This subject teaches you about the different kinds of people you come across, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and managers and the understanding of these three types is essential to know people in their personal lives as well.

This subject has so many aspects of the process of starting your own thing explained methodically that even if you don’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur the little things like making plans, dealing with problems, foresight in risks, dealing with losses end up helping you shape up a variety of aspects in life.

Sounds like a lot of studies, and T.Y ka load why do these things in the final year ?students complain, now is it even interesting or is it like a bunch of self help theories we need to mug up that too with elaborate spellings?

The interest levels of entrepreneurship as a subject can be determined by no one but you! This is one subject where every theory, every distinguish between and all those pages and pages of case studies can be related with in real life quite simply! When in doubt on how to understand the characteristics of a leader you can just think up of Ratan Tata and bam you can list down 10 qualities more than that were mentioned in the text book, think of Dr. Verghese Kurien for rural entrepreneur or maybe Bill Gates foundation for social entrepreneur!

The best part of studying this subject is that it doesn’t fail to inspire you to become big in life, just all of this reading up on people makes you want to grow in life.

It can be way cool a subject provided you take it in the right spirit, bad attitudes have an issue everywhere anyways!

So what is the Syllabus and what about Small and medium enterprises, how to study so much?

SME’s are very easy to understand and form about 25% of your syllabus. Tip will be to study SME and finish those chapters first so that you know those 25% marks are in your pocket anyways.

The Syllabus is divided into 4 Units and like I said earlier you need to do up Unit 4 i.e. SME’s first and get it out of the way.

The theories in Unit 1 can be a little boring, so do them up immediately after the Unit 4. You can continue studying the remaining chapters as per the order mentioned in your textbook.

Check out the detailed syllabus and reference books Here!

So now comes the big question? How do I study in order to score maximum?

Step One

If you want to really score good would be to read the entire text book like a novel and keep a time limit for that. You will totally forget the previous chapters the very first time you finish reading, but just take up the chapters and read them. Don’t look at the case studies or short notes, concepts and question answers. Just Read through and your choice of textbook is very important while you do this. The RPH textbook is way too bulky so take up the Vipul Prakarshan textbook and read through like a novel within a week’s time.

So when I say read through doesn’t mean don’t understand, read and try and keep as much as you can in your memory.

 Step Two is to make Notes!

All the questions given at the back of each chapter, frame answers for them; you are grown up enough to know that any answer needs a introduction, definition, meaning, answer and conclusion. So do up all your long answer questions, while you do this many of your short answers and notes/ concepts will get covered.

Follow up step 3 as Concepts, Notes and Short Answers; whatever was left out!

So a chapter of average length in finding answers completely should not take more than 3 days. It’s an important subject and you need to put in efforts, so no grumbling.. work in advance but do this answer formation exercise rigorously. Of course while you frame answers you do not need to always write the whole thing, write down the black quoted points or the head points and make sure you have the diagram made this completes your notes very easily.

Now that everything is ready and read once, take up past university question papers or important questions given at college/ coaching classes (not that you need coaching classes for this subject) and revise. 

Don’t even argue that the paper pattern has changed, because the syllabus is still the same and so the weight-age may change but the answer that is important is going to remain important.

Now that you have done up with all of this, take up case studies from all textbooks and past board papers available and go through them, because they are instrumental in getting you good scores and at times you may forget the answer but a similar case study might help you write something.

After you have completed all of this from the Vipul text book, assess yourself based on the time at hand. This textbook does not cover everything that is necessary from university point of view and so if you have decent amount of time at hand take the RPH textbook and do up certain concepts from there that have appeared in the past papers. If short on time, grab the Sheth publication text book, it’s short and concise and makes sure it tells the answers to the point to ensure you have adequate revision done on exam day.

Tackling the Entrepreneurship paper is more about how you write it than what you write in it, well sequenced answers, with diagrams, well underlined and black quoted points and neatness is what will give you the upper edge over the millions of other BMSites. 

Use a lot of examples in your answers, Entrepreneurship is a subject where hunting and thinking up of examples is not at all a tough task and eventually it all boils down to how well you can explain the answers to your examiner, so what better than examples to support them.

Few FAQ’s answered:

1. Do I need to join coaching classes?

No.

2. How many hours a week, should I devote to this subject?

2 hours every day to score excellent, 2 hours on alternate days to pass.

3. Do I need to ratta maar?

No

4. Is it very difficult to pass?

No

5. Is it difficult to score?

Yes, you need to work hard to score good marks.

Top 10 terms you will come across in the subject (explained in basic language)

1. Entrepreneur – Someone who starts his own business, is willing to invest his own money and bear his own losses.

2. Intrapreneur – Someone who works as an entrepreneur within an organization, takes responsibility minus the financial investment.

3. Manager – Someone who manages, monitors, guides and supports a batch of people working in an organization.

4. Leader – Someone, who looks after the well fare of the people according the circumstances he is placed into. 

5. Woman entrepreneur – A woman who has moved away from the traditional norms of a male dominated society and has set up her own enterprise.

6. Social entrepreneur- Someone who takes into account the problems of the society and tries to help in overcoming them while making his own gains as well.

7. NGO- Non-governmental organization,these are bodies or organizations working selflessly and independently in order to look after the interests of the society without expecting any returns.

8. EDP – Entrepreneurship development programme is the programme created by the government in order to help the youth of the nation develop traits and abilities to become entrepreneurs. It helps by teaching, guiding and mentoring them to be able to become self employed and generate gainful employment for themselves and others in the process.

9. SWOT- strengths – weakness – opportunities and threats the SWOT analysis helps to analyse a business or an idea on these four core parameters and compare its internal as well as external environmental factors.

10. SME – small and medium enterprises are undertakings or companies that are small in size and help in the development of an economy due to its convenient small size and requirement of limited number of employees and capital in order to function.

Did You Know: What is a Startup?

A startup is a popular term used by business men and entrepreneurs to talk about a company that has been recently started, even though start-ups are new or small there is every chance of the startup’s owner becoming a millionaire in a short span of time of start-ups are characterized by the creativity and innovative approach of someone with a vision and a dream to grow. They are not like the pre-set and years into functioning companies, these startups have no dogma or pre-set notions they simply have the hunger to grow and become big! 

So if you like this subject and end up starting something of your own, it shall be termed as a startup!

The Top 10 Entrepreneurs Of the World you must be aware of as a student of Entrepreneurship management:

1. Who? Bill Gates – Net Worth? $76 billion – Anything he did I know of? Microsoft

2. Who? Carlos Slim Helú – Net worth? $72 billion – Anything he did I know of? Telmex

3. Who? Amancio Ortega – Net worth? $64 billion – Anything he did I know of? ZARA

4. Who? Larry Ellison – Net worth? $48 billion – Anything he did I know of? Oracle Corporation

5. Who? Sheldon Adelson –Net worth? $38 billion – Anything he did I know of? CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation

6. Who? Michael Bloomberg – Net worth? $33 billion – Anything he did I know of? Bloomberg LP

7. Who? Larry Page – Net worth? $32.3 billion – Anything he did I know of? Google

8. Who? Jeff Bezos – Net worth? $32 billion – Anything he did I know of? Amazon.com

9. Who? Sergey Brin – Net worth? $31.8 billion –Anything he did I know of? Google Glass

10. Who? Mark Zuckerberg – Net worth? $ 28.5 billion – Anything he did I know of? Facebook

Like I said earlier in this article, this subject inspires you get there and be a household name for the world just like these men have!

It is so unfortunate that we as students end up taking our studies as something that is forced and burdened upon us, who don’t we see the plethora of avenues and flood gates of opportunities each of them opens up for us, believe me a broader horizon and a little focus into your text book, who knows you could be there on the above list in a few short years!