So let's talk about now of finance for the corporate entrepreneur. What's interesting to me, as a person who spent a large part of his career in the area of entrepreneurial finance, that a survey of business owners has revealed that the one functional area that they are least comfortable with, but on which they spend most of their time, is financial management. And that is a dichotomy that should give people concern. So interestingly, these findings of the survey are not atypical among entrepreneurs, right? Most entrepreneurs that I have come across over my time, are very comfortable with marketing and sales and product development and software development. But they have very limited knowledge of financial management. So, part of this course is going to be to help the non-financial person, because we're targeting this course toward people who probably don't have a finance degree. And though we're looking at people who are developing ideas or projects that could have potential for high growth. And hopefully that's most of the people that are taking this course. But one thing I want to make sure that you understand, I'm not teaching you corporate finance. There will be a lot of discussion about things that have a corporate finance flavor, and we'll talk about some specific things about that corporate finance people use every day. But entrepreneurial finance is not corporate finance. Entrepreneurial finance is an integrated process which brings in your marketing, your sales, your inner resources, strategic planning, product development, all comes in kind of together. And that's what I consider to be entrepreneurial finance. That's why I say it's not a corporate finance course. So what I'm trying to have you learn at the end of the course. At the end of the course, I hope you will understand tools that you can use to manage your cash flow effectively. Understand valuation of projects, how your projects will be valued by your people who approve the allocation of funds. And then, how do you obtain financial resources to fund your project? And many people think that maybe it's a corporate environment, it all comes from the internal resources of the firm, but that's not always the case, which we'll talk about at a later lecture. And then we'll talk about my view of how do you put together a proposal or a pitch, to talk your funding source to get them to agree to approve your project? So financial matters are very important and a very big part of the corporate entrepreneur's daily life. And not understanding the basics of financial management can put you at a significant disadvantage. These are the people who are competing within your organization for the same budget money. And I hope that this course will provide you with a, will arm you with the tools and the understanding necessary to best compete for your internal and very precious and limited finite corporate resources.
