Introduction to Business Administration

Explore foundational concepts in business administration through a practical practicum, covering financial accounting, managerial accounting, budgeting, and core topics like marketing, human resource management, and systems analysis.

Position yourself as a business entity and learn product market fit through a yard or garage sale, mastering pricing, display, advertising, and closing sales while tracking revenue and profit.

Explore how managers plan, organize, lead, coordinate, and control to run organizations effectively and profitably. Learn how resources, finance, accounting, governance, and core functions support profit and not for profit.

Learn to run an in-person flea market sale, covering transportation, booth setup, pricing, display, and negotiation while tracking income and expenses to understand customer behavior.

Explore financial accounting basics in business administration: recording, classifying, summarizing, and reporting transactions, and apply the fundamental accounting equation—assets equal liabilities plus equity—via balance sheets.

Identify net income by subtracting expenses from revenues, including operating expenses, depreciation, and taxes, and compare gross profit to net profit using a clear income and expense tracker.

Identify, measure, analyze, and communicate internal financial information to managers for future-oriented planning, forecasting profit and cash flow, and determining the breakeven point and bottlenecks.

Explore the planning, programming, budgeting system, including forecasting, strategic planning, and cost-benefit analysis to allocate resources to programs and implement the operating plan.

Explore zero based budgeting, or ZBB, a start from zero method that justifies all expenses each period, and compare it with traditional and incremental budgeting.

Explore sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies, with insights on board governance, articles of incorporation, and tax implications of each structure.

Explore the strategic oversight of an organization’s workforce through recruitment, training, development, and employee well-being, and learn practical hr planning, retention, and engagement.

Identify customers and deliver offerings to satisfy needs and build loyalty. Explore branding, advertising, the four p's: product, price, place, promotion, and marketing plans across b2b, b2c, and c2c contexts.

Explore marketing and advertising through graphic design, from creating assets for print and digital collateral to digital marketing strategies that engage target audiences.

Explore packaging and graphic design as a marketing tool, using Warhol’s pop art and iconic boxes to tell a brand story, from concept to print-ready files.

Explore how systems analysis maps inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback loops in open systems, and use Gantt, PERT, and linear programming to plan and optimize.

Explore organizational diagnosis through organizational charts that reveal structure, roles, and communication flows, and learn to diagnose and improve formal systems within a growing business.

Contrast cash accounting versus accrual accounting, outline accrual concepts like accrued revenues and expenses, and discuss 401(k) contributions, tax advantages, and revenue recognition principles.

Explore economics as the study of scarcity, production, distribution, and consumption, and learn how micro and macro factors shape markets, growth, and policy through the circular flow and development economics.

Discover the 2025 course catalog for introduction to business administration, highlighting program listings and course options.