Welcome to BUS651: Business Law and Entrepreneurship

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

Course Description

Learn how the law affects each stage of the entrepreneurial enterprise and how you can use knowledge of the law to make successful business decisions.

Course Introduction

To be successful, an entrepreneur needs to be aware of the complex web of laws and regulations that affect their business throughout its life cycle, from startup to day-to-day operations and potential expansion or sale. In this course, you will review key areas of the law that can impact your business, which will enable you to make sound strategic decisions for the success of your business and minimize potential risks. You will learn about laws and regulations for structuring your business, including hiring and working with an attorney and raising capital. You then review the many complex laws and regulations that affect the day-to-day operation of your business, including contracts and leases, specific laws regulating marketing and the sale of goods, and laws affecting potential liability when dealing with customers, vendors, competitors, and employees. The focus will then be on the legal regulations affecting e-commerce and consumer privacy. Next, you will examine how the law affects your business opportunities to obtain credit and your legal obligations to creditors. Finally, you will consider laws and regulations affecting decisions about the expansion or sale of a business.

This course includes the following units:

  • Unit 1: Getting Started and Working with an Attorney
  • Unit 2: Structuring Your Business
  • Unit 3: Tax Compliance and Financial Recordkeeping
  • Unit 4: Contracts and Leases
  • Unit 5: Regulation of the Sale of Goods
  • Unit 6: Operational LIabilities and Risk Management
  • Unit 7: E-Commerce and Privacy
  • Unit 8: Intellectual Property and Licensing
  • Unit 9: Creditors' Rights and Bankruptcy
  • Unit 10: Expanding, Buying, and Selling Your Business

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Develop strategies to use the law to maximize opportunities and avoid risk when starting up and operating an entrepreneurial enterprise;
  • Determine when and how to utilize legal advice;
  • Assess the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of capitalization; and
  • Design a strategy to use intellectual property law and company policy to protect business intellectual assets and avoid violating the rights of others.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

Course Materials

This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course at this link.

Some parts of this course may have been created or reviewed with the support of artificial intelligence (AI). To make sure you receive accurate, high-quality, and academically sound learning materials, all AI-assisted content is carefully checked and approved by Saylor Academy's faculty and subject matter experts.

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam.

Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. Be sure to study in between each attempt! If you do not pass the exam, you will not complete this course or receive a certificate of completion. You can attempt the exam as many times as you want.

There are end-of-unit assessments in this course that are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take them as many times as you want until you understand the concepts they cover.

You can see all of these assessments at this link.

Continuing Education Credits

The certificate earned by passing this self-paced course displays the program hours you completed and continuing education credits (CEUs). CEUs document successful completion of courses that are designed to improve the knowledge and skills of working adults. Many industries value CEUs, and now your certificate reflects them clearly, and they may be used to support career advancement or to meet professional licensing standards. This course contains 3.1 CEUs.

Tips for Success

BUS651: Business Law and Entrepreneurship is a self-paced course, meaning you can decide when to start and complete the course. We estimate the "average" student will take 31 hours to complete. We recommend studying at a comfortable pace and scheduling your study time in advance.

Learning new material can be challenging, so here are a few study strategies to help you succeed:

  • Take notes on terms, practices, and theories. This helps you understand each concept in context and provides a refresher for later study.
  • Test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned improves long-term memory retention.

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will need access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and consistent internet access to view or download resources and complete auto-graded assessments and the final exam.

To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, log into your Saylor Academy account and enroll in the course. If you don't have an account, you can create one for free here. Note that tracking progress and taking assessments require you to log in.

For more details and guidance, please review our complete Technical Requirements and our student Help Center.

Optional Saylor Academy Mobile App

You can access all course features directly from your mobile browser, but if you have limited internet connectivity, the Saylor Academy mobile app provides an option to download course content for offline use. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.

Download on Google Play Download on the App Store

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. All course materials, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, are available at no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and a free course completion certificate.