A Business Simulation

Go beyond the book and apply what you're learning.

In order to satisfy my Entrepreneurship minor I am required to take a couple of low level courses in business that I thought would be rather dull and dry material to have to suffer through. Well, at least with the course I am in right now, I was wrong. The professor is utilizing a nice tool to help the students get a feel for the business world and the decisions involved in being successful.

He is utilizing a business simulation from the BizSim series developed by Jerald Smith and Peggy Golden. It is just one in a large library of simulations that they have developed. And so far from my experience in the simulation they have pulled out all the stops to making it as close to real as can be.

Each group in the class has to make decisions concerning production, sales, marketing, research & development, financial management, and employee management. And it is not just a bubble that we operate in, each group’s decisions effect the whole market and inherently the other groups.

I think it is an excellent learning tool for people who are interested in starting their own business but don’t know if they’d be any good at it. It gives you a safe environment to try out your skills and discover your strengths and weaknesses. Granted nothing compares to the real thing, because in the end this is a computer program. But I do believe that it helps weed out those who have no idea what it means to run a business.