Entrepreneurship: Business Startups - Essay Example

The demand for successful business start-ups is growingly obvious at present-day because new businesses generate new jobs and sustain structural changes in the economy. However, young businesses confront high-risk failures. Empirical researches show that numerous of the problems confronted by new business come about because of poorly carried out planning procedures in the start-up stage. In starting up a business the entrepreneur is faced with countless problems, such as keeping in touch with government officials, being aware of state regulations, getting hold of financial supports, designing a deed of partnership, deciding a legal status, choosing prospective suppliers, developing a structure of distribution, appraising the market, which the entrepreneur may find too much to handle (Thierauf 2003).  

            If an entrepreneur desires to have absolute support for his start-up, s/he has to keep in touch with a number of various professionals; bankers give out recommendations on the most feasible combination of public finance and private bank credits, tax consultants prefer the legal structure of a business in order to lessen the tax burden, lawyers set down the business contract and business advisers aid in preparing a business proposal or plan for the first period. Though, all these decisions are interconnected. The dilemma is that every one of these professionals may provide the paramount recommendations in their individual field but forget to understand the implications this recommendation has for an interrelated area (Rond 2003). For example, a tax advisor may advise the legal condition for the new business which confers the least tax load, yet fall short to take into account the repercussions this decision has for the company law or finance.  

            It is more often than not difficult for the entrepreneur to comprehend the recommendations of the experts; for instance, the meaning of specific passages of a deed of partnership is extremely complicated to understand. Some business analysts discuss how various perspectives of the problem can bring about communication difficulties between the expert and his client.  

            Expert systems can facilitate in overcoming these business start-up problems and thereby make business consulting more productive. Expert systems are “computer programs that stimulate the reasoning of human experts in a certain domain” (Smeltzer 1991, 11). Expert systems diverge from traditional programs in the sense that the latter influence data whereas the former present the knowledge of experts. Traditional programs are effective on well-thought-out problems which may be worked out through a deterministic algorithm. Expert systems are more effective on more intricate problem areas. For instance, acquiring financing through public financial support programs is a difficult problem due to the vast numbers of programs and the enormous amount of information which have to be taken into account (ibid, 12).

            Being a freelance automate system analyst, I personally recommend this expert system to business start-ups since it has a quite different structure from traditional programs. The knowledge base holds the knowledge of the experts within the limitations of rules. For instance, if there is a present particular risk within the business, and officially authorized contract with only some degree of responsibility should be chosen. This knowledge is processed and organized by the interference engine, which creates conclusions and generates solutions. The explanation tools illustrate to the user the reason for specific decisions and for the procedures applied to attain them. The discussion between the user and the expert system is regulated by the user interface in the structure of question menus.  

            However, the application of expert systems, such as the application of any other information technology, has its advantages but may as well present setbacks. One setback is narrow-mindedness against computers as a section of the counseling process. The entrepreneur may be accustomed to obtaining a recommendation from human beings and display trivial confidence in advice provided by computers

Moreover, the computer must not play an excessive role in the actual advising, but must merely function as support; personal interaction with the consultant outlines the base of the consulting. This personal contact may necessitate the consultant to adjust or restructure the solutions provided by the expert system (Thierauf 2003).  

Nonetheless, an expert system will remain a computer system and on no account a human expert.