American Business

American Business Cover
American Business
BSA Supply No. 35850

Earning the American Business merit badge can help Scouts learn practical business matters that will be useful throughout life. Learning how businesses function will help you understand society and uncover a number of career options.

Requirements

  1. Do the following:
    1. Explain four features of the free enterprise system in the United States. Tell its benefits and responsibilities. Describe the difference between freedom and license. Tell how the Scout Oath and Law apply to business and free enterprise.
    2. Describe the Industrial Revolution. Tell about the major developments that marked the start of the modern industrial era in the United States. Tell about five people who had a great influence on business or industry in the United States. Tell what each did.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Visit a bank. Talk with one of the officers or staff. Chart the organization of the bank. Show its relationship with other banks, business, and industry.
    2. Explain how changes in interest rates, taxes, and government spending affect the flow of money into or out of business and industry.
    3. Explain how a proprietorship or partnership gets its capital. Discuss and explain four ways a corporation gets its capital.
    4. Explain the place of profit in business.
    5. Name five kinds of insurance useful to business. Describe their purposes.
  3. Do the following:
    1. Pick two or more stocks from the financial pages of a newspaper. Request the annual report or prospectus from one of the companies by writing, or visit its Web site (with your parent's permission) to view the annual report online. Explain how a company's annual report and prospectus can be used to help you manage your investments.
    2. Pretend you have bought $1,000 worth of the stocks from the company you wrote to in requirement 3a. Explain how you "bought" the stocks. Tell why you decided to "buy" stock in this company. Keep a weekly record for three months of the market value of your stocks. Show any dividends declared.
  4. Do ONE of the following:
    1. Draw an organizational chart of a typical central labor council.
    2. Describe automation, union shop, open shop, collective-bargaining agreements, shop steward, business agent, and union counselor.
    3. Explain the part played by four federal or state agencies in labor relations.
  5. Run a small business involving a product or service for at least three months. First find out the need for it. For example: a newspaper route, lawn mowing, sales of things you have made or grown. Keep records showing the costs, income, and profit or loss.
    Report:
    1. How service, friendliness, hard work, and salesmanship helped build your business.
    2. The benefits you and others received because you were in business. Comparable 4-H, FFA, or Junior Achievement projects may be used for requirement 5.
  6. Do ONE of the following:
    1. Make an oral presentation to your Scout troop about an e-commerce company. Tell about the benefits and pitfalls of doing business online, and explain the differences between a retailer and an e-commerce company. In your presentation, explain the similarities a retailer and an e-commerce company might share.
    2. Choose three products from your local grocery store or mall and tell your merit badge counselor how the packaging could be improved upon so that it has less impact on the environment.
    3. Gather information from news sources and books about a current business leader. Write a two-page biography about this person or make a short presentation to your counselor. Focus on how this person became a successful business leader.

Resources

Scouting Literature

American Labor, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, Communications, Computers, Entrepreneurship, Law, Personal Management, and Salesmanship merit badge pamphlets

Books

  • American Bar Association Staff. The American Bar Association Legal Guide for Small Business. Crown Publishing Group, 2000.
  • Bossidy, Larry, and Ram Charan. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Crown Publishing Group, 2002.
  • Brain, Marshall. The Teenager's Guide to the Real World. BYG Publishing, 1997.
  • Dethloff, Henry C., and Keith L. Bryant Jr. Dethloff. A History of American Business, 2nd edition. Prentice Hall PTR, 1997.
  • Gates, Bill. The Road Ahead. Penguin USA, 1996.
  • Lichtenstein, Nelson. State of the Union: A Century of American Labor. Princeton University Press, 2002.
  • National Association of Investors Corporation. Investing in Your Future. South-Western Educational Publishing, 2001.
  • Norman, Jan. What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business. Upstart Publishing Company, 1999.
  • Peters, Thomas, et al. In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America's Best-Run Companies. Warner Books, 1988.
  • Thomas, R. David. Dave's Way: A New Approach to Old-Fashioned Success. Berkley Publishing Group, 1992.

Organizations and Web Sites

The Council of Better Business Bureaus
4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22203-1838
Telephone 703-276-0100
Web site: http://www.thebbb.org

National Association of Investors Corporation
P.O. Box 220
Royal Oak, MI 48068
Toll-free telephone: 877-275-6242
Web site: http://www.better-investing.org

National Endowment for Financial Education
5299 DTC Blvd., Suite 1300
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Telephone: 303-741-6333
Web site: http://www.nefe.org

Plugged In
2115 University Avenue
East Palo Alto, CA 94303-2224
Telephone: 650-322-1134

Start Smart Investment Clubs
2780 NW Monterey Drive
Corvallis, OR 97330
Telephone: 541-757-8142
Web site: http://www.startsmartclubs.com

YoungBiz
A KidsWay Company
P.O. Box 80411
Atlanta, GA 30366
Toll-free telephone: 888-543-7929
Web site: http://www.youngbiz.com