New Approaches to Entrepreneurship Applied Through a Business Plan

This master's thesis deals with the potential for a car-sharing service in Prague. The service allows renting cars for a specified number of hours. Car-sharing is a commonly offered service in cities of the developed world. The theoretical section of the thesis introduces car-sharing and the current level of its adoption. Next, two conceptual bases for the development of the business plan are presented. The first is the macroeconomic theory of natural capitalism. At the theory's core is the recognition of the importance of natural capital. An improvement in protection of natural capital can be achieved by raising the consumption of services, instead of material products. In the case of car-sharing, the consumer only pays for the actual use of car, not for the ownership. The second concept is social entrepreneurship, which is an inspiring alternative to managing a business entity. Its goal is not only financial gain, but also positive social impact. The impact in case of car-sharing is in lowering the number of vehicles on the road and improvement of quality of life in cities. The business plan includes two financial alternatives. The thesis concludes that running a car-sharing organization in Prague is conceivable, but requires support from the municipality. Car-sharing cannot be expected to generate quick profit, but rather the profit model builds slowly. The final part of the thesis presents balanced scorecard developed for the first year of operation with the goal of achieving the optimistic alternative modeled in the business plan. The key to success in the first year is gaining and retaining customers