Self-Reflection During the Course of Entrepreneurship - Assignment Example

? Individual Report: Self Reflection AFFILIATION: Self Reflection Introduction Self reflection allows individuals to ponder upon the journey they have taken in completing any task or achieving any objective. The self reflection journey allows one to realise the importance of the events that took place and the learning that was gained with such events. In an academic field of study, the student is constantly involved in a learning process. The process of academic education allows individuals to constantly come across new skills and techniques and this learning enhance and polish the respective skills and techniques for the individual. This report discusses on the reflection I have while I was developing the plan for a new venture from the perspective of an entrepreneur. This was a group project and all the group members had certain roles and duties to fulfill for accomplishing the desired task. Throughout the project I came across different course contents that allowed me to relate things to real life and hence this project was a good learning experience for me as well as my group members. This project helped me to develop a good insight about the professional business world and how entrepreneurs need to deal with the various business circumstances they come across in their daily business activities. Summary of New Learning The entrepreneurship module allowed me to gain hands on knowledge and skills regarding the theories involved in the area of entrepreneurship as well as the practical applications required for entrepreneurship and initiating new business ventures in the business world. This course allowed me to understand that the requirements of becoming a successful entrepreneur and it also requires the individual to possess certain intellectual and physical skills along with have strong emotional skills so that the new business can be initiated in a successful manner. After learning about the importance of emotional skills, I developed a mindset that I need to work upon improving my emotional and social skills so that this helps me to become a successful entrepreneur. The course gave me a deep insight regarding the activities of an entrepreneur and also allowed me to understand the importance of the small and businesses that are operating in the country. The support that these small and medium businesses give to the economy is really remarkable to know and understand. Each and every business, be it small or big, plays a vital role towards the economy of any country, hence all entrepreneurs need to start up businesses for which there is a demand in the economy. I was able to evaluate my skills and abilities at the end of the course and planned out on the areas on which I need to improve for my future professional career. Entrepreneurship Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities This course taught me the various entrepreneurship skills that are possessed by entrepreneurs. Starting up new businesses by an entrepreneur can be a very challenging task. The entrepreneur needs to carefully devise the business plan and also allocate resources accordingly. Businesses require investments, while starting up the business the entrepreneur needs to analyse the investments available so that the business strategies can be planned accordingly. Financial aspect of any business is a very crucial part that needs to be given a strong consideration by all entrepreneurs. By analysing the financial position of the business the future decisions can be taken as businesses that are low on investments cannot implement financial strategies to a large extent on the firm. I am not that good in numbers therefore after learning about the importance of finance for entrepreneurs; I will be working towards my financial subjects. Keeping a strong and check and balance are also important for entrepreneurs as they can plan business expansion and diversion based upon their level of profitability with the business. Targeting new market segments also requires good investments and financial stability with the entrepreneur as targeting new markets involves a strong element of risk with it. Entrepreneurs can become successful if they have the innovative skills along with creativity in them. Having the element of creativity in professionals is gradually becoming a necessity as with creativity many new business opportunities are explored and worked upon accordingly. The management skills of the entrepreneur should also be very strong, they should know the way businesses are run and they should have a good network of business contacts that can assist the entrepreneur in starting their business venture in a successful manner (Lazear, 2004). Business networking facilitates the entrepreneur in getting many of their tasks done just by having good social contacts within the business network. The art of networking is not present in all but one can always learn on the networking skills. Entrepreneurs need to possess leadership skills so that they can lead the new business in a successful way (Adair, 2007). For any business professional, it is important to have good leadership skills so that they can lead groups and projects in their professional life successfully. The importance of leadership in both personal and professional life boosted my level of interest in developing good and healthy leadership skills. Leading people and other employees in small business ventures is important for entrepreneurs as the way the employees are lead in the firm, the way they will perform their job roles (Carter and McMahon, 2005). Entrepreneurs need to be risk takers. While entering the market they should have the strength to take calculated risks according to the business environment so that they can make their place in the business world. Calculated risks can be taken if the entrepreneur has done proper research of the business and target market before starting up the new venture. It is very important for entrepreneurs to study the target market for the product or service being launched by the entrepreneur as the potential target market depicts the profits and revenues that the entrepreneur may receive once the business is successful (Lazear, 2004). Launching products and service business may at times cause disastrous results as the entrepreneur did not know what would be acceptable in the business market. The course on entrepreneurship and developing a new business venture covered various critical topics that may prove to be highly useful for young entrepreneurs. The module shed light upon the most vital element of recognising opportunities in the business world. This is the initial and most vital stage for starting a new business that is one need to recognise the opportunities in the market and accordingly develop the new venture plan so that success can be attained. Recognising opportunities also means the entrepreneur should have good thinking skills so that new business ideas can be generated. For generating new business ideas one needs to think out of the box and allow their imagination to go beyond boundaries so that something highly creative and innovative can be part of the new business venture plan. We were made to understand the attributes of a successful entrepreneur and how an entrepreneur would go about the business plan. The entrepreneur needs to possess strong decision making skills as decisions may need to be taken immediately considering the market situation. A successful entrepreneur hence would grab all opportunities through his/her wisdom of making decisions on an immediate note. The entrepreneur has people skills and this skill allows the entrepreneur to retrieve expert human resource talent from the job market. People skills allow the entrepreneur to get the task done timely and in the required manner. The people skills for an entrepreneur may also focus on dealing with vendors and suppliers of the business, the skills can focus on dealing with investors and the media as well. In other words people skills for an entrepreneur are dealing in an adequate manner with all the people who are involved with the business in one way or another. An entrepreneur needs to have a good business vision and according to the vision the plans for the business need to be designed. Long term strategies for the business can be planned if the entrepreneur has a good vision of the business. Effective planning done by the entrepreneur will reflect upon the core objective of the business and the aims and objectives would be accordingly designed to achieve the core goal. Planning is an important role to be fulfilled by the entrepreneur as planning needs to be done for the business plan as well as the resources for the business. An action plan needs to be formed as well by the entrepreneur so that things can be executed in the required manner. Focus while working on the business plan should not be diverted and all business facets needs to be addressed while making the new business venture plan by an entrepreneur (Homer, 2001). Entrepreneur needs to possess good communication skills as this would allow them to deliver their message in the right perspective. Proper communication allows the subordinates and other workers to be clear about the job roles and tasks and hence they perform their job roles accordingly. Proper communication would avoid conflicts in the business as well and the entire business team would be working in proper cooperation and coordination with each other. Coordinating the messages is important for the entrepreneur as the business environment is changing on a constant note; hence all changes in the business plan need to be communicated to the team at an immediate notice. This would allow the team to be prepared and would also make them feel valuable and important as all changes are being communicated to them in a timely manner. In the course, detailed discussion took place regarding the definition of markets and the importance of customer service in any particular business. All business becomes successful if they value their customers and provide them the products and services according to their need and demand. Hence any new business venture in the pipeline needs to have a proper plan of providing excellent customer services so that the business can become successful and profitable. The plan needs to be innovative and creative so that it can be successful for the entrepreneur. Creating awareness about the product and service is another area that needs to be catered by the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial strategies are implemented according to the nature and scope of the business and also according to the skills and abilities of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur needs to trust his/her abilities and should be confident in the analysis that is conducted by the entrepreneur (Bygrave and Zacharakis, 2011). A deep insight had been gained on the various entrepreneurial theories and their applicability while developing new business ventures were also analysed. The module gave us a comprehensive insight and it allowed us to build our interest as an entrepreneur with each upcoming session. Entrepreneurial marketing is implemented keeping in view the target customers. The entrepreneur needs to keep in view the financial status of the enterprise before planning the marketing strategies for the new business (Bygrave and Zacharakis, 2011). The best option for new businesses is to keep their marketing activities simple and creative. This technique would be feasible for entrepreneurs to a very large extent. Entrepreneurial marketing activities are generated by the creative ideas that are thought by the entrepreneurs. The attributes that make up the entrepreneurial marketing are the attribute of being proactive in the market, the ability to takes risks that are calculated, to be highly innovative and focus on all opportunities, to intensify the customer base and create value for the customer. All these attributes are vital for entrepreneurs when they plan the marketing phase of their business (Homer, 2001). Entrepreneurs also need to be well aware of the laws and regulations of the country. They need to remain up to date with whatever legal changes are taking place as this would tend to affect their business in one way or the other and also the changes in laws may affect the future decisions for the entrepreneur (Bygrave and Zacharakis, 2011). Legal changes may at times be in the favour of the entrepreneur and at times may not be in the favour of the entrepreneur, whatever is the case the entrepreneur needs to remain in touch with it. Group Work The members of my group were Nakita, Tariq, Ben, and Lidya. All of us had a friendly attitude and so getting along with each other was not a problem for any of us. Working in the group was a good learning experience and I observed many advantages of working in groups. All the group members were highly cooperative with each other and we all developed a good understanding about each other. This increased our level of coordination with each other and we all discussed our plans before implementing them for the project. Due to some unavoidable circumstances I could not attend any meetings with the entrepreneur. The interview was an important task to be attended but my circumstances were such that I could not attend the interview on the stated day and time. My group members understood my situation and they did not have objections on my absence in the meeting with the entrepreneur. However, all other members of the group did attend the meeting and they gave me the updates of the meeting accordingly. The updates given to be were in quite detail, the meeting had been recorded by the group members and they gave me the recording so that I could also review the discussion that had taken place in the meeting with the entrepreneur. The crucial parts of the discussion were highlighted by Lidya as she was jotting down points in the meeting. She reviewed those points with me so that I could include it in my task for the final project. There were some aspects in the interview that need to be given a critical thought and all of us contributed in giving critical suggestion to the answers of the interview. Viewing things from a critical perspective is important to analyse business situations as many factors are involved towards the success or failure of any business. All my group members had divided the work amongst us all so that the task could be completed in an efficient and effective manner. We all were given tasks according to our interest and skill and this was the reason that the results of the group work came out marvellous for us. Also when any group member got stuck at any point of completing the task, all the rest guided him/her and hence the task got completed on time for all of us. Nakita had been a good advisor in the group; she had immense knowledge about the requirements of the project and hence guided us at each step. Tariq and Ben ensured that we all were delivering our tasks on time as they were compiling the report and hence were collecting the tasks from the rest of us accordingly. During certain points, conflicts were observed in the group I was working in, the conflict was due to disagreement of two group members regarding a certain issue. The conflict was resolved by discussing the issue with all the rest of the members, and then we decided upon an agreed issue. Through discussion and consensus, the solutions for conflicts can be derived easily and the work can resume in harmony rather than allowing conflicts to become critical. This was a learning process for me as well as the rest of the members that at times it is very difficult to avoid conflicts. If conflicts are not handled in the right way then they may lead to other major problems of incomplete tasks in the middle of the project. Our group however did not face such a situation, due to the fact we had developed a good understanding amongst our group, we were able to handle the conflict easily. However I learnt that difference of opinion in groups can cause the task to halt for a certain time period until issues resolve and we start working again. Action Plan Skills Required Resources Time Duration Leadership Take up seminars related to leadership. Attend leadership workshops. Meet various leaders and discuss with them their success. 4 weeks Communication Take up presentations in class, improve communication with friends and family, read books on developing effective communication skills 3 weeks Marketing Practicing convincing skills and taking up small products and convincing friends to buy the product. This would lead towards developing the confidence in relating product attributes and advantages. 4 weeks Time Management Practice time management tasks such as take up multiple tasks and complete then in order of priority and deadline 4 weeks Conflict Management Attend lectures related to conflict management and learn to be patient on all situations so that conflicts get resolved to an appropriate manner 3 weeks Financial Management Taking up financial management course from basic to advance 6 weeks Conclusion The course of entrepreneurship was a very interesting course and throughout the process of designing the business plan for the new venture, I learnt many new things that are required by entrepreneur especially the skills required by an entrepreneur is extremely important for initiating up the business. Generating new business ideas is vital for starting new business ventures because if there is nothing new and innovative, there may be no need to start a business. Without proper knowledge, skills, and abilities, the entrepreneur cannot succeed in launching successful business operations. The course allowed me to highlight my strengths and weaknesses and the skills that I need to improve for becoming a successful entrepreneur are that I need to have good leadership skills and communication skills. Leading and communicating go hand in hand, if one can lead well that means he/she has to communicate well. Entrepreneurial marketing and entrepreneurial strategies can allow small businesses to earn big profits if they take the right decision at the right time. This was a very important issue that was discussed in class and also amongst my group. Therefore I believe that these two elements should be studied and research in great depth so that one can be totally aware of the marketing tactics and strategies that are used by various entrepreneurs. The action plan has allowed me to identify the areas where I have to improve and also how I would go about learning that particular skill or knowledge. The time duration has been set for each target and I need to ensure that I complete all the targets on the stipulated time duration. The action plan requires me to work hard if I want to cope up with my weakness and develop good entrepreneurship skills and abilities for my future professional life. The business plan was designed in a group and all the group members showed maximum cooperation and coordination amongst each other. There were many things learned about working in groups and in practice it was observed as well. The experience while working in groups was very good and all the group members enjoyed working in groups. Entrepreneurs learn with experience. Experiential learning allows future decisions and strategies for the business to be accurate and according to the market conditions. Experience helps one to learn many different things which cannot be learnt theoretically (Lazear, 2004). If one learns from their errors, they can go a long way ahead in their personal as well as professional life. I have learnt that with experience and observation one can learn a lot of useful things that may be retained in the memory for a long time as this learning has taken place through observation. References Adair, J., 2007. Develop Your Leadership Skills, MPG Books. Bygrave, W. and Zacharakis, A., 2011. Entrepreneurship. 2nd edition. John Wiley & Sons. Carter, E. and McMahon, F., 2005. Improving Employee Performance through Workplace Coaching: A Practical Guide to Performance Management. London: Kogan Page. Homer, M., 2001. Skills and Competency Management. Industrial and Commercial Training, 33(2), p.59-62. Lazear, E.P., 2004. Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship. American Economic Review, 94(2), p.208-211.  Read More