Entrepreneur Interview and Personal Analysis - Case Study Example

?Interview questions rationale Essentially, entrepreneurship is mainly concerned with recognizing as well as creating opportunity. According to Lamb et al (2008), entrepreneurs are supposed to add value to the market offering where creativity is required in order to effectively satisfy the needs of the targeted customers. As such, the rationale behind the interview questions is to gain a clear understanding of the strategies that have been implemented by Mr Jones in order to run his small business viably. There are various measures that have to be taken by the entrepreneurs suck as being skilful in analysing as well as scanning the environment in a bid to establish a gap that may exist where the consumer needs are not fully satisfied by the other players in the market. Establishing a new business venture is often seen as a challenge by many aspiring entrepreneurs hence there is need for outstanding ideas in order to appeal to the interests of the potential customers. Mr Jones said that he carefully scanned the market for any opportunity and he gathered as much information and ideas as possible to come up with an ideal business venture. Therefore, the rationale of the interview questions to the interviewee is to solicit for responses about his preparedness and willingness to accept the risk and uncertainties for the success of the new venture. As noted, entrepreneurship is about building something of recognised value around perceived opportunities which implies that innovation is something the entrepreneur is continually doing (Burke, 2006). Innovation is concerned with finding a unique way of offering a particular service or product to the market while utilising resources in such a way that there are likely risks to be encountered since the targeted customers may not readily accept the offering. In this particular case, the interview questions have been designed in such a way that Mr Jones would clearly spell the strategies he implement in his business venture for it to flourish. There are certain obstacles that are likely to be encountered during the process of establishing a new business venture and this is the reason why such questions have been designed in such a way. Establishing a business venture is a twofold process which requires the entrepreneur to gather information about the customers’ perceptions to his ideas before launching it. In deciding the scope of his business, Mr Jones pointed that there were some pull factors that compelled him to try the untested market segment he had realised. Thus, the concept of push factor in business is refers to those influences which can push the individuals towards venturing in a business opportunity that exists in the market which is not fully covered by the other players (Burke, 2007). Therefore, the purpose of the interview was to get a clear understanding of how Mr Jones identified this gap in the market and how he came up with the idea of establishing this business venture. This entrepreneur is proud of his success in the carpet cleaning business which he started a couple of years ago. Evaluation of the entrepreneur A critical evaluation of the attitude of Mr Jones shows that he possesses various entrepreneurial skills which can be attributed to his success. First and foremost, it can be noted that this entrepreneur created his carpet cleaning business enterprise after realising the need in the market for this particular service given that the targeted customers could not employ people to do the job for them on a permanent basis but had to rely on services provided by others ate a substantial cost. As aptly pointed out by Bessant & Tidd (2007), an entrepreneur is always on the lookout for new opportunities, either in existing enterprise or in the creation of a new enterprise. Very often, the consumer does not even realise that he needs the service and this is the strategy that was utilised by Mr Jones where he developed this service and brought it to the attention of the consumers through utilization of different marketing techniques. The approach taken by Mr Jones reflects the attributes of successful entrepreneurs during the contemporary period where it can be noted that there are various people who are coming up with different lucrative business ventures after carefully scanning the environment. Entrepreneurs are skilled at identifying new products as well as recognising opportunities where they are inclined to take risks and are generally associated with economic growth (Nieuwenhuizen, 2004). Both these definitions imply innovation and they are suitable to describe the personality of Mr Jones. It is undoubtedly true that entrepreneurs possess particular characteristics that set them apart from people who are not intent on starting an enterprise of their own. Successful entrepreneurs have particular skills, expertise and aptitudes that can be applied profitably in any business (Burke, 2007). In this case, it can be noted that the entrepreneur in question has the expertise and knowledge in the field of carpet cleaning and he fully utilised this knowledge in developing his business venture. The other important personal characteristics displayed by Mr Jones include the following factors discussed below. He showed that he is persistent in whatever he does with regards to his business. Persistence entails that entrepreneurs have confidence in themselves and their enterprises in spite of setbacks and difficult situations and problems they may encounter (Bessant & Tidd, 2007). For instance, this entrepreneur said that he is able to make immediate decisions but he also exercises patience until the task has been completed. His commitment to the business enterprise makes him flexible to the extent that he can make informed decisions that are meant to ensure the viability of the organisation. He actually uses his own money in times of turbulence and he always show great involvement in the day to day operations of the enterprise. It has also been noted that this entrepreneur is willing to take risk when the need arises in order to salvage the enterprise from negative effects that can impact on its operations. Nieuwenhuizen (2004) suggests that successful entrepreneurs take calculated risk in a bid to increase the competitiveness of the business. On top of this, it can be noted that Mr Jones has a close involvement with the people given that he tries to motivate his employees every time in order for them to put optimum effort in their performance. He often find it helpful to ensure long term relationships with all the stakeholders including the customers, suppliers and other people involved in the enterprise. These characteristics are key to the success of the enterprise in that they are carefully designed to meet the needs and interests of the customers in particular who are the major forces behind the success or failure of any given business. The other aspect is that Mr Jones states that he often learn from his mistakes in order to be successful where he uses negative experience in a positive way so as to transform the operations of the enterprise. Key success factors of the interviewee The three following factors characterise the competencies possessed by Mr Jones: pro activity, achievement orientation as well as locus control and human relations. The concept of pro activity entails that the entrepreneur does things before being asked or forced by the events (Nieuwenhuizen, 2004). Mr Jones reflected that he scans the situation in advance in order to check for any threats or obstacles that may exist which can negatively impact on the operations of the organisation. Having done that, he attempts to suggest possible solutions in the event that such a situation has happened. When there are alternative solutions in place, the impacts are likely to be less and they may not affect the viability of the organization. McClelland (1961 as cited in Nieuwenhuizen, 2004) posits to the effect that the need to achieve is a basic tenet for successful entrepreneurs. Thus, achievement orientation is a person’s need to do things better, faster and more efficiently and they are successful in most cases. In this particular case, Mr Jones success is driven by the need to achieve the set goals of the operations where he and his team a responsible for solving problems while setting achievable goals and objectives. There are various factors which influence the need to achieve such as motivation. A motivated person is committed to his task in a particular organisation which compels him to put optimum effort in a bid to achieve the set goal of the organisation. Giving people the autonomy to make decisions can motivate them to improve their performance. On the other hand, it can be noted that successful entrepreneurs are those who have a close involvement with the people (Burke, 2007). Mr Jones said that he cannot be successful in isolation and this is the reason why he put efforts to motivate the employees as well as to involve other stakeholders when gathering information about their interests and needs. He perceives himself as possessing a locus control. This makes people believe that they have the ability to control the outcome of their effort in determining the outcome of their fate (Burke, 2007). As noted, the entrepreneur in question said that he is skilled in persuading the others to buy his ideas in the operations of the enterprise. Reflective discussion In undertaking any entrepreneurial business, the main challenge I have discovered is the risk associated with starting a new business enterprise. It is imperative for aspiring entrepreneurs to possess skills and competencies required for one to be successful in starting a new business venture. In my case, I am better positioned to identify a gap that may exist in the market but the problem I am likely to encounter is that I may not be able to mobilise the human resources to fully support my proposal given that in most cases, the people who are targeted consumers may not be interested in the enterprise until they see the results. The basic step in starting a small business enterprise is that the prospective entrepreneur should be capable of convincing the targeted people about the envisaged benefits from the venture. However, I see this as a challenging step since there is a lot of commitment required in mobilising the resources needed. The other challenge that I can encounter is that I am a bit sceptical when it comes to risks associated with running a small business. There are established organisations already operating in the same market and they have enough financial muscles to counter negative constraints related to financial issues. A small business venture is prone to negative impacts such as shortages of money and this is one of the factors that can affect my endeavours to become a successful entrepreneur. However, in spite of these highlighted weaknesses, I think I have the skills to plan and anticipate challenges that are likely to be encountered once I have established my own business venture. I am also of the view that I can persuade my employees to buy my idea since I have good communication skills. Over and above, it can be noted that entrepreneurship is mainly concerned with identifying a particular opportunity in the market which can be valuable to the targeted consumers. In an interview carried with Mr Jones, it has been discovered that his success in his carpet cleaning business venture can be attributed to his outstanding skills in implementing entrepreneurial management skills. References Bekker, F & Staude, G 1988, Starting and Managing a small business, JUTA, CT. Bessant, J & Tidd, J 2007, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Wiley and Sons, Chichester. Bragg, A & Bragg, M 2005, Developing New Business Ideas, Pearson Education, Harlow. Burke, R 2006, Entrepreneurs toolkit, Burke Publishing, Everbest. Goyal M 13 December 2007, Entrepreneurship: Trust your gut feeling. Viewed 23 November, 2011,. Lamb, CW 2008, Marketing, Oxford University Press, London. Nieuwenhuizen, C 2004, Basics of entrepreneurship, JUTA, CT. Steinhoff, D & Burgess, JF 1993, Small business management fundamentals. McGraw Hill Inc. New York: NY. Appendix 1 Interview questions 1. What influenced you to venture into this kind of business? 2. What are your personality traits towards running a business? 3. What are some of the challenges you faced when you established your business as well as during the course of running it? 4. What are some of your success factors to date? 5. Do you have workers and how many are they? 6. How is your business perceived by the targeted customers? 7. How do you overcome the constraints you may encounter in your operations? 8. How big is your target market? 9. How do you identify your customers or segment your market? 10. Do you have plans to grow further? Appendix 2 Summary of interview with Mr Jones Mr Jones is an entrepreneur and his business is mainly concerned with offering carpet cleaning services particularly to small business enterprises as well as households in his home town. An interview with this business person was recently done in order to solicit for answers related to various aspects of his business. This section is a summary of the responses that were obtained from Mr Jones and they were used in the above discussion about entrepreneurship. Basically, Mr Jones reckoned that he was pushed into this business after realising that middle class families are often busy but such that they may not be able to perform some of the household chores on their own given that the majority of them do not have permanent domestic workers. Small companies also do not have sufficient funds to hire big cleaning companies. This shaped his business idea where decided to venture into a business that specialised in offering cleaning services at affordable rates to households in the middle class in particular as well as small business enterprises which could not afford the services of larger companies in the same area. According to Mr Jones, the need for achievement and autonomy or to be in control of the situation greatly influenced him to venture into this particular type of business. However, he indicated that success in this kind of business is not an easy feat given that it is characterised by a variety of obstacles. Setting up a business requires capital and entrepreneurial management is a virtue since there is need for concerted effort to ensure that the goals and objectives of the business are achieved. Though he often face constraints such as financial problems to meet the operational costs of the business, he said that he overcomes these problems through implementing various strategies such as engaging into terms with his customers where they can pay for the services at the end of the month. He identifies his customers through direct interaction as well as using fliers. He also indicated that his business was constantly growing as he has increased the number of his staff complement to meet the growing demand of the services offered especially by small businesses and households. Read More