Entrepreneur Interview - Essay Example

Entrepreneur Interview and Reflective Report Lecturer: number: Introduction When we look at companies that have been very successful as Facebook, Starbuck and Google, we tend to see their success as merely as a result of comprehensive pre-existence of good business plans. Nevertheless, analyzing their early actions makes us see a different story altogether. In this version, entrepreneurs are regarded as successful heroes who have overcome all the odds and have turn their dreams into successful business ventures (Sahai, 2008). The number of scholarships in this case represents a step forward in getting an insight in the scope and real nature of entrepreneurship, therefore, moving away from the earlier misconceptions of entrepreneurship as an inherent set of dynamics The entire process of learning involved with this module has made me to discover the possibility of effectuation as a suitable tool for advancing on entrepreneurial career, as well as providing important suggestions on how to come up with entrepreneurial skills (Price Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, 2000).  Entrepreneur Interview and reflective report To start with, we are going to have an over view of Tullee’s restaurant which is a Caribbean restaurant located in the northern side of London. It was started in 2008 by Glen Watson who would like to expand the business so as to earn more income. Some of the segmented customers who buy from the restaurant include the local people most of them being working class. Other customers included those who came regularly came for lunch. After careful analysis we realized that most of the restaurant restaurants do not sell Caribbean food and this made us to start serving this food. In order to be competitive, our main focus was on the quality and the prices of food. The business intends to use social media as a way of connecting with the customers. Online orders will also be used where customers can make online orders through their mobile phones. Since the original owner of the restaurant used to have only one supplier, we intend to have several of them so has to increase the supplies. In order to attract new customers, we will provide best offers like price reduction and after sales service to win customer loyalty. For the case of customers who have been loyal, we will use them as referrals who will recommend us to other customers. We will also profile our cost structure appropriately so as to reduce costs as much as possible so as to maximize profits. Most of our valued resources will include: suppliers, employees and customers. Entrepreneurial learning process According to Baron (2012), learning and reflection is a very important process in life. It is through the reflection of previous experiences that one can critically analyze his or her behavior, as well as making plans. Personally I like recording some of my important thoughts in a diary, since I believe so much on reflection. By assisting me to analyze critically by thoughts and behavior from an outside point of view, I see a reflection as a means of my personal development. To be specific, this module offered me a chance to narrow down my reflection scope to the relatively specific sphere of teamwork and entrepreneurship. Basing on the learning process, the main aim of this reflective practice is to analyze critically the experience that I had with both an interview with the entrepreneur and the New Venture Planning. To start with, it is paramount to defining the importance f reflection for this particular module. During the essay, appropriate theories will be used so as to make entrepreneurial concepts formal, explained in the main body. Moreover, the author has used the incident theory, which has been included so has to put emphasis on the process of reflection. Finally, the final part is aimed to set out some pertinent implications for my future advancement. The journey of becoming an entrepreneur To start with, I would like to outline the sequence of my reflective essay which led to one of my interesting experiences I have ever had. Planning of a new venture I realized suddenly that to be a company of four other people whom we had never met before, to work on a certain project which seemed in the first incidence not to have a concise direction. At that juncture, I felt confronted, and that made me more devoted to the work in all means possible. Entrepreneurial implications The first meeting with paved way through the very start of my entrepreneurial journey. Coming out of the conventional class-structured and old-fashioned process, this experimental platform of learning has made me assumed a different approach altogether in the entire period of the module. It all begun the idea of effectuation, an inverse of causation, urged my team members and also me to abandon temporarily the predictive stages of the marketing field to buy in a new approach basing on flexibility, experimentation and loss flexibility (Badi & Narayansa , 2005). The unclear and objective direction of the project appeared to be clear at the course of our meeting and entire process of interview with the entrepreneur The sequence of stages that led to discovery and implementation of essential entrepreneurial skills included: identification and evaluation of the means used, identifying risks involved, and the formation of partnerships, creation of opportunities and evaluation of both existing means and new goals (Davidson & Sammis , 2007). Identifying and evaluating our means I can clearly remember asking one of my team-members a question they found it strange in the beginning, “what can you perform the best?” While another member of my team and I looked clear on our strengths, the other group members were not comfortable at exposing too much to the entire group. Possibly, the major commitment depicted by everyone in the group during the selection of various options of the project reflected a significant degree of positive behavior, which makes up irrefutable characteristic of successful entrepreneurship. Being motivated by our current means, reached a consensus upon the decision f the entrepreneur to start our Tullee’s Restaurant Food Truck business. The principle of one bird at hand made our team exploit successfully our pre-existent resources, which included networks, skills and prior knowledge (Muljadi, 2007). Evidently, this approach was different from the goal driven concepts and methods which I had acquired during other lessons. Making a reflection in this matter makes me fully comprehend the importance of my current means, which I might have ignored before participating in this project. Throughout our meetings, each and every one of us acknowledged our strengths and the diversity of skills and competencies enabled us to come up with an integrated group with diversified competencies. In essence, it is due to extremely simple heuristics that makes us act in a smart manner and this made us successful. When I reflect on this, I tend to believe that this is how we concluded on setting up Tullee’s Restaurant Food Truck business. Common senses and intuitive judgments enhanced the process of making our decisions at the time we were deciding the business to start. Risks involved during the startup of a business Coming up with a new business venture is one of the risky and uncertain endeavor for the entrepreneur. Fayolle, (2012) contends that at the start of our new business, we were not certain completely on what kind of product or service or product we would offer to the entrepreneur so as to improve the performance of his restaurant. Our initial meetings were vague since the group members would not reach an agreement of opinions. Nevertheless, the flexibility of thoughts finally led us to analyze every possible situation with the entrepreneur in person. As it can be seen, flexibility is one of the most important features of effectuation. By controlling contingencies, successful entrepreneurs are always ready to change to the most sustainable and feasible option. Certainly, despite the uncertain situation, the group was faced with many risks when setting up Tullee’s Restaurant Food Truck (Dweck, 2009). Financial challenges During the start-up process, entrepreneurs are always faced with financial constraints. In our case, we had to come up with a low-cost strategy so as to overcome the current financial challenges of both our business and that of the entrepreneur Social limitations One of the most ambiguous risks that we faced was not the social implication but the fear of rejection. As Melicher (2011) rightly puts, most entrepreneurs have to face the risk of being rejected or in some cases the fear failure. As in the case of some other teams during the seminar, unskilled entrepreneurs would perceive rejection as the final situation, the end point of their dreams. I have learned that failures or rejections assist entrepreneurs to effectively use actual options of logic. Finally, the groups that had failed eventually managed to come up with much broader and clearer business ideas during their second presentation. Time challenge Time was indeed another form of risk. Since we had to do other activities, we had inadequate time to engage in the task. Moreover, deadlines led to discontinuities, which challenged in a way our approach by making time pressure. In the entire course, I was privileged to learn the importance of time-efficiency ratio to entrepreneurs, since it assists them to learn how to allocate their resources effectively. Performance Throughout the assignments, the risk performance was measurable and the marks indicated the level of success. In essence, we did not want to lose the opportunity to put our abilities in a practical field like that. Having the chance to interact directly with both the entrepreneur and seminar tutor was very useful for the understanding of both the business venture and my personal advancement as throughout the entire stages of the project Formation of partnerships One of the major points of effectuation is to ensure pre-commitment of all the stakeholders. The fact that I knew less about any member of my group, together with a high degree of ambiguity in the assigned task, somehow assisted us the phenomenon of groupthink. Nevertheless, some of the conflicts within the group during the initial stages completely shaped the behavior of the entire team members. During the end of our second meeting, at the time when we were designing the main framework of the presentation of market analysis of the opportunity, I volunteered to be in charge of coming up with the first presentation. Since I was good at both production and presentation, I had a feeling that I could be a valuable asset to the portfolio of our firm, therefore, enhancing our capability to communicate. After working the entire night on that particular presentation and feeling very satisfied with the outcome, I sent the entire presentation via email to the entire group members requesting for their response. It took me six days and three mails to receive some responses from some of the group members. Since we had agreed to meet for a quick rehearsal before making presentations, some of the members of my team were concerned about some of the contents during the presentations. I reiterated that I wished their comments had been mailed before the date of presentation for considerations Entrepreneurial implications Conflicts within a group can also lead to the primary form of entrepreneurial learning. Team dynamics was completely turned around, our business venture became more professionalized and new standards and commitments were set. The results of this particular incident are clear; entrepreneurs have to come up with losses that come as a result of being new (Baron, 2012). The practicability of the assignment made the group operate in a very distinctive environment where the venture is shaped by the conflicts of power and sub-alliances. It is obvious that under these situations, those people who depict high level of commitment would influence the major goals of the group Creating concrete opportunities Arguably, business proposals offered to the entrepreneur is the amalgamation of effectuation and causation approach (Zacharakis, et al., 2006). Direct market research made us understand the most bearable price for both the consumers and the business in the vicinity. Even though this can be regarded as an example of causation, the team came up in our proposal with some fascinating solutions basing on effectual approach. Having realized that the entrepreneur has experience in IT, we made a decision that the restaurant has to use the website and social network enhance interactions with the customers. This actually means we had to elaborate a plan which majorly aimed at making use of the existing means of the entrepreneur (Badi & Narayansa , 2005). The interview with the entrepreneur We scheduled the first interview with the entrepreneur and every one of us was very eager about this opportunity to interact with the real entrepreneur. We structured the interview questions which aimed at achieving the following points Entrepreneurial experience- the process which made him start his business The entire business situation; which include resources and actual business performance Future objectives; both short term and long term The entrepreneur seemed passionate about the initiative of collaborating with my team for this project. Possibly, he had just spotted a new opportunity for his business since reasonable loss involved was equal to a number of hours spent In our entire interview with the entrepreneur, we narrowed down the scope of our business plan to a concise segment, since limitations were placed by both the objectives and the financial resources of the entrepreneur. Finally, we had a rough idea about our offer; therefore we were informed about the entire direction of our business plan. While we were soliciting the answers for our first question, the entrepreneur provided us with much information on the process that made him and his partners craft and transform the business opportunity. His business idea of starting up a restaurant was driven by the gap that existed in providing the services. All the businesses in the area could not provide the taste that could meet the demand of the growing population. He had to focus on providing quality food at a relatively cheaper price without compromising the quality. Experience encountered by the Entrepreneur during the formation Evidently, the following are some of the steps taken by the entrepreneur to come up with his business as proposed by Davidson & Sammis ( 2007). It was fascinating to note that the entrepreneur did not have prior expertise in food and catering industry before coming up with the business. As it can be seen, several entrepreneurs often buy in the strategy of learn-as-you-go instead of that method that makes a collection of means to achieving the intended goals Interestingly, the entrepreneur and his friend neither carried out any market research so as to ascertain any hidden market nor did they carry out any marketing segmentation. Their major decision to open up a restaurant in the Indian market can be regarded as just a mere tool to meeting their intrinsic motivation while they do something within their reach. After making a thrust decision, and taking a contented risk level, he shared his dream with his family members and his friend. His delimited cognition made him to decide on a workable answer instead of analyzing meticulously the possibility of each marketing opportunity Possibly, it was due to their innovative, transformative logic that they finally made a decision to differentiate their scope of business. In effect, besides the restaurant, they decided to let out part of the building which was not used, making use of his friend’s expertise in property management. Remarkably, the entrepreneur did not worry at all if at all if his business fails. In this essence, the concept of success is a relative one and can take various forms depending on the personal characteristics of an individual. Winning the game was the only concern of the entrepreneur and did not care about the ultimate economic outcomes of his business failure. The fact that he had created a strong network of committed stakeholders that included his family together with his friend provided him a vital edge in some of the risks that might be involved. Challenges faced by the entrepreneur During the start-up process, entrepreneurs are always faced with financial constraints. In his case, the he had to come up with a low-cost strategy so as to overcome the current financial challenges of his business and that of the entrepreneur. In addition, the entrepreneurs have to face the risk of being rejected or in some cases the fear failure. According to him, he would perceive rejection as the final situation, the end point of their dreams. He has learned that failures or rejections assist entrepreneurs to effectively use actual options of logic. Another challenge that was faced by the entrepreneur was lack of enough information pertaining the market. Lack of understanding of what the market needed was a great challenge during the startup period. Social impact of entrepreneurial activity The interview with the entrepreneur, the following were some of the innate motives that made the entrepreneur successful 1. Non monitory benefits 2. Transitional routs 3. Additional income In details, the entrepreneur’s desire to start his own business was driven by the ambition to become a successful entrepreneur. For that reason, by starting his restaurant, the entrepreneur was able to look at a possible transition from his full time job to a full time self-employment. Consequently, I would have this opinion that the entrepreneur’s willingness to follow his entrepreneurial profession was also prompted to realize his needs of self-actualization. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Wong, 2002), the entrepreneur is in the process of becoming what he is capable of becoming. During the interview process, I acknowledged that the entrepreneur’s passion had nothing towards catering industry; this made me appreciate the need of other psychological gains that come as a result of entrepreneurial experience. Furthermore, the entrepreneur regarded his business as a commencement of testing the entrepreneurial waters, while gathering information on his possible entrepreneurial advancement. As it can be clearly seen, another source of motivation is much involved on the income benefits as a result of his business. Although he did not expressly acknowledge being concerned about getting many gains, I would say that this is still represent part of motivation for any entrepreneurial endeavor. The truth that the entrepreneur is still working in his full-time job clearly shows the principle of reasonable loss. By devoting part of his capital and time to a new business venture, at the same time keeping a constant source of income, the entrepreneur has been able to preserve against the worst likely situation. Conclusion It is very interesting how the entire experience has made me widen my horizons regarding entrepreneurship. Possibly, I acknowledge that, throughout the entire process, entrepreneurs are made and not born. During the process of this project, I was able to try my expertise and practical skills, and also facing the challenges brought about as a result of working in a group and operating in an actual business environment. According to Baron & Scott , (2007), waiting for the right opportunities is a waste of time since opportunities can be created using the existing means. Actually, many people ignore the available resources since they are obsessively pre-occupied with strategic goals. Interestingly, this module has made me understand how successful entrepreneurs seize opportunities, even to the extent of selling the entire existing visions Since I will soon graduate, I am faced with very important decisions for my future career and life, which is shown by choices on what to do next. This course has motivated me to consider the opportunity of owning my own venture in the future. Various entrepreneurial approach studied while the module will offer a great support especially during decision making on what kind of business to start and how to run it (Stokes, et al., 2010). I acknowledge the idea that opening a business is not a big issue but keeping it open is a big problem Clearly, the concept of entrepreneurship is not putting the goals in white and black and collecting required resources in so as to achieve them. Successful entrepreneurship starts by looking at my capabilities skills and networks so as to come up with a workable plan. Of course, necessary changes have to be made over time since environmental and internal changes would cause some inevitable changes of the established firms (Badi & Narayansa , 2005). In conclusion, failure or success is not found on the grounds of how good vision is turned into a business venture and how strategies are effectively elaborated so as to achieve some intended business goals. 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Zacharakis, A., Minniti, . M. & Stephen, . S., 2006. Entrepreneurship: The Engine of Growth. s.l.:Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More