Business Start-Up - Personal Statement Example

TOPIC:---- --- SCHOOL:----- --- INSTRUCTERS --- DUE ---   Literature Review Entrepreneurship is an independent career building. Leveraging this aptitude with education is helpful towards risk management, opportunity identification and planning. The process includes multiple phases of development. Ireland, Barringer, Bruce (2008, p.5) described entrepreneurship as a process in which an individual identifies opportunities and takes hold of it; indifferent to the availability of present resources. A study by Hisrich, Peters, & Shepherd (2008, p.18) concludes that the common perception that enterprenuers are less educated than the overall population has turned out to be a myth as observations show that educated enterpreneurs are making more money. Drucker states that ‘most of what you hear about enterpreneurship is all wrong (Drucker, 2009 cited in Kuratko, 2007 p.2). It’s not magic, it’s not mysterious; and it has nothing to do with genes. It’s a discipline and like any discipline, it can be learned’. An effective strategic planning is a function of academic competence in the related fields of an enterpreneur’s venture (Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2007). In his work, Kent (1990. p.6 ) states that the purpose of enterpreneurial education is directed towards fostering creative activity and independent actions backed with a mind aware of theory and practice currently intact in the world. Family Business usually includes individuals who are practical and have experience for research. There is a new trend of family business education programs which includes disciplines like management development, financial planning, family systems, retirement, transitional planning and communication etc (Kent, 1990, p.127). Enterpreneurial education imperative, different and opposing convergence, equips the individuals towards efficiency and sure footed ness. Reflective Writing: Starting up a venture of our own has been an exciting, exhilerating and overwhelming experience. Our decided venture is a company specialising in producing customised cakes and crepes. As I have plunged deeper into the intricacies of managing my own business, I daily find myself facing many unanticipated challenges like maintaining the food inventory to cater to our customers demands, finances to buy the ingredients and maintanence of our cooking and kitchen ware. We had worked out an initial business plan with my team as a basis of our operations. Our business plan had all the important sections including finances, operations, milestone objectives and marketing covered. Practically speaking, having a business plan significantly reduces the risks and provides a proactive scope. I learnt that the initial business plan is not sufficient enough, hence my team decided to keep updating the document to take guidance from it. Hornsby & Kuratko (2009 p.111) have also identified many reasons to update a business plan which are: varying financial needs and new projections yearly, additional financing needed, managing management conflicts and to induce more reality to the plan. There already are similar companies producing customised cakes and crepes, therefore I was of the view that if we want to stand out we need a comptetitive advantage. Enterpreneurship is about new ideas and creation, and strategic planning focuses on the method to achieve above average performance through a competitive advantage (Hitt, Ireland, Camp, & Sexton, 2002 p.33). Two of our team mates are passionate about the baking line of foods. Utilising their talent we have designed new cake and crepe recipes alongwith additional services and packages, as our unique selling points include customised packaging, complimentary dessert décor, small goodwill presents, greeting cards and an optional nutrition card for the health conscious customers. We have drafted updates on our business plan regarding this Enterpreneurial Strategic Management Interface (ESMI). Professionalism is a function of time and experience, but we lag in it because we are beginners in business management. There have been incidents like the one when we landed with a huge order of deserts for a new year party. The order was huge, with promising profits and potential loyal customers. The process to meet the order produced conflicts amongst our team members. The team member responsible for managing the operations and employees, namely preparation of the deserts and managing the chefs, felt that he was doing all of the work. The one who had negotiated the contract and maintained the liason with the customer party felt that she deserved all the credit. That’s when I, being the leader, realised that we need teamwork orientation to weedle out the individualism. I arranged a self development session with my fellows and pointed out that everyone’s individual contribution in the work is unique and significant. We need to develop a sense of unity in our work otherwise the conflicts will adversely effect the output and our produce will lack harmony. We learnt that there are external agencies that exist to perpetuate small businessess. One of my fellows gave the idea to take some form of external small business assistance and consultance service. He showed me the SBA.Gov platform on the internet that help in finding the local resources, exploring the potentials and consultancy to achieve the organization’s goals. Our business is new and it will take some time to gain momentum and a name in the confectionary market. Our current focus is to develop and strengthen ourselves through proactive planning and introducing newer food and service packages Our coming year goals are to increase the sphere of our output and increase our ability to cater to huge orders. We have deployed a team of group members to work out contractual based deals with organizations and customers who will need our services in a given year periodically. Every new year, the requirements of our business change in terms of workforce, financial needs, customer demands etc. We conduct researches on a small scale, since we cater a small market, to understand the future customer trends, new competitors and what is so different about the cakes and crepes produces and sold by neighbourhood competitors. We have also established a Requirement Analysis Team. We make use of requirement management tools available on the internet. Having limited funds, we take assistance of not-for-profit mechanisms available. Our first tool in this regard is INCOSE. Appreciated for its competency, the tool has been mentioned by Hass, Wessels, & Brenann (2008 p.17) as an efficient tool to compare, analyse and understand your operation system intricacies. The current workforce we have is a multi facet one i.e. executives and the working staff duties overlap. We are still in the process of hiring new people. We have opened up in the downtown and plan to get premises in the neighbourhood too. We listed down the potential governmental organizations which support small businessess and since we may suffer from a lack of funds, so we are preparing plans and drafts to approach them. The few organizations that I listed down (Direct Gov Public Services All In One Place 2007) are The Department for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform (BERR), The Continiuty Forum, The Federation of Small Businessess and The Forum of Private Business (FPB). Another local organization that helps and supports small businessess that I found of our interest is Thurrock Local Enterprise Agency. They provide short courses and advisory services. One of their clients has been another confectionary, who following their advice, started putting their produce in the local retailer’s shops which gave them recognition and name. Business is all about interactions because I remember learning in my course of Marketing that people buy from people. Now as I recall this, I find that it was indeed completely true. My fellow Emily usually deals and lures the contract based customers. I have noticed that she makes the customer believe that she is their representative not ours. She talks to them about how can she save their money and how she cares about the perfect dessert for their big day. When I hold meetings with my fellows, I fill a sheet, writing down the Plan, Objective and Outcomes for the meeting. I prefer to listen more than talk and usually take notes. As cited in the work of Hogan (2009 p.80), the ideas that pop up during meetings are usually not retained, relying on memory is risky, recording it in any means like notes, video records etc always prove helpful later on. Matt, is the creative one in our team and he is usually bursting with ideas. It was his idea that we maintain a book record of our works with the clients so far in an illustrative colorful manner including impersonal messages and feedbacks from the customers. This mainatainence of feedback record has always helped us in getting newer clients. We have always practiced brainstorming since our academic years. When we were given a creative task, we would sit together and take out one notebook. We would jot down ideas, scribble our imaginations in a pictorial form and counter argue with eachother about which idea is the best to use. We have followed the same practice many times in our venture related decisions too. When we were planning for the interior décor of our working place, we had a similar brainstorming session. Each one of us had different ideas. We opted for a mix and match of various things. Finally, we listed down a combination of furnishings and ware that we can put in from our households and hunted down a contact who could provide us rest of the furnishings on economical price. Our acount manager produces graphs on the computer to analyse company’s progress and the deficits. They are forwarded to me. I highlight the month and related department where the problem arose and then we discuss these problem areas in our monthly meetings with the all the members. We believe in following an open book approach. As explained by Smilor & Sexton, (1996 p.19) open book approach is the one in which every employee knows the financial conditions and are aware of their individual impact on the profitability. I felt the less fascinating aspects of the corporate world when I started working on my own from scratch. Me and my team mates were aware of the risks involved in pooling our resources given our little experience, but what kept me and my fellows going was the sense of accomplishment that we felt while launching this venture. Being an enterpreneur and launching a new venture is not only exciting and profitable but it develops the individual’s personal attributes too. I conclude that managing a small empire of my own has induced a strength in me to cope with the challenges. I have learnt not to react and rather be proactive. The problems seem impossible to solve when they occur, like running out of funds. But experience has told me and my team mates that once we are commited to our work the solution just needs to be dug out. Our module leaders had been a great help to us. We were, after all beginners with narrow ideas of professionalism. Our module leaders duly helped us and guided us to various tactics and guidelines about how to be more professional and practical in corporate world. PinderHughes (2004 p.15) is of the view that whoever says that life is full of challenges that are unbeatable and unconquerable cannot be an enterpreneur. I am working on what I am passionate about; it is I who has chosen the work not the other way round. I feel a sense of affection for my work as a parent would feel for their child. I want to see it grow and prosper. The challenges that me and my team faces only leave us more stronger. My experience has left me more eager to think seriously over an entrepreneurial career. Even if I have to deal with problems, not to mention the risks and responisibilities on my shoulders, but by the end of the day, people will look up to me. I definitly want to be an entrepreneur in the future because the mere idea gives me energy and given my ambition, I am confident to stand out proud. My observation is that every experience, good or bad, leaves us with lessons which no book or teacher can teach us. Seeing other groups working, managing and coping up with problems like us was in itself a learning. Facing similar problems, a cross fire of ideas and advices was exactly the thing we needed. It was good to see others progressing. It gave us a sense of well being and motivated us to perform well too. My team feels more charged up to perform better in the future with the passage of time. Because if on one hand the risks keep us at bay, the glowing potentials of our people and our business on the other hand motivates us to move ahead and test our capabilities. Works Cited Barringer, B. R., & Ireland, R. D. 2008. Enterpreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, 3rd Edition. Prentice Hall. Direct Gov Public Services All In One Place. (n.d.). Dealing With Emergencies: Direct Gov. Retrieved April 23, 2011, from Direct Gov: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/InYourHome/Dealingwithemergencies/Preparingforemergencies/DG_176673 Hass, K. B., Wessels, D., & Brenann, K. 2008. Getting it Right Business Requirement Analysis Tools and Techniques. Vienna: Management Concepts Inc. Hisrich, R., Peters, M., & Shepherd, D. 2008. Enterpreneurship 8th Edition. McGraw - Hill Higher Education. Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., Camp, S. M., & Sexton, D. L. 2002. Strategic Enterpreneurship Creating a New Mindset. Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing. Hogan, D. R. 2009. The Enterpreneur Manager The Business Mans Business Plan. Indiana: Author House . Hornsby, J. S., & Kuratko, D. F. 2009. New Venture Management The Enterpreneurs Roadmap. New Delhi: Pearson Education Inc. and Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. Kent, C. A. 1990. Enterpreneurship Education Current Developments, Future Directions. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Kuratko, D. F. 2007. Enterpreneurship Theory Process Practice. Mason: Ohlinger Publishing Services. PinderHughes, P. M. 2004. How to be an Entrepreneur and Keep Your Sanity. Phoenix: Amber Books. Smilor, R. W., & Sexton, D. L. 1996. Leadership and Enterpreneurship Personal and Organizational Development in Entrepreneurial Ventures. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc. Read More