Unit 1: Module 2- The Entrepreneurial Process

What is The Entrepreneurial Process?

The Entrepreneurship Process can be expressed as a set of procedures and methodologies,
followed by entrepreneurs to establish a new business or venture. All the entrepreneurship
process phases have certain meanings and functionality, which one must trail and pursue
for setting up a venture. Entrepreneurs are not dreamers, they understand the importance
of evaluating ideas and of moving from idea to business reality. This involves a process that
balances the entrepreneur’s optimism with objectivity. Before investing in a business, the
entrepreneur considers what the return would be in years to come. In 2000 Robert Visser
established the company TCM because he worked for a local vehicle leasing company for 3
years and, having worked for a similar company in Canada. During those years he saw how
many gaps there were available in the market and saw how those gaps could be filled with a
much better service offered. He met someone who he felt he could partner with and they
collaborated on lifting the business model and filling the needs in the business market.

The steps That Mr. Visser used when establishing his business.

(1) Idea Generation: is the act of forming ideas. It is a creative process that
encompasses the generation, development and communication of new thoughts and
concepts, which become the basis of your innovation strategy, there are many idea
generation processes that entrepreneurs use when they are trying to generate ideas
such as: brainstorming, focus groups, Gordon method and much more.

(2) Opportunity identification : Not every idea an entrepreneur thinks of will be a

successful business, so in order for then to see which idea would be the most
successful they would look at 4 fundamental anchors that successful business go by:
(1) does it create or add value to a customer or end user. (2) Does it meet a
significant want or need for which someone is willing to pay a premium cost for.
(3) do they have a robust market, margin and money making characteristics that will
allow the entrepreneur to estimate and communicate sustainable value to potential
stakeholders. (4) they are a good fit for the founder(s) and management team based
on the timing and marketplace and have an attractive risk- reward balance.

(3) Developing a Business Concept: A business concept is the foundational idea

behind a business. This is intended to provide meaningful direction for the process of
developing a business plan and launching a firm. At this stage, things will change and
there is no need for a business concept to fully describe the business. There are
different ways to communicate what a business do and why it exists. Nevertheless,
there are some key elements that must be explained by a business concept for it to
be considered useful and informative. First of all, the product or service being
offered must be easily understood.
This means that whatever the company is offering must be clearly communicated
through the business concept. On the other hand, the target market should also be
mentioned in this concept. This market will be the segment that the business is
looking to serve. Finally, the company’s overall competitive advantage should
conclude the statement, to describe how this proposal differs from what already
exists.

(4) Resource Acquisition: Acquiring resources is the process of securing team

members, equipment, materials or other resources required to deliver the project.
The key input to acquiring resources is the project plan. This will detail what
resources are expected to be needed in order to fulfil the delivery of products or for
the management of the project. This should provide a reasonable estimate of the
resources required for the project and also provide a schedule for when the
resources are required and for how long.

(5) Venture implementation and management: Venture management is a business

management practice that focuses on being both innovative and challenging in the
realm of introducing what could be a completely new product or entering a
promising newly emerging market. It is possible that the product or service already
exists, but through venture management efforts, it can be rebranded or updated
with new innovative features to respond on new requirements and opportunities.
This practice can be applied to any type of industry, big or small from a small mom
and pop operation to a steel conglomerate.

(6) Harvesting the venture: The final step in in the entrepreneurial process,
harvesting, refers t the strategies and options used by investors to exit a business
and recover their investment. Ideally, it should be a planned process, part of the
overall business plan. While all concerned are looking to acquire the maximum
monetary return on their investment, for the entrepreneur, there may also be
personal and other non-financial issues which also arise.