Assignment Cover Sheet

Centre name MUBARAK COMPLEX COLLEGE

Learner name OWEN KHOZA

ABE membership number 644237

Unit Name INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Word count 3122

Learner Statement

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All work that learners submit as part of the ABE assessment requirements must be expressed in their own wo
and incorporate their own judgements. Direct quotations from the published or unpublished work of oth
including that of tutors or employers, must be appropriately referenced. Authors of images used in reports
audio-visual presentations must be acknowledged.

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By clicking this box, I [INSERT FULL NAME] am confirming that the work I am
submitting is my own and I have acknowledged ALL the sources of reference I have used
in constructing my assignment.

Date: (insert today’s date)

For ABE use only

ABE 2nd mark
ABE mark (if applicable)

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Table of contents

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1.0 Business innovation
1.1 Types of business innovation.
1.2 Importance of business innovation.

2.0 Common mistakes

2.1 Discuss the common mistakes made by entrepreneurs.
2.2 How to overcome common mistakes.

3.0 Market research intelligence

3.1 Uses of marketing research intelligence.

4.0 Business plan.

4.1 Summary of business plan
4.2 Importance of business plan.

5.0 Conclusion.
6.0 Reference list

CHANCY BUILDING COMPANY

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Chancy building company will be a private limited company which will be located in Blantyre
city the southern part of Malawi opposite Queen Elizabeth hospital and its mission will be to
provide and constructing quality buildings, commercial projects to all people at affordable
price. The company will start as a medium sized business and one of the privately owned
construction company as it will have not less than one hundred employees for which most of
them will be the local citizens and during its development, will hire more employees. Chancy
building company will operate in both stable and competitive markets in all regions of Malawi,
thus in cities and districts. The company will grow into a well-respected designer of buildings
with great reputation for delivering high quality product and services, those services will
include; building sanitary appliances, bath tabs, sinks, tiles, gates and shutters. My company’s
key competitor is cash build limited company, which offers the same products and services that
my company will be offering. According to its customer segment analysis, its targeted
customers are those of the age ranged 20-50, because these are the class age ranges that are
thinking of building their homes etc.

Question 1

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1.0. Innovation is when chancy building company introduces new processes, services, or
products to affect positive change in its business. This can include; improving existing
practices or starting from scratch.

1.1. Chancy building company uses different type o innovation just as the way the
business is conducted in building offices, houses and etc. according to Greg satell
he discovered types of innovation that are used by chancy building company and
are listed below:

 Incremental innovation.
According to entrepreneur, 98% of all innovation is incremental.
Incremental innovation is the process of minor, steady improvements to
business operations, tools, marketing, and products. Incremental
innovation focuses on improving existing offering to align with current
customer trends. For example, TVs, as they started as heavy boxes but
now are manufactured slimmer. This approach allows companies to
maintain their business’s model and avoid cannibalizing their existing
products and services.

 Sustaining innovation.
Sustaining innovation focuses on creating networks of value and
customer satisfaction within the current market. Companies seek to
improve product performance each time to reduce defects. The newer
product or services may be more expensive but also carries higher profit
margins. This step change approach makes the product more appealing
to customers who demand better performances and are willing to pay a
premium.

 Architectural innovation.
Architectural innovation is something we see with tech giants like
amazon, google and many more at the moment. They take their domain
expertise, technology, and skills and apply them to a different market.
This way they can open up new markets and expand their customer base.
For example amazon and Alibaba use existing customer base to offer new
services and products for different markets.

 Radical innovation.
Even if it is a stereotypical way most people see innovation; it is the
rarest form of them all. Radical innovation involves the creation of
technology, services, and business models that open up entirely new
markets. The best example we can use of radical innovation is the
invention of air plane. This radical new technology opened up a new form
of travel, invented an industry, and whole new market.
 Disruptive innovation.

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 Populated by the late Clayton Christensen, the term disruptive innovation
refers to when an innovation creates a fundamentally new value
network. This can be achieved by either creating a new market or by
entering an existing market and changing how consumers interact with it.
Christensen’s theory sees innovations typically entering the market at a
lower performance point at least when measured by the traditional
metrics of that specified market.

1.2. According to chancy building company we expect importance and benefits from
all these listed types of innovation. The following are some of the importance:

 It will increase rapidly responding to customer expectations and choices

at chancy building company.
 It will lead to adapting, evolving work place dynamics and trends at
chancy building company.
 It will lead to the competing with lean and agile startup methodologies.
 It will lead to increased turnover and improved profitability.
 It will increases our chances to react to changes and discover new
opportunities.

Word count: 505

Question 2

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2.0. Common mistakes in entrepreneurship, are business errors that entrepreneurs make
unknowingly due to lack of business experience and consultancy. Commonly these
mistakes are made during the first months of the business.

2.1. Chancy building company has investigated some of the common mistakes that
are made by entrepreneurs during their first months of business and these are as
follows:
 Entrepreneurs are not able to find right mentor.
The most successful entrepreneurs have mentors and coaches who help
them to get to the next level and avoid mistakes they have made on
themselves. Mentor provide valuable insight about how to create a
successful business based off of the knowledge and experience they have
gained over the years. These people are needed in a business career to
advice about important decisions planned to make and introduced to
other people who can help advancing the business. The connections that
entrepreneurs make are available relationships that can move them
further along than their competitors who have not established those
types of relationships.

 Delegation.
This refers to the transfer responsibility for specific tasks from one person
to another. From a management perspective, delegation occurs when a
manager assigns specific tasks to their employees. The following are
advantages of delegation:
 Relief to the manager from routine work and concentration on
policy issues.
 Basis for effective functioning.
 Effective and timely decisions.
 Empower and develop subordinates.
 Opportunity for professional training and growth.
 Reduction of work.

The disadvantages of delegation are also listed below:

 Business exposure to competitors.
 It is of much cost when using outsourcing.
 Low quality of work when it is delegated to new members who
don’t know the task.
 Delegation of authority increases the workload and stress of
subordinates.
 The owner of the position feels unsafe on the position delegated.

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Delegation is either conducted using insourcing or outsourcing. Insourcing
delegation is conducted where the delegate is taken or sourced within the
organization and has the knowledge on the position to be delegated, while
outsourcing delegation is conducted where the delegate taken or sourced
outside the organization but has more knowledge on the position to be
delegated. For effective delegation to occur there are five steps to conduct. The
following are the five steps to effective delegate on:

Firstly, select the right person; March personnel skills and abilities with the task
based on aptitude not simply on convenience.

Secondly, specify the desired result; communicate clearly the result expected,
and specify what criteria should be met when the task is completed.

Thirdly, set a deadline; a reasonable time frame creates accountability.

Fourthly, determine authority; determine the authority level you want to provide
the person in taking action and making decisions. Make sure involved personnel
understand their authority level.

Lastly, track progress and results; set up mechanism for the delegated personnel
to report progress and communicate issues.

 Forecasting.
According to Andrew beattle, business forecasting involves making
informed guesses about certain business metrics, regardless of whether
they reflect the specifics of a business, such as sales growth, or
productions for economy. Many entrepreneurs in their first days of the
business do have forecasting problems of their business hence making
their business to fail. But business forecasting is vital for business
because it allows them to plan production, financing, and other
strategies. However, the following are problems with relying on
forecasting:

 The data which is used to forecast may be old which can make it
difficult to predict the right future of the business as it is not
guaranteed if the past conditions may be the same with the
future.
 Forecast cannot integrate their own impact as the business
actions are influenced by a factor that cannot be included as a
variable. In a worst-case scenario management becomes the slave
to historical data and trends rather than worrying about what the
business is doing right now.

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  Sunk cost.
These are cost that have already been spent and cannot be recovered.
For example, an entrepreneur who is new in the market, introducing a
new platform of his business and has increased his business costs and
then make huge loss. The problem comes in when an entrepreneur keeps
spending even when whatever he has invested money in, is no longer a
good idea resulting to keep throwing good money after bad.
Entrepreneurs often become emotionally invested, and the more
investment made, the harder it becomes to divest themselves from those
costs.

 Not doing market research.

Marketing plays a major role in business success. Whether its an e-
commerce business, a brick-and-mortal retail shop, a personal brand, or a
B2B consulting form, market can make a break company. When it comes
to doing market research there are always new things to discover about
customers, new audiences to find, and new behaviors to observe. Any
effort an entrepreneur put into a market (when done right) will only
increase traffic to his site and improve his online presence. So, many new
entrepreneurs never undergo market research hence leading them to
failure.

2.2. How to overcome the listed common mistakes made by entrepreneurs.

Those listed common mistakes on 2.1 can be overcome by; finding the light
mentor, delegating wherever necessary to delegate, focus on the most
meaningful data to accurately forecast on the business, avoiding sunk cost
during business operations, and going through market research. All these
initiatives may help to overcome the common mistakes made by entrepreneurs.

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 Word count: 903
Question 3

3.0. Market research intelligence is the ability to take all of the information from the entire
scope of the market research and put it together to form insights that allow a better
understanding of the market itself. Without research, it is hard for a business to
develop. The steps to follow when an entrepreneur is conducting a market research are
as follows:

 Define the problem; before beginning the market research, there is a

need to decide what the problem is by introducing research objectives.
 Develop research plan; once the problem which will be addressing is
known, design the research plan and consider the techniques for
conducting the research.
 Collect relevant data and information; once the correcting data has
started, make sure it’s valid and unbiased. The ideal type of information
to gather would be analytical or scientifically as well as emotional data
that couldn’t get from looking at graph.
 Analyze data and report findings; after gathering information is done
then interpret the data.
 Take action; after the research is complete then present the findings and
take action, start developing marketing campaigns and put the findings to
the test.

There are two forms of data which are: primary and secondary. Using
primary form, data can be gathered through directly source e.g. conducting a
survey but it is expensive and consumes time, while the other form of data
can be gathered through library or enterprise club.

3.1. The following are the uses of marketing research intelligence:

 It strengthen business position, as we all know that business knowledge is

vital and it is the goal of any firm to stay ahead of the competition and
gain a good perspective and also understanding the market. So for this to
be possible use market research.
 It minimizes investment risk, to my concerned of the business knowledge,
I believe using a little money to research before investing is better than
investing the money without enough knowledge of the investment which
is a big risk.

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 It identifies potential threats and opportunities, as in this case, both
primary and secondary research can help in identifying possible dangers
and opportunities of the business in the specific market and without
conducting the research, these warnings and opportunities could be
missed.
 It helps to discover competitor’s strengths and weaknesses, as we all
know, business involves competition and it’s a good thing to know how
your competitors are doing their things and such process also helps to
discover yourself weaknesses hence making you to improve your
products and services you provide.
 It assists business to stay ahead of the competition, market research,
audience research and data research are the keys to both getting ahead
and staying ahead as these research’s sometimes helps in innovation and
coming up with a great creative idea.
 It provides revenue projections; a market forecast is a core component of
a market analysis projecting the future numbers, characteristics and
trends in the targeted market. Potential customers can then be divided
into segments, and my company will focus the market that will be the
one that matches my company profile.
 It helps focusing on customer needs and demands; to know customer
needs and demands it’s very important in business, because it helps to
know the exact products the company must produce hence saving
production costs on some products that couldn’t have more demand
leading in making losses.
 It helps to evaluate the success of a business against banchmarks;
companies that benchmark achieve 69% faster growth and 45% greater
productivity that those that do not.

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 Word count: 585
Question 4

4.0. A business plan is an essential written document that provides a description and
overview of the company’s future. The plan explains the business strategy and key goals
to get from where the business is now to where it would be in future.

4.1. Summary of business plan:

1. Executive summary.
As far as business industry is concerned in these present days, chancy
building company is dynamically improving from one level to another.
Searching for a new building designs and good looking premises that can rely
on; chancy building company is the answer to the building industry, thus new
house designing building, and so many more are offered.

Chancy building company is the company which provide quality homes,

commercial projects to all people through building at affordable price and its
under private ownership of Mr. Owen Khoza operating as a sole trader and
to be established and launched on 23 December 2022 in the industry with
the local estimated 100 hundred employees.

As a new start-up company, chancy building company needs the capital of

$200,000 of which $100,000 has been already offered by the owner Mr.
Owen Khoza. The capital fund which is left should be sourced by an investor
with a return on investment.

2. Ownership and background of key players.

Chancy building company is privately owned by a sole trader Mr. Owen
Khoza who has a degree in civil engineering and a diploma in Human
resource and business management of ABE qualification. The company is
willing to hire young talented and qualified employees to work in the
company. Their minimum qualification at list they should have a diploma in
business management. These qualified candidates will have a better
knowledge of business.

3. Products and services.

The company will be providing building services, thus building quality homes,
commercial products to all people. Some of the building services include;
building offices, churches, pillars, and selling building products like cement
and tiles.

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4. Marketing.
This will involve the marketing strategy and marketing operating systems of
chancy building company.
 Market research operations.
Chancy building company will be using two forms of marketing
research which are primary and secondary forms. Primary form
involves searching directly on the ground and secondary form
involves searching using second hand system e.g. through internet.
 Offering services techniques.
 Direct approach; this the system of offering services directly to
the targeted customers.
 Through social media; this involves offering services to those
customers that cannot be reached face to face.
 Advertising approach.
This is the process of using media to reach out the masses. Some of
the ways are: socio-media, radio, and TV stations.

5. Competitor analysis.
So far so good, competition in the industry is at high rate but no other
building company has stand a chance to compete with chancy building
company as the company has introduced new platforms that other
companies are not offering in the meantime. The business is very innovative
and creative, as it has introduces, electronic banking for payment and has its
own website for advertising new services and products, and has developed
new platforms which customers will be linked directly to the company.

6. Operations and logistics.

The company’s operations are unique and different from a lot of companies.
It’s always our goal to meet customer needs and when customers are asking
for our services we give quality services just because we have good human
resource workers who insure that the employees have produced a good
service to our customers. Adding to that, our materials we use to build a
good and quality premises are mostly imported logistically from abroad by
Amazon shipping and logistics, making our services good than any other
company in the industry.

7. Costs and pricing strategy.

Any profit making business, exist to make profits over costs. When we
offering our services to customers we will be charging the price due to the
cost of our company resources over that offered service. For example, we are
asked to build a house covering twelve stairs up by a certain customer and
another cannot place the same prices, we will look the costs of assets,
whether the fixed or variable costs.

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4.2. Importance of business plan to chancy building company are as follows:
 It helps to conduct the necessary research.
 It helps to evaluate competitors and find our audience.
 It sets objectives for employees and managers.
 It helps to determine when new employees are needed.
 It assist us in making important business decisions.

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 Word count: 745

5.0. Conclusion.
Being an entrepreneur it’s not an easy thing as risks and some business operations
should be considered. Taking your money to start up a business is a risk as a business
can either fail or succeed. Some considerations when starting up a business include,
research and making a business plan. Therefore the listed information explains how
someone can make a positive possible business.

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6.0. Reference list
 www.Economictimes.india.com
 4UIE-Study guide
 Starting a business (book) by ken colwell

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