Category Archives: Skills Development

Blog, Enterprise Education, Skills Development

The process of developing a business plan

When I look at the process of creating a new venture, I often see people forget some of the basic elements in the process of developing a business plan.

The first three steps are:

  1. Opportunity discovery,
  2. Business modelling
  3. Business planning

 

Opportunity Discovery

The best idea is the one which provides the best business opportunity. Therefore we are not looking for any idea but an idea which provides the best opportunity.

Therefore the process of ideation captures the current industry trends and the competitor in and around them. The technology innovation currently applied to this market and the outlook we see in terms of costs and market adoption trends.

The creative problem solving can not sit in isolation and needs to be surrounded by the context for it to be applied to create an outstanding  value proposition later on.

Business Modelling

For most people this is filling out the Business Model Canvas, a tools which provides a powerful view of the business model. But again this is completed in isolation within a full understanding the ecosystem, actors and their behaviours.

The process of modelling is about understanding the relationship between the key actors within the ecosystem, it doesn’t matter if its designing a new road bridge, a tv or a new products. This dynamic relationship is so important in understanding the processes and metrics to be put in place to plan the business.

Business Planning

The core aspects of Business Planning are risk analysis, scenario planning and financial planning. Once these are done the rest, include product design, marketing strategy and operations are secondary.

All investors want to know you can manage this risk and act accordingly.

The process of developing a business plan are about understanding the dynamic relationship and how to mitigate the risks they pose to your business. Its not an exercise in writing or filling out the right amount of words in the right sections.

 

The process of developing a business plan is simple yet so many people get it wrong. Just remember to understand the dynamic nature of business and that your business startup will be connected with these and therefore needs to adjust to maintain a successful course through the early years.

Blog, Skills Development

6 ways to find a co-founder

Co-founders are normally people involved in the initial launch of startup companies. Anyone can be a co-founder, but frequently co-founders are entrepreneurs, engineers, hackers, funders, web developers, web designers and others involved in the ground level of a new  venture.   The first step in finding your co-founder is to map yours needs.  Make sure you are perfectly clear on what skillsets/resources will be the most important for the success of the startup, and best fill a hole in your own resume and desired management team.

    1. Friends from University – It worked for the guys at Facebook and Google, so just get out and meet other students.
    2. Former co-workers – If you’ve worked together as employees, you might be able to work together as co-founders. You have the history and know each others skill sets.
    3. People you meet over coffee – We see hot beds of startups co-locating themselves in coffee shops, just talk to the guy next to you.
    4. Former co-founders in another venture – There’s no better person to launch with than someone that has started a company before.
    5. Accelerators – Related to some of the other co-working suggestions, simply applying to a startup accelerator can lead to finding a co-founder.
    6. At meet-ups – Tech Meetups are great places to find co-founders and they are easy to find and also go to.
Blog, Enterprise Education, Skills Development, Venture Capital and Funding

7 obstacles experienced by entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur we have lots of do, but sometimes we just do it wrong, we let obstacles get in our way. So what are the typical obstacles we entrepreneurs have to deal with:

  1. Perfectionism – For entrepreneurs, practice doesn’t make perfect; action does. You simply cannot wait until you are 100 percent ready before you take action. Think MVP.
  2. Procrastination –  Sometimes its easier to delay the decision, the action or even dealing with the problem, so each day “Eat the Frog” and take action of the real issues within your business.
  3. Fear – Entrepreneurs’ resolve is tested from the very first step of starting a business. In fact, one entrepreneur compared starting a business to jumping off a cliff and assembling your parachute on the way down.
  4. Worry – As an entrepreneur, worry comes with the territory. In fact, over a third of entrepreneurs told Gallup they worried a lot about yesterday. While worry is a quotidian experience, it is not productive. You have to make peace with the things that concern you, and not let them stop you from taking action and pursuing your dreams.
  5. Financing – Experienced entrepreneurs don’t have it easy when it comes to funding a new business, but they do have a few advantages over newcomers. They might have a pool of capital from a business they previously sold or a steady stream of revenue they can use to fund a new business’s cash flow.
  6. Team building – This is especially hard if you’ve never run or managed a team before, but even if you have management experience, picking the right team for a startup is stressful and difficult. It’s not enough to find candidates who fill certain roles — you also need to consider their cost to the business, their culture fit and how they’ll work as part of your overall team. Such considerations are exceptionally hard when you’re under the pressure of filling those positions as soon as possible.
  7. Decision-making – Believe it or not, this is probably the most stressful challenge on this list. New entrepreneurs are forced to make hundreds of decisions a day, from big, company-impacting decisions, to tiny, hour-affecting ones. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon, and most new entrepreneurs will experience it if they aren’t prepared for the new level of stress.
Enterprise Education, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Resources, Skills Development, Training

Venture Creation – BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme

In the last year I have had the amazing  opportunity to design a venture creation BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme which is oriented towards students who wish to combine study towards an honours degree with the opportunity to start their own business in a supported environment with guidance from specialist lecturers, practising entrepreneurs and mentors. Over the years I have seen many programmes and wanted to create something for Entrepreneurs, the student and for practitioners.

This is a practice-oriented degree, which focuses on the development of the students’ entrepreneurial effectiveness. This is achieved by embracing the concept of ‘learning by doing’ which ensures students are acquiring real knowledge and practical expertise to support their business start-up and business growth aspirations. There is a focus on real business experiences including master classes, enterprise events and interactions with local and global entrepreneurs. This philosophy is extended within the assessment primarily for (rather than ‘of’) learning Entrepreneurship (QAA (2012) Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education: Guidance for UK Higher Education Providers, pp9).

Similarly, although there is an inherent emphasis on learning within the learner’s own start-up venture, the Entrepreneurship skills acquired will be transferable to other business environments and learning opportunities.

This BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme aligns with the nation and international government agenda (The Impact and Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Policy, NESTA 2013) and seeks to increase the number of entrepreneurs in the economy.

A range of teaching pedagogies are adopted to ensure the curriculum enhances the learning of all students both in the startup and in group learning environments. In addition to lectures, seminars, videos, podcasts, presentations and visiting entrepreneurs, students will participate in action learning sets and interactive activities to apply learning from businesses experiences in their startup. These approaches are intended to take into account the principles of inclusivity: the types of learner, their startup business, their prior experience and expectations and how they learn and will be supported to learn effectively.

Given the focus on developing a continued learning environment in which students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, there is an emphasis within the BA (Hons) Entrepreneurship Programme on tutoring and mentoring to support individual requirements, and also to reflect (at a meta-cognitive level) on their learning process. The programme is supported by more than 10 Entrepreneurs in Residence, regional business support agencies and local businesses.

Blog, Skills Development

Student Led Incubators

There is always a real need to get student involved in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship within the university. They have a real need for enterprise skills and developing it into an Entrepreneurial career or a full blown Entrepreneur.

So on a recent visit to the the Tianjin Urban Construction Management Vocational Technology College, we had the opportunity to visit their incubator.

This college is looking at developing Energy Entrepreneurship, developing new businesses which address saving energy or using it in a more effective way, especially within China.

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So the real surprise was the cafe within the business incubator was run by Students for Students and business owners. We had the chance to meet the three owners of the business and provide some advice and support. The development of this student led cafe provides a real insight into both the management of the college and also the students within it.

The management have placed trust in the students to start, run and make a success of the cafe. This has resulted in:

1, Trusting students is such an important part of Entrepreneurship and we sometime forget to place this on students.

2, The students have taken a opportunity to run the cafe, something which every student on campus will have an opinion about. I know many students wouldn’t do this as their peers would look down on them or have something to say. The risks and rewards associated with this is a great lesson, but the greatest one is that these students have the largest network on campus.

3, Having a go, should always provide winners, as experience of entrepreneurship will ensure students leave with more skills that we educators could ever teach them.

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The cafe was the centre of the business incubator and so made it student led, the cafe was the heart of the space, just as it should be.

So when we arrange, we were saw a great space being used by other students and it was the centre of campus live. So good luck.