Interview an Entrepreneur or Small Business Owner: Tips and Guidelines

It is your responsibility to find the entrepreneur or small business owner.  The challenge of this assessment is for you to show initiative and find an appropriate person to interview.

• You can interview a current business owner or somebody who has previously run a business.
• Your entrepreneur can represent any of the fields of entrepreneurship.
• Your tutor cannot help you find someone to interview, but can provide advice if you are not sure about your choice.

This interview is not for academic research purposes, and will only be used as a point of reflection for you and assessment in this class.

If you are unable to identify an entrepreneur or small business owner to interview, you may use secondary data sources to collect information about an entrepreneur.

The person you choose to interview or research could be:

• An entrepreneur or small business owner you know in Australia or from your home country.
• A friend or family member who runs their own business.
• Someone you know who runs a for-profit or not-for profit corporation/organisation.
• An entrepreneur that has been reported on from a variety of secondary data sources.

Your report should have four sections (in addition to the cover sheet, executive summary, table of contents, introduction, conclusion, references, and appendices):

• Section 1 - A brief explanation of the entrepreneur, the business they run and the history of the business.
• Section 2 - The characteristics of the entrepreneur you interviewed compared and contrasted to the theories and concepts covered in the learning materials. How does your entrepreneur fit with or differ from these theories? (Review, in particular, course materials on entrepreneurial characteristics.)
• Section 3 - The characteristics of the entrepreneur’s business compared and contrasted to the theories and concepts covered in the learning materials. Do you find these business characteristics fit or differ from these theories? (Review course materials from weeks 3 onward.)
• Section 4 - A reflection on what you have learned from the interview: For example, did you pick up any tips about entrepreneurship or running a business? What did they do right and what they would do differently if they could do it again? Does this sort of business appeal to you? Why/why not? How have your ideas about entrepreneurship changed after talking to this entrepreneur? How does this interview shape your thinking about you and entrepreneurship?
• Section 5 - Your thoughts on new opportunities for this entrepreneurial endeavor. What is your evidence for suggesting this?