Assessment of Entrepreneurial Traits and Skills and Creation of a Business Plan

Task 1

• Evaluate the theoretical knowledge of entrepreneurship
• Apply the methods and techniques learned to review, consolidate, extend, and apply knowledge and understanding to initiate and carry out a business plan.

Task 1

Write a report in which you critically assess the fundamental traits and skills necessary for a successful business venture. You should choose any successful entrepreneur and:

Critically assess the entrepreneurial traits and skills exhibited by your chosen entrepreneur to be successful. You should use evidence/examples to support your points (this can include links to examples of their engagements or activities, where appropriate). Support your critical assessment with key entrepreneurship theories as a means of justifying your stance for example, the Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction.

Task 2

Now that you have critically assessed the entrepreneurial traits and skills exhibited by a chosen successful entrepreneur, produce a business plan on an identified business idea. Ensure your business idea and each key component of the business plan addressed is visible enough for implementation taking into consideration the current Covid- 19 pandemic.

Your business plan should cover the following key business plan components.

1.Business/Company Overview

2.Product and Services

3.Market Research

4.Target Market

5.Marketing Plan

6.Management Team and operations

7.Financial Plan

NOTE: The guidance offered below is linked to the five common assessment criteria overleaf.

1. Research-informed Literature

Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and focused on the task(s) set. You should provide evidence that you have accessed a wide range of sources, which may be academic, governmental and industrial; these sources may include academic journal articles, textbooks, current news articles, organisational documents, and websites. You should consider the credibility of your sources; academic journals are normally highly credible sources while websites require careful consideration/selection and should be used sparingly. Any sources you use should be current and up-to-date, mostly published within the last five years or so, though seminal/important works in the field may be older. You must provide evidence of your research/own reading throughout your work, using in-text citations in the main body of your work and a reference list that is alphabetical at the end of your work. Please use the Harvard referencing system.

• You are expected to have a minimum of 2 in-text citations and a complete reference list for every 500 words that you write.
• Use Harvard referencing norms when referencing.

2. Knowledge and Understanding of Subject

Your work must demonstrate the growing extent of your knowledge and understanding of concepts and underlying principles associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates to the facts, information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate your understanding by interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This means that you need to select and include in your work the concepts, techniques, models, theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You should be able to explain the theories, concepts, etc. in a meaningful manner to show your understanding. Your mark/grade will also depend upon the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding; ideally each should be complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.

• An understanding of the difference between traits and skills and their role in establishing a successful entrepreneurial ventures
• Demonstrate your knowledge of key business plan components
• Apply your knowledge of key business plan component to your specific business idea

3. Analysis

Your work must contain evidence of logical, analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis. For example, to examine and break information down into parts, make inferences, compile, compare and contrast information. This means not just describing What! but also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? At all times, you must provide justification for your arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of others within the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work. Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are able to make sound judgements and convincing arguments usingdata and concepts. Sound, valid conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the content of your work. There should be no new information presented within your conclusion. Where relevant, alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.

• Analyse and support sourced information by adding personal judgement and then, relate them to your specific business idea.

4. Practical Application and Deployment

You should be able to demonstrate how the subject-related concepts and ideas relate to real world situations or a particular context. How do they work in practice? You will deploy models, methods, techniques, and/or theories, in that context, to assess current situations, perhaps to formulate plans or solutions to solve problems, some of which may be innovative and creative. This is likely

to involve, for instance, the use of real-world examples and cases, the application of a model within an organisation and/or benchmarking one organisation against others based on stated criteria. You should show awareness of the limitations of concepts and theories when applied in particular contexts.

• The practical application of the used of evidence/examples of real-life entrepreneurs who have used their personal traits and skills in becoming successful to support your points. Thereby establishing a link between theory and practice.
• Logically apply analytical tools in the context of you business idea (e.g Porter’s five forces analysis, Competitors analysis, and PESTLE analysis).
• Use examples where appropriate to support your points/arguments
• Demonstrate originality and creativity/innovative thought in your work

5. Skills for Professional Practice

Your work must provide evidence of the attributes expected in professional practice. This includes demonstrating your individual initiative and/or collaborative working. You must communicate effectively in a suitable format, which may be written and/or oral, for example, essay, management report, presentation. Work should be coherent and well-structured in presentation and organisation.

Guidance specific to this assessment:

• Follow the generic submission guidelines provided.
• Both your written business plan and the PowerPoint slides should be written with your business idea in mind.