assignment for entrepreneurship

• school Campus Bookshelves
• menu_book Bookshelves
• perm_media Learning Objects
• login Login
• how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
• hub Instructor Commons
• Download Page (PDF)
• Download Full Book (PDF)
• Periodic Table
• Physics Constants
• Scientific Calculator
• Reference & Cite
• Tools expand_more
• Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

1.1: Chapter 1 – Introduction to Entrepreneurship

• Last updated
• Save as PDF
• Page ID 21253

• Lee A. Swanson
• University of Saskatchewan

Whilst there is no universally accepted definition of entrepreneurship, it is fair to say that it is multi-dimensional. It involves analyzing people and their actions together with the ways in which they interact with their environments, be these social, economic, or political, and the institutional, policy, and legal frameworks that help define and legitimize human activities. – Blackburn (2011, p. xiii)

Entrepreneurship involves such a range of activities and levels of analysis that no single definition is definitive. – Lichtenstein (2011, p. 472)

It is complex, chaotic, and lacks any notion of linearity. As educators, we have the responsibility to develop our students’ discovery, reasoning, and implementation skills so they may excel in highly uncertain environments. – Neck and Greene (2011, p. 55)

Learning Objectives

• Examine the challenges associated with defining the concepts of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship
• Discuss how the evolution of entrepreneurship thought has influenced how we view the concept of entrepreneurship today
• Discuss how the list of basic questions in entrepreneurship research can be expanded to include research inquiries that are important in today’s world
• Discuss how the concepts of entrepreneurial uniqueness, entrepreneurial personality traits, and entrepreneurial cognitions can help society improve its support for entrepreneurship
• Apply the general venturing script to the study of entrepreneurship

This chapter provides you with an overview of entrepreneurship and of the language of entrepreneurship. The challenges associated with defining entrepreneur and entrepreneurship are explored, as is an overview of how entrepreneurship can be studied.

The objective is to enable you to apply current concepts in entrepreneurship to the evaluation of entrepreneurs, their ventures, and the venturing environment. You will develop skills, including the capability to add value in the new venture sector of the economy. You will acquire and practice evaluation skills useful in consulting, advising, and making new venture decisions.

Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship

Considerations influencing definitions of entrepreneur and entrepreneurship.

It is necessary to be able to determine exactly who entrepreneurs are before we can, among other things, study them, count them, provide special loans for them, and calculate how and how much they contribute to our economy.

• Does someone need to start a business from scratch to be called an entrepreneur?
• Can we call someone an entrepreneur if they bought an ongoing business from someone else or took over the operations of a family business from their parents?
• If someone starts a small business and never needs to hire employees, can they be called an entrepreneur?
• If someone buys a business but hires professional managers to run it so they don’t have to be involved in the operations, are they an entrepreneur?
• Is someone an entrepreneur if they buy into a franchise so they can follow a well-established formula for running the operation?
• Is someone an entrepreneur because of what they do or because of how they think?
• Can someone be an entrepreneur without owning their own business?
• Can a person be an entrepreneur because of the nature of the work that they do within a large corporation?

It is also necessary to fully understand what we mean by entrepreneurship before we can study the concept.

Gartner (1990) identified 90 attributes that showed up in definitions of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship provided by entrepreneurs and other experts in the field. The following are a few of these attributes:

• Innovation – Does a person need to be innovative to be considered an entrepreneur? Can an activity be considered to be entrepreneurial if it is not innovative?
• Activities – What activities does a person need to do to be considered an entrepreneur?
• Creation of a new business – Does someone need to start a new business to be considered to be an entrepreneur, or can someone who buys a business, buys into a franchise, or takes over an existing family business be considered an entrepreneur?
• Starts an innovative venture within an established organization – Can someone who works within an existing organization that they don’t own be considered an entrepreneur if they start an innovative venture for their organization?
• Creation of a not-for-profit business – Can a venture be considered to be entrepreneurial if it is a not-for-profit, or should only for-profit businesses be considered entrepreneurial?

After identifying the 90 attributes, Gartner (1990) went back to the entrepreneurs and other experts for help in clustering the attributes into themes that would help summarize what people concerned with entrepreneurship thought about the concept. He ended up with the following eight entrepreneurship themes:

1. The Entrepreneur – The entrepreneur theme is the idea that entrepreneurship involves individuals with unique personality characteristics and abilities (e.g., risk-taking, locus of control, autonomy, perseverance, commitment, vision, creativity). Almost 50% of the respondents rated these characteristics as not important to a definition of entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1990, p. 21, 24).

• “The question that needs to be addressed is: Does entrepreneurship involve entrepreneurs (individuals with unique characteristics)?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

2. Innovation – The innovation theme is characterized as doing something new as an idea, product, service, market, or technology in a new or established organization. The innovation theme suggests that innovation is not limited to new ventures, but recognized as something which older and/or larger organizations may undertake as well (Gartner, 1990, p. 25). Some of the experts Gartner questioned believed that it was important to include innovation in definitions of entrepreneurship and others did not think it was as important.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve innovation?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

3. Organization Creation – The organization creation theme describes the behaviors involved in creating organizations. This theme described acquiring and integrating resource attributes (e.g., Brings resources to bear, integrates opportunities with resources, mobilizes resources, gathers resources) and attributes that described creating organizations (new venture development and the creation of a business that adds value). (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)

• “Does entrepreneurship involve resource acquisition and integration (new venture creation activities)?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)

4. Creating Value – This theme articulated the idea that entrepreneurship creates value. The attributes in this factor indicated that value creation might be represented by transforming a business, creating a new business growing a business, creating wealth, or destroying the status quo.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve creating value?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25).

5. Profit or Nonprofit

• “Does entrepreneurship involve profit-making organizations only” (Gartner, 1990, p. 25)?
• Should a focus on growth be a characteristic of entrepreneurship?

7. Uniqueness – This theme suggested that entrepreneurship must involve uniqueness. Uniqueness was characterized by attributes such as a special way of thinking, a vision of accomplishment, ability to see situations in terms of unmet needs, and creates a unique combination.

• “Does entrepreneurship involve uniqueness?” (Gartner, 1990, p. 26).

8. The Owner-Manager – Some of the respondents questioned by Gartner (1990) did not believe that small mom-and-pop types of businesses should be considered to be entrepreneurial. Some respondents felt that an important element of a definition of entrepreneurship was that a venture be owner-managed.

• To be entrepreneurial, does a venture need to be owner-managed?

Examples of Definitions of Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur can be described as “one who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying significant opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them” (Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2008, p. 5).

An entrepreneur is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise” (Entrepreneur, n.d.).

Examples of Definitions of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship can be defined as a field of business that

seeks to understand how opportunities to create something new (e.g., new products or services, new markets, new production processes or raw materials, new ways of organizing existing technologies) arise and are discovered or created by specific persons, who then use various means to exploit or develop them, thus producing a wide range of effects (Baron, Shane, & Reuber, 2008, p. 4)

A concise definition of entrepreneurship “is that it is the process of pursuing opportunities without limitation by resources currently in hand” (Brooks, 2009, p. 3) and “the process of doing something new and something different for the purpose of creating wealth for the individual and adding value to society” (Kao, 1993, p. 70)

The Evolution of Entrepreneurship Thought

This section includes an overview of how entrepreneurship has evolved to the present day.

The following timeline shows some of the most influential entrepreneurship scholars and the schools of thought (French, English, American, German, and Austrian) their perspectives helped influence and from which their ideas evolved. Schools of thought are essentially groups of people who might or might not have personally known each other, but who shared common beliefs or philosophies.

Figure 1 – Historical and Evolutionary Entrepreneurship Thought (Illustration by Lee A. Swanson)

The Earliest Entrepreneurship

The function, if not the name, of the entrepreneur is probably as old as the institutions of barter and exchange. But only after economic markets became an intrusive element of society did the concept take on pivotal importance. Many economists have recognized the pivotal role of the entrepreneur in a market economy. Yet despite his central importance in economic activity, the entrepreneur has been a shadowy and elusive figure in the history of economic theory (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 1).

Historically those who acted similarly to the ways we associate with modern day entrepreneurs – namely those who strategically assume risks to seek economic (or other) gains – were military leaders, royalty, or merchants. Military leaders planned their campaigns and battles while assuming significant risks, but by doing so they also stood to gain economic benefits if their strategies were successful. Merchants, like Marco Polo who sailed out of Venice in the late 1200s to search for a trade route to the Orient, also assumed substantial risks in the hope of becoming wealthy (Hebert & Link, 2009).

The entrepreneur, who was also called adventurer , projector , and undertaker during the eighteenth century, was not always viewed in a positive light (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Development of Entrepreneurship as a Concept

Risk and uncertainty.

Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) was born in France and belonged to the French School of thought although he was an Irish economist. He appears to be the person who introduced the term entrepreneur to the world. “According to Cantillon, the entrepreneur is a specialist in taking on risk, ‘insuring’ workers by buying their output for resale before consumers have indicated how much they are willing to pay for it” (Casson & Godley, 2005p. 26). The workers’ incomes are mostly stable, but the entrepreneur risks a loss if market prices fluctuate.

Cantillon distinguished entrepreneurs from two other classes of economic agents; landowners, who were financially independent, and hirelings (employees) who did not partake in the decision-making in exchange for relatively stable incomes through employment contracts. He was the first writer to provide a relatively refined meaning for the term entrepreneurship . Cantillon described entrepreneurs as individuals who generated profits through exchanges. In the face of uncertainty, particularly over future prices, they exercise business judgment. They purchase resources at one price and sell their product at a price that is uncertain, with the difference representing their profit (Chell, 2008; Hebert & Link, 2009).

Farmers were the most prominent entrepreneurs during Cantillon’s lifetime, and they interacted with “arbitrageurs” – or middlemen between farmers and the end consumers – who also faced uncertain incomes, and who were also, therefore, entrepreneurs. These intermediaries facilitated the movement of products from the farms to the cities where more than half of the farm output was consumed. Cantillon observed that consumers were willing to pay a higher price per unit to be able to purchase products in the smaller quantities they wanted, which created the opportunities for the intermediaries to make profits. Profits were the rewards for assuming the risks arising from uncertain conditions. The markets in which profits were earned were characterized by incomplete information (Chell, 2008; Hebert & Link, 2009).

Adolph Reidel (1809-1872), form the German School of thought, picked up on Cantillon’s notion of uncertainty and extended it to theorize that entrepreneurs take on uncertainty so others, namely income earners, do not have to be subject to the same uncertainty. Entrepreneurs provide a service to risk-averse income earners by assuming risk on their behalf. In exchange, entrepreneurs are rewarded when they can foresee the impacts of the uncertainty and sell their products at a price that exceeds their input costs (including the fixed costs of the wages they commit to paying) (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Frank Knight (1885-1972) founded the Chicago School of Economics and belonged to the American School of thought. He refined Cantillon’s perspective on entrepreneurs and risk by distinguishing insurable risk as something that is separate from uncertainty, which is not insurable. Some risks can be insurable because they have occurred enough times in the past that the expected loss from such risks can be calculated. Uncertainty, on the other hand, is not subject to probability calculations. According to Knight, entrepreneurs can’t share the risk of loss by insuring themselves against uncertain events, so they bear these kinds of risks themselves, and profit is the reward that entrepreneurs get from assuming uninsurable risks (Casson & Godley, 2005).

Distinction Between Entrepreneur and Manager

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832), also from the French School, advanced Cantillon’s work, but added that entrepreneurship was essentially a form of management. Say “put the entrepreneur at the core of the entire process of production and distribution” (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 17). Say’s work resulted in something similar to a general theory of entrepreneurship with three distinct functions; “scientific knowledge of the product; entrepreneurial industry – the application of knowledge to useful purpose; and productive industry – the manufacture of the item by manual labour” (Chell, 2008, p. 20).

Frank Knight made several contributions to entrepreneurship theory, but another of note is how he distinguished an entrepreneur from a manager. He suggested that a manager crosses the line to become an entrepreneur “when the exercise of his/her judgment is liable to error and s/he assumes the responsibility for its correctness” (Chell, 2008, p. 33). Knight said that entrepreneurs calculate the risks associated with uncertain business situations and make informed judgments and decisions with the expectation that – if they assessed the situation and made the correct decisions – they would be rewarded by earning a profit. Those who elect to avoid taking these risks choose the relative security of being employees (Chell, 2008).

Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), from the English School of thought, was one of the founders of neoclassical economics. His research involved distinguishing between the terms capitalist, entrepreneur, and manager. Marshall saw capitalists as individuals who “committed themselves to the capacity and honesty of others, when he by himself had incurred the risks for having contributed with the capital” (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 775). An entrepreneur took control of money provided by capitalists in an effort to leverage it to create more money; but would lose less if something went wrong then would the capitalists. An entrepreneur, however, risked his own reputation and the other gains he could have made by pursuing a different opportunity.

Let us suppose that two men are carrying on smaller businesses, the one working with his own, the other chiefly with borrowed capital. There is one set of risks which is common to both; which may be described as the trade risks of the particular business … But there is another set of risks, the burden of which has to be borne by the man working with borrowed capital, and not by the other; and we may call them personal risks (Marshall, 1961, p. 590; Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 776).

Marshall recognized that the reward capitalists received for contributing capital was interest income and the reward entrepreneurs earned was profits. Managers received a salary and, according to Marshall, fulfilled a different function than either capitalists or entrepreneurs – although in some cases, particularly in smaller firms, one person might be both an entrepreneur and a manager. Managers “were more inclined to avoid challenges, innovations and what Schumpeter called the ‘perennial torment of creative destruction’ in favour of a more tranquil life” (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005, p. 781). The main risks they faced from firm failure were to their reputations or to their employment status. Managers had little incentive to strive to maximize profits (Zaratiegui & Rabade, 2005).

Amasa Walker (1799-1875) and his son Francis Walker (1840-1897) were from the American School of thought, and they helped shape an American perspective of entrepreneurship following the Civil War of 1861-1865. These scholars claimed that entrepreneurs created wealth, and thus played a different role than capitalists. They believed that entrepreneurs had the power of foresight and leadership qualities that enabled them to organize resources and inject energy into activities that create wealth (Chell, 2008).

Entrepreneurship versus Entrepreneur

Adam Smith (1723-1790), from the English School of thought, published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776. In a departure from the previous thought into entrepreneurship and economics, Smith did not dwell on a particular class of individual. He was concerned with studying how all people fit into the economic system. Smith contended that the economy was driven by self-interest in the marketplace (Chell, 2008).

Also from the English School, David Ricardo (1772-1823) was influenced by Smith, Say, and others. His work focused on how the capitalist system worked. He explained how manufacturers must invest their capital in response to the demand for the products they produce. If demand decreases, manufacturers should borrow less and reduce their workforces. When demand is high, they should do the reverse (Chell, 2008).

Carl Menger (1840-1921), from the Austrian School of thought, ranked goods according to their causal connections to human satisfaction. Lower order goods include items like bread that directly satisfy a human want or need like hunger. Higher order goods are those more removed from satisfying a human need. A second order good is the flour that was used to make the bread. The grain used to make the flour is an even higher order good. Entrepreneurs coordinate these factors of production to turn higher order goods into lower order goods that more directly satisfy human wants and needs (Hebert & Link, 2009).

Menger (1950 [1871], p. 160) established that entrepreneurial activity includes: (a) obtaining information about the economic situation, (b) economic calculation – all the various computations that must be made if a production process is to be efficient, (c) the act of will by which goods of higher order are assigned to a particular production process, and (d) supervising the execution of the production plan so that it may be carried through as economically as possible (Hebert & Link, 2009, p. 43).

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), from the English School of thought, considered entrepreneurs to be innovators. They “depart from routine, discover new markets, find new sources of supply, improve existing products and lower the costs of production” (Chell, 2008).

Joseph Schumpeter’s (1883-1950) parents were Austrian, he studied at the University of Vienna, conducted research at the University of Graz, served as Austria’s Minister of Finance, and was the president of a bank in the country. Because of the rise of Hitler in Europe, he went to the United States and conducted research at Harvard until he retired in 1949. Because of this, he is sometimes associated with the American School of thought on entrepreneurship (Chell, 2008).

Whereas Menger saw entrepreneurship as occurring because of economic progress, Schumpeter took the opposite stance. Schumpeter saw economic activity as leading to economic development (Hebert & Link, 2009). Entrepreneurs play a central role in Schumpeter’s theory of economic development, and economic development can occur when the factors of production are assembled in new combinations .

Schumpeter (1934) viewed innovation as arising from new combinations of materials and forces. He provided the following five cases of new combinations.

• The introduction of a new good – that is one with which consumers are not yet familiar – or of a new quality of good.
• The introduction of a new method of production, that is one not yet tested by experience in the branch of manufacture concerned, which need by no means be founded upon a discovery scientifically new, and can also exist in a new way of handling a commodity commercially.
• The opening of a new market, that is a market into which the particular branch of manufacture of the country in question has not previously entered, whether or not this market has existed before.
• The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-manufactured goods, again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to be created.
• The carrying out of the new organisation of any industry, like the creation of a monopoly position … or the breaking up of a monopoly position (Schumpeter, 1934, p. 66).

Another concept popularized by Schumpeter – in addition to the notion of new combinations – was creative destruction . This was meant to indicate that the existing ways of doing things need to be dismantled – to be destroyed – to enable a transformation through innovation to a new way of doing things. Entrepreneurs use innovation to disrupt how things are done and to establish a better way of doing those things.

Basic Questions in Entrepreneurship Research

According to Baron (2004a), there are three basic questions of interest in the field of entrepreneurship:

• Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs?
• Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited?
• Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others (Baron, 2004a, p. 221)?

To understand where these foundational research questions came from and what their relevance is today, it is useful to study what entrepreneurship research has uncovered so far.

Entrepreneurial Uniqueness

Efforts to teach entrepreneurship have included descriptions of entrepreneurial uniqueness based on personality, behavioural, and cognitive traits (Chell, 2008; Duening, 2010).

• Need for achievement
• Internal locus of control (a belief by an individual that they are in control of their own destiny)
• Risk-taking propensity
• Behavioural traits
• Cognitive skills of successful entrepreneurs

Past studies of personality characteristics and behavioural traits have not been overly successful at identifying entrepreneurial uniqueness.

As it turned out, years of painstaking research along this line has not borne significant fruit. It appears that there are simply not any personality characteristics that are either essential to, or defining of, entrepreneurs that differ systematically from non-entrepreneurs…. Again, investigators proposed a number of behavioural candidates as emblematic of entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, this line of research also resulted in a series of dead ends as examples of successful entrepreneurial behaviours had equal counterparts among samples of non-entrepreneurs. As with the personality characteristic school of thought before it, the behavioural trait school of thought became increasingly difficult to support (Duening, 2010, p. 4-5).

This shed doubt on the value of trying to change personality characteristics or implant new entrepreneurial behaviours through educational programs in an effort to promote entrepreneurship.

New research, however, has resurrected the idea that there might be some value in revisiting personality traits as a topic of study. Additionally, Duening (2010) and has suggested that an important approach to teaching and learning about entrepreneurship is to focus on the “cognitive skills that successful entrepreneurs seem uniquely to possess and deploy” (p. 2). In the next sections we consider the new research on entrepreneurial personality traits and on entrepreneurial cognitions.

Entrepreneurial Personality Traits

While acknowledging that research had yet to validate the value of considering personality and behaviour traits as ways to distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs or unsuccessful ones, Chell (2008) suggested that researchers turn their attention to new sets of traits including: “the proactive personality, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perseverance and intuitive decision-making style. Other traits that require further work include social competence and the need for independence” (p. 140).

In more recent years scholars have considered how the Big Five personality traits – extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (sometimes presented as emotional stability ), and openness to experience (sometimes referred to as intellect) – might be used to better understand entrepreneurs. It appears that the Big Five traits might be of some use in predicting entrepreneurial success. Research is ongoing in this area, but in one example, Caliendo, Fossen, and Kritikos (2014) studied whether personality constructs might “influence entrepreneurial decisions at different points in time” (p. 807), and found that “high values in three factors of the Big Five approach—openness to experience, extraversion, and emotional stability (the latter only when we do not control for further personality characteristics)—increase the probability of entry into self-employment” (p. 807). They also found “that some specific personality characteristics, namely risk tolerance, locus of control, and trust, have strong partial effects on the entry decision” (p. 807). They also found that people who scored higher on agreeableness were more likely to exit their businesses, possibly meaning that people with lower agreeableness scores might prevail longer as entrepreneurs. When it came to specific personality traits, their conclusions indicated that those with an external locus of control were more likely to stop being self-employed after they had run their businesses for a while. There are several implications for research like this, including the potential to better understand why some entrepreneurs behave as they do based upon their personality types and the chance to improve entrepreneurship education and support services.

Entrepreneurial Cognitions

It is only fairly recently that entrepreneurship scholars have focused on cognitive skills as a primary factor that differentiates successful entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and less successful entrepreneurs. This approach deals with how entrepreneurs think differently than non-entrepreneurs (Duening, 2010; Mitchell et al., 2007).

Entrepreneurial cognitions are the knowledge structures that people use to make assessments, judgments or decisions involving opportunity evaluation and venture creation and growth. In other words, research in entrepreneurial cognition is about understanding how entrepreneurs use simplifying mental models to piece together previously unconnected information that helps them to identify and invent new products or services, and to assemble the necessary resources to start and grow businesses (Mitchell, Busenitz, et al., 2002, p. 97).

Mitchell, Smith, et al. (2002) provided the example of how the decision to create a new venture (dependent variable) was influenced by three sets of cognitions (independent variables). They described these cognitions as follows:

Arrangements cognitions are the mental maps about the contacts, relationships, resources, and assets necessary to engage in entrepreneurial activity; willingness cognitions are the mental maps that support commitment to venturing and receptivity to the idea of starting a venture; ability cognitions consist of the knowledge structures or scripts (Glaser, 1984) that individuals have to support the capabilities, skills, norms, and attitudes required to create a venture (Mitchell et al., 2000). These variables draw on the idea that cognitions are structured in the minds of individuals (Read, 1987), and that these knowledge structures act as “scripts” that are the antecedents of decision making (Leddo & Abelson, 1986, p. 121; Mitchell, Smith, et al., 2002, p. 10)

Cognitive Perspective to Understanding Entrepreneurship

According to Baron (2004a), by taking a cognitive perspective, we might better understand entrepreneurs and the role they play in the entrepreneurial process.

The cognitive perspective emphasizes the fact that everything we think, say, or do is influenced by mental processes—the cognitive mechanisms through which we acquire store, transform, and use information. It is suggested here that this perspective can be highly useful to the field of entrepreneurship. Specifically, it can assist the field in answering three basic questions it has long addressed: (1) Why do some persons but not others choose to become entrepreneurs? (2) Why do some persons but not others recognize opportunities for new products or services that can be profitably exploited? And (3) Why are some entrepreneurs so much more successful than others (Baron, 2004a, p. 221-222)?

Baron (2004a), illustrated how cognitive differences between people might explain why some people end up pursuing entrepreneurial pursuits and others do not. For example, prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1977) and other decision-making or behavioural theories might be useful in this regard. Research into cognitive biases might also help explain why some people become entrepreneurs.

Baron (2004a) also revealed ways in which cognitive concepts like signal detection theory, regulation theory, and entrepreneurial might help explain why some people are better at entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. He also illustrated how some cognitive models and theories – like risk perception, counterfactual thinking, processing style, and susceptibility to cognitive errors – might help explain why some entrepreneurs are more successful than others.

Cognitive Perspective and the Three Questions

• Prospect Theory
• Cognitive Biases
• Signal Detection Theory
• Regulation Theory
• Entrepreneurial Alertness
• Risk Perception
• Counterfactual Thinking
• Processing Style
• Susceptibility to Cognitive Errors

Entrepreneurial Scripts

• “Cognition has emerged as an important theoretical perspective for understanding and explaining human behavior and action” (Dutta & Thornhill, 2008, p. 309).
• Cognitions are all processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used (Neisser, 1976).
• Cognitions lead to the acquisition of knowledge, and involve human information processing.
• Is a mental model, or information processing short-cut that can give information form and meaning, and enable subsequent interpretation and action.
• The subsequent interpretation and actions can result in expert performance … they can also result in thinking errors.
• the processes that transfer expertise, and
• the actual expertise itself.
• Scripts are generally framed as a linear sequence of steps, usually with feedback loops, that can explain how to achieve a particular task – perhaps like developing a business plan.
• Sometimes scripts can be embedded within other scripts. For example, within a general venturing script that outlines the sequences of activities that can lead to a successful business launch, there will probably be sub-scripts describing how entrepreneurs can search for ideas, screen those ideas until one is selected, plan how to launch a sustainable business based upon that idea and including securing the needed financial resources, setting up the business, starting it, effectively managing its ongoing operations, and managing the venture such that that entrepreneur can extract the value that they desire from the enterprise at the times and in the ways they want it.
• The most effective scripts include an indication of the norms that outline performance standards and indicate how to determine when any step in the sequence has been properly completed.

General Venturing Script

Generally, entrepreneurship is considered to consist of the following elements, or subscripts (Brooks, 2009; Mitchell, 2000).

• Idea Screening
• Planning and Financing
• Ongoing Operations

Searching (also called idea formulation or opportunity recognition)

• This script begins when a person decides they might be a potential entrepreneur (or when an existing entrepreneur decides they need more ideas in their idea pool ).
• This script ends when there are a sufficient number of ideas in the idea pool.
• overcome mental blockages to creativity which might hinder this person’s ability to identify viable ideas;
• implement steps to identify a sufficient number of ideas (most likely 5 or more) which the person is interested in investigating to determine whether they might be viable given general criteria such as this person’s personal interests and capabilities;

Idea Screening (also called concept development)

• This script begins when the person with the idea pool is no longer focusing on adding new ideas to it; but is instead taking steps to choose the best idea for them given a full range of specific criteria .
• This script ends when one idea is chosen from among those in the idea pool.
• Evaluate the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal climates
• Evaluate the degree of competitiveness in the industry, the threat of substitutes emerging, the threat of new entrants to the industry, the degree of bargaining power of buyers, and the degree of bargaining power of suppliers.
• Do a market profile analysis to assess the attractiveness of the position within the industry that the potential venture will occupy.
• Formulate and evaluate potential strategies to leverage organizational strengths, overcome/minimize weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and overcome/minimize threats;
• Complete financial projections and analyze them to evaluate financial attractiveness;
• Assess the founder fit with the ideas;
• Evaluate the core competencies of the organization relative to the idea;
• Assess advice solicited from trusted advisers

Planning and Financing (also called resource determination and acquisition)

• This script begins when the idea screening script ends and when the person begins making the plans to implement the single idea chosen from the idea pool, which is done in concert with securing financing to implement the venture idea.
• This script ends when sufficient business planning has been done and when adequate financing has been arranged.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps to develop a business plan and secure adequate financing to start the business.

Set-Up (also called launch)

• This script begins when the planning and financing script ends and when the person begins implementing the plans needed to start the business.
• This script ends when the business is ready to start-up.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps, including purchasing and installing equipment, securing the venture location and finishing all the needed renovations, recruiting and hiring any staff needed for start-up, and the many other steps needed to prepare for start-up.
• Start-Up (also called launch)
• This script begins when the set-up script ends and when the business opens and begins making sales.
• This script ends when the business has moved beyond the point where the entrepreneur must continually fight for the business’s survival and persistence. It ends when the entrepreneur can instead shift emphasis toward business growth or maintaining the venture’s stability.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps needed to establish a new venture.

Ongoing Operations (also called venture growth)

• This script begins when the start-up script ends and when the business has established persistence and is implementing growth (or maintenance) strategies.
• This script ends when the entrepreneur chooses to harvest the value they generated with the venture.
• The scripting process involves a logical flow of steps needed to grow (or maintain) a venture.

Studying Entrepreneurship

The following quotations from two preeminent entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education researchers indicate the growing interest in studies in this field.

Entrepreneurship has emerged over the last two decades as arguably the most potent economic force the world has ever experienced. With that expansion has come a similar increase in the field of entrepreneurship education. The recent growth and development in the curricula and programs devoted to entrepreneurship and new-venture creation have been remarkable. The number of colleges and universities that offer courses related to entrepreneurship has grown from a handful in the 1970s to over 1,600 in 2005 (Kuratko, 2005, p. 577).

Interest in entrepreneurship has heightened in recent years, especially in business schools. Much of this interest is driven by student demand for courses in entrepreneurship, either because of genuine interest in the subject, or because students see entrepreneurship education as a useful hedge given uncertain corporate careers (Venkataraman, 1997, p. 119).

Approaches to Studying Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a discipline, which means an individual can learn about it, and about how to be an effective entrepreneur. It is a myth that people are born entrepreneurs and that others cannot learn to become entrepreneurs (Drucker, 1985). Kuratko (2005) asserted that the belief previously held by some that entrepreneurship cannot be taught has been debunked, and the focus has shifted to what topics should be taught and how they should be covered.

Solomon (2007) summarized some of the research on what should be covered in entrepreneurship courses, and how it should be taught. While the initial focus was on actions like developing business plans and being exposed to real entrepreneurs, more recently this approach has been supplemented by an emphasis on technical, industry, and personal experience. “It requires critical thinking and ethical assessment and is based on the premise that successful entrepreneurial activities are a function of human, venture and environmental conditions” (p. 172). Another approach “calls for courses to be structured around a series of strategic development challenges including opportunity identification and feasibility analysis; new venture planning, financing and operating; new market development and expansion strategies; and institutionalizing innovation” (p. 172). This involves having students interact with entrepreneurs by interviewing them, having them act as mentors, and learning about their experiences and approaches through class discussions.

Sources of Information for Studying Entrepreneurship

According to Kuratko (2005), “three major sources of information supply the data related to the entrepreneurial process or perspective” (p. 579).

• Academic journals like Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice , Journal of Business Venturing , and Journal of Small Business Management
• Proceedings of conferences like Proceedings of the Academy of Management and Proceedings of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada
• Textbooks on entrepreneurship
• Books about entrepreneurship
• Biographies or autobiographies of entrepreneurs
• News periodicals like Canadian Business and Profit
• Trade periodicals like Entrepreneur and Family Business
• Government publications available through sources like the Enterprise Saskatchewan and Canada-Saskatchewan Business Service Centre (CSBSC) websites and through various government resource centers
• Data might be collected from entrepreneurs and about entrepreneurs through surveys, interviews, or other methods applied by researchers.
• Speeches and presentations by practicing entrepreneurs

International Distributors

Home | Blog | 12 Easy Entrepreneurship Activities For Any Class (Plus 3 Free Lessons)

12 Easy Entrepreneurship Activities For Any Class (Plus 3 Free Lessons)

Get your free entrepreneurship lessons

1. The Envelope Exercise

For this activity, print fake money and place small amounts in envelopes for individuals or small groups of students. You can choose to give everyone different amounts of money or keep it all equal. Explain that your students’ goal is to increase their investment — and in doing so, use the collaboration and critical thinking skills that are important in entrepreneurship.

Give students 20 to 30 minutes to brainstorm before having each individual or group share their ideas. Odds are high that they will be surprised by how easy it is for them to make money!

2. Defining Problems Exercise

Entrepreneurs find solutions to problems they see in the world . This means that the ability to clearly define problem s is important in entrepreneurship careers . To help students build this skill, s how them pictures that depict issues (like the one below) and ask them to define the problems they can see.   

Next, ask the students what information they would need to help define the problem better . They’ll want to start coming up with solutions right away but challenge them to focus on clearly defining the issue before trying to resolve it.   

3. Ready, Set, Design!

For this exercise, divide students into groups and give each group a challenge such as thinking of a new way to drink on the go or a new method of communication; keep the challenge open ended. Give each group a bag of everyday materials such as rubber bands, pipe cleaners, and foil. Have students design a product based on the challenge.   

After 15 minutes, have each group present their design and explain why that product meets the challenge. The point of this activity is to get students thinking creatively without getting hung up on the details.  

4. The StartUp Podcast

The StartUp podcast is excellent for sparking conversations about entrepreneurship in class. It illuminates important concepts revolving around entrepreneurial life. You can have students listen to an episode for homework and then facilitate a class discussion on what stood out to them in the episode.  

5. The Business Proposition

This activity will give students practice articulating a value proposition, which is a simple statement summarizing why a customer would choose your business or product. To get started, go over the definition of a value proposition and give students a brief faux business/product idea or have them come up with their own.   

Ask students to express their value proposition in a concise way. It may sound easy but keeping it brief can be challenging. This is a great exercise for helping students develop their entrepreneurial spirit.  

6. Wacky Ideas and 2-Minute Pitch

For this fun entrepreneurship activity, give students any two objects and have them brainstorm ways they can combine the objects into one invention. Then they must define the invention. Have them answer questions such as:  

• What is it?  
• What can it do?   
• Who uses it?   
• How could it be used differently?   

After defining the invention, students have two minutes to pitch it to the class. They should start by introducing themselves, the name of their company, and their invention. Once they’ve made their introductions, have them explain how their invention works and why people need it.  

7. Reverse Brainstorming

In reverse brainstorming exercises, you take a problem and try to make it worse. This process allows you consider perspectives you may not have thought of before. An example problem you can present to students may be that they’re trying to study in the library, but people are being too loud in the hallway.   

Next, ask students how they can make the situation worse such as opening the library door, so the hallway commotion is louder. For every idea they come up with for how to make the situation worse, they then must find a solution for the issue. Problem solving and creative thinking are highly valued entrepreneurship skills, and this activity focuses on building both.  

8. Entrepreneurship Videos

There are tons of short, free videos online discussing all aspects of entrepreneurship. You can play one at the beginning of class to introduce students to the topic of entrepreneurship careers or have them watch the videos as homework. Below are a few examples of short videos you can use.  

• What is an Entrepreneur?  
• Who Even is an Entrepreneur?  
• The Best Advice for Entrepreneurs  

9. Entrepreneurial Mindset Cards

There are 24 entrepreneurial mindset cards from venturelab that help your students build entrepreneurship skills. Y ou can print the cards or u se the random card generator on the site to play their suggested games or any other game that you come up with . One of their suggested games starts with dealing a card to each student . Then h av e them take turns reading the mindset definition and answering the question on the card.  

10. Pitch Challenge Toolkit

The P itch Challenge Toolkit is a free, five-lesson pitch challenge consisting of a simple set of activities to help your students learn entrepreneurship soft skills such as creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, and presentation skills. This is an excellent toolkit for developing workforce readiness skills for 21 st century careers , regardless of whether students pursue a career in entrepreneurship.  

11. Free Entrepreneurship Lessons

Realityworks offers a free series of lessons focused on a variety of entrepreneurship-related topics which includes many of the activities mentioned above! These lessons will help teach students about what it’s like to be, think, and act like an entrepreneur. You can teach all three lessons together or choose which ones fit best in your class. These lessons offer an easy way to integrate a brief entrepreneurship program into any CTE course .  

Access your free entrepreneurship lessons

12. Realityworks Contemporary Entrepreneurship Program

Our ready-to-use Contemporary Entrepreneurship Program helps you create an engaging two-to-three-week unit all about entrepreneurship.

Through this program, students will learn how to be an entrepreneur, generate business/product ideas, conduct market research, consider legal and financial issues, and write their own business plan.  

Looking for more entrepreneurship teaching resources? We suggest these resources:  

• Checking out this in-depth blog post all about our Contemporary Entrepreneurship Program  
• Watching our webinar, “Best Practices for Integrating Entrepreneurship Into CTE Courses:”  

• And of course, don’t forget to download these three free entrepreneurship lessons .

2 thoughts on “ 12 Easy Entrepreneurship Activities For Any Class (Plus 3 Free Lessons) ”

Hello. I’m a CTE Business and Marketing instructor in Idaho and I’m very interested in purchasing the Contemporary Entrepreneurship course packet. Is it possible to get a quote and a copy of your company’s W9 so my school district can set you up as a vendor?

Thank you for reaching out, Sarah! We’d love to assist you. I will pass your information to our Account Services Team, who will reach out if they need anything more from you to provide the quote. If you have any questions, in the meantime, you can contact them anytime via email ([email protected]), phone (800-830-1416) or by live chatting on our website. Thank you! 🙂

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join our email list!

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Realityworks

Introduction to Entrepreneurship

(3 reviews)

Katherine Carpenter, University of Victoria

Copyright Year: 2021

ISBN 13: 9781989864500

Publisher: Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Larry Clay, Assistant Professor, Marymount University on 2/12/24

This book is a sufficient option for my 201: Principles of Entrepreneurship course. It is aligned with my course objectives, and includes the basic of business venturing and modeling, but also offers the fundamental terms and definitions for... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This book is a sufficient option for my 201: Principles of Entrepreneurship course. It is aligned with my course objectives, and includes the basic of business venturing and modeling, but also offers the fundamental terms and definitions for learners outside of business can connect and understand how to start and maintain a viable business venture.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

This book details an accurate account of what is entrepreneurship, what are some of the qualities, attributes, and traits needed to be an entrepreneur, and practical suggestions to how to approach an entrepreneurship endeavor. The statistics of failure and success in this sector is key for students to understand that they are going against the grain starting a business, and it takes commitment, self motivation, and smart hustling to move towards a trajectory of profit.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This book has the basic information that is relevant to understanding the fundamental processes of designing products and services, and build capacity of an organizational system.

Clarity rating: 4

The book is consistent with clarity of information and injects case scenarios that help students understand entrepreneurship.

Consistency rating: 4

This book is consistent with other textbooks as it relates to content around entrepreneurship. Some of the basic constructs, structures, and processes in entrepreneurship have not change much, but there are new strategic and analytical tools available to entrepreneurs now that students can employ in experiential learning exercises that will also be complementaries to this book.

Modularity rating: 5

This book is easily digestible and separated in a logical flow.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The content is in a logical and clear flow that I believe students can read and absorb the information.

Interface rating: 4

The different formats offerings make this book a good fit as a learning interface for students. I noticed students in this generation prefer digital interfaces, so the PDF and digital version of the OER textbook with interactive tools embedded is a positive, and I foresee no interface issues between the content and students.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not recognize any grammatical errors in my review.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

This book was not found to have any offensive or derogatory content that might be viewed as insensitive to a particular group or culture.

When teaching entrepreneurship, I find the biggest cognitive struggle students have is approaching the business and financial modeling. I usually look for books that include an excel or spreadsheet template so students can practice dash boarding and managing their financials and non financial resources.

Reviewed by Mary Hill, Lecturer II, University of New Mexico on 5/12/23

no index or glossary found. as indicated by the title - this is an early introduction to the subject. read more

no index or glossary found. as indicated by the title - this is an early introduction to the subject.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

very accurate from my perspective as a person who has taught entrepreneurship for health care professions students for 10 years.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

very relevant. Able to be updated without difficulty.

Clarity rating: 5

very clear.

Consistency rating: 5

very consistant .

easily broken into small pieces.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

well organized. It is 67 pages and gives a very early introduction to the subject.

Modules 1 and 2 are masterfully designed and easy to navigate with clear paths. Likely, course instructors would wish to have other specific course assignments as the assignments within the book do not relate to concrete/crystalized knowledge, but on reflection (which may be less productive for some learners). If the book is downloaded as a .pdf, then the phrase "One or more interactive elements has been excluded..." appear 2-3 times per page on the .pdf. Effectively, the .pdf is not a full text of the course. When the course is viewed through the pressbooks interface, then interactive questions, well shot video transcripts and attractive visuals improve the material. Some aspects of the pressbooks interface are less intuitive to navigate. For example, the interactive business design in unit 3 focuses on sustainable development goals (SDGs). I like the connection of SDGs to entrepreneurship, but the entry level questions are difficult to navigate and are not geared to a novice learner (as the name "introduction to entrepreneurship" would indicate. The entrepreneurship plan in chapter 4 has many components bout entrepreneurship philosophy that will help learners consider what they need in order to create their endeavor. Absent, however, are the government permits / supports / business license logistics that sometimes are the reasons that businesses fail.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No cultural offense observed (from my perspective of a person of priveledge). Authors made effort to not to highlight any gender or any cultural accomplishments over others.

I will incorporate components in the chapter 4 entrepreneurial plan into my course on health care private practice entrepreneurship.

Reviewed by Christina Wooten, Business Technology Faculty, Rogue Community College on 3/30/23

The text is a good introduction and covers several high-level topics that pertain to entrepreneurship. There are many more topics that could be added to this text. It may not be sufficient to support an entire course. There is not a glossary... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The text is a good introduction and covers several high-level topics that pertain to entrepreneurship. There are many more topics that could be added to this text. It may not be sufficient to support an entire course.

There is not a glossary or index available.

The text appears accurate and unbiased. I did note a few writing errors in the text (missing period, additional period, etc.)

There are some references in the transcripts, text, and videos that could make the text obsolete. These references could also be confusing or non-inclusive to some students. "...someone who goes on Dragon's Den" These type references are limited to the introductory section of the text.

Overall, the text/transcripts/videos are clear. The final sections (3 and 4) do have sections that are not as clear. In 3.1 and 3.2 (The Entrepreneurial Process) there are some areas that could benefit from careful revision. These sections (3.1 and 3.2) also lack substantial videos that could help the learner connect the ideas.

The book is consistent in terms of framework and terminology.

The text/transcripts/videos are easily divisible into sections. The creator did a nice job segmenting the material. The material is organized in a way that engages the reader visually. There are quizzes embedded in the material that do not cause disruption to the reader/viewer. The overall work is segmented into clearly defined and numbered sections. There is a particularly helpful activity throughout the text called: "Read/Watch/Listen – Reflect" where the learner has an opportunity to read articles, watch videos, listen to podcasts and then reflect (journal) their thoughts in a writing activity. The resources linked in this activity throughout the text are splendid!

The topics are presented in a logical, clear fashion . The final project is also clearly defined and well-presented.

Interface rating: 5

This material appears free of interface issues on a PC. There are no distortions of images or text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Text/transcripts free of grammatical errors. There are, as previously referenced, a few writing errors that could be addressed in a revision.

I found no evidence of insensitive or offensive information in my review.

While I do not feel that this book would be enough material to support a quarter-long class, I do feel it has ample information in it to be a part of a class. The layout and delivery of the material is user-friendly. There are multiple modes of delivery used (video, written lecture, and transcript of videos) available to the learner. This text is one I will use to supplement the Entrepreneurship course I teach.

Table of Contents

• 1. Defining Entrepreneurship
• 2. The Role Entrepreneurs have in Today’s Society
• 3. Different types of Entrepreneurship
• 4. Entrepreneurial Traits, Skills and Abilities
• 5. The Entrepreneurial Mindset
• 6. Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship
• 7. Entrepreneurial Process
• 8. Unit 4 Assignment Preparation
• 9. Unit 4 Assignment Delivery: Entrepreneurial Plan
• 10. Course Wrap up and Reflection

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Learn about entrepreneurship and what makes entrepreneurs successful, all while developing your entrepreneurial skills.

About the Contributors

Katherine Carpenter (Cochrane) has an MBA from the University of Victoria and has been a full-time Faculty Member with Kwantlen Polytechnic University since 2020. Katherine has over 12 years of experience teaching in-person and online and delivering advisory projects to various entrepreneurial organizations. In addition to entrepreneurship, her areas of expertise include student engagement, online learning, program development and renewal, and instructional design.

Katherine is currently a developer in the Open Education for a Better World mentoring program and is a 2021 OER Grant Recipient through the KPU Open Education Working Group. When she’s not instructing with KPU, Katherine also teaches at other public and PVI organizations across the country, and advocates for UDL, open education, online delivery, and continuously improving programs to meet the needs of those learners worldwide.

Contribute to this Page

Teaching Entrepreneurship

Experiences teach skills..

2022 Top Free Entrepreneurship Exercises

January 10, 2022 doan winkel comments 0 comment.

“Your posts help me keep my students engaged – they and I thank you!” – ExEC Professor

Based on the popularity of our 2019 Top 5 Lesson Plans and 2020 Top 5 Lesson Plans articles, here is the list of our 2021 top entrepreneurship exercises and lesson plans based on feedback from our fast-growing community of thousands of entrepreneurship instructors.

We designed the following exercises and lesson plans to transform your students’ experience as they learn how to stay motivated, prototype, and work with finances.

5. Teaching Business Model Canvas with Dr. Alex Osterwalder

Most entrepreneurship programs use the Business Model Canvas (BMC) in some way (it is a core element of the Experiential Entrepreneurship Curriculum ).

In collaboration with the BMC creator himself, Dr. Alex Osterwalder, we produced a series of lesson plans detailing how he teaches his powerful tool.

With this 3-part series, you can . . .

• Part 1 : Introduce the Business Model Canvas
• Part 2 : Teach students how to write business model hypotheses
• Part 3 : Demonstrate how to prioritize their riskiest assumptions

View Directions to Teach the Business Model Canvas the Way Dr. Osterwalder Does

4. Financial Modeling Showdown

Financial modeling is incredibly difficult to teach in an engaging way.

That’s why, in addition to our more advanced  Financial Projection Simulator , we developed a new game that makes introducing financial modeling fun and interactive.

If your students get overwhelmed by financial modeling, this game will help them learn the core concepts in an accessible way.

View The Financial Modeling Showdown Exercise

3. 60 Minute MVP

Imagine your students, in just one hour, building, and launching, an MVP . . . with no technical expertise ! In our 60 Minute MVP exercise, we present an exercise during which students build a landing page MVP that:

• Tells their customers the problem their team is solving,
• Uses a video to demonstrate how the team will solve the problem and
• Asks for some form of “currency” from their customers to validate demand.

If you’re looking for an immersive exercise that activates your class, complete with a chaotic, noisy, high-pressure environment, that teaches real entrepreneurial principles, give “60 Minute MVP” a shot.

View the 60 Minute MVP Exercise

2. Design Thinking with the Ideal Wallet

The Ideal Wallet is an awesome exercise for teaching students to use empathy, prototyping, and iteration to design creative solutions to problems. This exercise that comes from Stanford University’s d.school is a fast-paced way to introduce your students to design thinking.

During this intense exercise, students will learn:

• That what is important for them to discover is what is important to their customer
• To design solutions specifically related to their customers’ emotional needs
• To prototype their design with simple household materials and
• To gather customer feedback on prototypes

As a result, students will know how to develop powerful solutions for customers because they can empathize with the person or people for whom they are designing solutions.

Available in both an In-Person Version and an Online Version.

View the Design Thinking with the Ideal Wallet Exercise

1. Motivate Students with Pilot Your Purpose

Students engage when entrepreneurship feels relevant.

This exercise makes entrepreneurship relevant by helping students discover that entrepreneurial skills will help them pursue their passions – regardless of whether they become entrepreneurs.

This is our favorite exercise because when we help students discover their passions, it becomes clear to them that entrepreneurial skills will help them turn a passion into their life’s purpose.

Suddenly, entrepreneurship becomes relevant and engagement increases

In fact, our students like this exercise so much, we’re making it the first lesson plan in the next iteration of our full Experiential Entrepreneurship Curriculum .

View the Pilot Your Purpose Exercise

Want 15 Weeks of Lesson Plans?

If you are looking for a fully structured, experiential entrepreneurship curriculum, with a semester’s worth of lesson plans that students love , you don’t need to reinvent the wheel .

We’ve done the work for you.

• Check out the Experiential Entrepreneurship Curriculum
• Check out an entrepreneurship syllabus for Creativity & Innovation , New Venture Creation , Social Entrepreneurship , Intro to Entrepreneurship , & MBA Entrepreneurship & Innovation courses

What’s Next?

In upcoming posts, we will share lesson plans for new exercises we shared at our Winter Summit!

Subscribe here to be the first to access these new exercises.

Join 15,000+ instructors. Get new exercises via email!

Enter Your Teaching Email:

Want 30+ more engaging exercises?

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get a copy of the  lesson plan on Google Docs:

Or you can just view it here .

5.1 Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define entrepreneurial opportunity
• Discuss Joseph Schumpeter’s theories of opportunity
• Identify key drivers of opportunity

Aspiring entrepreneurs can come up with ideas all day long, but not every idea is necessarily a good idea. For an idea to be worth pursuing, we must first determine whether the idea translates into an entrepreneurial opportunity . Entrepreneurial opportunity is the point at which identifiable consumer demand meets the feasibility of satisfying the requested product or service. In the field of entrepreneurship, specific criteria need to be met to move from an idea into an opportunity. It begins with developing the right mindset—a mindset where the aspiring entrepreneur sharpens their senses to consumer needs and wants, and conducts research to determine whether the idea can become a successful new venture.

In some cases, opportunities are found through a deliberate search, especially when developing new technologies. In other instances, opportunities emerge serendipitously, through chance. But in most cases, an entrepreneurial opportunity comes about from recognizing a problem and making a deliberate attempt to solve that problem. The problem may be difficult and complex, such as landing a person on Mars, or it may be a much less complicated problem such as making a less expensive and more comfortable mattress, as companies like Casper and Purple did.

Theories of Opportunity

In the twentieth century, economist Joseph Schumpeter , as shown in Figure 5.2 , stated that entrepreneurs create value “by exploiting a new invention or, more generally, an untried technological possibility for producing a new commodity or producing an old one in a new way, by opening up a new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for products, by reorganizing an industry” or similar means. 2

According to Schumpeter, entrepreneurial innovation is the disruptive force that creates and sustains economic growth, though in the process, it can also destroy established companies, reshape industries, and disrupt employment. He termed this force creative destruction . Schumpeter described business processes, including the concept of downsizing, as designed to increase company efficiency. The dynamics of businesses advances the economy and improves our lifestyle, but the changes (sometimes through technology) can make other industries or products obsolete. For instance, Schumpeter provided the example of the railroad changing the way companies could ship agricultural products quickly across the country by rail and using ice “cold cars,” while at the same time, destroying the old way of life for many ranchers who wrangled cattle from one location to their intended commercial destination.

Today, we might think of the displacement of taxi drivers by ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft as a modern-day example of this concept. To own and operate a New York City cab, for instance, one must buy what is called a taxi medallion, which is basically the right to own and operate a cab. Drivers take out loans to buy these medallions, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But now, ride-sharing services have eaten in to the taxi industry, all but destroying the value of the medallions, and the ability of taxi drivers to make the same money they were before the popular services existed. This change has left many taxi drivers in financial ruin. 3 Schumpeter argued that this cyclic destruction and creation was natural in a capitalist system, and that the entrepreneur was a prime mover of economic growth. To him, the goal was to progress, and progression starts with finding new ideas. He identified these methods for finding new business opportunities:

• Develop a new market for an existing product.
• Find a new supply of resources that would enable the entrepreneur to produce the product for less money.
• Use existing technology to produce an old product in a new way.
• Use an existing technology to produce a new product.
• Finally, use new technology to produce a new product.

We can understand theories of opportunity as related to supply or demand, or as approaches to innovations in the use of technology. The first situation is a demand opportunity, whereas the remaining situations are supply situations. The final three incorporate technological innovations. Supply and demand are economic terms relating to the production of goods.

Supply is the amount of a product or service produced. Demand is the consumer or user desire for the outputs, the products, or services produced. We can use the ideas from Schumpeter to identify new opportunities. Our focus is on identifying where the current or future supply and the current or future demand are not being met or are not aligned, or where technological innovation can solve a problem.

More recent research has expanded on the concept of technological entrepreneurial opportunities, identifying several areas: creating new technology, utilizing technology that has not yet been exploited, identifying and adapting technology to satisfy the needs of a new market, or applying technology to create a new venture. 4

Regardless of which of Schumpeter’s paths entrepreneurs pursue, before investing time and money, the business landscape requires a thorough investigation to see whether there is an entrepreneurial opportunity. Remember, entrepreneurial opportunity is the point at which identifiable consumer demand meets the feasibility of satisfying the requested product or service . “Feasibility” in this definition includes identifying a sizable target market interested in the product or service that has sufficient profitability for the venture’s financial success.

Entrepreneur In Action

Chester carlson.

Chester Carlson , a physicist, inventor, and patent attorney, spent ten years searching for a company to develop and manufacture a new photographic machine for office use to make copies faster and for less money. Carlson went on to found the XEROX Corporation , the company that made the first photocopy machines. Can you imagine a school or office today without a photocopy machine? The companies that Carlson approached with his invention missed the opportunity to invest. For Carlson, it was the beginning of a technology product development company that has been granted more than 50,000 patents worldwide.

Today, Xerox continues to innovate. Visit the innovation section of its website (https://www.xerox.com/en-us/innovation) and consider how one of the inventions it’s developing now could spur creative destruction in an industry, according to Schumpeter’s theory.

Identifying Opportunity

A good place to begin your entrepreneurial quest is to read as much as you can, especially with new technology developments, even outside the field you work in. Remember that as technologies start to emerge, we often do not yet understand their commercial potential. For example, microwave technology was first applied in radars to track military submarines. But, thanks to a curious man named Percy Spencer and the accidental melting of a peanut bar in his pocket one day while tinkering with the technology, the microwave was born. It would take a few decades for it to be produced at a price the mass market could afford. 5

Think of drones, too. When they were invented, the multiple uses for this technology were not yet identified. Now, drone technology is being used by real estate firms, package delivery services, agriculture, underwater search and scientific research, security, surveillance, and more. Being tuned in to new experiences and information can lead to identifying opportunities. Entrepreneur Fred Smith found a system to solve the problem of overnight package delivery in founding Federal Express . 6 As a college student, he wrote a paper for an economics class where he discussed his business idea. He earned only a C on his paper, by the way. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1966 and went on to found Federal Express a few years later, which, in 2019, generated almost $70 billion in revenue. 7 Prior to starting Federal Express, Smith was in the US Marine Corps serving in Vietnam where he observed the military’s logistics systems. 8 This is where he honed his interest in shipping products while in the military. Many entrepreneurs start their business after working for someone else and seeing a better way to operate that business, and then start their own competing business.

Note that entrepreneurs need to be careful about starting competing businesses. See Telling Your Entrepreneurial Story and Pitching the Idea and Business Structure Options: Legal, Tax, and Risk Issues for information on noncompete clauses and agreements. Indeed, some entrepreneurs, like Smith, conduct research as an idea percolates, paying attention to new experiences and information to further advance their idea into an entrepreneurial opportunity. However, they must ensure that the existing product, service, or business process is not covered by any active and protected intellectual property (patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret), as discussed in Creativity, Innovation, and Invention and Fundamentals of Resource Planning .

Identifying consumer needs may be as simple as listening to customer comments such as “I wish my virtual orders could be delivered more quickly.” or “I can never seem to find a comfortable pillow that helps me sleep better.” You can also observe customer behavior to gather new ideas. If you are already in business, customer feedback can be a simple form of market research.

When purchasing an existing business or franchise, the process is a bit different. The first step will usually be searching for a business that suits your experience, personal preferences, and interests. You will still want to conduct research to understand the industry, the local market, and the business itself. Then, you will begin to examine all available company financial data. If purchasing a franchise, you may want to contact other franchise owners and discuss their experience in working with the franchisor.

How Spanx Founder Developed Resilience and Persistence 9

Another entrepreneur, Sara Blakely ( Figure 5.3 ), admits that for the seven years she spent selling fax machines in the 1990s, many times, she became so frightened of approaching sales prospects that she would burst into tears and then have to drive around the block to collect herself before she could complete the next sales call.

One day in 1998, she was putting on pants and looked in the mirror and did not like how she looked. So, Blakely came up with the idea to wear a pair of control-top pantyhose underneath—but she cut the feet out. Blakely liked the look and comfort of the footless hose and decided to patent her own body-shaping footless version. Just a few years later, Blakely founded her company, Spanx, Incorporated , which since has gone on to launch more than 200 styles of body-shaping garments. This is another case of an entrepreneurial company born out of a simple way to solve an everyday problem.

Blakely is also a master of resilience, which is a quality of many successful entrepreneurs. When she was sixteen years old, right around the time her parents separated, she witnessed a good friend get hit and killed by a car. Her father gave her a set of motivational tapes to listen to: How to Be a No-Limit Person by Wayne Dyer. She found the tapes so helpful that she memorized all of them and still gives copies of the tapes as gifts.

As a child, her father encouraged his children to respect the valuable lessons we can learn through failure. Obviously, it helped Blakely at a young age develop persistence and determination. That persistence and determination helped her develop a business idea into a billion-dollar enterprise.

• Was Blakely’s idea a demand or a supply idea?
• What industry information would Blakely need as she was researching this idea?

When researching supply and demand, you should also consider political factors. For example, changes in tax laws can inform decisions. One example is a tax credit that encourages alternative energy use, such as electric or hybrid vehicles. For 2019, the IRS tax credit is between $2,500 and $7,500 per new electric vehicle, with a concurrent phase-out of the plug-in electric vehicle tax credit. Changes in the tax code can therefore influence buyer behavior or the demand for vehicles. Another example is the Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit of up to $4,000 for solar electronic appliances such as solar water heaters and solar panels and for small wind turbines, through the end of 2021. 10 Tax incentives do not usually last more than a few years (the tax subsidy for corn farmers to produce ethanol, an ingredient in automotive fuels, is a notable exception due to heavy lobbying by the farming industry), so it is important that entrepreneurs do not rely on these incentives as a permanent “pillar” of their value proposition and business model.

Let’s say you have an interest in machinery and art. Taking these two areas of interest, and knowing about this tax credit, you recognize that you have the talents to create artistic backyard wind turbines to create energy for a homeowner. Of course, you will still need to determine whether this is merely an idea, or if the conditions are in place to move forward in translating this idea into an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Drivers of Opportunity

Some recent drivers for change in the entrepreneurial space include new funding options, technological advancements, globalization, and industry-specific economics.

• Increased access to capital through social media sources like crowdsourcing (see the chapter on Problem Solving and Need Recognition Techniques for a more detailed discussion of crowdsourcing) is having a significant impact on entrepreneurship in that it enables underserved people and communities—such as women, veterans, African Americans, and Native Americans, who otherwise might not be able to start and own a business—to become entrepreneurs.
• Technological advancements continue to provide new opportunities, ranging from drones to artificial intelligence, advancements in medical care, and access to learning about new technology. For example, drone technology is being used to map and photograph real estate, deliver products to customers, and provide aerial security and many other services. Cell phones have spawned many new business opportunities for a wide range of cell phone accessories and related products, ranging from cell phone cases to apps that help make our cell phones faster for business and personal use.
• Increased globalization drives entrepreneurship by allowing importing and exporting to flourish. Globalization also helps spread ideas for new products and services to a world market instead of a local or regional market. Combined with the Internet and computer technology, even small businesses can compete and sell their products around the globe.
• Economic factors could include a strong economy that fuels other businesses. For example, growth in the housing market fuels growth for many housing-related products and services, ranging from interior decorating to landscaping as well as furniture, appliances, and moving services.

David Pridham , CEO of the patent advisory board and transaction firm Dominion Harbor Group in Dallas, cites six reasons that current conditions are excellent for startups:

• Venture capital investment, which you will learn more about in Entrepreneurial Finance and Accounting , has surged to the highest level ever, totaling $148 billion in 2018.
• The concern over patent protection is improving with better trade protection of intellectual property rights.
• Artificial intelligence could be a tremendous opportunity based on a McKinsey report projection, estimating artificial intelligence to become a $13 trillion industry by 2025.
• The explosive growth in freelance workers has been a boon to startups and small businesses.
• Another hot sector is technology-driven advancements such as self-driving vehicles.
• Intellectual property now accounts for 38.2 percent of our total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States. That totals $6 trillion per year, more than any other nation’s GDP except for China. 11

In addition, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Financial Group surveyed new startup businesses in 2017 and found that 95 percent indicated they believe that business conditions will be the same or better. In addition, 83 percent plan to increase their workforce, and 24 percent found fundraising not to be a challenge. 12 These numbers represent the highest levels of optimism among entrepreneurs over the most recent five-year period.

Some other economic indicators favor entrepreneurship. According to the 2019 Goldman Sachs Economic Outlook, consumer confidence is up, business confidence is up, interest rates remain reasonable and steady, more people are working, and wages are higher. 13 When the economy is strong, there are generally more opportunities available and more potential customers with money to purchase your products and services; but of course, there are no guarantees.

Link to Learning

There are debates about so-called kill zones—markets that the tech giants like Facebook and Amazon control through aggressive anticompetitive tactics. Some argue that these zones have frightened off investors and stifled competition. But others maintain that investment in young tech startups is as strong as ever and that the creative effects of big tech companies outweigh their destructive forces.

Read this article on how tech giants make it difficult for startups from The Economist and then this blog post refuting the idea that tech giants kill startups from The American Enterprise Institute and see what you think about the issue.

• 2 Joseph Schumpeter. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy , 3rd ed. (New York: Harper Torchbooks, Harper and Row Publishers, 1950), 132–134.
• 3 Winnie Hu. “Taxi Medallions, Once a Safe Investment, Now Drag Owners Into Debt.” The New York Times . September 10, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/nyregion/new-york-taxi-medallions-uber.html
• 4 Jamalia Behrooz, Reza MohammadKazemi, Jahangir Yadollahi Farsi, and Ali Mobini Dehkordi. “Theories of Opportunity Creation and Effective Entrepreneurial Actions in Opportunity Creation Context.” Decision Science Letters 7, no. 4 (2018): 443–454.
• 5 Matt Blitz. “The Amazing True Story of How the Microwave Was Invented by Accident.” Popular Mechanics . February 24, 2016. https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a19567/how-the-microwave-was-invented-by-accident/
• 6 “Success Story – Fred Smith | Federal Express.” Daily10Minutes . n.d. http://www.dailytenminutes.com/2017/09/success-story-fred-smith-federal-express.html
• 7 “FedEx Corp. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Earnings.” Federal Express . June 25, 2019. http://investors.fedex.com/news-and-events/investor-news/news-release-details/2019/FedEx-Corp-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Earnings/default.aspx
• 8 Vance H. Trimble. Inventing FedEx: The Cruel Ordeal (2012). Vance Trimble. Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator (1993).
• 9 Teri Evans. “Sara Blakely on Resilience.” Entrepreneur . March 21, 2011. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219367
• 10 “Tax Credits for Energy Efficient Home Improvements.” EFile.com . January 24, 2019. https://www.efile.com/tax-credit/energy-credit/
• 11 David Pridham. “Entrepreneurs: Here’s Good News for 2018.” Forbes . January 10, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidpridham/2018/01/10/entrepreneurs-heres-good-news-for-2018/#18f02aef6659
• 12 Silicon Valley Bank. 2019 Startup Outlook Report . 2019. https://www.svb.com/startup-outlook-report-2019
• 13 Goldman Sachs. 2019 Outlook: The Home Stretch . US Economics Analyst. November 18, 2018. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/pages/outlook-2019/us-outlook/report.pdf

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/1-introduction

• Authors: Michael Laverty, Chris Littel
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Entrepreneurship
• Publication date: Jan 16, 2020
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/5-1-entrepreneurial-opportunity

© Jan 4, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Unit 1: What is Entrepreneurship?

Begin this unit by watching or reading the content below. Each Unit in this course features an introductory video that summarizes the lessons and assignments to be completed. Try to utilize this information to develop a plan of action for completing unit assignments and related learning activities as you work through the course.

Unit 1 Introduction

In this Unit, we are going to learn about the nature of Entrepreneurship, and why it matters. Entrepreneurship is a vast concept that is often misunderstood to mean something very narrow, when in fact it is quite broad and can be interpreted in many ways. This unit is built so you can learn about different perspectives about what this concept is, as well as start to build a meaningful definition of what entrepreneurship means to you. Throughout this unit you will engage in several activities and resources to learn about the nature and manifestations of Entrepreneurship in today’s society; at the end of this unit, you will define what entrepreneurship means to you.

By the end of this unit you will complete the following:

Learning Objectives

• Define entrepreneurship
• Reflect on the role entrepreneurs have in today’s society
• Identify the different types of entrepreneurship
• Evaluate the relevance of different types of entrepreneurship

Introduction to Entrepreneurship Copyright © 2021 by Katherine Carpenter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

VentureWell

13 Class Activities To Stimulate Inventor-Entrepreneurs

We updated this article with new class activities. The article was originally published in September 2017.

How can you bolster and maintain student engagement throughout your course? If you’re in search of ideas, we’ve curated a collection of cutting-edge class activities used by VentureWell Course & Program Grants recipients. These class activities are designed to prepare early-stage innovators in taking the first steps toward transforming their ideas into impactful inventions and ventures.

1) The “If I Knew…” Exercise Aileen Huang-Saad University of Michigan “Each term, I end the class with the “If I knew” assignment. Students are asked to fill out a simple PowerPoint template that asks the following questions:

• When I signed up to take this class, I was expecting…
• This is what I got out of the class…
• If I had only known…
• This is what I would change…

Before class, I go through all of the student responses and aggregate the feedback into the themes. I then present the summary to the students for the last class and we discuss their reflections. This summary presentation is then used to iterate on the course for the following year and is assigned as the first reading for the next cohort of students as their first assignment. This sets the stage for the next class.”

2) The Envelope Exercise Pritpal Singh Villanova University

“I like class activities like the envelope exercise developed by Tina Seelig at Stanford University. In this exercise, the students are asked to plan for a two-hour activity to increase an initial, unknown investment provided to them in an envelope. The amount of money in the envelope is very small – around $2. The students are usually surprised at how little money is in the envelope. Yet, every time I’ve done this exercise, the students have increased the investment money provided to them. The exercise helps students realize how easy it is for them to make money. I was particularly delighted when the students at the Bluefields, Indian, and Caribbean University in Nicaragua came to this realization. These students are generally from relatively poor communities and lack confidence in their ability to make money. When they performed this exercise and realized how easily they could make money, it was really eye-opening and thrilling for them. It was also a very rewarding experience for me.”

3) The Get Out of the Building Exercise Rodney Boehm Texas A&M University

“I provide exercises that get students out of the building. Nothing shapes a student’s perception about their idea or market better than talking with a customer . Most students are uncomfortable when they start a conversation with a potential customer. Once they are comfortable with the skill, it transforms them and their way of thinking.”

4) The Pure Imagination Exercise Laquita Blockson Agnes Scott College

“During the second week of my introductory entrepreneurship courses, I conduct a team exercise to convey the importance of creativity. I first show my students the “ Pure Imagination ” scene from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, asking them to listen carefully to the lyrics. This prepares them to think beyond normal convention during the exercise. I then provide each team with a common household item—a clothespin, a pill bottle, a cotton t-shirt, for example—and instruct them to think of alternative uses for their item. Once the teams have identified ways their item can be repurposed, I encourage them to contemplate how to deconstruct and reconstruct each item to make it more user-friendly. I find this exercise particularly useful because many of my students are not business or engineering majors, so by inspiring them with a film that they have likely seen, and by using common items, they are able to better internalize the connection between creativity and entrepreneurial opportunity.”

5) The Defining Problems Exercise Ruth Ochia Temple University “In my introductory course, I work on students developing a sense for defining problems. I show pictures that contain many potential issues. The students are asked to define the issues they can see and what questions they would ask or additional information they would want to help define the problems. They always want to start with solutions, but the key is to get them to define the problem better, which is half the work of solving the problem anyway.”

6) The Flipped Classroom Exercise Deb Streeter Cornell University

“I think almost all entrepreneurship professors use class activities to create what is now considered to be a “flipped classroom.”  I’m no different. Students in my courses work to develop business ideas and concepts, go out to understand customers, pivot, pitch, and spend time outside the building to learn and practice Lean Startup concepts. I also try to spark interesting conversations inside my classroom. Sometimes I do that by using short, focused video clips or the Startup podcast. I use the mishaps and adventures featured in the podcast to illuminate important ideas and concepts. The episodes are a perfect match with so many concepts related to entrepreneurship and Lean Startup. The class becomes very invested and opinionated about the founders and the company.”

7) The Business Thesis Exercise Jed Taylor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“There is a simple business thesis exercise that we use in our I-Corps program that teaches teams to articulate their value proposition and customer segment in a concise way.  It sounds simple, but it always amazes me how challenging it is for students to do at first.  I even crack out this exercise every time that I give a guest lecture across campus.”

8) The Soft Skills Exercise Cheryl Bodnar Rowan University “I use game-based class activities to help students develop their soft skills such as oral communication and teamwork, both of which are critical for entrepreneurs. Each player has a card with various symbols on it, and only one of the symbols on their individual card is defined. Without showing their cards to other players, participants have to decode the symbols and reveal the message on their individual cards, using only oral communication. The end result: all players enter a color on a rainbow-colored game board and the whole class wins.”

9) The Blindfold Exercise Joe Tranquillo Bucknell University

“In some classes I teach, I will hand out blindfolds and ask everyone to put them on. Then they pair up. Their task is to leave the second floor of the engineering building, navigate the campus, find the library, stand in line at the café and order a coffee or tea. The pair only gets to take off their blindfold when they get their beverage. Afterward we deconstruct this activity. The most important insight is that we as educators talk a lot about knowing your customer. Sometimes the only way to really understand a customer is to live in their world. After this activity the challenge is to find ways to become or simulate how to be your customer. Students seem to remember these class activities for a very long time!”

10) The Two-Minute Pitch Exercise Christine E. King University of California, Irvine

“I teach the students how to design websites and we train them how to perform two-minute pitches. I love watching the students get excited about their project, and learn how to understand the big picture. These pitches are then presented at our final symposium to industry judges. We provide the winning team with funding and resources to start their company. Each year, we have 1 to 3 student teams form companies and continue to develop their venture beyond their degree. It creates such an exciting environment to teach in, as what we show them becomes applied immediately into their careers.”

For many student inventor entrepreneurs, their first exposure to innovation and entrepreneurship happens in the classroom. That’s why it’s important to continuously develop and improve upon innovation and entrepreneurship class activities to ensure early-stage innovators are well-equipped to solve the world’s biggest problems. Learning curriculum development ideas and best practices from other faculty in the ecosystem can help educators adopt, implement, and refine their own coursework for maximum impact.

11) The Value in Waste Exercise Taryn Mead University of Arkansas and Western Colorado University

“I teach about various topics related to the circular economy, including regenerative innovation, or the process of developing supply networks for new products using waste materials. With VentureWell’s support, I recently led a class—and later an innovation challenge—in which students had to develop a product and business model to turn waste into new products. The teams have come up with great concepts, and some of them are going to apply for business accelerator programs at the state level.”

Editor’s note: Learn more about Taryn’s work using the waste stream in the classroom .

12) Life Cycle Analysis for Sustainable Engineering Design Nancy Ruzycki University of Florida

“In my exercise, students track an object through its life cycle to understand its impact all along the product journey. This is especially eye-opening for materials engineers, who might not have considered the impact of their materials choices. This gives them something to think about as they move into an engineering design career and start making decisions for a company. I love the life cycle analysis for the impact it has on students in their understanding of engineering materials selection.”

Editor’s note: For more information on materials choices, check out our Tools for Design and Sustainability .

13) The How Might We… Mini-Design Challenge Carlee Bishop Agnes Scott College

“We kick off our Human Centered Design (HCD) course with a mini-design challenge to introduce students to the design process and products. This helps students focus on a larger course project that addresses how to create a sustainable, human-centered intervention in the agriculture space. Our philosophy is to establish a learning environment for students to learn HCD by doing HCD.”

You might also like these blog articles with example class activities you can use:

  6 Virtual Classroom Exercises To Keep Students Engaged

7 Class Exercises To Amplify Innovative Thinking

Activities for Teaching Innovation: Game-Based Learning

Curious to know more about our Course & Program Grants, which offer up to $30,000 in funding to faculty and staff? Learn more .

• teaching resources

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• *New* Digital Transformation
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Business and Climate Change
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing
• Winning with Digital Platforms

Must-Have Entrepreneurial Skills for Aspiring Business Owners

• 25 Aug 2020

What comes to mind when you hear the word “entrepreneur”?

Maybe you picture a talented college dropout, or a seasoned business professional with a knack for predicting the next big thing. Whatever the persona, replace it with yourself.

There’s no specific demographic or personality profile of a successful entrepreneur . No matter your age, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or upbringing, you can be an entrepreneur if you have the dedication, drive, and business skills.

Access your free e-book today.

Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Whether entrepreneurship is a mix of innate traits or learned abilities is a constant debate. While risk tolerance, resilience , innovation , and creative problem-solving can provide a head start, they aren’t the only qualities to becoming an effective business owner.

Unlike personality traits and demographic details, you can learn and practice entrepreneurship through education, training, and experience. By taking advantage of growth opportunities, you can build valuable skills and generate innovative ideas to achieve business success.

If entrepreneurship is a path you’d like to pursue, use this list to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses and determine which skills to develop before launching your venture .

Check out the video below to learn more about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

6 Skills All Entrepreneurs Need

1. finance skills.

Finance skills, such as budgeting and financial statement analysis , are necessary for running a business.

Creating a reasonable budget and sticking to it can be the difference between your venture’s success and failure. By learning this essential finance skill, you can avoid overspending and appropriately allocate company resources.

It’s also imperative to know how to read and prepare financial statements , including a balance sheet , income statement , and cash flow statement . Aside from being required for reporting and tax purposes, these documents help you track performance, make future projections, and manage expenses. They can also be useful to investors and banks that are considering funding your startup because they show your business’s financial progress.

2. Networking

Your network is one of your greatest assets. Networking can enable you to not only meet like-minded professionals but build your future team and keep a finger on your industry’s pulse.

Your professional network can comprise:

• Former and current co-workers
• Alumni from educational institutions
• Professors and teachers
• Industry leaders and speakers
• Past and present clients
• Friends and family members
• Business professionals in your geographic area
• Fellow entrepreneurs with similar interests, responsibilities, and goals

Identify and reach out to people in your network who can guide you in your entrepreneurial journey and inform your decision-making . Ask them about their businesses, how long they’ve been in their industries, and lessons they’ve learned from successes and failures. Perhaps they’ve started several companies and can offer valuable advice about raising funds, developing products, and building a client base. They may even be able to connect you to contacts whose work aligns with yours.

In addition to leveraging your network, expand it. One way to do so is by signing up for networking events in your area or industry, such as HBS Online’s annual Connext conference, where learners from around the world come together to network, engage, and learn from HBS leadership and faculty.

LinkedIn is another valuable way to connect with others. Using the platform’s feed and recommendation algorithm, you can find professionals with whom you have shared connections and similar interests and job titles. Don’t be afraid to send a note introducing yourself to a new contact.

Related: How Leaders Develop and Use Their Network

3. Speaking Confidently

The importance of speaking confidently as an aspiring entrepreneur can’t be overstated. Whether pitching to investors , communicating with clients, or making conversation at an event, the way you talk about your business and its potential can influence how others see it, too. Showing a lack of confidence can deter investors from funding your venture and lead customers to question their decisions to buy from you.

Remember: You are your business’s biggest advocate. If you’ve achieved a milestone like product-market fit , share that with others.

People may doubt you along the way, but you should never be one of them. Confidence can make all the difference when it comes to attracting and retaining customers and investors.

4. Accepting and Acting on Feedback

To succeed as an entrepreneur, you must be eager to receive feedback and act on it. This requires staying humble and accepting that your idea of your product’s perfect version may not resonate with your target customers.

“Pinpointing your target customer is a critical early step in the startup business model development process,” Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jeffery Bussgang says in the online course Launching Tech Ventures .

One way to gather feedback is by conducting customer validation interviews to solicit constructive criticism regarding your product, proposed business model , and assumptions you’ve made about users.

You may also garner feedback from investors, more experienced entrepreneurs, and friends and family—and some of it may be unsolicited. You’re not required to implement all their advice, but it’s beneficial to consider it. Would their suggestions increase your product’s quality, value, or user experience? If the answer is “yes,” make those improvements.

Related: 5 Key Pieces of Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

5. Recognizing Patterns

Pattern recognition—in data, market trends, and user behavior—is an often-overlooked entrepreneurial skill.

For instance, identifying patterns in cash flow statements can enable you to make predictions about future cash flows. When observing market sales data, you can identify seasonality or other time-related trends that inform long-term goals.

Recognizing patterns can also help you to excel in your industry. If entering the tech space, you must understand the common challenges and patterns of what Bussgang calls “tough tech ventures” in Launching Tech Ventures . For example, health care settings involve many ethical issues around patient-facing products due to data privacy and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

When observing how users interact with your product, pay attention to how they react to specific elements and what questions arise. If your product is an app, perhaps you identify a pattern among teenage users who download it and immediately open the chat function. You can use trends to learn more about customers’ motivations and improve your product to better fit their needs.

Related: 7 Questions to Ask for an Insightful User Interview

6. Maintaining a Growth Mindset

As an aspiring entrepreneur, it’s critical to have a growth mindset . A growth mindset involves perceiving intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement, as opposed to a fixed mindset, which entails believing those same traits to be inherently stable and unchangeable.

One professional who demonstrates the growth mindset is Maggie Robb , vice president of operations at Spire Health. Robb knew she had a lot to learn when making the transition from a large corporation to a Silicon Valley startup and decided to take the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials to strengthen her entrepreneurial skills.

“While I have a deep business background, I wasn’t well versed in several important aspects of entrepreneurship, like investment structure, fundraising, and valuation,” Robb says.

In addition to bolstering her knowledge of those topics, Robb says the course helped her recognize the value of testing and iteration in the entrepreneurial process.

“While not something I was completely unfamiliar with, I realized the importance of it within a startup,” Robb says. “It made me look at our resource allocation in a different way, compared to traditional companies with established products.”

Robb’s story imparts a vital lesson: Your skills aren’t fixed but rather result from effort, practice, and persistence. By maintaining a growth mindset, you can avoid taking your skills for granted and capitalize on opportunities to grow and improve throughout your career.

Developing Your Entrepreneurial Skills

Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires dedication, drive, and hard work. One thing it doesn’t require is fitting a specific demographic.

With financial literacy , networking skills, confidence, the ability to accept feedback and recognize patterns, and a growth mindset, anyone can pursue entrepreneurship.

As long as you’re willing to strengthen your entrepreneurial skills, you can successfully position yourself to start your own company.

Are you interested in bolstering your entrepreneurship skills? Explore Entrepreneurship Essentials and Launching Tech Ventures , two of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses. If you aren't sure which is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

This post was updated on July 28, 2023. It was originally published on August 25, 2020.

About the Author

• Top Courses
• Online Degrees
• Find your New Career
• Join for Free

Business Plan: What It Is + How to Write One

Discover what a business plan includes and how writing one can foster your business’s development.

What is a business plan? 

A business plan is a written document that defines your business goals and the tactics to achieve those goals. A business plan typically explores the competitive landscape of an industry, analyzes a market and different customer segments within it, describes the products and services, lists business strategies for success, and outlines financial planning.  

In your research into business plans, you may come across different formats, and you might be wondering which kind will work best for your purposes. 

Let’s define two main types of business plans , the traditional business pla n and the lean start-up business plan . Both types can serve as the basis for developing a thriving business, as well as exploring a competitive market analysis, brand strategy , and content strategy in more depth. There are some significant differences to keep in mind [ 1 ]: 

The traditional business plan is a long document that explores each component in depth. You can build a traditional business plan to secure funding from lenders or investors. 

The lean start-up business plan focuses on the key elements of a business’s development and is shorter than the traditional format. If you don’t plan to seek funding, the lean start-up plan can serve mainly as a document for making business decisions and carrying out tasks. 

Now that you have a clear business plan definition , continue reading to begin writing a detailed plan that will guide your journey as an entrepreneur.  

How to write a business plan 

In the sections below, you’ll build the following components of your business plan:

Executive summary

Business description 

Products and services 

Competitor analysis 

Marketing plan and sales strategies 

Brand strategy

Financial planning

Explore each section to bring fresh inspiration to the surface and reveal new possibilities for developing your business. You may choose to adapt the sections, skip over some, or go deeper into others, depending on which format you’re using. Consider your first draft a foundation for your efforts and one that you can revise, as needed, to account for changes in any area of your business.  

Read more: What Is a Marketing Plan? And How to Create One

1. Executive summary 

This is a short section that introduces the business plan as a whole to the people who will be reading it, including investors, lenders, or other members of your team. Start with a sentence or two about your business, your goals for developing it, and why it will be successful. If you are seeking funding, summarize the basics of the financial plan. 

2. Business description 

Use this section to provide detailed information about your company and how it will operate in the marketplace. 

Mission statement: What drives your desire to start a business? What purpose are you serving? What do you hope to achieve for your business, the team, your customers? 

Revenue streams: From what sources will your business generate revenue? Examples include product sales, service fees, subscriptions, rental fees, license fees, and more. 

Leadership: Describe the leaders in your business, their roles and responsibilities, and your vision for building teams to perform various functions, such as graphic design, product development, or sales.  

Legal structure: If you’ve incorporated your business or registered it with your state as a legal entity such as an S-corp or LLC, include the legal structure here and the rationale behind this choice. 

3. Competitor analysis 

This section will include an assessment of potential competitors, their offers, and marketing and sales efforts. For each competitor, explore the following: 

Value proposition: What outcome or experience does this brand promise?

Products and services: How does each one solve customer pain points and fulfill desires? What are the price points? 

Marketing: Which channels do competitors use to promote? What kind of content does this brand publish on these channels? What messaging does this brand use to communicate value to customers?  

Sales: What sales process or buyer’s journey does this brand lead customers through?

Read more: What Is Competitor Analysis? And How to Conduct One

4. Products and services

Use this section to describe everything your business offers to its target market . For every product and service, list the following: 

The value proposition or promise to customers, in terms of how they will experience it

How the product serves customers, addresses their pain points, satisfies their desires, and improves their lives

The features or outcomes that make the product better than those of competitors

Your price points and how these compare to competitors

5. Marketing plan and sales strategies 

In this section, you’ll draw from thorough market research to describe your target market and how you will reach them. 

Who are your ideal customers?   

How can you describe this segment according to their demographics (age, ethnicity, income, location, etc.) and psychographics (beliefs, values, aspirations, lifestyle, etc.)? 

What are their daily lives like? 

What problems and challenges do they experience? 

What words, phrases, ideas, and concepts do consumers in your target market use to describe these problems when posting on social media or engaging with your competitors?  

What messaging will present your products as the best on the market? How will you differentiate messaging from competitors? 

On what marketing channels will you position your products and services?

How will you design a customer journey that delivers a positive experience at every touchpoint and leads customers to a purchase decision?

Read more: Market Analysis: What It Is and How to Conduct One   

6. Brand strategy 

In this section, you will describe your business’s design, personality, values, voice, and other details that go into delivering a consistent brand experience. 

What are the values that define your brand?

What visual elements give your brand a distinctive look and feel?

How will your marketing messaging reflect a distinctive brand voice, including the tone, diction, and sentence-level stylistic choices? 

How will your brand look and sound throughout the customer journey? 

Define your brand positioning statement. What will inspire your audience to choose your brand over others? What experiences and outcomes will your audience associate with your brand? 

Read more: What Is a Brand Strategy? And How to Create One

7. Financial planning  

In this section, you will explore your business’s financial future. If you are writing a traditional business plan to seek funding, this section is critical for demonstrating to lenders or investors that you have a strategy for turning your business ideas into profit. For a lean start-up business plan, this section can provide a useful exercise for planning how you will invest resources and generate revenue [ 2 ].  

Use any past financials and other sections of this business plan, such as your price points or sales strategies, to begin your financial planning. 

How many individual products or service packages do you plan to sell over a specific time period?

List your business expenses, such as subscribing to software or other services, hiring contractors or employees, purchasing physical supplies or equipment, etc.

What is your break-even point, or the amount you have to sell to cover all expenses?

Create a sales forecast for the next three to five years: (No. of units to sell X price for each unit) – (cost per unit X No. of units) = sales forecast

Quantify how much capital you have on hand.

When writing a traditional business plan to secure funding, you may choose to append supporting documents, such as licenses, permits, patents, letters of reference, resumes, product blueprints, brand guidelines, the industry awards you’ve received, and media mentions and appearances.

Business plan key takeaways and best practices

Remember: Creating a business plan is crucial when starting a business. You can use this document to guide your decisions and actions and even seek funding from lenders and investors. 

Keep these best practices in mind:

Your business plan should evolve as your business grows. Return to it periodically, such as every quarter or year, to update individual sections or explore new directions your business can take.

Make sure everyone on your team has a copy of the business plan and welcome their input as they perform their roles. 

Ask fellow entrepreneurs for feedback on your business plan and look for opportunities to strengthen it, from conducting more market and competitor research to implementing new strategies for success. 

Start your business with Coursera 

Ready to start your business? Watch this video on the lean approach from the Entrepreneurship Specialization : 

Article sources

1. US Small Business Administration. “ Write Your Business Plan , https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan." Accessed April 19, 2022.

2. Inc. " How to Write the Financial Section of a Business Plan ,   https://www.inc.com/guides/business-plan-financial-section.html." Accessed April 14, 2022.

Keep reading

Coursera staff.

Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

23+ Free Entrepreneur Lesson Plans (Projects, Worksheets, etc.)

By: Author Amanda L. Grossman

Posted on Last updated: December 14, 2022

Need free entrepreneurship curriculum, lesson plans, and projects? Here's entrepreneur lesson plans for high school, middle school, and elementary.

So, you’re looking for entrepreneur lesson plans to help turn your kids or students into the innovators of tomorrow.

And not just to make them into entrepreneurs, but to benefit your kids and students with the following results of teaching entrepreneurship :

• Improved academic performance
• Increased problem-solving and decision-making capabilities
• Improved interpersonal relationships
• Higher self-esteem

But, exactly how are you supposed to teach entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurs, among other qualities, need to be able to recognize opportunities in the marketplace. This means finding a need, and figuring out how to solve that need in a profitable way.

This can be as simple as a kidpreneur/kidpreneurship (or kidpreneur-in-the-making) opening a lemonade stand on a smoldering July day near a construction site, and as complicated as creating a machine knob specifically for tea growers in Japan.

And having this ability doesn't have to result in a person starting their own business; it works equally as well for your child if they work for someone else in the form of more merit raises, one-time bonuses for one-off projects, promotions, leverage in salary negotiations, etc.

In fact, the skill of recognizing an opportunity, and seizing it by writing my own job description resulted in me snagging my first job out of college (worth an awesome $40,000 + benefits to me at the time). More on that in a bit.

What are the other skills a child needs to learn to help them as an entrepreneur?

Psst: you'll also want to check out my resource list of youth entrepreneurship programs , entrepreneur biographies for kids , kid entrepreneur kits , and full review of the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox . 

Article Content

How Do You Teach Entrepreneurship?

Teaching entrepreneurship is a bit trickier than, say, teaching algebra. With algebra, the equations come out with the same solutions, every time. But with entrepreneurship?

There are an endless number of variables that go into it, and an endless number of outcomes that can come out of it.

How are you supposed to teach for that?

One of the best ways to teach entrepreneurship is to choose entrepreneurial projects, activities, and lesson plans that aim at nurturing these entrepreneur skills:

• Ability to identify opportunities
• Self confidence
• At least basic knowledge of business finances/financial literacy
• Knows how to take measured risk
• Vision and creativity

Elementary School Entrepreneurship Curriculum

Excited to start teaching your elementary school-aged kids about entrepreneurship? Let me share some entrepreneurship lesson plans, resources, and curriculum with you.

Also, check out these 3 kid business plan examples .

1. Venture Lab

Who It’s For : Grades 1-12

Financial Aid : ( Free for non-commercial use ) Curriculum that organizations can purchase to use with students

Length of Program : 90-minute lessons

Location : N/A

Venture Lab offers a curriculum suited for 1st – 12th graders (curriculum is divided into lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle school/high school.) This is a course in a box with all of the lesson plans already completed and is meant to be utilized as part of regular coursework, after school programs, or camps.

Its focus is on teaching girls components of entrepreneurship such as STEAM concepts and design thinking.

2. Money Monsters Start their Own Business

Who It’s For : 4th – 8th grade

Students will read through the Money Monsters Start their Own Business book (PDF provided – 51 pages), and then play a game that has them experience the ups and downs of starting a business.

I love how a Toy Store Income Tracker is included so that each student can track their own earnings and see the numbers for themselves.

Psst: you'll also want to check out Federal Reserve Bank's webinar on teaching kids entrepreneurship , which will give you some lesson plan ideas. 

Starting a Business Lesson Plans for Middle School

Do you want to teach your middle school kid (or student) how to start a business, and you need a lesson plan? I’ve actually created a Take Your Child to Work Day printable which will give you lots of ideas for your starting a business lesson plan.

More middle school business lesson plans for how to start a business (all free):

• Federal Reserve Bank's Jay Starts a Business (Grades 3-6; comes with teacher's manual with lesson plans)
• Free Kid Business Plan Templates
• Biz Kid’s Crash Course on Entrepreneurship for Middle School
• EverFI’s Venture Entrepreneurial Expedition (for grades 7-10).
• Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneurs course
• Foundation for Economic Education’s Booms and Busts , What is Entrepreneurship? , What is the Entrepreneur’s Role in Creating Value? , etc. (students can earn a Certificate of Achievement)
• TeenBusiness’s Entrepreneur Lesson Videos series
• Parade of Entrepreneurs Lesson Plan
• Lemonade Stand Worksheets , and my best Lemonade Stand Ideas

Psst: Try holding a market day in your class. Here are 22 things for kids to make and sell , 17 boy crafts to sell , and help pricing their products in this market day lesson plan .

Teaching Entrepreneurship to High School Students – Free Entrepreneurship Curriculum

There are some great curriculum and materials out there for teaching entrepreneurship in high school, many of which include entrepreneur worksheets for students.

Psst: you also might want to check out these 5 business books for teens , and 11 business games for students .

1. Alison’s Entrepreneurial Skills Path

Who It’s For : Business students, and people interested in learning about creating a business

Financial Aid : Free

Length of Program : 6 lessons, each between 1 and 3 hours

Alison is a free, online platform with tons of courses, and one of the paths you can go down is an entrepreneurial skills one.

Teachers of the courses include venture capitalists, professors at Harvard, and professional entrepreneurs.

Lessons include:

• Characteristics of the Successful Entrepreneur
• Critical Skills for Entrepreneurs
• Creating an Entrepreneur’s Checklist for Success
• Entrepreneurship – Creating the Business
• Key Elements of Entrepreneurial Success
• Why Entrepreneurs Should Think Big

2. Youth Entrepreneurs

Who It’s For : Students

Financial Aid : Schools pay for this program, with the cost based on how many students get free and reduced lunches

Length of Program : 1 year

With this program, students first focus on economics, then they focus on starting their own businesses.

3. Diamond Challenge Business Curriculum

Who It’s For : Kids and teens

Length of Program : 14 modules

Looking for a video business curriculum with instructional guides? The Diamond Challenge’s program covers the following:

• What is Entrepreneurship?
• Opportunity Recognition
• Opportunity Screening
• Types of Businesses
• Building a Business like a Scientist
• Using a Business Model Canvas

They also offer a Social Curriculum track that’s 6 video modules long, including:

• What is Social Entrepreneurship?
• Wicked Problems and Grand Challenges
• Social Entrepreneurship Processes and Challenges

4. INCubateredu

Who It’s For : 10th and 12th graders

Financial Aid : Free (at schools where it’s available)

Length of Program : 1 year (followed by acceleratoredu for the 2nd year)

Through Uncharted Learning’s program, 10 th to 12 th graders develop their own business, pitch their idea ta a shark-tank style event, and even have a chance at receiving funding.

5. JA BE Entrepreneurial®

Who It’s For : Grades 9-12

Financial Aid : Free for students

Length of Program : 7, 45-minute sessions

Location : Anywhere

Through your child’s school, they can take Junior Achievement’s Entrepreneurial program. The course teaches students how to create a business plan, plus how to start a venture.

Lessons covered include:

• What’s My Business?
• Who’s My Customer?
• What’s My Advantage?
• Competitive Advantages
• Ethics are Good for Business
• The Business Plan

6. JA Company Program Blended Model

Length of Program : 13 classes (2 hours/class), or as a 1-year program with 26 classes (1 hour/class)

Location : Anywhere (online course)

This is an online program that teaches high schoolers how to solve a problem/fill a need in their community through entrepreneurship.

• Start a Business
• Vet the Venture
• Create a Structure
• Launch the Business!
• Run the Business

7. The Mint's Be Your Own Boss

Who It’s For : Teens

Length of Program : 3 lessons

Starting with the Be Your Own Boss Challenge , The Mint takes your teen through the following three lesson:

• Planning Your Business
• Money & Your Business
• The Law & Your Business

8. Wharton High School's Entrepreneurship

Who It’s For : High School students

Length of Program : 50+ lesson plans

These lesson plans go through the following:

• Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Opportunities
• Global Markets
• Business Plans

9. YE$ Youth Entrepreneurship

Who It's for : high school students

Cost : Free

Location : Anywhere (it's a PDF)

Here's a free PDF with tons of entrepreneur lesson plans and research done for educators, that is meant to go along with a 4-H program. You'll find some nuggets in here, plus, it's free!

Now let’s take a look at entrepreneurial projects that can teach your kids and teens all about starting a business with hands-on experiences.

10. Build a Business Plan

Who It's For : Middle School and High School

Location : Anywhere (online)

Check out this plug n' play business plan creator! You could send your students to this page to work through a business idea of theirs.

Then, at the end, they can print out their business plan!

Questions they'll need to answer include:

• Your big idea
• Who will buy
• How you'll spend and make money

Entrepreneur Worksheets for Students

While I would recommend taking on one of the projects below, or one of the hands-on lesson plans from above, there are also entrepreneur worksheets students can use to learn about businesses.

Here's a few of my favorites (all free):

• Lemonade Stand Free Printables (here's my best lemonade stand ideas , too)
• Lemonade Stand Worksheets
• Family Guide to Getting a Family Business Going (kid-centered)
• Small Business Administration's Lean Startup Business Plan
• Take your students through the DECA Idea Challenge (you'll need to pick your own everyday item to challenge students with, as the competition has ended for the year)
• Take your students through the DECA Entrepreneur of Tomorrow Challenge (again, the competition is over, but the PDF is still available for you to set up your own)

Psst: you might want to check out my review on the Teen Entrepreneur Toolbox .

2 Entrepreneurial Projects – What is an Entrepreneurial Project?

Entrepreneurial projects are a smart way to teach entrepreneurship to kids, because, as with any project, it gives them a chance to dive deeper into a topic that interest them (all under the guise of teaching them how to start and run a business).

Entrepreneur Project #1: Winter Beverage Outdoor Tasting Contest

It’s soooooo easy to sit inside all winter long and slowly accumulate cabin fever (plus a few pounds). That's why you've got to look for fun things to do in the winter.

Well today? We’re going to switch things up. I’ve created a family date night for you ( family winter activities !) that has both an indoor AND an outdoor component.

But don’t worry – with this fun winter activity we’ll keep things toasty throughout.

So, what’s the game plan? Each of your kid(dos) will make (rather,  create ) a warm winter beverage recipe  indoors . Then here's the twist: you’re going to host a family taste testing contest around your fire pit in the backyard.

Not only will this make a fun family memory, but your kid(dos) will actually walk away with more money knowledge in the process centered around the all-important lesson of how to make a profit!

Psst: Now that’s a money lesson I could have used as a kid, specifically as I’ve gone into biz for myself as an adult.

Host a Winter Beverage Outdoor Taste Testing

Finding fun things to do in the winter doesn't have to mean you're freezing your tootsies off. There's nothing better to keep you warm outdoors in the wintertime than a toasty drink. Well, a toasty drink around a roaring fire.

Here’s how it’s going down:

Step #1: Choose an Event Date

Build the anticipation for your family by choosing a date 1 to 2 weeks out (so that there’s time for you guys to complete the rest of the prep work).

Fill out the invitation on Page 1 of the free printable, and display prominently on your family’s bulletin board/gathering center in the kitchen so everyone knows the date of the big event.

Set the stage for the competition by having your family read their mission out loud. Other cool factors you can add in: make it a Friday or Saturday family date night, under the stars. Let the kids stay up a little past bedtime to complete.

Step #2: Your Kid(dos) Research Hot Drink Ideas to Enter into the Competition

Your kids are the ones entering the competition. They’ll be in the driver seat of actually creating their own recipe from scratch (with some inspiration from below).

There are lots of toasty, kid-friendly drink recipe ideas to get them started:

• Hot caramel apple cider
• Vanilla steamer with cinnamon
• Harry Potter Warm Butterbeer

They’ll get lots of help not only from looking up recipe examples on sites like Pinterest, but also from the worksheet in the free printable (Page 2).

Step #3: Shop for the Ingredients

Once your budding restaurant consultant has determined possible ingredients they’ll need for their signature drink, they’ll need you, Mama Bear, to purchase them.

Take the list your kid(dos) have created and go to the store (solo, or with them) to make the purchases.

Having trouble coming up with a pool of possible ingredients to buy? Use the lists below for inspiration of what to pick up (a few of these ingredients you probably already have at home) and let your kids create what they can from it:

• Bases : hot cocoa, apple cider, chai tea, milk
• Flavors : cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, flavor syrups
• Sweeteners : sugar, brown sugar, caramel
• Creamers : milk, half & half, almond milk, heavy cream, etc.
• Top-offs : whipped cream, caramel sauce, orange peels for zesting

Save your store receipt, as your kid(dos) will need this information to price their drinks later on.

Step #4: Your Kid(dos) Tinker + Perfect their Drink

Using the purchased ingredients as well as anything in your home they can find, host a kitchen lab session where your kid(dos) tinker with ingredients and perfect their super-secret, signature recipes (talk about fun things to do in the winter inside!).

They’ll write down the exact portion sizes to each ingredient that they use as they go along, which is important for the next step.

Step #5: Your Kid(dos) Figure Out the Profit Margin of their Signature Drink

Remember, the goal is to create a new drink for this restaurant that not only costs less than $5, but has at least a 60% profit margin for the owner.

Ahem: between you and me, that means their cost needs to come in under $2.00.

So, as your kid tinkers with ingredients, they need to keep price in mind.

Note: this step can seem a bit unwieldy, but is SO important for the whole process. Just know – I’m outlining both how to do this all by hand, as well as giving you shortcuts to online calculators where your kid(dos) will still learn the process by setting up the inputs and thinking through how it all fits together.

Of course, we’re not talking about the cost of the entire ingredient that you’ve purchased. After all, it’s unlikely they’ll use an entire carton of milk to create one drink. We’re talking about the small portion size that they used of the product.

In other words, they’re not going to get the cost of a single drink they’ve created from your grocery store receipt as it is now. They need to do some calculating based on the measurements of each ingredient that goes into each drink.

You need to know how much it costs to create just ONE of your super-secret signature drinks so that you can calculate the profit margin.

What’s a profit margin? It’s the percentage of what you keep as profit from each $1.00. For example, a 20% profit margin means that we earn $0.20 on every dollar. That means that the other 80% or $0.80 are expenses. Remember that Jack, the man from The Yeti Slide, needs a 60% profit margin, or $0.60 on each dollar in profit after expenses are taken out.

Step #1: Write down your ingredients + quantities.

Step #2: Convert each quantity in your recipe to the quantity on the product label.

Divide your ingredients up by dry ones (like cocoa powder), and wet ones (like heavy cream or vanilla extract).

Then use the appropriate table below to convert the amount in your recipe to the amount that’s found on the ingredient’s product label (front of package).

For example, if you used 3 teaspoons of cocoa powder (dry ingredient), then your conversion is to a ½ ounce (the cocoa powder can is in ounces). Or if you used 2 tablespoons of almond milk, you find on the Wet Conversion table that you used 1 fl. Oz. (the almond milk carton is in Fl. Oz.).

Hint: Can’t find the conversion or a little confused? You can plug the exact quantity of your ingredients into  this liquid converter  or  this dry converter calculator  online and convert it into the measurement found on your product label).

Conversion tables:

Dry Conversions

Liquid Conversions:

Step #3: Calculate the cost of each quantity of ingredient used.

Now you need to price each converted quantity of ingredient by figuring out how much each ounce or fluid ounce costs, and then multiplying it by the amount you’ve used.

Hint: A good estimate to use for dashes of spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg is $0.05.

• Write down the overall price of each ingredient used.
• Write down the converted amount you used of it.
• Divide the total amount in the product package by its price to find what each ounce or fluid ounce costs.
• Then multiply that by the converted amount you used.
• Write down the cost. Then add all of the individual ingredient costs to get your total expense to create the drink.

Example: I used 1 tablespoon (tbsp.) of heavy cream. One 8 fl. oz. container of heavy cream at the store costs $2.99. That is $0.37/ounce. I look at the conversion chart below, and see that 1 tbsp. converts to ½ ounce. So, I divide $0.37/2 ounces, and see that this ingredient for just one drink costs $0.186 (you can round up to $0.19).

Ingredient Cost:   $2.99 _ Converted Amount Used:  ½ fl. Oz.  Total Product Amount:  8 fl. Oz.   Cost per ounce:  _$0.37/fl. Oz.  Cost of Ingredient Used:  $0.37 X ½ = $0.186 .

Looking for a shortcut?  Here’s a free online tool for pricing out beverages . You’ll need the converted amounts.

Step #4: Calculate Your Profit Margin

Figure out how high your profit margin is if you sell the drink for $5.00.

Profit on Drink: $5.00 –  total drink cost  = _ $ _________.

Profit Per Dollar:  Your answer from above  \  Cost drink is sold for ($5.00)  =  $ Profit

Profit Margin:  $ Profit  X 100 =  Profit Margin%

Step #6: Taste Judging Begins

By now you’ve set the scene for some fun things to do in the winter outdoors – think a crackling bonfire out in the backyard (or in your fire pit. Heck, you can de-hibernate the grill for some winter outdoor cooking/heating), plus a table/flat surface where your kids can place their super-secret signature creations.

Bust out some blankets, cover straw bales with table cloths…you get the idea. (And if you’re in Houston like we are? Well, a hoodie should suffice).

Have your kid(dos) place their drinks on the tasting mat, as well as fill in how much their drink costs and what the profit margin is (all calculations they’ll be guided through on the free printable).

Now they get to take a break, while the parents taste + score each one!

Included in the printable are both a tasting mat as well as a score card with specific criteria, such as inventiveness, taste, and profit margin.

Step #7: Declare the Winners

There are winners in a variety of categories, and then an overall drink that is chosen for The Yeti Slide's Yeti Roasts:

• Most Inventive
• Best Money-Maker
• Newest Yeti Slide Signature Drink

Looking for fun things to do in the winter? This two-part activity for your child that will leave them understanding profit margins like a pro, plus give your family an awesome family date night under the stars on a winter evening when you might otherwise be watching tv.

What could be better than that? If nothing else, you’ll have created quite the memory.

Entrepreneur Project #2: A System for Your Child to Identify a Need in Your Home + Propose a Solution

We want to encourage your child to come to you with things they see that could use improvement, and ways they could add value or provide a solution for you.

Let's go through how to do this.

Step #1 : Discuss with your child the idea that people need things + services.

Here's a conversation outline for you with a few blanks to fill in (where underlined) :

“People need things and services in their lives. They need things to maintain their health, they need things to make life more enjoyable. They need parts to make repairs to their belongings. They need really cool items to buy as gifts for others. They need better systems or processes to make things work more efficiently, which just means taking less time and less money and getting the same (or better) results. All over the world, people need things. In my own life, three needs that I've satisfied through purchasing something include  X ,  Y , and  Z . By purchasing them, they made my life easier because  <<FILL IN SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR EACH EXAMPLE YOU GAVE>> . Generally, when people need something, they are willing to pay money for the solution. That's why there are so many companies, all which provide products + solutions for people's needs.”

Pssst: MAN I wish I could go back 17 years and give myself this talk! Would've saved me several adult years of banging my head against the wall trying to understand how to make money.

Step #2 : Task your child with identifying a need around the house/property/car.

What could this look like?

A Few Examples for you + your kiddo :

• Find a more efficient way to organize the “command center” in your home.
• Use Google Maps or another program to find a more efficient route for your commute.
• Organize the wood pile + create newspaper logs that are fireplace-ready.
• Find a better way to organize/clean/maintain the video game center in your home.
• Clean out your car (I used to do this for my parents!) + add a car trash can to the back area so that in the future the kids can just use that instead of throwing things on the ground.
• Introduce a better laundry system for the family's clothes so that they actually  all  end up in the laundry room, sorted, and ready to be washed.

The possibilities are endless, and specific to what needs your child sees in your family life.

Step #3 : Once they've identified a need and come to you with it, you must decide if it's worth it to you to move forward. Don't be afraid if, after they've told you a need they  think  you have but that you don't  actually  have, to tell them that it isn't a current need of yours. Hey, the road to success is paved with failed products! This is excellent feedback so that they start to understand their “customer” and dig deeper. Perhaps they'll even start to ask YOU what you want from them!

Step #4 : What are both of your expectations for this job so that you know when the job is completed correctly?

Let them tell you what they propose to accomplish and what that would look like.

Then you share what you, as a paying customer, expect in results. Hash this out if need be (just like a real negotiation between a biz and their potential client).

This includes a deadline.

Step #5 : Now you need to ask them for a price.

I know, I know. You might be wondering, “why on earth am I going to let my child choose how much I'm willing to pay them for something they want to do around the house? Isn't it MY money?”

I totally get that. But remember that the nature of this lesson is to ignite that entrepreneurial spirit in them. Instead of you offering what you're willing to pay, have them go through the exercise of pricing their efforts. Then the negotiations start.

This sets them up for good negotiation + valuation skills in the future.

Determine the market price you'll pay, which is where their price (the supplier) and your price (based on how much you need what they're offering + a dash of several other things) meets. $__________.

Step #6 : Your child completes the work + notifies you.

Step #7 : Using the checklist you both created, provide oversight and see if everything is as it was supposed to be.

Step #8 : Pay the agreed upon rate once everything is up to par. And if they don't quite complete the project + deliver what they promised, it's up to you whether you want to make a partial payment, or not pay at all (satisfaction guaranteed could be added to this lesson as well).

If your child makes it through this process, then they will have successfully figured out a “market” need, fulfilled it, and gotten paid from their initiative. This is something that will no doubt shape their futures.

And if they don't quite succeed? Well the lessons are vast for all entrepreneurs as they traverse through the mistakes, failures, and successes.

It's really a win-win situation.

Let me show you what I mean, with an example in my own life.

How I Used this Skill Set to Write My Own First Job Offer Worth $40,000 + Benefits

While some of my dorm mates were floundering around trying to find employment, I was busy enjoying my last two months of college before entering the “real world”.

Why is that? Because I had a job waiting for me. And the only reason why I had that job was I spotted a need in a local company, and wrote my way into it.

I had interned for an organization in my small college town, and they ended up building a start-up company set to open its doors sometime around when I was due to graduate. One day I asked them if I could have a full-time job there come June. The director looked at me, and said, “go ahead and write up a job description of what you propose you would do here. Then we'll see.”

So I went back to my college dorm and worked on a job description. I thought about what the company was trying to achieve, and tied this into what I wanted to do with my life (at least what I thought I wanted to do at the time).

I wish I had saved a copy of the actual job description, but my sharp memory tells me it went something like this:

“Amanda L. Grossman will be the International Marketing & Sales contact at Chesapeake Fields. The International Marketing & Sales Person is responsible for researching new markets around the world where Chesapeake Fields' products would be well received. Primary responsibilities include understanding these markets, making contact with potential wholesalers and distributors, sending samples, and being the brand ambassador for Chesapeake Fields within these markets.”

With one minor change − they put sales in front of marketing in my job title − I got an offer from them for $40,000 + benefits to do just that. Within the one year I worked there, I ended up negotiating an initial container load of $27,000 worth of our product to a major food retailer in Taiwan.

Unfortunately, my job AND that company went under not long after my first and only year there. But writing my way into a company right out of college based on a need I saw that I could fill? Well that was enough to impress future employers who then hired me.

See how lucrative learning this skill could be for your child? I'd love to hear below what needs (perceived or actual ones) your child comes up with to fulfill.

• Latest Posts

Amanda L. Grossman

Latest posts by Amanda L. Grossman ( see all )

• 50 Banking Activities for Kids (Student Financial Literacy) - February 14, 2024
• 14 Christmas Activities for High School Students (they’ll Actually Find Cool) - December 1, 2023
• 3 Fun Selfie Scavenger Hunts for Teens (Christmas, Fin Lit, etc.) - November 27, 2023

Thursday 8th of June 2017

Uh, I totally love this post! My hubby and I are both entrepreneurs and want to instill the same in our children... definitely going to use these tips!!

Friday 9th of June 2017

*Squee*! Thanks, Lauren. I'd love to hear what your kiddos come up with:).

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Entrepreneurship

• Business and society
• Business management
• Finance and investing
• Health and behavioral science

Entrepreneurship is Management

• February 28, 2012

Career Choices When Life Is Short (HBR Case Study and Commentary)

• Joshua D. Margolis
• Avichai "Avi" Kremer
• From the June 2014 Issue

Enabling the Natural Act of Entrepreneurship

• Daniel Isenberg
• April 10, 2013

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

• Rita Gunther McGrath
• April 14, 2008

Finding Entrepreneurs Before They’ve Founded Anything

• Walter Frick
• September 19, 2014

Do Algorithms Make Better — and Fairer — Investments Than Angel Investors?

• Torben Antretter
• Charlotta Siren
• Dietmar Grichnik
• Malin Malmstrom
• Joakim Wincent
• November 02, 2020

Advanced Entrepreneurship: Building an Income Machine

• Stever Robbins
• August 20, 2010

Life's Work: Muhammad Yunus

• Muhammad Yunus
• Alison Beard
• From the December 2012 Issue

The CEO of Ozon on Building an e-Commerce Giant in a Cash-Only Economy

• Maelle Gavet
• From the July–August 2014 Issue

Making the Leap From Consumer Tech to Enterprise Class

• R “Ray” Wang
• March 22, 2011

Beating the Odds When You Launch a New Venture

• Clark Gilbert
• Matthew Eyring
• From the May 2010 Issue

Should You Give Up on Your New Dream?

• Whitney Johnson
• January 28, 2016

A Few Unicorns Are No Substitute for a Competitive, Innovative Economy

• Michele Zanini
• February 08, 2017

Stitch Fix's CEO on Selling Personal Style to the Mass Market

• Katrina Lake
• From the May–June 2018 Issue

More Women Starting Businesses Isn't Necessarily Good News

• Morra Aarons-Mele
• June 25, 2014

The Untapped Opportunity in Unformed Markets

• Valeria Budinich
• February 23, 2010

Silicon Valley Bank's Focus on Startups Was a Double-Edged Sword

• Paul Gompers
• March 17, 2023

Why We Should Teach Entrepreneurship to Disadvantaged Students

• September 22, 2014

How Much Is Sweat Equity Worth? (HBR Case Study)

• Christopher Marquis
• December 01, 2012

The Two Ways for Startups and Corporations to Partner

• Shameen Prashantham
• January 30, 2019

Neovida: Seeking Sustainability by Turning Coffee Cherry Waste into Superfood

• William E Youngdahl
• Steven Marshall
• Robert S. Green
• December 31, 2022

Rays Culinary Delights: Building a Start-Up Brand

• Ruppal Walia Sharma
• January 17, 2017

VP Group: Vegpro Grows Beyond Kenya

• Jose B. Alvarez
• Natalie Kindred
• December 16, 2013

Campusutra: A Fusion of Opportunities for Growth

• Chandrasekaran Nagarajan
• Indira Ananth
• Sathya Saminadan R S
• January 22, 2024

Ziqitza Health Care Limited: Responding to Corruption

• Robert Crawford
• N. Craig Smith
• May 27, 2013

Bharti Airtel in Africa

• Krishna G. Palepu
• Tanya Bijlani
• April 10, 2012

Growing on YouTube: Eric Kim's Story

• Noman Shaheer
• March 30, 2023

Catherine Gomez and Dentalite

• John A. Davis
• Shirley M. Spence
• February 27, 2013

Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (D)

• Linda A. Hill
• Kristin C. Doughty
• August 15, 1999

Climeworks (A): A Visionary Business to Help Stop Climate Change

• Peter Vogel
• Natalia Olynec
• October 29, 2019

MakerBot: Challenges in Building a New Industry

• Ruth Gilleran
• January 01, 2013

HBR's 10 Must Reads 2020: The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review (with bonus article "How CEOs Manage Time" by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria)

• Harvard Business Review
• Michael E. Porter
• Nitin Nohria
• Paul Daugherty
• October 01, 2019
• Mark N. Roberge
• Michael Roberts
• August 25, 2017

Note on Starting a Nonprofit Venture

• J. Gregory Dees
• Alice Oberfield
• January 17, 1991

Stress in the Workplace: Mental Health Conversations-The Employee

• Gabrielle Adams
• Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi
• Jaclyn Lisnek
• Melanie Prengler
• Gerry Yemen
• August 06, 2023

Schneider Electric: Opening Up to External Innovation

• Antonio Davila
• February 06, 2019

Lawyers & Leases

• Richard G. Hamermesh
• Michele Lutz
• January 10, 2001

The Wright Brothers and Their Flying Machines

• Tom Nicholas
• December 08, 2010

Building Businesses at Brainspark Plc.

• Christoph Zott
• Iwona Bancerek
• July 17, 2002

Climeworks (B): Business Modeling - Creating New Market Opportunities

Esporte Interativo, Teaching Note

• Andrew Zacharakis
• May 01, 2018

Iris Running Crane: December 2009, Teaching Note

• Matthew Rhodes-Kropf
• Josh Lerner
• December 02, 2011

Popular Topics

Partner center.

Browse Course Material

Course info.

• Prof. Fiona Murray

Departments

• Sloan School of Management

As Taught In

• Entrepreneurship
• Operations Management
• Project Management

Learning Resource Types

Managing innovation and entrepreneurship, assignments.

This section includes instructions for the major course assignments, as well as an overview of the course assignments and guidelines.

Assignment Structure and Guidelines ( PDF )

Group Assignments ( PDF )

Final Assignment ( PDF )

You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +61-730-407-305

Entrepreneurship Assignment Topics for MBA Students

Entrepreneurship-related studies are nowadays very trendy in search of finding new job opportunities. In the entire world, due to the economical encroachment, there is the importance of finding new start-ups where entrepreneurship is the only way. To learn the study of entrepreneurship, students need to solve different kinds of assignments for their institutional semesters. In this situation, students feel the scarcity of topics as they need a lot of experience and knowledge to find out topics of entrepreneurship topics. Without online assignment help services, such an entrepreneurship assignment can be a mess. To avoid such a mess there are some ideas which are presented below.

For entrepreneurship-related dissertation assignments , there are some topics. These are selected because it provides a large place of research to students.

• What can be the best new sector to create huge job opportunities?
• Which are the barriers in the national as well as international trade market?
• How to overcome the issues of employment across the world?
• How can entrepreneurship make the difference between the employed and unemployed peoples?
• Are there resource issues for entrepreneurship and employment creation in this present world?
• How can entrepreneurship change the unemployment issues?
• How can be entrepreneurship aligned with technology?

Entrepreneurship assignment topics are mostly now directing towards the new job opportunity creation.

Entrepreneurship assignment ideas:

If students are wandering towards their world, it is easy to find out different kinds of topics related to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship assignment ideas come from finding out investors to finance the project, repulsing the settled companies to new business persons, and finding out the hindrances of successful entrepreneurship establishment. Another highly catchy entrepreneurship assignment ideas come from finding out different kinds of hindrances for entrepreneurship and developing the workforce from converting inefficient workforce into effective human resources.

Entrepreneur report assignments:

In MBA, students need to submit some reports related to entrepreneurship assignments with a huge word count. For examples of the entrepreneurship report topics, there is the acquisition-related activities in Nigeria, strategic management for the small-scale businesses, how small-scale businesses or entrepreneurs can change the scenario of unemployment issues, raw material collection, or sourcing for the small scall business continuation.

In the entrepreneurial processes, there are four stages as researching on the market financing risk-taking, development of the project, and management of the project. Initially, students should learn the process that the entrepreneurship process starts with the risk-taking, assessments, and management process within a business. Here, the entrepreneurship system needs vast knowledge about risk management and development with the changing economic condition of the world. Entrepreneurship assignment ideas come from the business development process as well as market research. Entrepreneurship assignment help services are very rare due to a lack of confident entrepreneurship-related subject matter experts.

How to find out Entrepreneurship assignment ideas:

• If you are a good researcher, then you can find it out from the changing world.
• If you follow your daily classes on Entrepreneurship then professors will provide you a clear outline.
• If you are not confident about the steps, then the most crucial thing is to take entrepreneurship assignment help services. Here in social media, you can meet with many companies where assignmentclassmates.com is the best with their services, terms, and conditions. For quality, timely deliverance, anti-plagiarism reports, and proper customer care assurances are always available in this management assignment help system. According to market research for achieving better marks students need online assignment help services with their entrepreneurship assignment.

If you are thinking about your Entrepreneurship assignment ideas, topics, reports, or other things, feel free to contact assignmentclassmates.com and achieve the HD grade in the final semester.

Happy Students

With so many students using our help, they can't be wrong.

Recent Blogs

How to Prepare for Your Viva Exam: Strategies for Success

IP Tracker: Complete Guide in 2023

Understanding Narrative Conventions: A Beginner Guide

What Is Emotive Language? Types, Examples & Definition

Get quote now.

Conclusion: Entrepreneurship

• First Online: 10 February 2017

Cite this chapter

• Henrique Schneider 2  

3933 Accesses

1 Citations

Entrepreneurialism is a virtue. It is the virtue of those who are looking to reduce inefficiencies in the market and capitalize on this reduction. But it is also the virtue of recognizing new possibilities, new markets, and alternative futures. The real virtuosity of the entrepreneur is to realize when to opt for the first, Kirznerian, and when for the second, Schumpeterian, mode of innovation. In both cases, entrepreneurs will be trying to advance the market processes. Whether they are successful is down to how society reacts, whether cooperative practices develop that incorporate the novelty created by the entrepreneur.

Uber is an example of a combination of incremental and radical innovation, and an example of how societies develop different cooperative practices. Some—maybe most—are incorporating Uber and Uber-like entrepreneurs into them. Some—maybe just a few—are trying to oust Uber and Uber-like entrepreneurs from society. In free market processes corrections are free to occur; the more market processes are regulated, the more frequently destructions take place.

• Sharing economy
• Creative destruction
• Incremental innovation
• Competition

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Burlingham, Bo. 1989. The Entrepreneur of the Decade. Inc., http://www.inc.com/magazine/19890401/5602.html . Accessed 30 Sept 2016.

Casson, Mark, and Nigel Wadeson. 2007. The Discovery of Opportunities: Extending the Economic Theory of the Entrepreneur. Small Business Economics 28(4): 285–300.

Article   Google Scholar  

Drucker, Peter. 2002. The Discipline of Innovation. Harvard Business Review 80: 95–102.

Google Scholar  

Kirzner, Israel M. 1979. Perception, Opportunity and Profit . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Koopman, Christopher, Matthew D. Mitchell, and Adam D. Thierer. 2015. The Sharing Economy: Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, and Regulators. Input for the Sharing Economy Workshop, Project No. P15-1200, organized by the Federal Trade Commission.

Schumpeter, Joseph. 1942. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy . New York: Harper.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Economics, City University of Seattle, Seattle, USA

Henrique Schneider

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Schneider, H. (2017). Conclusion: Entrepreneurship. In: Uber . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49514-9_4

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49514-9_4

Published : 10 February 2017

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-49513-2

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-49514-9

eBook Packages : Economics and Finance Economics and Finance (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Elon Musk Overstates Partisan Impact of Illegal Immigration on House Apportionment

By Robert Farley

Posted on March 27, 2024

In claiming that illegal immigration benefits Democrats, entrepreneur Elon Musk vastly overstated its impact on the apportionment of House seats and Electoral College votes.

“The math, as I understand it, you can research this obviously very easily on the internet, it’s pretty straightforward to research this, but my understanding is that the Democrats would lose approximately 20 seats in the House if illegals were not counted in the census and that’s also 20 less electoral votes for president,” Musk said in an interview with journalist Don Lemon on March 19. “So illegals absolutely do affect who controls the House and who controls the presidency. It does not affect the Senate.”

That’s inaccurate.

In December 2019, the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates lower immigration, released an analysis of the impact of legal and illegal immigration on the apportionment of seats in the U.S. House in 2020.

Looking only at immigrants in the country illegally — the yardstick Musk employed — CIS estimated they were responsible for the redistribution of three seats in 2020. Looking at it in partisan terms , two states with a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor (Alabama and Ohio) and one state with a divided legislature and a Democratic governor (Minnesota) each had one fewer House seat in 2020 due to the inclusion of immigrants living in the country illegally in population counts. Gaining one extra seat were two blue states (New York and California) and one red state (Texas). In other words, the estimated net impact was that one Democratic state picked up a seat from a Republican state.

And, since electoral votes are apportioned based on the number of House and Senate members from each state, in that scenario, one Republican electoral vote was swung to a Democratic vote.

CIS also analyzed the impact of all immigration, both legal and illegal, and concluded it was responsible for a shift of 26 House seats. But that includes immigrants who became U.S. citizens, the U.S.-born children of immigrants living in the U.S. legally or illegally, as well as other immigrants living legally in the country.

A July 2020 analysis by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, based on government data, similarly found: “If unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. were removed from the 2020 census apportionment count … three states could each lose a seat they otherwise would have had and three others each could gain one.” Its analysis concurred with CIS on five of the six states affected, but instead of New York gaining a seat because of the impact of illegal immigration, Pew found that Florida gained a seat.

In other words, in 2020, if immigrants lacking permanent legal status hadn’t been included in population counts, two red states and one blue state would have gained a seat, and two red states and one blue state would have lost a seat. A wash, politically speaking, when it comes to balance in the House or electoral votes.

To add some perspective , over the last 10 elections, presidents have won by an average of about 176 electoral votes over the runner-up — though in 2000, Republican George W. Bush beat Democrat Al Gore by just five Electoral College votes. In the 2020 election , Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by 74 electoral votes. In other words, there is no evidence that the inclusion of immigrants living in the country illegally in census counts and apportionment calculations has swung a presidential election to one party or another. And in 2020, it did not affect the partisan majority in the House.

How Seats Are Apportioned

Reapportionment for the House of Representatives is done every 10 years based on the decennial census. A state’s electoral votes are determined by the number of senators and representatives it has. So if a state gains or loses a House seat, it also gains or loses an electoral vote.

As required by the 14th Amendment , the apportionment of seats in Congress for each state is calculated “according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.” There is no indication in the Constitution that immigrants without permanent legal status should not be included in reapportionment.

Numerous efforts have been made over the years to challenge the legality of including those immigrants in the apportionment process, but none has been successful. In March 2018, the Commerce Department under President Donald Trump attempted to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. (The mandatory decennial census doesn’t ask whether someone is a citizen.)

But Trump’s efforts were quickly challenged in the courts, and in July 2019, Trump abandoned his effort to include the question, though he tried to use other government sources to obtain a count of immigrants living in the country illegally.

Trump later attempted via a memorandum in July 2020 to “exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status.”

“Excluding these illegal aliens from the apportionment base is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy underpinning our system of Government,” the memo said. “Affording congressional representation, and therefore formal political influence, to States on account of the presence within their borders of aliens who have not followed the steps to secure a lawful immigration status under our laws undermines those principles.”

Allowing immigrants in the country to be included in the counts used for apportionment “would also create perverse incentives encouraging violations of Federal law,” the memo stated. “States adopting policies that encourage illegal aliens to enter this country and that hobble Federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws passed by the Congress should not be rewarded with greater representation in the House of Representatives.”

Late in 2020, the Supreme Court delayed  a ruling on a court challenge to Trump’s memo, and on his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order  revoking Trump’s memo and stating that census counts in each state are done “without regard to whether its residents are in lawful immigration status.”

“While it is true that Census includes this population and that they are counted in Congressional districts, it is important to note that this population is routinely undercounted … for multiple reasons and therefore the effect is likely minimal on district appropriations,” Ariel Ruiz Soto , a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told us via email. “But also, many of these immigrants are part of mixed-status households that include many US citizens who have critical needs and must be counted to receive funding and services (for example, in schools). And yes … many ‘red’ states also have notable unauthorized immigrant populations.”

The U.S. Census is used in many federal funding formulas. In fiscal year 2021, it informed the distribution of more than $2.8 trillion in federal funding.

Recent Legislative Efforts

Although the next reapportionment won’t happen until 2030, a surge in illegal immigration during the Biden presidency has brought the issue back to the legislative forefront.

On Jan. 25, 21 senators introduced the Equal Representation Act , which seeks to require a citizenship question on the decennial census, and prohibit the inclusion of noncitizens in counts used for apportionment of representatives. Four days later, a companion bill was introduced in the House. To date, the bill has 89 Republican co-sponsors.

A press release from Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said, “The current census method of counting illegal aliens for purposes of representation incentivizes open borders by boosting the relative political power of the respective states and voters that court mass illegal migration. For example, at least two million illegal aliens reside in California, currently resulting in this sanctuary state being apportioned several more congressional seats and Electoral College votes than the states’ population of citizens would justify.”

As we noted earlier, CIS and Pew Research Center both concluded that California would have had one less representative, and one less electoral vote, if immigrants living in the country illegally were excluded from the census apportionment count.

In press releases, other Republicans also portrayed illegal immigration as a boost only to Democratic states, though that is not the case.

“What we’re seeing is the Democrats abusing the system by creating sanctuary cities in blue states that are literally losing citizens every day to states like mine,” Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said in a press conference at the Capitol on Jan. 25. “What’s happening is cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, are acting as magnets to attract illegal immigrants. Those immigrants are then being counted in the populations of California, Illinois, New York, and other cities for the purposes of allocating congressional districts and electoral votes.”

“Blue states may be losing citizens over their liberal policies, but they’re making up for it by welcoming illegal immigrants,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said in a press release.

But immigrants don’t just settle in blue states, and there is some evidence that immigrants without permanent legal status have been settling more often in red states in recent years. While California (2.2 million) had more immigrants living in the U.S. illegally than any other state in 2022, the No. 2 and 3 states were the red states of Texas (1.85 million) and Florida (935,000), the Center for Migration Studies estimates.

When it comes to apportionment power, however, “it’s not whether they have any unauthorized immigrants in their state, it’s whether they have a higher than average share,” Jeffrey Passel , senior demographer for the Pew Research Center, explained in a phone interview.

“It’s not simply Democratic states,” Passel said. “There’s a mix of states with higher than average shares.”

The apportionment formula allocates sequentially, so it also matters how close a state is to the population threshold needed to get another representative, Passel said. The average number of people per congressional district is 761,169, although some states such as Delaware (990,837) and Idaho (920,689) have far more than the average, while others have far less, including Montana (542,704) and Rhode Island (549,082).

Republicans also claimed that a surge in illegal immigration since Biden took office will cause an increase in partisan disparity in apportionment.

Surge in Illegal Immigration under Biden

Hagerty misleadingly talked about  the “8 to 10 million people that have entered America just since Joe Biden took office.” As we’ve written , government statistics show that in the initial processing of millions of encounters at the southern border during the Biden administration, 2.5 million people have been released into the U.S. with notices to appear in immigration court or other classifications, as of October. There also could have been about 1.6 million “gotaways,” or people crossing the border illegally who evaded apprehension. 

Ruiz Soto, of the Migration Policy Institute, noted that most of the immigrants released into the country are still being processed at immigration courts, and many of them may ultimately be issued removal orders if courts determine they do not to qualify for asylum protection.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau , each House member represents an average of 761,169 people, based on the 2020 census. But immigrants disperse around the country, and while some states wind up with a disproportionate share, that’s true of red and blue states.

In fact, there is reason to believe Republican states may be benefiting more from illegal immigration than Democratic ones in recent years, according to an analysis released in January by David J. Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute.

According to Bier, “recent immigration trends are benefiting Republicans in states where they control the legislature and manage redistricting. About 62 percent of the three‐​million increase in the total immigrant population from March 2019 to March 2023 has occurred in GOP states, according to the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement .”

That includes all immigrants. Looking only at noncitizens, Bier wrote, “an overwhelming 95 percent of the increase in the noncitizen population has been in GOP states from March 2019 to March 2023.”

The noncitizen population includes noncitizens in the country both illegally and legally, though Bier told us, “I don’t believe that there would be a substantial difference in locational choice” between the two groups.

“The claim is that Democrats are right now letting more noncitizens come because these new entrants will increase their congressional representation,” Bier told us via email. “But while [that] may have been true for immigrants who entered decades ago, it hasn’t been true for recent arrivals.”

According to Bier’s analysis, seven of the top 10 states where noncitizens settled between 2019 and 2023 are states with Republican legislatures, with Texas topping the list.

“It is certainly likely that these states are attracting immigrants because of their strong job growth,” Bier wrote.

From 2021 to 2023, during the Biden administration, five of the top 10 states in which noncitizens settled were Republican-controlled, four were Democratic-controlled, and one has a divided legislature. However, California — a blue state — gained the most noncitizen arrivals, according to CPS Annual Social and Economic Supplements . The 2.7 million noncitizens estimated to have settled in the U.S. in that time period by the Census Bureau included those living in the U.S. legally and illegally.

Steven A. Camarota , director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, looked at the monthly Current Population Survey — a smaller survey but with up-to-date data — over the three years of the Biden presidency, from January 2021 to February 2024, and concluded that there were slightly more blue states than red where the immigrant population grew the most, suggesting that “when the next Census happens that the recent surge will benefit Democratic states more than the Republican states somewhat.”

All of these current analyses may ultimately be irrelevant. What really matters is where the noncitizens, specifically those in the country illegally, disproportionately reside at the time of the decennial census and which party controls those states’ legislatures (and can influence redistricting maps) at that time.

But overall, while illegal immigration affects apportionment at the margins, Passel said, immigrants in the country illegally disperse to many states and make up a fairly small percentage of people in the U.S. overall. “The inclusion of unauthorized immigrants in apportionment counts is not a major factor in determining who controls the House of Representatives,” he said.

“If you’re one of the states that loses a seat, it makes a big difference,” Passel allowed.

That “immigration redistributes house seats  is not in dispute,” Camarota told us via email. “In a country of 330 million people however, it is generally hard to move seats around because each seat now has about 760,000 people, though if a state is on the margin of getting or losing a seat, then it can lose or gain relatively easily.”

However, Camarota said he has analyzed population surveys during the Trump presidency and found certain House districts, with a high density of noncitizens, are more likely to elect Democrats. 

“The key group that wins politically from the growth in illegal immigrants and non-citizens in general are those that live around them,” Camarota said, pointing to a CIS report  that looked at districts with relatively few voters because many of the people in the district are noncitizens who can’t vote.

“It takes so many fewer votes to win an election in a district with a lot of non-citizens,” Camarota said. “This means that voters in such places have significantly more political power. That is, their votes count much more. In general the low citizen districts are almost all represented by Democrats.”

Camarota argues there are other long-term advantages to immigration — both legal and illegal — for Democrats.

“There is good evidence immigrants and their children [who ultimately become citizens] may vote Democratic 2 to 1 on average,” Camarota said. “So in the long run immigration has partisan implications, which I think is part of the complaint.”

Whether that’s true, or remains true in 2030, is a matter for speculation, but regardless, that’s not what Musk was arguing. He said there’s currently an advantage to Democrats of 20 House seats and an equal number of electoral votes due to immigrants in the country illegally being included in apportionment calculations — and that’s not accurate.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through  our “Donate” page . If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104.