Entrepreneurship Flashcards
What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is identifying an opportunity and accessing resources to capitalize on it
What type of company is entrepreneurship associated with?
Small, young businesses
Explain how entrepreneurship is not limited to small, young businesses and give some examples
When companies change/vary their products (eg. apple moving past computers and into smartphones)
Small but not young: small convenience stores that have been passed down from one generation to the next
Young but not small: Tesla
What defines a small business?
Less than 100 employees
What defines a young business?
Having existed for less than 5 years
What is the importance of entrepreneurship?
98.1% of businesses in Canada are small, and they contribute +30% annually to GDP. They force existing companies to be more innovative and creative in order to stay competitive
Explain how governments support small businesses
- They give small business a lower tax rate then individuals (11% compared to 17%). They will often also pay less tax than big companies
- The government will often give advice and funding to help businesses get started
- It is very easy and cheap for businesses to become established and operational
What are the three key components of the entrepreneurial process?
- Entrepreneur
- Identify opportunity
- Access resources
What is the entrepreneurial process influenced by?
PEST
When is the entrepreneurial process successful?
When the entrepreneur sees an opportunity and has an interest in pursuing it
How do you begin the entrepreneurial process?
The process begins with the entrepreneur identifying an opportunity and then accessing resources. If the entrepreneur doesn’t see the opportunity and decide they want to chase it, it won’t happen
What are the two parts of opportunity recognition?
- Idea generation
2. Screening
Explain idea generation in terms of opportunity recognition
It often originates in events relating to work, daily life, hobbies, or chance happenings. When you solve a problem, the solution sells itself. People do this by listening to complaints and frustrations, combining different functions, simplifying a product, offering a cheaper or more convenient version, or ask what jobs customers are after
Explain screening in terms of opportunity recognition
During this process the entrepreneur weeds out bad ideas, which saves time and money. It ensures that you have a viable idea with a competitive advantage
Explain how the three-component screening process tells you if you have a good idea
- Make sure your idea is valuable. Prove that it solves a problem that enough customers are willing to pay for, through surveys of target audience
- Make sure your idea is unique. Prove that it is different from existing products and substitutes, and that it can’t or won’t be easily imitated. Ask who the competitors are and how they will react
- Make sure your idea is feasible. Prove that it is marketable and financially viable by showing that there are enough customers willing to buy it. Look at the sales of competitors to see if there is a big enough market, and ask yourself if you can reach and win those customers, as well as overcome barriers to entry, and what forces affect your profitability (Five Forces Analysis)
What is are two important safety points that entrepreneurs should think about when thinking about entering an industry?
- Does the idea have low exit costs? How much am I going to lose if I decided to exit the market?
- If there is a longer time to profitability or greater up-front investment needed it is a risker venture
What are the factors that help you evaluate your business opportunity?
- Product/value added
- Customer market
- Competition/rivalry
- Suppliers
- Substitutes
- Barriers to entry
- PEST
How does product/value added affect your business opportunity?
You need to be able to have customers come back again and again, instead of making a one-time purchase
How does customer market affect your business opportunity?
You market should be large and (ideally) growing, and you need to be able to reach those customers
How does competition/rivalry affect your business opportunity?
You should not enter an industry where there are giant companies dominating the industry that can crush you easily
How do suppliers affect your business opportunity?
If there are a lot of suppliers, it is easy to switch between them and you will have relatively low input costs
How do substitutes affect your business opportunity?
If there are few substitutes but high switching costs it may be difficult to get customers to switch to you company. If there are low switching costs then they will switch to you easily because they have few options