rachael langley 1308563 bs2963 entrepreneurship iannotti date submitted: 11/12/2014 word count: 956...

Rachael Langley 1308563 BS2963 Entrepreneurship

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Personal Reflective Journal Rachael Langley 1308563

Entrepreneurship BS2963

Pam Iannotti Date Submitted: 11/12/2014

Word Count: 956


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Introduction

An entrepreneur is someone who has creative, innovative and opportunistic ideas and is

willing to accept risk and uncertainty (Burns, 2014, pp11). The concept of being an

entrepreneur is not one I had previously considered, and not something I felt I had the

characteristics to be. However through the course of this module, I have learnt more about

myself and the entrepreneurial skills I already have, as well as those I have started to acquire

during this module.

This essay will explore my personal entrepreneurial development, and highlight aspects of

the module I found most insightful and useful for the group element of the module.

Personal Development

Academically, it is thought that the entrepreneurial mindset is developed through both

biology and environmental experience, but it is something that can be taught (Chen et al,

1998). This is not something I initially agreed with and I felt unconvinced that by the end of

the module I would be more entrepreneurial than I was to begin with. However evidence

from results of the Enterprising Tendency Survey, shown in Appendices A and B, combined

with my personal development throughout the group project, suggest that the entrepreneurial

mindset can in fact be taught.

The Enterprising Tendency Survey was created to evaluate the entrepreneurial potential in a

person, including need for achievement, need for autonomy, creative tendency, tolerance of

risk and internet locus of control (Caird, 1991, pp.177-186). This survey was completed twice

during the module, once in September and once at the end of November. At the start of the

module I lacked some qualities associated with entrepreneurialism, namely the need for

autonomy and independence. This increased slightly by the end of the module, showing my

personal development of the entrepreneurial mindset.

Experience gained throughout the 12 week group project also helped with the development of

entrepreneurialism. By defining personal drivers and constraints of each member of our

group, we were able to come up with a strong business model that utilised all our areas of

expertise, while allowing us to develop entrepreneurial skills.


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Insightful Concepts

The beginning stage of our group project required us to pivot, a concept that requires

reworking an idea until it meets the needs of the target consumer (Burns, 2014, pp.99). This

was covered extensively during lectures 3 and 4, allowing our group to come up with an idea

and alter it until we felt it held suitable value for our clients; we began with the idea of an app

for fashion designs, but this quickly became complicated and we decided a simpler version of

this idea would be more worthwhile, which gave way to D2B Agency. This helped with

entrepreneurial skills of creativity and innovation. The lean start up model also aided our

decision making process. Figure 1 shows the lean start up model. Pivoting between the

market and the product is where an entrepreneur really defines their idea ensuring it fits with

the need of the consumer, thus filling a gap in the market.

Fig 1. Lean Start-up Model (source: Meldrum, 2014)

With this in mind, Timmons and Spinelli stated that ‘an opportunity has the qualities of being

attractive, durable and timely, and is anchored in a product or service which creates or adds

value for its buyer or end-user’ (2003) and after extensive research into existing methods of

negotiating between buyers and designers, we believed the service D2B Agency would

provide for these end users would be attractive and add value through simple usability for

both parties.

Something I found interesting and highly beneficial to our groups presentation was the

lecture on visual communication in week 11. Visual communication is important as it allows

the audience to understand a brand, product or service at a glance. The points most relevant to

our own presentation were colour and brand identity.


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Colour is often selected for its significance, associations and aesthetic qualities (Funk &

Ndubisi, 2006, pp. 41). The D2B Agency logo was blue, and so we incorporated this colour

into all aspects of our design work, including the website. However it was pointed out that in

order to be consistent in our presentation, we should use images that matched our colour

scheme to help reiterate our business. By doing this, the colour blue would become associated

with D2B, making it more memorable.

Brand identity must effectively fuel recognition, make ideas and meaning accessible, unify

different elements and be tangible (Wheeler, 2009). This was important for D2B as it was an

agency rather than a product, meaning we needed a way of making ourselves attractive to

potential clients. We thought creatively about our name and logo in order to come up with a

strong brand identity, and this helped with developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

Conclusion

This module has been interesting and has engaged me fully in a project which I thoroughly

enjoyed. Reflecting on the module has given me the opportunity to assess my own

development of entrepreneurial skills, which has shown me the value of what I have learnt

and put into practise over the past twelve weeks.

Through the module lectures and firsthand experience of a project designed to explore

entrepreneurship, I feel I have learnt to become more opportunistic and innovative, proving

that the entrepreneurial mindset can be taught. Presenting also allowed for further

development of business skills such as public speaking, and ensuring our presentation was of

a high standard, visually communicating our brand effectively.

I found this personal development helpful across other modules and I know the skills I have

learnt during Entrepreneurship will be something I continue to develop throughout my career.

I feel I have just begun to become entrepreneurial and small changes in some areas of my

results from the enterprising tendency survey confirm this.


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References

Burns, P. (2014) New Venture Creation, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan: pp.11- Caird, S. (1991), Testing Enterprising Tendency in Occupational Groups,

British Journal of Management, 2(4): pp.177-186 Chen, P.C. & Greene, P.G. & Crick, A. (1998) Does Entrepreneurial Efficacy Distinguish

Entrepreneurs from Managers?, Journal of Business Venturing, 13 Funk, D. & Ndubisi, N.O. (2006), Color and product choice: a study of gender roles,

Management Research Review, 29(1/2): pp. 41 – 52 Meldrum, T. (2014) Lean Start-up Model, from Lecture 3 at University of Winchester on

7/10/2014 Timmons, J. & Spinelli, S. (2007) New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st

Century, New York, McGraw-Hill/Irwin Publishers Wheeler, A. (2009), Designing Brand Identity, (3rd edn.), Hoboken: Wiley & Sons


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Appendices Appendix A – Results from Enterprising Survey 1, taken September 2014


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Appendix B – Results from Enterprising Tendency Survey 2, Taken in November 2014

rachael langley 1308563 bs2963 entrepreneurship iannotti date submitted: 11/12/2014 word count: 956...

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