Questions and Answers of Entrepreneurship

What do you really enjoy doing? What is your passion? Can your passion be a platform for a viable opportunity?
What do your friends and family envision you doing? What strengths and weaknesses do they observe? How do their insights help lead you to an opportunity that is right for you?
What ideas do you have for a new business? How can you multiply the stimuli around these ideas to enhance them and identify attractive opportunities?
Put several of your ideas through the opportunity checklist in Figure 3.10. Which ideas seem to have the highest potential? Customer Identifiable Demographics Psychographics Trends Macromarket Target
How can you shape, reshape, and refine your opportunities so that they have a greater chance to succeed and thrive?
Identify some early, low‐cost market tests that you can use to refine your opportunity. Create a schedule of escalating market tests to iterate to the strongest opportunity.
Subscribe to the free listserve like Fortune Term Sheet (http://fortune.com/tag/term‐sheet/). Track the stories on a daily basis.Which companies are receiving venture capital? What trends does this
“Stand in what you stand for.”—ISlide, Inc.Company Motto In August 2014, Justin Kittredge, whose e‐mail signature read,“President, CEO, and Janitor—ISlide, Inc.,” reflected on the
How might you leverage prototyping to explore your idea for an entrepreneurial venture?
What simple prototype could you develop today, or this week, to test some core aspect of your concept?
How might you develop multiple prototypes to seek a wide range of feedback from your target customer?
How do you think 3‐D printing might change how entrepreneurs develop prototypes as well as final products?
How might you co‐create opportunities with your target customer, that is, involve them early in your idea generation?
How might you develop and test a minimum viable product (MVP) for your product or service concept?
Watch this two‐minute video example of how to demonstrate on how to get started with simple paper prototyping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐RmY6F_2zhU. Remember, simple, lowfidelity
In a small apartment in Santa Monica, California, Gautam Gupta and Ken Chen found themselves at a crossroads. “Do we pursue this business idea or call it quits?” They had just finished running a
Describe your business model. What are your primary sources of revenue? What are your revenue drivers? Your expenses?
What is your customer value proposition? How does this lead to differentiation?
What is your overall strategy? Why does this strategy help you sell to customers? What is your cost to acquire customers (CAC)?Does this exceed the customer lifetime value (CLTV)?
What kind of partners and resources will you need? When will you need these?
How will you measure success? What are the most important key metrics for your business?
Pull the income sheets from three companies in the industry that you are interested in entering. Try to find companies that are pursuing different strategies. Examine their business models, and see
Alberto Perlman walked out of the old warehouse that served as the offices of Zumba Fitness and into the hot Miami sun.He had just finished meeting with his two partners, and the company that they
How do you learn about your customer?
What secondary sources can you use?
What primary data will you collect?
How do you segment your market? Who’s your PTA, your core customer? Who are your STAs?
How will you price your product?
How will you distribute your product?
What channels are available? Which channels are best? When will you add new channels?
What is your marketing communications strategy? What mix of advertising, PR, personal selling, and direct marketing is most effective?
Can you create a list of your venture’s total benefits? A differentiated value grid? One or two points of superior customer value for your intended customer segment?
What guerrilla tactics can you use to create a buzz? How will you get your product’s buzz to be heard above the noise?
Articulate what you would like your brand to be. How will you build it during launch? During growth?
Scan the Web and identify the Internet marketing techniques of two to three companies. Start with the company’s home page.What functionality does the page contain (just information, online selling
What are your three strongest attributes?
Talk to a close mentor and ask what he or she sees as your strengths. Do these match the attributes you identified in question 1?
What skills do you need to develop prior to launch? What skills can you develop during the launch and early stages of your company? Create a plan to develop those skills.
Create an organization chart for your venture. Show positions to be filled immediately and those to be filled later (along with the dates of filling those positions). Create a staffing plan based on
Think about the types of employees you’d like to hire. What kind of values are you looking for? Remember, this is the point at which you create your company’s culture.
Scan Monster.com, Salary.com, and other job sites. Look at the postings for CEO and other key employees of early‐stage companies in the industry that you are interested in pursuing. What skills are
What data have you gathered about your opportunity?a. What do these data suggest as far as reshaping your opportunity?b. What new questions do they raise, and who should you talk to in order to
Who have you shared your vision with?a. Who have they referred you to?b. What new learning have you gained from these conversations?
What is your “tagline”?
Does your executive summary have a compelling “hook”?
Does your business planning process tie together well? Do you have a compelling, articulate story?
Scan the Internet for business plan preparation sites. What kinds of templates are available? Do these make it easier to write a plan?What is the downside, if any, of using these templates?What are
Gravyty, co‐founded by Adam Martel and Rich Palmer, helps nonprofit organizations build more relationships with their supporters through artificial intelligence (AI)‐enabled tools that prioritize
What are your revenue sources? How can you influence these revenues (what are your drivers)?
Identify some companies that you can benchmark. What are their revenue sources? How do they drive revenue?
Refine your projections. Who can you talk to that is knowledgeable about your business (customers, vendors, competitors)? What secondary sources can you find (BizMiner.com, Google.com/finance)?
Compare your common‐sized financials to those of your benchmark company. Can you validate or explain differences between you and the benchmark company?
Are there other metrics you can use (sales per employee or sales per square foot) to verify your projections?
What happens to the viability of your business when you run some scenario analyses based on the different metrics you’ve identified?
Look for some comparison metrics (the Bizminer site www.bizminer.com is useful, but see if you can find others). How do your sales per employee figures match the benchmark reports?How does your pro
This plan contains 18 months of projections. While we believe that the assumptions underlying the projections are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these results can be realized, the nature
How much equity financing do you need to get your business launched? When do you need it?
Where will you get your initial financing? How much money can you invest from your personal resources (savings, second mortgage, etc.)?
Create a strategy for other equity financing. Build a list, and rank‐order Four F funding sources. Estimate how much each of these investors might be able and willing to invest.
Do you think your business has the potential to raise formal venture capital (high‐tech, high‐innovation, high‐growth prospects, first‐rate management team, etc.)? If so, when might you be
What valuation method makes the most sense for your company?What comparable companies can you refer to as you prepare your valuation?
Imagine your harvest. What companies might likely acquire you? How can you prepare for that future acquisition?
Is there a possibility that your company could go public (high‐growth industry)? What do you need to do to prepare for that?
What can you learn about equity financing on the Web? Search for some investor/entrepreneur matching sites (e.g., www.angelinvestmentnetwork.us). Look at some crowdfunding sites
Doug Brenhouse leaned back in his office chair and took a moment to himself away from the turmoil involved with the biggest decision of his professional life. Should he and his two co‐founders,
What sources of capital do you have? Are you willing to take on a home equity loan? Use your personal credit cards? How much of a “nest egg” do you need to feel comfortable pursuing a new venture?
What do you expect your cash conversion cycle to be? Is there a way to improve it? What accounts receivable terms are common in your industry? How should you manage accounts receivable?
How much inventory does your business need to carry to avoid stock‐outs? What terms can you get on inventory (accounts payable)?
Can you finance your accounts receivable? What means (bank loans, factoring, etc.) are most available to you? Can you get loans on your inventory?
What short‐term loans are needed for your business (e.g., line of credit)? When will you be bank creditworthy?
Visit the SBA website (www.sba.gov). The website has useful information on a number of start‐up issues. Take a look at the SBA loan programs. What steps do you need to undertake to qualify for
It was the spring, and Shane Eten had just won a $$20,000$ sustainability award at the highly competitive Rice University Business Plan Competition. Shane was already thinking about how he would
What fiduciary duty do you have with your current employer? Does your proposed new venture rely on proprietary information belonging to your previous employer? Are you materially interfering with
When should you engage an attorney? What criteria will you use in your decision?
What legal form should you choose for your new company (sole proprietorship, corporation, etc.)? What criteria will you use in your decision?
What will you name your company? Have you registered your name with the state government? Are there other companies using the same or similar name (check the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
What provisions should you have in your shareholders’ agreement? What kind of salary will you draw? When will you draw it? What provisions do you have for disposition of equity (e.g., death,
What type of equity sharing (if any) will you implement with your key employees?
What type of insurance is needed to protect your company? When will you secure this insurance?
What is the crucial intellectual property of your company? How will you protect it?
Many Web sites offer legal form templates (e.g., shareholder agreements). Studying these templates helps you talk with your lawyer and can reduce your legal fees (time spent with lawyers), especially
In early 2018, Nick Tommarello could be proud of what he and his partners had accomplished. Their company, Wefunder, Inc., was the acknowledged leader in the equity crowdfunding industry, an industry
What are your personal growth objectives for your venture? Is a “lifestyle” business going to meet your personal goals? Or a high‐potential venture?
What will your role within the company be at various stages of growth? Do you want to remain the CEO? Are you more interested in another aspect—say, CTO?
What skills will you need to develop as the company grows to satisfactorily fulfill the roles you aspire to? Which of these skills can you learn on the job? Which skills might need further education
What kind of controls can you establish early in your venture’s life? How will these help you manage cash and other key components of your business?
Which aspects of your business should you keep in‐house and which should you outsource? How do you protect your competitive advantage?
What is your strategic focus for early growth? How do you leverage what you do really well? What are some possible peripheral growth opportunities for later in your venture’s life?
What are your organization’s key resources and capabilities? What should they be in the future? How do you build toward those resources and capabilities?
What is your leadership plan? When and which responsibilities will you delegate? How will you promote people in your organization? When might you need to go outside to hire?
Identify three companies that have experienced successful, rapid growth in your industry. Study their websites and search for articles about the companies. Can you discern their strategic focuses
While Esporte Interativo (EI) had grown dramatically over the last 18 years, co‐founders Edgar Diniz and Leo Lenz Cesar felt overwhelmed as they thought about how to maintain that growth in an
What social problems are of particular interest to you?
What are some of the root causes of these problems, and in what ways might these be addressed?
What type of venture would you want to create? Do you want to have primarily a social mission or an economic mission? Why?
If you are considering a new venture, how does it interact with the social problems you are concerned with? What are the ways in which your venture could have impact on these problems?
In what other ways does your venture impact society and the environment?
Think about how you might measure your venture’s social impact. What can you directly attribute to your business? How would you measure it and what does this measure mean?
What resources would you need to have or acquire to have the type of venture you envision in terms of both mission and impact?
Does it give you information you can act on to improve your impact?

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