Academic Entrepreneurship And Real Life Entrepreneurs

In a post graduate program in entrepreneurship, students were asked to interview an entrepreneur as an introduction to the program.

Ms. Blessing Jones was selected by the Student. Ms. Jones started her business selling cloths, bags and shoes in a market in a suburb of Kingston, Jamaica.

Question 1: Why did you decide to move from the market to a shop?

Answer: Because I was tied of shifting the merchandise every day from the warehouse to the market.

Comment: A preliminary question is missing, the first question is to understand the PPPP (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) marketing strategy of the entrepreneur. Then based on this response, a shop may be a better retail point (Place) to sell the merchandise than the market. Back ache is an understandable drawback of setting up everyday in the market but it is not part of the academic vocabulary.

Question 2: How did you fund creation of the shop?

Answer: A friend leant me the money.

Comment: Funding a start up is key, the interviewer did not drill down into the strings attached in the financing. Did the friend buy the shop and rent it to Ms. Jones for example or did the friend get a share of the business?

Question 3: What is your present SWOT analysis of the shop operations?

Answer: Ms. Jones made her day if the client said that the shoes for example were what client was looking for and could not find them elsewhere but she was disgusted if the client demanded a discount.

Comment: Ms. Jones is an entrepreneur in flesh and blood, the academic response relies on SWOT analysis or Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A strength is Ms Jones skills in finding unique merchandise likely to interest her customers, a weakness is that some of the merchandise is not sufficiently unique providing an opportunity for the client to demand a discount. In order to expand the SWOT analysis, more information on the present PPPP marketing strategy would be required.

Question 4: What is the next stage of your development?

Answer: Quit the business

Comment: Although many start ups fail, the teacher would prefer a response with an articulated exit strategy. For example, Ms. Jones could have considered bringing in a partner who would eventually buy the business such that Ms. Jones could exit gracefully.