Analysis of SMEs and Startups

The assignment involves analyzing the role of start-ups and small enterprises in today's economy, including their growth in numbers in the UK. It also explores factors affecting financial performance in event management sectors, entrepreneurial equity financing research, and business advice and lending in small firms. Additionally, it examines the effects of Brexit on SMEs and the analysis of factors affecting financial performance in the event management sector in Nairobi County, Kenya.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Examining different type of entrepreneurial ventures that relates to typology of
entrepreneurship...............................................................................................................................1
2. Exploring similarities and differences between entrepreneurial ventures...................................3
3. Analysing the impact of micro and small business on UK economy..........................................4
P4. Explaining the importance of small business and start-ups in contributing to the growth of
social economy after 'Brexit'..................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. The main characteristics, traits and skills of two successful entrepreneurs.....................6
P6. Accessing the personality of entrepreneur which leads entrepreneurial motivation and
mind-set..................................................................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P7. Examining how background and experience can hinder or foster entrepreneurship.....11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
An entrepreneur is business leader who looks for an idea and puts them into effects to
make his vision into a successful business. Report will show a deep insight about the
entrepreneurship and entrepreneur. The present report includes Cocoon Technology. Further,
report will depict about the similarities and differences between entrepreneurial ventures. Study
will also discuss about micro and small enterprises impact on the UK economy The report will
include the detail about contribution of SMEs to the UK economic growth after Brexit. Further,
report highlight the characteristics and skills that should be in an entrepreneur with example of
two successful entrepreneurs. Study will discuss about the entrepreneurial motivation and mind-
set to become a successful entrepreneur. Reports will include the description about factors
which can hinder the entrepreneurship.
1. Examining different type of entrepreneurial ventures that relates to
typology of entrepreneurship.
The act of developing and managing business venture in order to make profit by
taking all responsibility of risk if may occur in corporate world is entrepreneurship. The person
who is willing to start a business by himself is entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship plays a significant
role in economic development of country in global marketplace. Entrepreneurship is the most
creative and innovative approach towards a business. An entrepreneur does all activities that
manage, organize and lead the employees to achieve the organisational goals. Following are the
different type of entrepreneurial venture:
Large Corporation Entrepreneurship: Large companies have long life cycle. Big-scale
entrepreneurship mostly grows through sustaining innovation, offering new products in market
with their core goods. (Drover and et.al., 2017). The large corporation always subjected to high
competition, hence it is important for them to come up with new and innovative for their
products and services according to the changing business environment and trends that could be
done by an entrepreneur who has innovative and creative ability.
Small business Entrepreneurship: n small businesses UK has an immense rate of start-ups.
There is tremendous froth of small business start-ups in UK (Morris and et.al., 2018). In UK the
small business entrepreneurship is contributing to more than 19% in employment. Small business
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includes local and regional supermarkets, grocery stores, travel agents etc. these are the one who
runs their own business or hire local people or family members. Most are hardly profitable, as
they cannot attract the scale to venture capital. Small business is mostly funded through family
earning or by taking funds from friends or by taking small business loans.
Scalable start-ups entrepreneurship: A scalable start-ups business is started with an innovative
idea that focuses more on the quality and creativity of the business (The Role of Start-ups and
Small Businesses in Today’s Economy, 2018). They hire the best employees who has the
capabilities to work in the most innovative manner to contribute in the vision of the company.
The majority of the revenue generated from start-ups are invested into software development.
Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is one of the best example of scalable start-up entrepreneurship.
Social entrepreneurship: Social entrepreneur focuses on creating products and services that can
fulfil the need of customers which can solve their problems. Their goal is to make the world a
better place, not to increase the market share of the business or generating revenue. Social
entrepreneurship works to increase effectiveness and efficiency of the society and environment
and for the development of population.
Cocoon Technology limited provides software solution and services to business. It was
incorporated in 1981, headquarter in London, UK. Cocoon Ltd is a start-up corporation
entrepreneurship.
There is different typology of entrepreneurial ventures:
Large scale Entrepreneurship: Graff Diamonds, UK is the large diamond sourcing and mining
company. Virgin Groups, UK founded by Richard Branson includes many other companies like
Virgin mobile, Virgin Airways, Virgin Megastores etc., Arcadia Groups Limited is one of the
highest retail companies in UK and Asia.
Medium scale Entrepreneurship: Crawford Healthcare UK based deals in wound-care products.
Trak Global Group is an emerging telematics supplier company.
Scalable start-ups entrepreneurship: Uber cab services are start-up successful entrepreneurship.
Ekif.com, Jordan etc.
2. Exploring similarities and differences between entrepreneurial ventures.
The differences between different types of entrepreneurial ventures are as follows:
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Small Medium large social
planning
Small
entrepreneurship
mainly plans to
earn more and
more profit for
their business, as
they are working
mainly to fulfil
their cost of living.
Medium size
entrepreneurship's
business plan have
focus on creating
customer base,
earning profit to
enhance their
business
operations.
Large size
entrepreneurship
focused on creating
more funds through
increasing investors
and shareholders,
making revenue and
developing their
business
performance is their
main goal.
Social entrepreneurship have
focus on development and
welfare of society. They also
plans for their publicity to
get the donations and grants
from government.
Organising Organising
process of small
entrepreneurship
includes reducing
their expenses and
maintaining
suppliers,
classifying funds
to start or to run
the basic business
operations.
(Eniola, 2017).
Medium sized
entrepreneurship
organizing process
includes inventory
management and
customer
satisfaction.
Large size
corporations
organising process
includes managing
their employee
loyalty, increasing
customer base for
their products or
services, managing
their suppliers and
distributors.
Social entrepreneurship
focuses on organising funds
for their operations, indulge
in charity functions.
Controlling Small
entrepreneurship
controlling process
includes reducing
their expenses.
Medium size
enterprises works
for consumer
retention,
controlling
business expenses.
Large size
controlling process
includes increasing
pay-out ratio,
increasing
investment through
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shareholders,
enhancing
company's overall
performance
3. Analysing the impact of micro and small business on UK economy.
The small and micro enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs are the back bone of the UK
economy. There is a major contribution by these small companies towards the country’s
economy because of the political and legislative factors that are immensely favouring the country
in its economic development (Pallegedara, 2017). In UK, over 99% of businesses are small or
medium sized enterprise. The forum of Private Business represent that SMEs business are
responsible for 15.2 million jobs in UK. Small business plays a vital role in development of UK
economy in enhancing country's growth and in creating job opportunities therefore, they have
strong impact on economy. Government of UK helps SMEs through tax breaks so that the
companies can develop. Provide free advice, support and networking opportunities.
It is estimated that more than 27 million people are employed in micro or small sized
businesses across UK which includes both men and women. (Kazzazi and et.al., 2017). The
overall business of small scale in UK is high as compared to the large enterprises. The major
reason for the growth factor is innovativeness and creativeness in the strategic and operational
area by small business.
The importance of creativity and innovation in business are crucial for its growth and
sustainability, UK's small business have developed and implemented various creative and
innovative techniques. The small business in UK are currently a major contributor of business
ideas and also contributing to the overall economic growth of country.
There are mainly three business industry in UK that playing a crucial role in the
economic growth which are hospitality, real states and the wholesale retail industry. Total
revenue of more than 39.8% are generated from these three sectors. They have large number of
start-ups and micro enterprises.
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Illustration 1: Role of start-ups and Small Enterprises
Source:(Role of start-ups and Small Enterprises, 2018)

The above data shows that small companies have a vital role in the growth of the
economy and especially in creating employment (Rostamkalaei and Freel, 2017). In UK, small
business acquires 99%3% of total business, where medium enterprises contribute to .6% and
large enterprise hardly .1%. maximum employment generated from small enterprises is 48%,
large enterprises creates 40% job opportunities and medium enterprises provides only 12%. The
above data illustrate that the turnover of large is highest with 53% of turnover, where small
enterprise contributes approx. 33 % and medium enterprises just 14%. It can be concluded that
small enterprises in UK plays a significant role in overall economic growth and development of
nation.
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Illustration 2: Growth of SMEs in Numbers in UK
Source: (Number of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017,
by region (in 1,000s)*, 2017)

P4. Explaining the importance of small business and start-ups in contributing to the growth of
social economy after 'Brexit'.
After the UK voted to leave the European Union on 23rd June; Since then, it is being a
growing opinion that the UK's wealth of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will be
leading charge into new economy, at least at a consumer level. The impact on small business on
GDP is impactful as they are considered as lifeblood of UK economy (Jong, 2018). These small
firms will lead to attract global investors for making investment in their starts ups It would lead
to rise in revenue of nation (Bachtler and Begg, 2017). This will be supporting imports as well as
exports that will positively affect GDP growth. Apart from that, it will lead to provide
employment to natives that would result in improving economic conditions of individuals living
in territory. SMEs are introducing advanced technologies that is bringing technological
revolution in country. This would lead to maximise efficiency and effectiveness of every small
scale firm. In UK, therefore are over 5.3 million SMEs, which accounts for 99% of private
sector firms and contributing 60% of UK's total employment. Brexit marks opportunities for
possessing skills that are in demand if immigration got reduces after Brexit.
But, after the Brexit scenario is concerned, small business will emerge as hero of modern
capitalism in UK. Small businesses are aiming great efforts to create job spirited entrepreneur
who drives the economy. This year has shown that SMEs are starting up a greater rate.
TASK 3
P5. The main characteristics, traits and skills of two successful entrepreneurs.
An entrepreneur is someone who has an idea of a business and works to create particular
idea into successful business. He takes benefits of an opportunity and as the decision maker,
decides how to organize, manage business activities by himself. He is responsible for taking all
the risk and monitors all the activities (Kuppuswamy and Bayus, 2018). An entrepreneur is
usually recognisances as a sole proprietor, a partner of a business. A person must pose certain
characteristics, traits and leadership quality to become a successful entrepreneur.
Richard Branson is the CEO of Virgin Groups, and one of the wealthiest entrepreneur of
UK. He possesses great leadership qualities as well as the characteristics that made him different
from other entrepreneurs and also from managers.
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He once said on his blog that “No two successful entrepreneurs are same, it’s their
individuality and different way of thinking that made them successful.”
Characteristics and traits of Richard Branson are:
 Richard Branson believes that listening to customer feedback and taking same into
consideration and applying their thoughts in business is very important. His personal
philosophy states that focus on customer's wants was very important and this trend
needed to be applied in developing products. Richard Branson's one of the best trait is
being an independent decision maker.
 His entrepreneurial characteristics that he was always prepared for the risk (BEĞENDİK,
2017). To make the vision successful an entrepreneur has to take risk in order to make
progress and makes changes. This characteristic helps him to become a successful
entrepreneur.
 Entrepreneur hold their failure, starting a new business with just an idea, no one will get
success in first time according to Richard Branson. An entrepreneur is one who learn
quickly from their mistakes, and don't fear from the failure they learn from it and works
to improve it. Richard Branson says that failure is the key that lead him to success.
 Richard Branson has a major characteristic of always thinking to achieve big. A
successful entrepreneur had a vision to change thinking of world. He continuously works
to achieve that success. Running a business wants efforts and ability to take tough
decisions which Richard Branson never never afraid of.
 Having strong team and works effectively: Richard Branson believes no one can do
everything by himself. It’s a key to success of the business that one should learn to hand
over the which he cannot do by himself. Team work is most important to create a
successful business. Therefore, he was always focusing to work with innovative teams for
creative ideas.
 Excellent communication skills. Communication is more than just being able to speak, to
make an entrepreneurial world. Richard Branson has a trait that he communicates well
with his employees, clients and customers in order to get their views and reviews. If a
person is not listening, he is missing out an important thing.
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Philip Green is UK based entrepreneur, who is currently CEO of Arcadia groups, a
conglomeration of various retails company. He is the 2nd richest entrepreneur of United
Kingdom.
He once quoted “You’ve got to be a believer in what you do.”
Philip Green poses some great characteristics and skills which every person should follow to
become successful entrepreneur.
 The most important characteristics that an entrepreneur must have are passion and
motivation. An entrepreneur should love their work and always willing to put
extra effort to make their business successful (Maina, 2017). Philip Green is
passionate enough to work for his business and he enjoy working for his business
which is beyond the money.
 Successful entrepreneur never afraid to take risk, they perhaps take all risk related
to future uncertainty. Philip Green always ready to take risk of time and money in
business in order to take best out of his investment. The traits of a successful
entrepreneur include that he knows the worth of his time and money he is
investing, but still is ready to take risk.
 Philip Green believes that an entrepreneur should always believe in himself and
are confident enough and dedicated time, efforts and work hard to make business
successful. An entrepreneur should have enough confidence in what they do and
they never worried Weather they get success or not. Philip Green believes in
everything he does.
 A successful entrepreneur should not be just passionate and dedicated, but also be
flexible relates to clients and market needs that can even lead to failure. A
successful entrepreneur is not just working for what one believes in but also
making that business successful. He believes that successful entrepreneurs are
always ready to welcome all the suggestions that can enhance their business to
satisfying the needs of customer and market.
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 Philip Green have strong ethics for work. His mind constantly on his work
whether in or out of the workplace. This dedication towards his concern made him
a successful entrepreneur.
P6. Accessing the personality of entrepreneur which leads entrepreneurial motivation and mind-
set.
All entrepreneur is different, all are possessing different mind-sets and personality traits
which contributes to making them successful. (Drover and et.al., 2017). Richard Branson has
proved that anything is possible with strong mind-set.
Surround yourself with high achiever: The successful people knows the importance of
surrounding themselves with successful peoples. Richard Branson has leaned on his mentor at
the time of his struggles. He believes that surrounding yourself with more intelligent people will
give the power to grow and flourish the business. Having a mentor or coach will have facilitated
in showing creativity to become successful entrepreneur and helps in turning their goals into
moving targets. Support of mentor is important to guide a person and helps in improving, their
impact is invaluable to make person a successful entrepreneur.
Broader Thinking: when a person will stay focused in his dreams, he will find opportunities in
his ways. It’s just the way to see those opportunities and grab them. Richard Branson had no
experience or knowledge of any of his business. All he has to do something and achieve a larger
life goal that motivated him to work (Qin, Wright and Gao, 2017). Implementing a creative idea
that seems to be impossible, will make them to focus and facilitate in achieving more inspiring
more creativity and innovation.
Live life of adventure and curiosity: Having curiosity and interest to learn more will leads an
entrepreneur to become successful. This curiosity and interest made Branson a successful
entrepreneur. He stated that never work for a business with an intention to make money. Work
for a business with passion, curiosity and interest for doing something new. Branson enjoys the
challenges to try something difficult. Success comes when passions persuade. An entrepreneur
always focusses on thing he is good in and always work to do it well.
Choose messy action over perfectionism: Richard Branson is great example of this. With no
business degree or with no high school diploma, he started various businesses in different
industries. He has dyslexia but let it holding him back, he took it as an advantage and adapted his
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leadership style. Dyslexia has helped him to keep communication efficient, and showed him the
importance of deputation. If a person is passionate enough to lead his idea into a successful
business, there is no need for a plan, strategy or decision, every person takes important actions to
achieve his goals. Progressive thoughts are better than having no power. To be a successful
entrepreneur one should take action, make mistakes, learn from them and try again until he gets
success.
The personality traits of Philip Green are as follows:
Make decisions: Philip believes in making decisions and encourage others. One should not
afraid of his decision, whether it’s good or bad. The important fact is how a person follows
through and respond to the consequences. In a path of success there always will be challenges, a
person should be confident enough to take those challenges as an opportunities and go through it.
Always remember your goals: Philip Green stated that when he was starting the business, he has
no idea that his business would be successful as it is today. Starting a business with a vision,
mission should always be kept in mind always. Sometimes thing works according to what we
though and sometimes not, a person should accept both the consequences, and always remember
that we learn from our mistakes. Philip believes that no matter what happen we should always
work in the way we wanted to finish it, always keep in mind why we started and carry the
passion all the way through.
Embrace Challenges: All business face challenges, For Philip Green challenges are ongoing
needs to constantly adapt and be flexible. In every business, a person at a certain point become
doubtful of future insecurity but making great quality products is all the motive and one should
be passionate enough of what they are doing to go on a long pathway.
TASK 4
P7. Examining how background and experience can hinder or foster entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship can be a scary proposition because of all the unknown factors that
affects a new business chances. The background and experience can have both positive and
negative influences on creating and emerging as an entrepreneur. The following can be the
factors which hinder entrepreneurship:
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Social factors can go a long way in encouraging entrepreneurship. Highly encouraging
society can help in emerging a successful entrepreneur. While in some less developed countries
the importance to education, research and training is given less, therefore there is very little of
labour. For Philip green and Richard Branson, along with the support of society they were
motivated to introduce something innovative for individuals. Philip green belongs to very poor
family, his family background has influence his attitude positively and encouraged him to adopt
the entrepreneurial behaviour. On the other hand, lack of financial resources has restrict him to
start a new business. With the support of society they were motivated for providing some new
concepts while on the other side their criticising can demotivate their entrepreneurial trait. In
some countries there is religious and cultural beliefs that high profit is unethical. This type of
beliefs hinders the growth of entrepreneurship. But the personal belief of Green and Richard
Branson was to serve other people with their creative ideas on which they work individually.
They considered entrepreneurship as the act of encouraging someone to get a desired action, and
to nourish them to get desired result. A motivational factors of a person includes his educational
background, occupational experience, his family background etc. Family of Philip green and
Richard Branson was very supportive and modern. This provided them motivation to work on
their instincts for introducing something creative for people Psychological factors like high need
for achievement, determination of unique accomplishment, self-confidence, creativity, vision,
leadership etc. helps to promote entrepreneurship among people. On the other hand,
psychological factors like security, conformity and compliance etc. can affect the growth of
entrepreneurship. From childhood lifestyle of Philip green and Richard Branson were very
determined and hard-working. Therefore, this lead to develop a habit of pursuing something
different in life.
CONCLUSION
By summing up the above report, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship plays a
significant role in the economic development of a country. After analysing all factors report
concluded different similarities and differentiation are possessed by entrepreneurial venture. It
has been acknowledged that the impact of small enterprises has improved economic conditions
after BREXIT as it helped to provide employment to natives and attracts global investors for
investments. Further it has been assessed that various skills and traits of Richard Branson and
Philips Green that make them different from other entrepreneur with their entrepreneurial mind-
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set and motivation skills. Apart from this background and other factors has motivated them to
become entrepreneurial personalities in their lives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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institutional challenges. Journal of Social Policy.46(4).pp.745-763.
Kazzazi, F. and et.al., 2017. Evaluating the impact of Brexit on the pharmaceutical
industry. Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice. 10(1)p p.32.
BEĞENDİK, B., 2017. Dimensions of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneur’s
Characteristics That Affect The Internetionalization Process of Turkish Born Global
Firms. İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 19(2), pp.454-474.
Rostamkalaei, A. and Freel, M., 2017. Business advice and lending in small
firms. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. 35(3). pp.537-555.
Drover, W. and et.al., 2017. A review and road map of entrepreneurial equity financing research:
venture capital, corporate venture capital, angel investment, crowdfunding, and
accelerators. Journal of Management. 43(6). pp.1820-1853.
Jong, K. D., 2018. An Analysis of the Effects of Brexit on Korean SMEs. Archives of Business
Research–Vol, 6(8).
Maina, L. N., 2017. Analysis of Factors Affecting Financial Performance in the Event
Management Sector-Nairobi County, Kenya. International Journal of Research in Finance
andMarketing. 7(7).pp.19-32.
Morris, M. H. and et.al., 2018. Distinguishing Types of Entrepreneurial Ventures: An Identity‐
Based Perspective. Journal of Small Business Management.56(3). pp.453-474.
Pallegedara, A., 2017. Factors affecting SMEs' access to bank finance: an evidence from Sri
Lanka. International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 13(1), pp.30-42.
Eniola, A. A., 2017. Entrepreneur-firm characteristics and financing sources. International
Journal. 6(2). pp.13-21.
Qin, F., Wright, M. and Gao, J., 2017. Are ‘sea turtles’ slower? Returnee entrepreneurs, venture
resources and speed of entrepreneurial entry. Journal of Business Venturing. 32(6). pp.694-
706
Online
The Role of Startups and Small Businesses in Today’s Economy. 2018. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.market-inspector.co.uk/blog/2017/05/facts-about-small-medium-
businesses-in-the-uk>.
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Number of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017, by region
(in 1,000s)*. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/668723/number-small-and-medium-businesses-
united-kingdom-uk/>
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