Entrepreneurial Business Planning

This report discusses the contemporary issues and challenges faced by the entrepreneurial business Pure Ponics in Australia. It explores the major challenges such as business uncertainty, lack of capital, and ineffective marketing techniques. The report also highlights various tools and techniques used to manage entrepreneurship, including proper budgeting, hiring the right employees, and time management. Theoretical perspectives such as Drucker's theory of innovation and entrepreneurship and McCLelland's Need for achievement theory are also discussed. The report concludes with recommendations for successful entrepreneurial business planning.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS PLANNING
Entrepreneurial business planning
Name of student
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Contemporary issues and challenges of entrepreneurship.........................................................3
Various tools and techniques of managing entrepreneurship....................................................4
Theoretical perspectives.............................................................................................................4
Approaches to resolve the contemporary challenges.................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The report is presented to present us about an idea about a major contemporary issue
of entrepreneurship and how it is related to the emerging trend within the business
environment in Australia. While managing the entrepreneurial process of project start up and
to maintain steady growth, the entrepreneurs experienced various contemporary issues and
challenges associated with the business organisation named Pure Ponics in Australia
(Pureponics.com.au 2019). The new business start-up has aimed at growing clean, safe,
healthy and fresh foods in the lands that are cultivated consistently to produce the best quality
food through sustainable farming as well for meeting the needs and preferences of people in
Australia. The topic will illustrate about the emerging trend, which can be globalisation while
the major contemporary issue of entrepreneurship can be the business uncertainties caused
due to poor cash flow management, lack of sufficient capital and ineffective marketing
techniques too (Brinckmann and Kim 2015).
Contemporary issues and challenges of entrepreneurship
The major contemporary issue of entrepreneurship is the business uncertainty in terms
of globalisation, because of the complex and dynamic business environment where the needs
and preferences of customers are constantly changing from time to time. With the need for
some unique products and services and changing demands and expectations, business
uncertainty is experienced by an entrepreneurial business such as Pure Ponics in Australia.
Steve Gleeson, the founder and Managing Director of Pure Ponics, focuses on managing aqua
ponics, though it took many years to do so with the help of proper strategic planning and
assessment of resources required to emerge as a successful entrepreneur (Blackburn, Hart and
Wainwright 2013).

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Business uncertainties have emerged due to lack of sufficient capital and investments
and it has also affected the start-up companies like Pure Ponics while entering the
marketplace in Australia. The insufficient capital further has been influenced by poor flow of
cash, which even has enabled Pure Ponics to face challenges at first such as inability to
generate the expected revenue and slower sales too. The presence of a weak management
team can also be a major cause of entrepreneurial business downfall, though it has not been
the case for Pure Ponics but the ineffective marketing techniques have also contributed to the
poor management of brand exposure and identity, thus even has reduced the sales and
revenue too (Burns 2016). The company at first faced some major issues and challenges
because of the lack of understanding of the market conditions, as it is new to the market,
which further posed some serious challenges to attract new customers. Considering the major
trend of globalisation, the business organisations needs to hire the right people for the right
job roles and delegate roles and responsibilities properly too for ensuring that they are
capable of performing their task and allow the entrepreneur business to emerge as a
successful business at present and attain sustainable competitive edge over the competitors in
the future too (Fayolle 2013).
According to Shaw (2014), the entrepreneurship business faces problems or
challenges because of the changing demands and interests of the customers. Often, it has been
found that when a new business introduces itself in the market, suddenly the behaviours and
needs of individuals keep on changing, which makes the business organisation unable to
respond to the changes immediately and form an entirely new strategic plan, which results in
business uncertainty (Shaw 2014). The Lean Start-up is a great and effective entrepreneurship
tool, which enables the business entrepreneurs to introduce a business and introduce new
products and services in the market, though with the aim of reducing the product
development life cycle to evaluate whether the business model adopted has been suitable or

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not. This can allow for combining the business hypothesis, manage experimentations and
promote validated learning for the purpose of developing and production of products and
services iteratively for meeting the demand and expectations of customers. This allows Pure
Ponics to overcome the market related risks and fulfil the needs for project funding,
furthermore ensure successful launch of new products and services too (Mitchelmore and
Rowley 2013). The Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups or JOBS Act 2012 is applied by many
entrepreneurship businesses to address the business issues and challenges and at the same
time, create open doors for the purpose of utilising the opportunities, furthermore influence
the shareholders or investors to make investments through crowd funding or angel financing.
The crowd sourcing is also a viable option for generating enough funds and ensure managing
the business functions and processes properly along with hiring the right people and
implementation of advanced technologies too (Massa and Tucci 2013).
Various tools and techniques of managing entrepreneurship
Pure Ponics has managed proper budgeting methods and techniques that are critical
for the management of proper flow of cash and at the same time, save some significant
amount of cost incurred during the business functions and processes’ management. Pure
Ponics, being focused on aqua culture and enhancing the growing supply of fresh, healthy
and clean food items to the customers, also has maintained down payment for the services
and products delivered. This has helped in covering the various expenditures associated with
the management of entrepreneurship project, which further aims to pay on their own (Brush
2013). Hiring the right employees is a daunting task for successful management of
entrepreneurship from the business context and thus Pure Ponics has focused on being
exclusive by qualifying the candidates on a preliminary stage. The candidates are targeted
properly, which has been done clearly by representing the qualifications, job duties and also
the wages and benefits that will be paid to them. This has allowed Pure Ponics to implement

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approach of becoming customer centric and develop marketing campaigns for facilitating the
targeting of different market segments all over Australia (Zaridis and Mousiolis 2014).
Another major challenge that can be faced by entrepreneurship businesses like Pure
Ponics is the time management. Just like the financial resources, Pure Ponics maintains
proper time for determining how to spend through creation of goals and objectives as a list
and then these are broken down into goals and objectives that are needed to be achieved on a
weekly manner. The weekly goals are further broken down into various tasks that are to be
performed on a daily basis. This allows the company to stay on the right track and prioritise
on the lifetime goals to manage time as well as human resources properly too (Liedtka 2015).
Pure Ponics has maintained a good working environment by making sure that the tasks are
delegated properly to the employees and also by paying some extra amount to them. The
manager of the organisation fulfils his duties properly and made sure to be specific for what
things are to be done (Pureponics.com.au 2019).
Theoretical perspectives
As stated by Johansson‐Sköldberg et al. (2013), the Drucker’s theory of innovation
and entrepreneurship focuses on the consideration of entrepreneurship as the various actions
undertaken by the organization and its members to facilitate innovation. The things are done
rightly though in a different way, by shifting the resources where the yields are less to a place
where the yields are much higher. Pure Ponics’ managing director embraces the change by
trying out different things and this has been possible through investments made by the
shareholders or investors on the allocation and management of resources (Brenner and
Uebernickel 2016). The major changes have been made possible at the organisation by
adopting the sustainable farming methods and techniques and work towards a zero waste
policy for reducing the waste generation and contribute to the positive environmental impact
along with no use of herbicides and toxic chemical pesticides.

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Kuti and Madarász (2014), on the other hand stated that McCLelland’s Need for
achievement theory relates to the theory of learning and development, which enables the
leader or manager of the company to attain the skills and knowledge based on the events
participated in along with the experiences gained within the environment and culture. To deal
with the business uncertainties, knowledge based learning is critical and thus the manager has
made sure to understand own roles and responsibilities properly, which can contribute to the
higher level of motivation and encouragement among the staffs, furthermore result in
enhanced organisational efficiency and business performance.
Approaches to resolve the contemporary challenges
The concepts of Design Thinking, as stated by Carlgren, Elmquist and Rauth (2014)
has enabled the leaders within the industry to consider the customers as major stakeholders
and position them at the core of market segments during the product life cycle development
process. The design thinking has allowed the organisational memebrs to share their individual
views, opinions and ideas while the manager or leader of the organisation acquires the
relevant skills and knowledge required to make decisions and determine problem solving
methods too. With the help of this Design Thinking, Pure Ponics also gathers necessary
information about the clients and has made sure to create a sense of compassion with the
clients. This is a successful entrepreneurship approach to acquire knowledge and idea about
the various factors that are responsible for enabling motivation, encouragement and
development of opportunities for ensuring transformation of business processes and ways by
which, the new products and services are developed and strategies implemented
(Belleflamme et al. 2014). It is necessary for creative thinking and design required to promote
innovation as well as ensure, management of a perfect balance between the business, human
attributes and technological usage too. The innovation has been possible, which has helped in
managing the human resources as well as made them produce premium food through the

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aquaponics. The innovation perspectives also include working in partnership with the Deakin
University, which has also facilitate the soilless food growing systems and enhanced the
production of healthy food in a sustainable manner too (Stanković 2013). The design thinking
enables Pure Ponics to resolve the issues associated with the scarcity of water supply by
using less than 90 percent water without using any herbicides or toxic chemical pesticides,
thus resulting in smooth functioning through management of zero waste policy and caring for
the food that are being supplied to people for consumption (Pureponics.com.au 2019).
For dealing with challenges related to entrepreneurship, exit strategies are
implemented so that the investors or shareholders can get a good amount of return on the
investments made. The exit strategies have been adopted by Pure Ponics while operating for
the purpose of acquiring money and allow the investors to get the money out. This has
improved the financial condition of the business and even enabled start-up funding, which
further helps in raising the working capital and manage the business operations smoothly.
According to Syla and Lecaj (2015) to overcome the issues of business uncertainty resulting
from lack of skills and knowledge among workers and competitiveness in the market,
entrepreneurial leadership plays a major role in engaging the people together to accomplish
the shared goal or objective through optimisation of risks and innovation perspectives
(Conway and Barbier 2013). This has allowed Pure Ponics to grab the scopes and
opportunities that have emerged, furthermore prioritize on the management of changes within
the dynamic business environment.

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A good entrepreneurial leader possesses good communication skills, knowledge about
the vision and goals to be achieved, remain supportive all throughout and possess self-belief
to guide the team members and ensure utilising the strengths and opportunities effectively.
The leader or manager of Pure Ponics has managed to share success by praising the
performances of the employees and even focuses on acknowledging the contribution of
others, which keep them motivated and encouraged too. The stakeholders are involved while
making business decisions whereas the views, ideas and opinions of the employees have been
considered by the manager or leader or Pure Ponics to ensure making the right decisions and
ensure smooth business functioning as well (Bhardwaj et al. 2014). The effectuation
principles are applied, which also favours the successful management of entrepreneurship
through management of self-efficacy and better understanding of business functions and
processes.
There is huge need for managing the human resources properly to manage successful
entrepreneurship and thus a good working environment has been created along with the
establishment of a great culture. This facilitates learning behaviours and coordination among
the staffs, which further influences their abilities to perform to their potential within the
workplace. Necessary training sessions are arranged for strengthening their skills, knowledge
and expertise, which even improves the overall organisational performance and profitability
(Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher 2014). The company has managed to emerge as a
successful entrepreneur by following various principles of effectuation including the Bird in
hand, Lemonade principle, crazy quilt and affordable loss. Pure Ponics has developed
innovative solutions and it is brought through management of sustainable farming techniques,
which influences production and grabbing the right opportunities too. The company also
wants to enter into new partnerships and the same has been done by partnering with Deakin
University, which further innovates the aquaponics and ensures production of premium

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quality and healthy food (Blackburn, Hart and Wainwright 2013). The investments are done
for providing the best solution in terms of supply of fresh foods to the customers and work in
a sustainable way through reduction of waste generation and lesser harmful impact on the
environment too (Pureponics.com.au 2019).
Recommendations
 It is recommended for Pure Ponics to manage crowd funding so as to raise the
working capital and enhance the business operations efficiency
 The management of transformational leadership style is recommended for creating a
positive impact on the life cycle of the entrepreneurial venture or project
 It is also recommended for the company to establish good relationships with the
customers through social media engagement and also respond to their queries to
create positive mind sets among them regarding the brand
 From the perspective of the manager or leader, it is also recommended for the
manager to gain a strong vision, furthermore encourage the employees to achieve the
desired industry standards and improve the level of customer experience too
Conclusion
The report was prepared to discuss about the various aspects of entrepreneurship and
the contemporary issues and challenges faced were overcome by the company named Pure
Ponics in Australia. The major contemporary challenges were business uncertainty resulting
due to the changing needs of clients and search for globalisation. There could also be
insufficient working capital and poor management of team, which should further create issues
for the company to sustain in the competitive environment. Pure Ponics made sure to apply
the Drucker’s theory of innovation and entrepreneurship and McCLelland’s Need for
achievement theory, which brought changes and enabled innovation all throughout whereas

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the management of good leadership, incorporating a good culture and working environment
along with implementation of exit strategies and facilitating Design Thinking further
contributed to the enhanced business performance and successful management of
entrepreneurship for Pure Ponics in Australia.

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References
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crowd. Journal of business venturing, 29(5), pp.585-609.
Bhardwaj, D., Ansari, M.W., Sahoo, R.K. and Tuteja, N., 2014. Biofertilizers function as key
player in sustainable agriculture by improving soil fertility, plant tolerance and crop
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