Unit 9: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (ESBM)

Unit 9: Entrepreneurship
and Small Business
Management (ESBM)

Table of Contents
 Entrepreneurial Experiences and Background
Fostering and Hindering Entrepreneurship
 References

Entrepreneurial Experiences and Background
Fostering and Hindering Entrepreneurship
 The past experiences that an entrepreneur possesses in combination with
their cultural, religious, social background has an immense influence on
their overall entrepreneurial capabilities, with these factors having the
potential to both hinder and foster their entrepreneurship endeavours.
 The impact that past experiences and background can have towards
fostering and hindering entrepreneurship can be effectively showcased
by analysing the example of the very successful entrepreneur J.K.
Rowling, who became the first author in the history of the world to ever
achieve a net worth of over 1$ billion through her Harry Potter series of
books.
 The background and experiences possessed by an entrepreneur can have
a significantly impact on their various entrepreneurial operations due to

CONT.
 Decision Making:
 The decision making operations of an entrepreneur, which has become a vital and
immensely important role and responsibility of a successful entrepreneur is
significantly impacted by their past experiences and background.
 This is because all decisions made by an entrepreneur are a direct result of the past
failures and successes of their prior decision making operations.
 For example, J.K. Rowling as a child and even in her early adulthood had to endure
severe poverty while living in UK, barely having enough financial resources to make
her living.
 This past experience made her immensely empathetic to the struggles of poverty and
influenced her decision to base the protagonist of her Harry Potter novel as an orphan,
who possessed nothing and had to consistently depend on other for his early survival.

CONT.
 Communication Skills:
 Past experiences and background of an entrepreneur also has an immense impact on
their effective communication skills, which are also required to be possessed by all
successful entrepreneurs.
 For example, J.K. Rowling started reading books and novels from a very early age,
with this habit and past experience contributing immensely towards building her
communication skills particularly in writing, which was showcased in her novels.
 If J.K. Rowling did not possess this vital past experience, then the quality of her writing
would have held back the success that her novels eventually were able to accomplish
and would have resulted in J.K. Rowling becoming significantly less successful
entrepreneur than she was eventually able to become.

References
 Lewis, P., 2017. POSTFEMINISM AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP. The Routledge
Companion to Global Female Entrepreneurship.