Brunel University: MG3009 Business Plan Self Reflection Report

This report presents a self-reflection on the process of developing a business plan, focusing on the challenges of teamwork and the application of entrepreneurial theories. The report begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of teamwork and the need for collaboration in creating a comprehensive business plan. It then delves into specific challenges faced by the team, such as uncertainty in roles and unpredictable goals. The report details how these challenges were addressed, including research, team presentations, and clarification from the instructor. It further analyzes the impact of these experiences on the author's future contributions to teamwork, highlighting the lessons learned about goal setting and the importance of communication. The report also explores relevant entrepreneurship theories, including Frank Knight's risk-bearing theory and Joseph Schumpeter's innovation theory, and their influence on the financial plan of the business plan. Finally, the report reflects on the author's entrepreneurial potential based on their qualities and contributions during the business plan development. The report is a valuable resource for students seeking insights into the practical application of entrepreneurial concepts and the importance of teamwork.

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 1
by Student’s name
Course code + name
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 2
Table of Contents
The most challenging aspect of teamwork in our business plan development.........................5
Uncertainty in our roles in the business plan development stages........................................5
Unpredictable goals....................................................................................................................5
Overcoming these challenges........................................................................................................6
Impact on my future contribution to teamwork.....................................................................6
Entrepreneurship theories............................................................................................................7
The risk-bearing theory of Knight...........................................................................................7
Innovation theory of Schumpeter.............................................................................................8
Entrepreneurship culture in me...................................................................................................8
References.....................................................................................................................................10

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 3
Business Plan Development Self Reflection
Introduction
Business plan development requires an amalgamation of efforts and thorough
concentration in order to clearly understand the process and to come up with a well-coordinated
business plan that would produce a viable business when tested in a real business situation. For
this to happen, therefore, efforts must be combined especially in a team scenario where every
team member plays a crucial role. Expertise differs owing to our diversity and dynamics. Each of
us come with different expertise in every situation hence the need to coordinate all this expertise
in an attempt to produce a business plan which is a replica of real business and which does not
lack in any constituent of the business giving consideration to the envisioned business.
Working in a team to undertake a crucial task such as the creation of a business plan is an
all-important approach to critical tasks so that mistakes can be minimized, ensure efficient and
effective use of all resources that are allocated towards the achievement of this task, save time
and work within the expected duration to come up with the desired outcome. Teamwork,
therefore, ensures efficiency and effectiveness in such an important task. YTI.edu (2015) notes
that for a productive lifelong professional line, one needs to understand the need to work well
and along with others. Further, it points out that teamwork comes with current ideas which are a
crucial recipe for business development. Every individual team player is unique in his/her own
way hence putting the new ideas into a business development through a business plan will enable
the business to thrive in an ideal business environment.
Working in teams is one sure way of solving many problems that may accrue in the
course of the business. Through team collaboration, team members are able to storm over

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 4
difficult situations and exchange ideas which will result in an innovative and creative way of
solving the problems at hand and the anticipated problems in the future. Through teamwork,
therefore, individuals will be able to apply what works best for the business. Teamwork is a quite
supportive tool. Considering the fact that business plans are time sensitive and bound to strict
deadlines, it ensures that tasks are handled within the projected timeline for the project and
quality work assured thereof. The supportive nature of a team is well depicted in instances for
example when one team member is held up and falls behind, teamwork will ensure that there is
someone to continue the work without letting the whole project fall behind.
Working in teams is also one sure way of building morale, attitude, and relationships. A
team player will feel the value when s/he contributes to the team in building a project such as a
business plan and see good results out of his/her contribution. This will build trust and improve
on the confidence of the team members hence promoting a positive attitude and boosted morale
which in essence is a motivation of its kind. A motivated team is a team values cohesion and are
adhesively held together not easy to disintegrate.
All said, teamwork also comes with a number of challenges that may result in many
mistakes, delay timelines and have a net financial loss to that effect. Some challenges that often
affect teamwork and contribute greatly to drawbacks in team projects include but not limited to;
lack of trust between the team players (Flint and Hearn, 2015). This greatly impacts team
activities because members tend to hold back crucial information and ideas. Conflicts always
rock teams causing significant setbacks that the team members will be forced to work on before
continuing the work in progress. Some team members also hold back crucial pieces of
information that would otherwise help the team causing the team to strain in research. Low

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 5
engagement into the team tasks may also hurt the team project greatly. Most teams are also
affected by a lack of transparency in sharing information.
The most challenging aspect of teamwork in our business plan development
During our project task of developing a business plan, we were put to work in teams to
come up with a feasible business plan that represents a real business situation in the
contemporary world. As a team, we encountered quite a number of challenges associated with
teamwork. Among the most crucial challenges we faced as a team were;
Uncertainty in our roles in the business plan development stages
There exists a difference in the manner in which as an individual one handles tasks
different from a team perspective. In a team perspective, there is a share of responsibility with
the team members. The culture of sharing responsibilities with others was a little challenge and
most team members had not gotten used to it. While working as a team, there were instances of
confusion where some team members did not really understand their roles leading to other team
members chipping in to take up the roles they understood well. At some points there arose
instances of forgetting critical aspects of the business plan because of the uncertainty of roles in
the team. Rohia (2017) points out that uncertainty in roles as a challenge experienced during
working together as a team emanates from the difference that exists when one is handling an
individual task as compared to that of a team which commits him/her to explain probably what
one does not really understand.
Unpredictable goals
Goal setting in teamwork is a crucial part to the achievement of team goals. Goal setting
especially in line with chapter one of the business plan where team members were assigned

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 6
various elements such as market plan, management, and organizational plan, production plan,
operational plan, and financial plan just to mention a few, proved to be challenging to the team.
As a team, these goals were a little unclear leaving us with more questions and answers.
According to MindTools.com (2019), goal setting is an important aspect of the business plan and
compares unclear goals goal setting with setting on a journey without real knowledge of the
destination.
Overcoming these challenges
As a team, in order to finally come up with a viable business plan, we had to move ahead
of the challenges that we encountered and mattered a lot to the achievement of the goals we had
set. We overcame the challenge of uncertainty in our roles by reading widely and researching on
various topics. We prepared encouraged team presentations on their findings so that team
members could storm over challenges that members faced. We also encouraged getting more
information from our lecture so that we could have a clear guideline of what to do.
On the unpredictable goal setting, as a team, we focused on making our goal setting more
realistic by eliminating ambiguous goals through in-depth discussions with team members and
sought clarification on areas that seemed unrealistic and ambiguous.
Impact on my future contribution to teamwork
The experience I have received from teamwork challenges have acted as an eye opener to
my future prospects to work with the teams. I have learned the need to work closely with team
members to ensure that goals are aligned effectively to eliminate uncertainty in the roles that I
undertake. Lunenburg (2011) notes that goal setting is a means of ensuring a good relationship
between goals and the performance of team members. The challenges experienced have been a

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 7
good opportunity to learn how to treat each goal independently and not rather vaguely as a
summation of the whole project.
Secondly, through the challenges experienced at teamwork especially in line with
unpredictable goals have taught me the need to broadly think of goals that a team sets to be
achievable and the need to research more on viable options on goal setting. I will be able to
research broadly before proposing goals and help my team to storm over various ideas and
present them for vetting before settling on the best option. I have also learned the art of sharing
challenging situations with my peers and/or specialists to ensure that I clearly understand my
goals.
Entrepreneurship theories
Theoretically speaking, entrepreneurship has seen quite a number of theories used to
describe what it entails. Simpeh (2011) identifies various entrepreneurship theories that have
been used to explore the sector, among which includes the risk-bearing theory of the Knight and
innovation theory of Schumpeter just to mention a few. These two theories have improved my
understanding of the aspect of entrepreneurship greatly.
The risk-bearing theory of Knight
The risk-bearing theory of Knight, for example, looks at entrepreneurship in the profit
sense. As proposed by Frank Knight, the theory is based on the belief that profit is a prize that is
born by an entrepreneur after bearing an uncertain risk (Business Jargons, 2019). This theory has
made my understanding of entrepreneurship by classifying risks as either calculable and non-
calculable. This classification makes it easy in understanding that calculable risks are those that
an entrepreneur can easily anticipate their occurrences, for example, fire outbreak, accidents, and

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 8
theft just to mention a few (Knight, 2012). On the other hand, non-calculable risks are those that
their probability of occurrence cannot be easily predetermined, for example assessing the
competitor strategy is not so easily determined, also the cost incurred when an entrepreneur tries
to do away with competition cannot be easily expressed in statistical data (Amoroso et al, 2017).
Innovation theory of Schumpeter
As proposed by Joseph Schumpeter, this theory has also enabled me to understand
entrepreneurship in depth. It focuses on the act of an entrepreneur earning a profit by involving
fruitful innovations in his/her business (Schumpeter, 2017). An in-depth analysis of this theory
gives a deep understanding of what an entrepreneur is bound to do in order to have a successful
business. According to Keklik (2018), an entrepreneur is supposed to introduce innovation in
his/her undertaking and the net outcome is profit which is given as a reward. Schumpeter in his
book defines innovation as a current strategy that an entrepreneur indulges to lower his
production costs overall and to increase the need for his/her goods (Brian and Kleinknecht,
2016).
These two theories, therefore, improved my understanding of entrepreneurship especially
during the business plan development by aiding me and my team to understand our financial plan
and to design our finances in a more realistic manner that would see us earn realistic profits out
of our business once it actuates. The theories made it easy handling chapter six of our business
plan because every constituent of this chapter was written with the two theories as guidelines for
our financial considerations.

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 9
Entrepreneurship culture in me
Am I a potential entrepreneur? Well to answer this question, I would want to outline my
qualities and contributions to the business plan development which opened my eyes towards
being a potential entrepreneur. According to Patel (2017), an entrepreneur is defined by a
number of qualities. First in, an entrepreneur is considered a creative person. I possess this great
quality as I have managed to come up with very creative business ideas. My creativity in the
business world makes me a potential entrepreneur. I know I am a potential entrepreneur because
I am full of optimism. Entrepreneurs have the sharp eye of focusing on the bright side of every
situation and dream constantly to achieve a milestone. Thirdly, entrepreneurs like me are future-
oriented. I gaze into the future of business with a moving forward attitude aligning my goals with
the future anticipations. An entrepreneur is considered to very flexible and not rigid. I exhibited
flexibility in thinking and embraced different ideas of colleagues as we developed our business
plan. I have a self-conviction that I am outstanding future entrepreneur due to my adventurous
nature and resourcefulness. Just like entrepreneurs who consider themselves to be immune to
problems, (Agrawal, 2011) I do not shy away due to challenges that I might experience in the
course of my undertakings, I will stay put and face every challenge that comes my way head-on.

Business Plan Development Self Reflection 10
References
Agrawal, R. (2011). NY Daily News - We are currently unavailable in your region. [online]
Nydailynews.com. Available at: https://www.nydailynews.com/jobs/characteristics-successful-
entrepreneurs-article-1.960173 [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Amoroso, S., Moncada-Paternò-Castello, P. and Vezzani, A., 2017. R&D profitability: the role
of risk and Knightian uncertainty. Small Business Economics, 48(2), pp.331-343.
Bain, D. and Kleinknecht, A. eds., 2016. New concepts in innovation output measurement.
Springer.
Business Jargons. (2019). What is Knight's Theory of Profit? definition and meaning - Business
Jargons. [online] Available at: https://businessjargons.com/knights-theory-of-profit.html
[Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Flint, M. and Hearn, E. (2015). Ten common challenges that teams face – and how to overcome
them - Real Business. [online] Ten common challenges that teams face – and how to overcome
them - Real Business: Real Business. Available at: https://realbusiness.co.uk/ten-common-
challenges-that-teams-face-and-how-to-overcome-them/ [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].
Keklik, M., 2018. Schumpeter, Innovation, and Growth: Long-cycle dynamics in the post-WWII
American manufacturing industries. Routledge.

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Knight, F.H., 2012. Risk, uncertainty, and profit. Courier Corporation.
Lunenburg, F.C., 2011. Goal-setting theory of motivation. International journal of management,
business, and administration, 15(1), pp.1-6.
MindTools.com (2019). Personal Goal Setting – Planning to Live Your Life Your Way. [online]
Mindtools.com. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].
Patel, S. (2017). 10 Essential Characteristics of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs. [online]
Inc.com. Available at: https://www.inc.com/sujan-patel/10-essential-characteristics-of-highly-
successful-.html [Accessed 1 Apr. 2019].
Rohia (2017). 5 Common Teamwork Challenges Every Team Encounters! | Engagedly. [online]
Engagedly. Available at: https://engagedly.com/5-common-teamwork-challenges-every-team-
encounters/ [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].
Schumpeter, J.A., 2017. Theory of economic development. Routledge.
Simpeh, K. (2011). Entrepreneurship theories and Empirical research: A Summary Review of the
Literature. European Journal of Business and Management, [online] Vol 3, No.6, 2011(ISSN
2222-2839). Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230814855_Entrepreneurship_theories_and_Empirical
_research_A_Summary_Review_of_the_Literature [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].
YTI.edu (2015). Reasons Teamwork is Important in the Workplace. [online] Yti.edu. Available
at: https://www.yti.edu/blog/reasons-teamwork-is-important-in-the-workplace.asp [Accessed 31
Mar. 2019].