Entrepreneurship Case Study: Motivational Factors of Steph Croft Simon

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Steph Croft Simon, the founder of Nom, and her entrepreneurial journey. It explores the motivational factors that influenced her to start the business, including her personal experiences with food allergies and the desire to create allergen-free products. The essay utilizes the model of entrepreneurship motivation, examining factors such as personal characteristics, environment, goals, business environment, and the business idea. It also applies McClelland's theory of needs to understand her drive for achievement, power, and affiliation. Furthermore, the essay outlines the key entrepreneurial characteristics demonstrated by Steph Croft Simon, such as her originality, risk-taking, competence, and innovation. Through this comprehensive analysis, the essay highlights how Steph Croft Simon's dedication, flexibility, and hard work led to her success in the competitive market, providing an inspiring example for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship refers to the ability and act of developing business and run the
enterprise along with the uncertainties and scaling it to gain profits. In modern world
entrepreneurship is used as a wider concept, it is more related to solving big problems,
transforming changes like creating a new and innovative product, introducing a life changing
solution or creating need for a product etc. An entrepreneur is the person who has the ability and
desire to start something new and has the courage to take up risks and aims to make a profit. This
essay talks about the Steph Croft Simon, who is an entrepreneur and the founder of Nom in
2013. It includes the motivational factors that influenced her to be an entrepreneur and start Nom
and also covers the relevant characteristics that she possess to be a successful entrepreneur.
Steph Croft Simon is allergic to various food products so after conducting a proper
research to find the link between the food we eat and health she founded Nom. As there were
very less products available that are suitable for the allergic person, so she created products
which are beneficial for such people, it includes energy bars, popcorns that are free from major
allergens which includes dairy and gluten etc. Through all these award winning products, she has
shown that even dietary restrictions can settle on good taste (Nambisan, Siegel and Kenney,
2018). To identify the motivational factors behind the success of the Steph Croft Simon, the
model of entrepreneurship motivation is used. This model states the factors that motivated
leaders to start a new business and even motivate others. The decision behaviour of the
entrepreneurs are influenced by the characteristics, which are, personal characteristics, personal
environment, personal goals, business environment and business idea. In first, personal
characteristics, It refers to the capability of the person to take the right decision. Steph have
always been fascinated by the products and its nutrition that can positively impact the lives of the
people (Wagner, 2017). She even stared asking feedback whether they have any allergy and
wanted to see their reaction. Based on this feedback, she took decisions which has made her
successful. Next is personal environment, it refers to the personal surrounding of the person such
as family, friends, status etc. It also includes individuals role model like family member,
teachers, mentors and any public figure. The real inspiration behind Nom is her own health
issues. When she was in studying she suddenly developed severe food allergies and diagnosing it
took a couple of years. The reason behind this allergy was her carelessness to gain proper
nutrition (Hills and Morris, 2018). All this inspired her to start something new which will help
her and others in dealing with such situations. Third is personal goals, every entrepreneur have

different set of goals, these goals are set in such away that helps in enhancing the internal
motivation. Steph always strive to innovate something new which meet the challenges faced by
the people and makes life easy. This factor motivates her achieve her goals and then again set
anew goal with the changing needs. Fourth is business environment, it refers to the environment
within which a business is existed and complete with others (Entrepreneurs: A Proposed
Research Model of Motivation of Entrepreneurs. 2016). The major factor that may affect the
business of Steph is the availability of resources and the market needs and situation, customers
expectation etc. Steph has already identified the needs for food products that can be used by
allergic people to make their life easy. The biggest obstacle for her was the get funding for
growing the business and finding out a manufacturer who can carefully prepare the products
exactly the same way that she used to do it in her kitchen. The last is business idea, it is the
purpose of business and an successful entrepreneur always finds an innovative way of growing
and creating a difference.
After identifying the all these key factors come process of planning and implementation.
Steph has carefully create plan which includes all the sources of funding, location, quantity
required etc. and implemented it. Next is the outcome and comparing it with the expectation.
Finding the factory to produce was the hard part in the planning process and also getting licenses
for making organic and gluten free products. Steph decided to go for crow funding method to get
funds for her business. After the successful implementation of plan, it come s the time of
analysing the results and it came as a shock that Steph's products are loved by the people, not
only because it is made especially made for their allergic needs but were also good in taste which
inspired them to stick to the product (Garud, Gehman and Tharchen, 2018). The very next step
after this is entrepreneurial strategic management. This strategy phase is important for every
entrepreneur in their start up stage. It includes costing, outcomes, pricing etc. Steph has
implemented the business strategy with different managerial behaviour which has lead to the
positive performance outcome and made her huge. So, this model has depicted the the entire
success of the entrepreneurs and also highlighted the factors or motivators that has resulted in the
coming up of Nom. The Steph Croft Simon has taken her interest to the next level. She got
herself motivated to give anew start to her life which made her successful.
Another that can be applied is the McClelland's theory of needs. This theory states about
the process of motivation which is derived from the needs. This theory explains the approach to

used to identify the needs. The theory revolves around the three things, that is, achievement,
power and affiliation. First is need for achievement, it urges people to achieve something. It can
be considered as a need which drives a person to work. People with high need for achievement
always works to excel in their work. The same happens with Steph Croft Simon, as she has
attained the high level achievement needs which has motivated her to accomplish her goals and
move further. Next is need for power, it refers to the desire a person has to attain the position of
power and authority (Sonia Kukreja, 2020). These people are strong leaders with high need of
power , they usually wants to enhance their self esteem and reputation and wants to make their
decision or ideas accepted by others. Steph Croft Simon has this power to influence people to
view and accept her ideas and opinion. She possess the qualities of a good leader also. The last is
need for affiliation, it refers to the urge of the person to maintain a interpersonal and social
relationship with other people. Such people looks for the opportunity to work in a group or team
which creates a friendly environment and to be loved by others. Such people stick to one thing
and do not desire to change and even no such needs arises. Steph Croft Simon wants to be
affiliated but she has always been flexible in her working terms and was never dependent upon a
team to carry out the work. So, it can be said that Steph Croft Simon, has actually motivated
herself in the positive aspected which has helped her in been a good entrepreneur and has proved
herself as an inspiration. She has efficiently identified the needs that are required to attain
success.
Successful people have many traits or qualities that are mostly common with one another.
Self starters are very confident and optimistic. These people are open to all the challenges or idea
that comes to their way. Entrepreneurial characteristics that made Steph acquired or gained that
has pave the way for success are stated below.

Entrepreneur Characteristics Yes Evidence
Steph Croft Simon Original Thinker Yes She is the original
thinker of her business
by connecting and
comparing her life
with other people who
faced the same
challenges and has
came up the idea.
Risk Taker Yes Starting this business
was a huge risk as it
requires lot of funding
to get the right
resources.
Takes responsibility of
her own actions
Yes She has learned the
lesson from her life
with respect to her
medical issues and
how it changed her life
because of her
carelessness she has
came into this
situation.
Competent Yes Steph is very
competent as she all
on her own decided
about this unique idea
and get it practical.
Capable Yes She is highly capable
of doing this business

and her capability is
can be seemed by
looking at her passion
to so something in life
even after getting such
misery that has
affected her life and
studies.
Creative Yes She is very creative as
she can meet with the
needs of the customers
in a very creative way.
Innovative Yes Steph is innovative
which can clearly be
seen by looking at her
business. She has
catered to the allergic
needs of the people
and others in dealing
with their health issues
and resolving these
issues with proper
organic products.
Able to position
themselves in new
market
Yes Steph has actually
positioned herself in
the market and has
become a public figure
and an inspiration for
others.

Create new products Yes She keeps on
innovating new
products. She actually
got these ideas from
Pinterest, magazine,
Instagram etc. She also
keeps on innovating
with respect to the
feedbacks gathered
from the the customers
and their emerging
needs.
Create new processes She keeps on updating
its customers about the
new ways to
manufacturing her
products and its
benefits.
Influenced by family
life whilst young
Yes When she was
studying BSc in
Sociology at Bristol
University, she
developed some
allergies and it took
couple of years to the
diagnose the same.
After getting
recovered, she
researched about the
these allergies and got

the idea to start her
own organic business
catering to the needs
of other allergic
people.
Demands excellence Yes Steph is very focussed
and demands
perfection in her work
which makes her
products lovable by
everyone.
High achiever Yes Her ambition of
becoming an
entrepreneur and
achieving such huge
success makes her big
achiever.
Independent Yes She has everything
independently without
any help from
outsiders. She
researched about the
link between health
and food we eat and its
effects on the our
metabolism.
Self confident Yes Steph is highly
motivated and
confident. She has
shown this by coming

back to her normal life
after being
hospitalized and left
her studies in between.
Persistent Yes Steph has continued
her life like before
without any depression
or bad thinking about
her life. She was
persistent enough to
make changes in her
life and even others.
Goal setting Yes She created goals to
achieving success
from her start up and
also made strategic
planning to
accomplish those
goals.
Hard working Yes She is really very hard
working. She has
become a known
public figure which is
all because of her hard
work and dedication.
To grow her business
she has continuously
conduct research to
understand the
changing trends and

needs and other hard
ships faced by the
people related to
health which she can
resolve.
Flexible Yes Steph is very flexible
in terms of her
thinking processes
and business
perspective. She even
changes her methods
of producing the
products as per the
changing scenario
which helps her in
providing quality
product and services.
It can be stated from the above that Steph Croft Simon has covered all the major
characteristics that is essential to be possessed by an entrepreneur which is important for
achieving success in the business. Successful entrepreneurs, initially only wants to know what it
likes to be at the top and after achieving it, their only desire is to go further and beyond it.
It can be concluded from the above that Steph Croft Simon has inspired everyone and
changed the perspective of how to looking at life and the business. For being successful
entrepreneur, requires a motivating factor that persuades everyone to achieved their goals. This
factors needs to be identified in time as done by Steph Croft Simon. The entrepreneurship
motivation model has been applied, to identify the factors that has helped in achieving success of
the business.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Garud, R., Gehman, J. and Tharchen, T., 2018. Performativity as ongoing journeys: Implications
for strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Long Range Planning, 51(3), pp.500-
509.
Hills, G. E. and Morris, M. H., 2018. Entrepreneurship education: a conceptual model and
review. In Educating entrepreneurs for wealth creation (pp. 38-53). Routledge.
Nambisan, S., Siegel, D. and Kenney, M., 2018. On open innovation, platforms, and
entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 12(3). pp.354-368.
Wagner, M., 2017. Entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability. Routledge.
Online
Entrepreneurs: A Proposed Research Model of Motivation of Entrepreneurs. 2016. [Online].
Available Through:<http://ijahms.com/upcomingissue/03.10.2016.pdf>.
Sonia Kukreja, 2020. McClelland’s Theory of Needs. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://www.managementstudyhq.com/mcclellands-theory-of-needs-power-
achievement-and-affiliation.html>.
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