Entrepreneurship Reflective Report: Planning, Organizing, and Running

This report is a reflective analysis of an entrepreneurship week event organized by a student to promote enterprise awareness. It details the planning, organizing, and execution of the event, emphasizing the importance of team working, resource management, and overcoming challenges such...Read More

Running Head: Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 1
Entrepreneurship Reflective Report
Name
Professor
Institution
Course
Date

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 2
Introduction
Entrepreneurship helps in understanding how various opportunities for innovation in
terms of new markets, services, products, raw material, and organizing of existing technologies
develop. These opportunities are created by individuals who recognize and exploit the
opportunities in distinct ways to produce a variety of effects (Little, Go, & Poon, 2017).
Baporikar and IGI Global (2017) assert that entrepreneurs need behavioral skills, technical skills,
and a personality to be effectively successful. Some of these personality traits include self-
confidence, innovative, capacity to inspire, problem-solving, creativity, proactive and others.
These individual traits should be matched with behavioral skills such as communications,
decision-making, delegation, team working and others; and technical skills such as business
planning, marketing, quality management, and others. I have expanded my knowledge in many
areas of business through my course learning and supplementary external reading. I have gained
considerably many insights and knowledge for establishing and planning a business.
From the knowledge acquired I decided to plan an entrepreneurship week event aimed at
creating enterprise awareness in various departments presenting an opportunity for students to
actively be involved in identifying and exploiting entrepreneurship opportunities. I organized a
group of five people to facilitate the events because I understood the purpose of a team working
in entrepreneurship. Running the event involved aspects such as project scheduling, surveys, and
logistics management as stated by Fransoo, Wäfler, and Wilson, (2011) . In this reflective report I
have explained objectively what happened, interpreted the events describing what I saw and
heard, my insights, and my connections with what I had learned. I have outlined how
entrepreneurial traits contribute towards successful planning, organizing and running of the

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 3
events through knowledge and understanding of relevant entrepreneur theories. Also, I have
described what I learned and the various challenges encountered.
Planning, organizing and running the entrepreneurship week event
Entrepreneurship is the drive of all economies currently in the world. Entrepreneur’s role
is not just self-satisfaction but to contribute to the economy by innovating and implementing
which helps in solving various problems in the society. In relation to Schumpeter theory (Bloch,
2018) which defines innovation as a key feature of economic advancement and an entrepreneur
as the force involved in change I consider myself as an entrepreneur. Bloch describes an
entrepreneur as a person who recognizes an opportunity to transform by developing new
enterprises. This process involves steps such as identification of an opportunity, resolving to
proceed and gathering the necessary resources, starting a new venture, making success and
managing growth, and reaping the rewards. I believe I am innovative and I can derive solutions
through innovative ways irrespective of the risks and uncertainties as stated by (Piperopoulos,
2012).
I considered my entrepreneurship qualities to plan, organize and run an entrepreneurship
week event which contributed to positive changes to the participants and the society at large. I
have learned that working in a team is more successful because the members in it are in a
capacity to create synergy. As an entrepreneurship student, I understand that the potential of a
team is better than the collective capabilities of the individuals within it. Therefore, I involved
the group in organizing and planning the event. I felt enthusiastic and friendly being in a team.
We managed to solve the problems that were raised quite amicably. To attain positive synergy
and effective participation environment my team set some principles of ethics and behavior. We

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 4
outlined and assigned the various task in relation to our strengths in topic areas. Also, all the
disagreements were settled and we harmoniously worked together. In this event I played the role
of a facilitator to conduct resource and knowledge sharing process. However, some members
also played the role of facilitator at distinct stages. This role enabled me to learn how to
distribute organizational knowledge to promote better performance of the team. Concurring with
the entrepreneurship theory about facilitation, learning in a team happens with the aid of a
facilitator not just by someone who gives knowledge to the team (Kuratko, 2009). I confirmed
this theory through my personal experience that personal knowledge can increase little value to
the group.
In entrepreneurship there are a number of external factors that combine with the
technical, behavior and personal skills to establish the result of an entrepreneur. One of these
external factors is opportunities in the market setting which can arise from changes or
uncertainty. According to Ofori-Dankwa and Omane-Antwi (2015) external factors are likely to
play a big role in the achievement of entrepreneurs. Certainly, this present event will not be my
final or my best however it will enable me to develop entrepreneur skills in the area. What has
been motivating me is reading books and listening to famous entrepreneurs. This really inspires
me to chase my dreams and ambitions as an entrepreneur. During the planning stage I engaged
the members in a meeting to discuss the event and know each other. In the meeting we also
discussed how we will organize and run the events where every member gave out an idea. I also
gave my plans and thoughts. After careful constructive arguments and discussion I made them
understand and agree on the topic.
Evaluation of the entrepreneur week event

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 5
From the event I understood that enterprise and entrepreneurship is the identification of
real opportunities from a variety of potential ideas. From this, I have the capacity to recognize,
analyze and take action to relevant opportunities. Also, advance and produce many solutions to
improve existing provisions (Aulet & Ursache, 2013). I understood how to identify problems,
gap, and similar encounters and be adaptable and flexible. Additionally, recognizing alternative
perspectives and providing various solutions. These solutions can be reviewed and evaluated in
contexts that accommodate and anticipate change and contain basics of risk, ambiguity, and
uncertainty (Bridge, 2012). These opportunities can be recognized or be created through
networking and making connections as a result of evaluating, assessing ideas, problem-solving,
and develop appropriate subject expertise and knowledge of contemporary issues, which together
should be verified in any tactics for identifying an opportunity. I understood that previous
experience, learning, and networks can assist students to create a variety of enterprising, social,
conceptual and practical abilities which can facilitate in developing opportunities (Rae, 2014).
Entrepreneurial capacity can be specific to a certain discipline, context or vocational requirement
as such will differ. This might be exhibited when a student develop a new product or service to
meet a recognized need, or recognize an opportunity and envisions possible actions jointly with
their expectations for success. Through acquiring practical insights, the experiences in learning
will increasingly create entrepreneurial capabilities, allowing the students to be the first to show
independence either personally or as part of a team (Higgins, Jones, & Pauric, 2019).
Also, this entrepreneur event motivated me to realize that working as a team is an
important feature of both entrepreneurial and employed work. Project work, for instance, to
research about new ventures opportunities or to develop new services for companies can not only
offer hands-on activities but can engage external shareholders like potential clients thereby

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 6
extending the student’s and team perspectives (Crane, 2012). Structured experience in paid work
and work placements can also assist in developing enterprising capabilities and courage, by
developing reflective practices and insights. When students are involved in responsibility for
extracurricular activities, such as organizing events, societies, sports activities, representation,
and others, this enhances their entrepreneurial learning. I learned about enterprise awareness
which is acquired by developing understanding and knowledge of entrepreneurial and
enterprising activities (Down, 2010). Through this, I understood the professional importance of
entrepreneurship and enterprise in the world, and also its meaning and significance personally.
Examples may comprise of students learning to value the speed of change and the demand for
adaptability, social enterprises in an area, small firm's role in industry, intellectual property
management, and the value of ideas (Ndubisi & Nwankwo, 2013).
Challenges I faced during the entrepreneur week event
Burns (2018) truly asserts that when entrepreneurs start new ventures they face a number
of limitations. Throughout the event from planning to conducting the actual event, I realized that
there are several issues related to the activity. Thompson, Mawson, and Martin (2017) stated that
there are several ways in which entrepreneurs must use to ensure a combination of resources
which help them in attaining their objective. In this event, the first limitation we faced was to
assemble finances for the event. Despite the fact that we are students planning and conducting
the activity required finances which we had to contribute according to our capacities. The second
limitation was acquiring the materials that were needed in the event. We also had time challenges
as the third shortcoming because we had to dedicate reduced time for planning and organizing
this event because of our other personal and educational activities. The fourth constraint was the
trust and communication barrier which we had to ensure everyone has been attended to and the

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 7
fact that there were people even from society. Other challenges were lack of proper individual
preparation, some ideas were not implemented because of lack of resources, lack of knowledge
on how to conduct the event, inexperience, conflicting decision making and poor leadership.
However, we solved all these challenges jointly.
What I learned from planning, organizing and running the entrepreneurship week event
Team working made me understand the importance of always listening, respecting and
appreciating everyone's ideas and feedback. The team was cooperative, focused and helpful
which facilitated the success of the event despite challenges encountered. This helped me
understand that everyone has distinct entrepreneur traits which can impact entrepreneurship
greatly. Besides, I managed to learn different entrepreneurship techniques and had practical
experience of how to apply entrepreneurship theories in a real-life situation (Álvarez, 2018) . As
the team leader I was involved in formulating strategies and goals to attain this strategy. I applied
the other theories to expand my understanding of the entrepreneurship week event. I felt a
change as my personal, behavioral and technical skills increased substantially. I personally feel
that an entrepreneurship event is viable as it help us to apply theories into practice. This helps
the students to acquire effective planning and organizing experience and applying what they
have learned in their lectures in implementing strategies. I also feel that I can understand the
topic better and use different sources which will assist me a lot in the future business plan
(Manimala & Thomas, 2017).
Learning enterprise and entrepreneurship has various benefits as it gives students
different perspectives on their career choices and eventually, the confidence to establish their
own social enterprise or business (Iyigun, 2019). This creates enterprise competencies which are

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 8
useful in the future or employment or even self-employment. Personally, it helped develop
confidence, a creative approach and readiness to take a risk which enabled me to manage the
event in a flexible manner. Some of these enterprise competencies are teamwork and the capacity
to show initiative and creative thoughts along with self-discipline in beginning tasks and
completing them are essential attributes for an entrepreneur. I have developed interpersonal skills
too through interaction and communication with others. During the event, I ensured that the
participants acquire business competencies to enable them in stating and developing businesses.
In the course of this, I learned several things about working as an entrepreneur (Davidson, 2018).
During the planning stage of our event, I understood that in order to conduct any activity,
irrespective of how easy it is one has to consider various factors and work within specific limits.
I learned to evaluate the options and prefer the viable one and this is termed as brainstorming. I
learned how conflicts occur, how they can disrupt the group performance and the way they
should be solved to ensure people are actively involved and committed to the event.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is a key area to the advancement of the world economies. The
innovativeness and freedoms of the entrepreneurs contributes solutions of most world challenges.
Developing communication skills will help me to effectively build relationships with various
stakeholders. Interpersonal skills are usually developed by interacting and communicating with
others. Adaptive and effective planning is important in creating and executing strategies.
Students should be in a capacity to recognize and respond to the needs of stakeholders and
communicate with passion and enthusiasm to be able to sell new ideas, perception, and solutions.
They should also apply flexible skills in planning to effectively interact with others, speak about
ideas, and cultivate trust and exhibit information or results to audiences. Also, they can utilize

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 9
other people's ideas to advance their work taking into account the emerging concepts and
technologies and changing environment. From the evaluation, entrepreneurship is the best way
for me. It will allow me to execute various entrepreneur abilities which will allow me to venture
into self-employed business. Planning and organizing this event provided me with the
opportunity to correlate the theoretical basis of the business with a practical application of the
problem. I also realized that problem solving is an essential element to the success of an
entrepreneur. I can confidently say that I have reliable problem-solving abilities and I fit in
Hisrich (2010) entrepreneur personality profile. This experience has provided me with an insight
and opened up my prospects of what entrepreneurship entails.

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 10
ReferencesÁ
lvarez, J. M. (2018). Business strategies and advanced techniques for entrepreneurship 3.0. Hershey
Business Science Reference .
Aulet, B., & Ursache, M. (2013). Disciplined entrepreneurship : 24 steps to a successful startup. Hoboken
(New Jersey): Wiley, cop.
Baporikar, N., & IGI Global. (2017). Management education for global leadership. Hershey, Pennsylvania
(701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033, USA) : IGI Global.
Bloch, H. (2018). Schumpeter's price theory. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, an imprint of
the Taylor & Francis Group.
Bridge, S. (2012). Understanding Enterprise. Palgrave Macmillan.
Burns, P. (2018). New venture creation : a framework for entrepreneurial start-ups. Basingstoke,
Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan.
Crane, F. G. (2012). Marketing for entrepreneurs : concepts and applications for new ventures. Thousand
Oaks : SAGE Publications, Inc.
Davidson, J. H. (2018). The entrepreneur's framework : how businesses are adapting in the new
economy! United States: Lioncrest Publishing.
Down, S. (2010). Enterprise, entrepreneurship and small business. Los Angeles [Calif.] ; London : SAGE.
Fransoo, J. C., Wäfler, T., & Wilson, J. R. (2011). Behavioral operations in planning and scheduling.
Heidelberg ; New York: Springer.
Higgins, D., Jones, P., & Pauric, M. (2019). Creating entrepreneurial space : talking through multi-voices,
reflections on emerging debates. United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.
Hisrich, R. D. (2010). International entrepreneurship : starting, developing, and managing a global
venture. Los Angeles : SAGE .
Iyigun, N. O. (2019). Creating business value and competitive advantage with social entrepreneurship.
Hershey, PA IGI Global, Business Science Reference.
Kuratko, D. F. (2009). Entrepreneurship : theory, process, practice. Mason, Ohio : South-Western
Cengage Learning.
Little, S. E., Go, F. M., & Poon, T. S.-C. (2017). Global innovation and entrepreneurship : challenges and
experiences from East and West. Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint : Palgrave
Macmillan.
Manimala, M. J., & Thomas, P. (2017). Entrepreneurship Education : Experiments with Curriculum,
Pedagogy and Target Groups. Singapore : Springer.

Entrepreneurship Reflective Report 11
Ndubisi, N. O., & Nwankwo, S. (2013). Enterprise development in SMEs and entrepreneurial firms :
dynamic processes. Hershey PA Business Science Reference.
Ofori-Dankwa, J., & Omane-Antwi, K. (2015). Comparative case studies on entrepreneurship in developed
and developing countries. Hershey, PA, USA : Business Science Reference, an imprint of IGI
Global.
Piperopoulos, P. G. (2012). Entrepreneurship, innovation and business clusters. Farnham, Surrey,
England: Gower.
Rae, D. (2014). Opportunity-centred entrepreneurship. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan.
Thompson, M., Mawson, S., & Martin, F. (2017). Social Entrepreneurs : Can They Change the World? :
high-impact social ventures. London : Palgrave.