Entrepreneurial Lifecycle in Practice: A Case Study of Old Hen Cafe

This essay explores the entrepreneurial lifecycle through the case study of Old Hen Cafe, a cafe located in Singapore. It details the five stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle: business opportunities, ideation and testing, business model generation, resource acquisition and management, and execution. The essay emphasizes the importance of identifying and selecting business opportunities using technology and various analysis methods, such as functional, pragmatic, and semantic analysis. It further discusses ideation and testing, focusing on increasing the customer cohort through infrastructure, operations management, and understanding the challenges and opportunities facing the firm. The essay also highlights the significance of resource acquisition, including diversifying finance sources, reinvesting revenue, and considering partnerships or mergers and acquisitions. The conclusion asserts that each stage of the entrepreneurial lifecycle is crucial for long-term business growth and sustainability.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURIAL CYCLE
Entrepreneurial Cycle
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Stages of The Entrepreneurial Lifecycle
The Entrepreneurial Lifecycle of any firm starts from the point where in an entrepreneur
starts to pursue a business or an organisation with the resources that he has gathered and
assembled. It involves a step by step plan that is involved with understanding the existing
situation in the market or the industry (Burns 2016). Accordingly, the entrepreneur is required to
take steps and implement strategies so that the organisation is established well and flourishes. In
this case the chosen organisation is that of a cafe – Old Hen Cafe. It is situated in Rangoon Road,
Singapore. Every entrepreneurial cycle consists of five parts. These parts include business
opportunities, ideation and testing, business model generation, resource acquisition and
management and execution.
The cafe should thus utilise resources and go through each of the parts of the life cycle so
that the business is sustainable and flourishes in the long-run. Through the presence of business
opportunities, entrepreneurs are responsible for expanding their respective businesses. The cafe
thus has to be formed and operated in such a way that the opportunities are created even under
the circumstances of impossible situations and in the presence of competitors. The ideas,
products and customers form the ideation and testing part of the life cycle wherein the firm is
required to understand and apply the techniques of marketing as well as implementing decision-
making strategies for setting prices as well as understanding the target market that the firm is
trying to capture and sell their products to (Jones 2015). The next step involves the generation of
a business model which consists of the different customer segments, value propositions,
channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, cost structures
and key partners. In this case the firm should identify each of the factors mentioned and should
be making use of disruptive business models so that the changing demand trends of the

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customers can be met automatically. After developing the business model, the firm needs to
ensure that the resources needed by the firm are gathered and utilised to the fullest possible
extent with respect to low cost inputs. The other steps include the appointment and management
of employees and running the different function of the firm in the best possible way in order to
ensure that the level of customer satisfaction is high.
Identification and Selection of Business Opportunities
The business opportunities facing the cafe in this case are numerous and can be utilised
with minimum cost incurrence. The cafe can innovate the technology, which they are using. This
in turn will help them to use the concept of returns to scale. The use of better and innovated
forms of technology will ensure that the number of opportunities facing the business as a whole
increases. This is the very process by which the disruptive business models will ensure that the
demands of the customers are met and that the level of customer satisfaction as a whole
increases. The selection of the business opportunities should also be based on the usage of smart
devices such that the firm is able to make informed decision making and take steps which are
valid and not involved with large amounts of risks. Business models are integral to being used in
the selection of business opportunities as they contain the right set of data, evidence and logic
behind the investments and value propositions being made by the firm. Some business models
combine the data available from the websites of the competitors to enable a nascent business to
have a clear idea of the type and strength of investment that is to be made. Digital platforms and
devices enable low cost decision making and analysis. This particular strategy should be used by
Old Hen Coffee as it will enable them to make low cost decision making and help them in a

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calculated method. It will also be used by the firm to set prices in such a way that the prices are
slightly lower than the competitors prices. This will ensure greater levels of profit for the firm in
the first few quarters which can be reinvested in the next quarters to ensure that the business
flourishes in the long run. There are various types of analysis which can be used to search for
better business opportunities and select the most feasible ones out of the same. These include
functional analysis, pragmatic analysis, semantic analysis, syntactic analysis, semantic analysis
and morphological analysis. The use of information technology in the context of business
growth through the selection of business opportunities is integral and important.
Ideation and Testing
The most important part of the life cycle of an entrepreneurial venture is the search for
the products, the target market and the prices to be set in relation to the costs incurred by the
firms. Ideation testing is an ideal phase for every entrepreneurial venture as it helps in identifying
the grey areas and helps the firm fix the same with the usage and implementation of proper
strategies (Tam and Gray 2016). In this context it is very important to understand that there is a
difference between the concept of a start up and that of a company. In this case, Old Hen Cafe
needs to strategise so that it can expand its operations and grow a larger firm out of the same
resources. These strategies should aim at increasing the customer cohort. There are various
building blocks of increasing the target market and the various steps include use of appropriate
infrastructure and operations management so that the amount of customer satisfaction is
increased. For this the firm needs to segregate the list of challenges and opportunities facing the
firm. In the case of the entrepreneurial venture considered the list of challenges and opportunities
facing the firm are provided in the following table:

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Challenges Opportunities
Lack of inventories from suppliers Customised products
Cost incurrence of marketing Lower operational costs
Tough competition Low customer bargaining power
Table 1: Challenges and Opportunities
Source: Self- made
The cafe will also have to come up with a process map definition so that the entire process of
transition from a start up to a proper company is easier and happens with lesser amount of time.
There are four major parts of the map that include operations management processes, customer
management processes, regulatory and social process and innovation processes. It should be the
priority of the firm to design and engineer structures so that there is a back ip plan in form of a
change management plan. It is equally important for the firm to look after the frameworks and
structures that will enable a smooth and efficient supply chain including logistics management.
The firm also needs to take care of the customer satisfaction management and asset management
simultaneously. It is also the sole responsibility of the firm to frame all the post sale strategies
and activities. These include reverse logistics, warranty policies, life cycle cash flow explanation
and warranty management. The other steps of ideation and testing include human resources
management and business process management.
Resource Acquisition
The last and one of the integral parts of entrepreneurial life cycle involves resource acquisition.
The start of any start up business has to be based on “working with one’s own means” and then
diversifying into other practices like business ventures and partnerships. This step involves the

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usage of credit lines, personal financing and even the use of crowd funding as well as vendor
funding. In the holistic approach, this step of the life cycle of any business organisation involves
gathering and using resource channels for effective funding. In this particular case, Old Hen Cafe
will have to diversify its sources of finance and capital and carry out reinvestment of the revenue
it generates. However, before this step, the firm will have to obtain financing either by using the
resources saved for this venture or by using loans from the banks. After a few years, The cafe
will have to use approaches and strategies like partnerships or even the concepts of mergers and
acquisitions (Lam and Harker 2015). The help of venture capitalists is very important if and
when the business has already taken of, but due to certain existent factors in the market or the
industry, it is going through unforeseen and adverse circumstances in the financial aspect. This is
the most difficult, part of the entire business cycle. It is important to note in this regard that the
best decision to make before making any investment involves the conducting of an extensive risk
analysis. The concept of effectuation is the initiation process and is the most difficult one. It is
very important to note in this regard, that informed decision making and investment planning.
Conclusion
In order to conclude it can be asserted that each of the steps of an entrepreneurial life cycle are
important and need to be executed with expertise and calculated funding. The management and
execution should be such that the business is able to grow and reinvest in the long run and hence
flourish.

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References:
Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Jones, N., 2015. SME's life cycle-steps to failure or success?.
Lam, W. and Harker, M.J., 2015. Marketing and entrepreneurship: An integrated view from the
entrepreneur’s perspective. International Small Business Journal, 33(3), pp.321-348.
Tam, S. and Gray, D.E., 2016. Organisational learning and the organisational life cycle: the
differential aspects of an integrated relationship in SMEs. European Journal of Training and
Development, 40(1), pp.2-20.