Exam 4: Managing Entrepreneurially

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Growing a Web-Development Company (Scenario) Vincent and Alice are partners in a one-year-old web development business called Spy-der Web Execution. Vincent comes from a graphic design background and specializes in the look and feel of web projects. Alice comes from the computer gaming industry and is a highly experienced programmer and web developer-with a particular leaning toward Wordpress as a website backbone. So far they have brought in less business than they had anticipated-about 25 percent less. As a result, they are operating at just a little below break even, and it is costing them about $500 a month to cover expenses (including rent on a small office space where they meet clients). The situation is disappointing and was not anticipated by either Vincent or Alice. As with many businesses like this that are easy to get into with little investment, they did not do a full feasibility study or business plan. They are unsure about how to divide up their responsibilities (who is responsible for what), and therefore neither person is proactively going after new business, managing each project's budget, and determining even if they are making money on the work. You are now in the role of advising the partners about a number of issues. -One of the activities the two partners have engaged in effectively is keeping abreast of what is happening in the marketing world as well as what web developers around the world are creating and the related technological innovations along the way. This is a great example of ____________________.

Along with business planning, it is imperative that an entrepreneur think ahead about what would happen if things do not go well. In order to know how to deal with a worst-case situation or crisis, he or she should create a ____________ or plan B.

To help retain talented employees, entrepreneurs employ a number of strategies to encourage them to stay with the venture. All but one of the following are the key benefits they are often offered:

The three key control issues facing entrepreneurs are managing growth effectively, navigating downturns, and ensuring they maintain a fixed vacation schedule to sustain them through the stresses.

The main human resource challenge an entrepreneur faces is recruiting, ensuring they find the right people and bring them into the venture. After that, things start to take care of themselves.

Rob is the new bookkeeper at your one-year-old company. Your business provides travellers in North America with access to people's apartments for rent for short-term accommodation. Your biggest competition is Air BnB. You have noticed that your website traffic is going up exponentially as word is spreading, and there are starting to be occasional system crashes and lost reservations. You need to rebuild your servers and related infrastructure, but your cash flow is not keeping up with the reinvestment required. Because you had planned carefully for this event, you knew this time might come. It is time to call in a potential investor to provide a capital injection because your ____________ are lagging behind increasing demand.

Sarah has been working hard on her business plan for her new web marketing business for the past eight weeks. She feels she has nailed down every conceivable detail of the business for the next four years. When discussing it with her financial partner, the question of a contingency plan came up. Sarah became frustrated and asked, "Why would I need a contingency plan?" In answering, her partner said that a contingency plan was important because it was a more concise version of her full business plan, which she could use to show potential clients where her company was going and what she stood for. Sarah's partner is correct about her understanding of a contingency plan.

Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a new business or organization in response to perceived opportunities.

An organization that is independently owned, operated, and financed; has fewer than 100 employees; and does not necessarily engage in any new or innovative practices is known as a(n) ________________.

There are essentially two descriptions of how entrepreneurs add value to the economy: creative destruction and by being entrepreneurially alert. They are essentially the same thing.

According to one study, nearly two-thirds of respondents said that working in the same industry was the major source of ideas for a new venture.

Once a new venture establishes good financial controls, the next step is to _____________ them.

The ability of the entrepreneur to articulate a coherent and inspiring vision of the future is, in practice, not a very important part of his or her leadership. If recruiting is done well, the employees will begin to see the future of the organization on their own.

The entrepreneurial process starts with ____________ .

The steps in the model for company building include all of the following except ____________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. A Mature Café (Scenario) Sarah has been growing and operating her café in an upscale neighbourhood. She is happy with how the business has continued to increase in revenues as her customer base has become loyal over the years. She has just over 30 employees, two of whom are managers. The lease on the space is coming up for renewal and this has brought up the notion of leaving the business and exploring other interests she has in travelling through Africa and Southeast Asia. Sarah has worked hard and she wants to be sure she gets as much out of the business as she put into it. Another factor is the increasing competition in the area and the sinking feeling she has that it will be next to impossible to differentiate her business from the big chains opening on several street corners. Her fear is that her sales may have plateaued and there in fact will be a decrease in sales in the near future. -In spite of all the questions Sarah has about whether to sell, or reinvent the business, and so on, she is remaining ____________________ for opportunities she can get involved in aside from the café and any new ideas that may surface to give her a chance to diversify.

Entrepreneurs need to address growth strategies as part of their business planning and should not be _______________ in that planning.

Aside from innovation the importance of entrepreneurship can be shown in three areas: _________________, _______________, and ____________.

By definition, a start-up is _________________ designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

The first step in the entrepreneurial process is to explore economic, legal, political and social environments.