Venture idea
How has our idea developed over the last week?
Not much progress this week. We have delivered our first presentation and decided on what we should be doing for the next week. We quickly agreed that a weakness in our venture is evidence – evidence to support the drivers and dimensions that we presented, they were mainly based on our own feelings rather than fact.
So we’re going to fix that and then work out a plan for the remaining two weeks before our final pitch.
What are its main strengths and limitations; has anything happened that requires additional skills or resources?
Strengths lie in the social aspect of the venture still, the team cooperation and positivity, and we also have a quirky brand now.
Weaknesses include evidence, finances, and we must turn our idea into a reality by addressing the operational issues. How much money is needed? Who are our growers and buyers? Where are we going to set this up in the country first? How can we manage the risks?……..
What techniques or approaches could we apply in order to produce a more convincing proposal and an improved business model?
Cash flow forecasting
Combine concepts idea to create a more robust business idea
Network analysis and identify/bridge gaps
Manage risk – plan to mitigate weaknesses and reduce risk for the investor.
Venture team
How well are we working as a team this week?
Still working well. A little slower due to other commitments though I’m sure. The slower pace in this weeks research reflects that. The following two weeks will be busy!
Do we have compatible values and ambitions for the venture?
Still yes. Difficult to identify and keep to boundaries for the venture. It’s all too easy to get ahead of ourselves sometimes and discuss large scale, longer term aspirations before sorting out the basics.
What could we do differently in order to become more effective?
Maybe allocate jib titles? Finance lead, operations lead, stakeholder lead, network development lead…….
What role(s) am I playing in the team?
Similar to before, although taking a little off of the gas to allow others to come forward this week. Sometimes I feel frustrated with the leads I’m trying to generate with development of the venture, but I need to understand that others are busy too.
How could I make a more effective contribution?
Perhaps take more of a leading role, but don’t want to step on others’ toes. I’ll continue to try and be creative in what we need to be doing and influence the agenda if possible.
How do our experiences compare with those of established entrepreneurs and with research findings?
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Entrepreneurship
What have I learned about entrepreneurship this week?
That having ideas is great but it pays to quickly get to the operations and nitty gritty of how you will achieve the plan. There is a lot to consider.
This aspect reminds me of the entrepreneurs role in taking something that is a creative idea and making it happen (Blunder and Locket p.70)….
Creativity: Gearing New ideas…….. the initial grower/seller marketplace idea, transportation and storage growth, and geographic expansion ,use of local schools/businesses to help fill resource gaps and so on.
Entrepreneurial Role: Translating ideas in to practice…. in order to ‘translate ideas in to practice’ we have now picked a ‘start location’ (East Wiltshire) which allows us to determine exactly who our customers are, how many of them there might be, transport links and main commuter routes for storage perhaps, who in the local area might actually help us and so on…. I think this has been an important development in our project. It will also help us to present a more realistic venture for our final presentation where we will be able to make things ‘real’.
We have also assigned (determined and agreed) ‘roles’ in the team. This will help us to each take ownership of what we see as the main areas of the venture (operations, marketing, finance and network development) – and we are now each working on presenting information relating to these for our presentation. It helps to present a professional approach and will help to control how we manage any questions at the end of our presentation. This aspect of our experience relates to ‘Session 2.4 – Organisations, individuals and teams, particularly the early stages of venture development and a limited capacity, perhaps the need to adopt additional roles that we would rather not. Role flexibility. As our venture/network grows roles may change – we may need particular expertise, or the venture may take a new dimension that requires a new focus. Collaboration between roles will be important as we identified that some areas will help, affect others.
Innovation: realisation of new ideas…….We also spent an amount of time to determine the boundaries of the venture. We have loads of ideas for growth but were getting ahead of ourselves a little. It seemed silly to plan huge developments before we had got anything off f the ground – i guess this related to a risk of not actually having a venture if we don’t start small? This made us revisit our growth model – just sell/buy in year )-1 then look to grow either with the same model geographically, or through delivery/storage services dependent on the emerging dynamics. This approach will help us with identifying capital structure and cash flows for the first few years.
How do my experiences compare with those of established entrepreneurs and with research findings?
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What theories, concepts or frameworks might help me to understand or to address recent experiences?
Review entrepreneur traits and motivations in order to pitch my suggestions for progress in a better context?
Other thoughts…..
Do you have any other thoughts or questions that you want to record for a future discussion with your tutor or other team members?
Is there anything you want to follow up later (e.g., further reading suggestions for the EMA)?