Reference no: EM13972831

Introduction - A great way to complement the in-class material we address on entrepreneurship is to actually get out and speak to a real-life entrepreneur. By interviewing someone who has started a new venture, you can gain important insights into the reasons, strategies, approaches and motivations for launching and owning a new business. In addition, it is very beneficial to see firsthand what lessons someone else has learned from his/her entrepreneurial endeavors, so as to help you avoid these pitfalls should you decide to pursue a venture of your own.

For this assignment, I am asking (or, should we say ‘voluntelling') you to set up and conduct an interview with a local entrepreneur, to analyze the information you gain from your discussion, and to share the results of your findings with me in a short analysis paper. Details of the assignment are below...

Preparation - To begin the exercise, think about the type of entrepreneur you would like to interview. Is there a specific company you would like to investigate? Is there a business you are not familiar with but that is in an industry about which you are curious? Or, is there an entrepreneur you have heard about or might admire that you would like to spend some time with? By picking an individual, discipline or company that is of direct interest to you, you will be much more inclined to embrace the exercise and derive the full benefit, rather than just looking to complete the paper and earn a decent grade.

As you research your contact, company, etc., note that the individual you choose to interview must be the founder, a co-founder or member of the original management team that started the company. The company must also still be in existence today. It is up to you as to what type of business you choose. It may be a high wealth company, a smaller, lifestyle business, or a company that started small but is now experiencing significant growth.

Critical Steps to Set Up the Interview:

1. Contact your desired company/interviewee as soon as possible. Entrepreneurs are busy people and it will most likely take some effort to schedule a meeting. A phone call is ideal. Email may also work but is less personal and easier to ‘get lost in the shuffle.' If, at first (aka, within a few days), you don't succeed in getting a reply, try again. One of the key attributes of being an entrepreneur is being persistent and being able to work around obstacles.

2. When you make contact, tell your prospective interviewee that you are a student in and explain the nature of this assignment.

3. Request a meeting time and place that is mutually convenient for you and the interviewee. Note: don't schedule the meeting too close to the due date for the paper so as to not allow yourself time to properly complete the assignment.

a. Often, a breakfast, lunch or coffee meeting works well. Or, if appropriate, an office visit may be more convenient. Let your prospective interviewee decide, based upon what works best for him/her.

4. After you have set up the meeting, do some basic research on the individual/company you are interviewing. The more you know about the company in advance, the better prepared you will be to carry on a productive conversation with the founder once you meet in person.

5. A day or two before your meeting, call/email your intended interviewee to confirm the meeting time and place.

The Interview - The format of the interview is up to you, but I offer the following suggestions to make it a productive and worthwhile experience:

At the beginning of your meeting, let the entrepreneur know that the information (s)he provides will remain confidential, to be seen only by you and me, your instructor. Offer to provide your contact a copy of your final paper once complete if (s)he would like one. Also, request a copy of the interviewee's business card. Doing so will make it easier for you to send a thank you note (as explained later) and to stay in touch in the future, should you desire.

I strongly suggest recording the interview. This said, ask your interviewee if it is alright to do so. If you have a personal recorder of some kind, (for example, on your smart phone...) use it. If not, I can help you coordinate a recorder through the Auraria Media Center. If you don't have or want to use a recorder, bring a laptop or pad and take some detailed notes as your meeting progresses. You will be surprised how much information someone can provide in an hour, and more importantly, how much of that information you can forget.

Questions: It is wise to have a number of questions prepared in advance to help further the interview process and to help you gain the necessary information. Below are some questions (or sets of questions) you may use in addition to any you come up with yourself. Note that you do not need to ask all of the questions listed. However, you do need to ask the questions that are bolded, as they play directly into the content of the paper you will submit.

• How did you come to be an entrepreneur? Was it something you dreamed of? Do you come from a family of entrepreneurs?

• How did you get started with your current company? What was the opportunity you saw or the need that was previously going unfulfilled?

• Did you have any mentors or role models that helped you get started?

• How, if at all, did your education help your entrepreneurial efforts?

• With your company, how much time did you spend early on getting it up and running? What were your specific responsibilities? How does the time commitment then compare to now? What do you spend most of your time on now?

• When you first started the company and now, what challenges did/do you face in balancing your personal life with your professional life?

• When you first started the company, what were your biggest goals? Do you feel that you have met them, considering where the company is today?

• Are there any particular company successes or failures that stand out to you and that you can share with me? What significance do they have to you?

• Has the company grown/turned out the way you had originally intended or did you have to make any significant adjustments along the way? If so, why?

• At what stage in the company's lifecycle is your business in now? Do you have an exit strategy (a plan to eventually sell or let go of the business)?

• If you ‘had to do it all over again,' what would you change, if anything, and why?

• What recommendations would you have for an aspiring entrepreneurship student or young entrepreneur considering your experience?

• Are there any other critical/important questions I should have asked you today that I might have overlooked, that will provide valuable lessons to an entrepreneurship student such as myself?

Note: Usually, when asked about ‘their story', people love to share information. However, there might be times during your interview where certain questions might touch on confidential or proprietary information. Should this occur and your interviewee chooses not to answer these questions, respect his/her privacy, tell him/her you understand and move on to the next question.

Ask the questions you deem appropriate based upon the list above and your supplemental research of the entrepreneur and his/her company. Let the interviewee share as much as (s)he would like but keep the interview on track. Feel free to follow up and ‘probe' further if you would like more information on a specific question.

Also, offer your own insights as appropriate and answer any questions your contact might ask of you. Remember that in addition to the empirical information you are looking to gain from the meeting, a key element of the entrepreneurial process is networking - AKA, the art of making contacts. This said, don't hesitate to ‘be yourself' and get to know your interviewee well. You never know when you paths may cross again, especially if you decide to launch a new business someday!

At the end of the meeting, thank the interviewee for his/her time and let him/her know you will share a copy of your final paper (if (s)he had requested it).

The Paper - based upon the information you collected in your interview, your task now is to process and analyze what you learned, and to share your findings. Take some time to think through and critically respond to the following ten sets of questions:

1. What is the name of the individual you met with and his/her title? What is the name of the company and when was it founded? Why did you choose this particular individual to interview? Where did you meet and for how long?

2. What does the entrepreneur's company do? Are they product-based or service-based? Where are they located - do they have one facility or many, and where? Provide a brief overview of the company.

3. What were the entrepreneurs biggest goals in starting his/her company? Has (s)he met them, considering where the company is today?

4. What were the most significant things you learned about your entrepreneur, either personally and/or professionally?

5. List and describe one success or failure that most significantly stands out in the mind of your entrepreneur and to you.

6. How did the information you gained during your meeting either validate or ‘shoot down' the perceptions you had prior to this class of what entrepreneurship involves?

7. How do you feel the interview went? What was the overall dynamic of your meeting? Was it easy to speak to your entrepreneur? Why or why not? Did (s)he provide insightful answers to the questions you asked?

8. Did what you learned during your meeting at all influence your desire to become an entrepreneur, either positively or negatively? Why and how?

9. Was the meeting a valuable experience to you as an entrepreneurship student? Why or why not? Be honest here. Your grade will not suffer if the meeting was not valuable, as long as you explain why.

10. Provide some additional information that stands out from your meeting that has not been covered above. This can be in reference to the questions you asked, observations you had of your entrepreneur or anything else significant that left an impression on you.

When crafting your paper, respond to each of the questions individually, and in order. Please number your answers to each question in the body of the paper (without repeating the question itself), and provide your respective answer. Be specific and critical in your answers. Put another way, I want to see that you have recorded, analyzed and critically evaluated the information that was shared with you.

Although there is no set length for any particular question, the length of the final paper should be between 4-5 full pages. This said, gauge your answers accordingly. The final paper is due on at the beginning of class on the date specified on the Course Overview, and is worth 12.5% of your final course grade. Your final paper should be typed in 12 point font, with 1.5 spacing and 1" margins. You are not required to do supplemental research above and beyond the interview itself, but if you choose to, you must cite any outside sources as outlined in the Course Syllabus.