Assignemnt: ENTREPRENEUR INTERVIEWS

In starting a business, it is important to consult other entrepreneurs to understand success recipes, avoiding failure, and get feedback on your own ideas. This assignment is intended to help you better understand the entrepreneurial process by interviewing two entrepreneurs.

You are required to interview each entrepreneur in person. Please take care to ensure the entrepreneur has not yet been interviewed by other students. In order to complete this assignment, you must do the following:

1. Locate two entrepreneurs to interview in person. The entrepreneurs you select MUST be an owner or partner in an existing business, AND actively involved in its day-to-day operations.

2. Meet with the entrepreneurs (in person), and although there is no set time limit for your interview with each entrepreneur, generally 45 minutes is a good benchmark for chatting with an entrepreneur about his/her experiences and sharing your class experiences with him/her.

3. Obtain a business card from the entrepreneur and attach it to each report. You MUST have a business card or the current contact information of the entrepreneur attached to your report. Please note that this does not count towards the page limit.

4. Ask the entrepreneur the questions below. Although I provide you the questions, this is not a script. Feel free to ask your own questions as well, and use that information in crafting the report, along with the required information.

5. Write a report related to your visit with each entrepreneur, consisting of no more than 2 pages for each visit (i.e., no more than 4 one-sided pages total). Grading of your paper will relate to how well you answered the required questions, as well as other pertinent and interesting information. You are required to include a paragraph at the end of each visit report summarizing what you took away from the visit.

6. Craft and send a HANDWRITTEN thank-you note to the entrepreneur expressing your appreciation for sharing his/her time and knowledge with you. Please share the thank-you note text with me prior to sending it to the entrepreneur. You will find an example of appropriate wording for this type of note at the end of this document.

Notes:

(1) You have several weeks to complete the project, but please make sure you contact entrepreneurs and set up appointments as soon as possible. Entrepreneurs are busy people, and being considerate of their schedules is both polite and necessary.

(2) Great resources for this project are friends, family, new ventures you know about in Bowling Green or your hometowns, Chambers of Commerce, or other specific entrepreneurial organizations (i.e., Young Entrepreneurs Organization: YEO).

(3) Follow-up contact will be made with the entrepreneurs to ensure completion and professionalism, so please dress nicely and be professional; keep in mind that you are representing WKU.

(4) This is certainly an assignment in which the value you extract relates to the amount of effort you put into it. Get out there, network, and learn something from someone who has actually been through the process!

Required questions: Don't worry about reading straight from the sheet...just make sure you get the basics of what these questions are asking.

1. Please provide some basic information about the entrepreneur and his/her business.

2. Why did you choose to enter into entrepreneurship and how did you choose the business you did?

3. How did you gain the information you needed to start a business?

4. What sorts of activities did you undertake in starting the business to convince people you and the firm are/were legitimate? What items were most important in helping you gain access to the resources you needed?

5. Who do you consider the target market for your business? How did you determine this group to be your target market?

6. How does your company reach its target market? What types of marketing activities have you undertaken or plan to undertake as you continue reaching and retaining your customers?

7. How did your firm project sales for the business prior to start-up? How did you set the price for your product or service?

8. How did you develop the financial plan for the firm? Where did you find numbers to help you determine whether or not the venture would be profitable? Did anyone help you figure out this information?

9. How did you finance the business? In other words, did it require your own savings or investments/loans from others? Were these difficult to obtain? Was the process of obtaining financing different than you had anticipated?

10. What is one thing you wish you'd known before you started the business?

11. Share your business concept idea with the entrepreneur (be sure to have a 30 second pitch ready to describe your idea). Ask for their feedback. What did he/she think about your idea?

Report Format

- Write your report in complete sentences, in QUESTION/ANSWER format. If you follow the order of the questions numbered above, you will not need to include the question in the text.

- Single-space (1.0) your document with double-spacing between paragraphs (no indention at the start of the paragraph).
- Include a paragraph at the end of each interview that discusses what you learned from each visit.

Example

(Remember, the one you send to the entrepreneur should be handwritten): Dear Mr. Oliver,

Thank you for allowing me to interview you for my entrepreneurship course project. I know you are busy and truly appreciate your time, insight, and energy. I learned so much during our visit, and hope we can keep in touch. If there is anything I can ever do for you, please let me know.

Sincerely, Kelcey Rock.