Entrepreneurial Activity (EA)

• ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY (EA) (50 points)

STEP 1: Pick a problem. Brainstorm an idea to solve the problem.

STEP 2: Create/Find a product or service to sell (based on the idea in step #1).

STEP 3: Go ahead and sell it.

STEP 4 (Deliverable): Submit a short report (2 pages) with the description of your activity, its outcomes, and the evidence to verify those outcomes.

 

For this part, you can pick any suggested idea listed earlier or come up with a new product/service idea of your own. Please Note: If you already own a business or hold a job, your regular or day-to-day business transactions or job-duties cannot count as an entrepreneurial endeavor for this project. Entrepreneurship must contain the element of newness/novelty.

In order to come up with an idea, it is advised that you talk to the people in your social network including your family members. This would help in identifying the right type of problems that matter for people, and improving the quality of your idea to address those problems. If you do not wish to spend much time finding problems/information, then you can directly jump to selling an item or skill that you possess. However, please remember this: The more mundane and run-of-the-mill your product/service is, the lower your score will be.

Although “selling” is an important part of this project, it is not the main component. You can earn points even if you don’t end up actually selling your product/service. What is more important are your “efforts” in trying to create/find and then sell your product/service. You will need to clearly demonstrate (with evidence) that you tried your best to create/find a product or service and then sell it to as many customers as you possibly could.

You have between now and the end of the semester to 1) choose/create your product/service and 2) carry out the activities required to make a sale.

Deliverable: Finally, for this part, please submit a short report (2-3 pages) with the following four (4) components:

• Explanation of your chosen product/service – What did you try to sell?
• Explanation of your efforts in selling your product/service to potential customers – What actions did you take?
• The outcome/result of your efforts – Were you successful in selling? How or why not?
• Evidence to prove the outcome/result (for example, if you sold an item on eBay, please provide a digital copy of the sale receipt or some other confirmation from eBay).

 

Grading Criteria for the ‘Entrepreneurial Activity (EA)’ Part

Your EA report (worth 50 points) will be scored on the following criteria:

1. NATURE & SCALABILITY of the ACTIVITY: Is it a too easy/simple activity or does it require considerable effort? Is the activity person-specific (i.e., relevant only to you) or can it be delegated to someone else? Is the activity a regular part of some job/profession or is it truly entrepreneurial? (e.g., an automobile-shop owner selling auto parts cannot call it an “entrepreneurial activity”. It’s just regular business activity)
2. DESIRABILITY of the ENDEAVOR: Can it attract more customers in the future?
3. FEASIBILITY of the ENDEAVOR: Can it be done again/repeatedly?
4. VIABILITY of the ENDEAVOR: Can it make money continuously?
5. SUSTAINABILITY of the ENDEAVOR: Is it scalable or is it a one-time exercise?

Moreover, the following restrictions apply to your chosen product/service as per the policy of this course. In other words, your product/service idea cannot be on any of the topics/areas in the below-mentioned list. So, please:

– No alcohol-related ideas.

– No arms or ammunitions-related ideas.

– No drugs-related ideas.

– No idea about your own current business (e.g., you already own an online boutique or store; you already possess rental property or invest in real estate, etc.). Your existing business does not count as a new idea.

– No ideas about one’s family-owned business.

– No ideas about growing or expanding an existing business (e.g., “I want to expand my cooking classes online”)

– No ideas that relate to your existing job or salary-based employment (e.g., you cannot propose an idea to improve your job as an accountant, or an architect, or an engineer, etc.)

– No ideas about franchising/licensing agreements or investments.

– No ideas about non-profit organizations/charities/voluntary social work.

– No ideas about unpaid/free process.

– No ideas about consulting, practicing or other individual endeavors – they are professions, not businesses (e.g., writing and publishing your own book is not entrepreneurship).

– No ideas about political beliefs/campaigns or contentious/debatable issues.

– No ideas involving religion as the main theme.

– No ideas on forming groups/communities based on race, nationality, faith, or political ideology.

– No ideas that may be classified as contentious, debatable, unvalidated, illegal, or otherwise controversial.

– No ideas that have been previously developed in a team-setting or for an entrepreneurial competition. For example, you cannot pitch the same or a slightly revised idea that you pitched in a previous Kansas Start-Up or Faulkner Challenger or similar other competition.

 

• INTROSPECTION (50 points)

For this second part of the project, you will answer the following questions in detail and submit it along with your EA report.

Please Note: Each of these questions is worth 10 points (5 for total 50), so you will need to provide a substantial, well-crafted and convincing response to each of them.

 

1. What made you select your chosen product/service? Would you choose it again if you were required to do this project all over again?
2. What activities did you do to successfully carry out this business endeavor? Begin from the first stage of idea-generation or problem-identification. Please narrate your experience in this process in detail.
3. What do you think about the outcome of your business endeavor? (For example, did you have any sales? Could you have made more sales/transactions? Could you have earned more money? Why do you think the product/service did not sell? Would you consider it a successful or a failed business endeavor?)
4. What did you learn from this exercise? What do you think you should have done differently?
5. Is it possible to convert this one-time exercise into a sustainable business? How would you do it? If it is not possible, what modifications would be required to convert the activity it into a long-term business?

 

PROJECT DEADLINE & METHOD OF SUBMITTING THE DELIVERABLES