Exploring Entrepreneurship

Know the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur

Additional details

Entrepreneurship is often described as the process of starting a business that offers an innovative product, service or process. The entrepreneur sees a potential business opportunity and follows it through  to delivery.

The skills and behaviours required to be an effective entrepreneur include:

• effective communication and interpersonal skills
• creative and imaginative thinking
• practical, organisational and planning skills
• the ability to manage finances
• confident to work on own initiative
• risk taker
• confident 
• motivated, passionate and enthusiastic.

Assessment Criteria

• 1.1

  Define the term ‘entrepreneur’.

• 1.2

  Identify the main skills that are needed to be a successful entrepreneur.

• 1.3

  Identify some of the behaviours that are needed to be a successful entrepreneur (e.g. willingness to take risks).

Be able to assess own suitability for enterprise

Additional details

In this learning outcome, the learner has the opportunity to assess their own suitability as an entrepreneur. Learners could design a checklist using the skills and behaviours from learning outcome 1. They can research how they can develop skills and behaviours that they identify as a gap and make a judgement on their suitability to become an entrepreneur.

Assessment Criteria

• 2.1

  Describe own existing enterprise skills and behaviours.

• 2.2

  Identify skills and behaviours that would need further development.

• 2.3

  Give examples of how they could develop in the necessary areas.

• 2.4

  Make a judgement on how well-suited they are to becoming an entrepreneur, using evidence from their self-assessment.