FEATURE
PAPER
Teaching
Entrepreneurship Through Ebay: More Than a Simulation
The
following paper was presented at the 2007 USASBE/SBI Conference.
It was written by William A. Andrews of
Stetson University.
Abstract
“For all your planning, you are not an entrepreneur until you put down your money and make
commitments to buyers and sellers.” This axiom came from a speaker in one of my
entrepreneurship classes, and seemed to summarize one of my frustrations with getting students
to write business plans. An enormous gap seemed to exist between most carefully researched
plans and the experience of entrepreneurship. In other words, a course in entrepreneurship could
unwittingly decay into a course on business planning or project management.
The eBay project was implemented in an undergraduate introductory course in entrepreneurship.
Its purpose was to have the student experience real entrepreneurship with real money, a real
organization, and real customers. Moreover, the students were burdened with real sales and
profit targets. The project ran concurrently throughout the semester with the more “academic”
side of the instruction, where many of the issues they would wrestle with in the project were
formally and systematically presented. The course was centered around the eBay project. An
overview of the syllabus is provided in Appendix A.
Read
the Entire Paper...
TIP
OF THE WEEK
The Seven Deadly Sins for New Venture Business Plans
Let us say it again: less than five minutes. That's the amount of time your plan has in the hands of many potential investors before they decide to turn "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on it. In other words, they evaluate a document that may have taken you weeks or even months to prepare in just a few moments. For this reason, it is absolutely imperative that you avoid errors that will doom your plan to the rejection pile no matter how good other sections of it may be. We term these blunders the "Seven Deadly Sins of New Venture Business Plans," and here they are for you to recognize - and avoid:
Sin #1: The
plan is poorly prepared and has an unprofessional look (e.g., no cover page, a cover page without contact information, glaring typos). This carelessness triggers the following investor reaction: "I'm dealing with a group of amateurs."
Sin #2: The plan is far
too slick (e.g., it is bound like a book, is printed on shiny paper, and uses flashy graphics). This leads investors to think: "What are they trying to hide behind all that glitter?"
Sin #3: The
executive summary is too long and rambling - it doesn't
get right to the point. This failure to be concise leads investors to think: "If they can't describe their own idea and company succinctly, I don't want to waste my time - and certainly not my money - on them."
Sin #4: It's
not clear where the product is in terms of development
- does it exist or not? Can it be readily manufactured? If investors have to ask these questions, they may conclude: "I can't tell whether this is real or just another pipedream; I'll pass on this one."
Sin #5: No clear answer
is provided to the question: "Why would anyone ever want to buy one?" Many entrepreneurs seem to assume that their new product or service is so wonderful that it will virtually sell itself. This kind of blind faith on the part of entrepreneurs leads investors to think: "How naive can you get? Even a machine that grew hair on the heads of bald men would need a marketing plan. These are truly amateurs."
Sin #6: It gives no clear
statement of the qualifications of the management team: This oversight leads investors to conclude: "They probably have no relevant experience - and may not even know what relevant experience would be!"
Sin #7: Financial projections
are largely an exercise in wishful thinking: This over optimism leads potential investors to conclude: "They have no idea about what it is like to run a company, or (even worse) they think I am incredibly naive or stupid. Pass!"
The moral is clear: keep a sharp lookout for these deadly errors, because if you commit even one, your chance of obtaining financial support and other forms of help sophisticated investors will fade quickly.
| Robert
A. Baron and Scott A. Shane. Entrepreneurship: A
Process Perspective 2nd Edition.
2008. Thomson South-Western. p220. |
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CONFERENCES
FBD
|
| Who: |
Federation
of Business Disciplines
|
| What: |
34th
Annual Meeting
|
| Where: |
San
Diego, California, USA |
| When: |
March
14-17, 2007 |
|
|
|
EFP
|
| Who: |
Eye
For Procurement
|
| What: |
Supplier
Management Forum 2007
|
| Where: |
Miami,
Florida, USA |
| When: |
April
17-18, 2007 |
|
|
|
AACSB
|
| Who: |
AACSB
Communications
|
| What: |
World
Class Practices in Management Education
|
| Where: |
Beijng,
China |
| When: |
May
20-22, 2007 |
|
|
|
CS
|
| Who: |
Creativity
Seminars
|
| What: |
Creativity
Workshop - 2007 Educator Fellowships
|
| Where: |
Florence,
Italy |
| When: |
July
13-22, 2007 |
|
|
|
ISBE
|
| Who: |
Institute
for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
|
| What: |
30th
Annual ISBE Conference
|
| Where: |
Heriot-Watt
University, Glasgow, Scotland |
| When: |
November
7-9, 2007 |
|
|
|
CALLS FOR PAPERS
FU
|
| Who: |
Fordham
University |
| What: |
The
Fordham University Pricing Conference
|
| Where: |
Fordham
University, New York, New York, USA |
| When: |
September
28-29, 2007 |
Submission
Deadline:
March 15, 2007
|
|
|
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CNU
|
| Who: |
Christopher
Newport University
|
| What: |
"Truth & Consequences" Exploring
Economic Development from Entrepreneurship to Relationship
|
| Where: |
Newport
News, Virginia, USA |
| When: |
September
28-30, 2007 |
Submission
Deadline:
April 1, 2007
|
|
|
|
AMA
|
| Who: |
Atlantic
Marketing Association
|
| What: |
Atlantic
Marketing Association Annual Meeting
|
| Where: |
New
Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
| When: |
September
26-29, 2007 |
Submission
Deadline:
April 17, 2007
|
|
|
|
FBD
|
| Who: |
Federation
of Business Disciplines
|
| What: |
Annual
Meeting
|
| Where: |
Hyatt
Regency, Houston, Texas, USA |
| When: |
March
4-8, 2008 |
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