Becoming an entrepreneur
Generate an entrepreneurial idea for a product or service and analyse its potential as a startup business.
What’s it about?
In this micro-course you will review the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and apply techniques for generating ideas to initiate a market analysis and supporting due-diligence assessment for a startup business.
What will I learn?
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Define entrepreneurship
- Identify the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
- Review the advantages and disadvantages of small business ownership
- Examine the key questions an entrepreneur should answer before starting a business.
- Review techniques for generating ideas
- Complete a due-diligence survey for a business idea
- Distinguish between market research and market intelligence and explain the situations in which each approach should be used
- Describe the basic steps of market research and corresponding purposes for each step
- Describe competitive intelligence
- Review types of market exchanges and partnerships
What’s involved?
This micro-course is offered online for independent study or you can join an international community of learners in gaining a better understanding of becoming an entrepreneur. There are four learning pathways, each containing numerous resources and activities. The learning pathways are:
- Deciding to become an entrepreneur
- Entrepreneurs as small business owners
- The nature of entrepreneurship
- Before starting your own business
This micro-course forms part of the larger Introduction to Entrepreneurship course of study coupled with IENT102 and IENT103. On completion of the three associated micro-courses, if learners wish, they can be assessed for academic credit.
Prerequisites?
Anyone is free to participate in this course. An internet connection and basic web-browsing skills are recommended, with the ability to create a blog and use online communications tools (instructions and self-study tutorials provided.) You are requested to keep a personal learning journal, as reflection has been shown to markedly increase learning.
The course and assessments are conducted in English. This is a university level course and you should be able to communicate fluently and accurately in spoken and written English.
Image credit: Executive business woman, by Tumisu, dedicated to the public domain.
Carol Cooper-Taylor, is an independent consultant with extensive experience in e-learning design. Carol was commissioned by the OER Foundation to lead the design and development
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Dr Wayne Mackintosh, is the founding director of the OER Foundation and is the designated UNESCO and ICDE Chair in OER at Otago Polytechnic. He is
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Claire Goode, is a member of the Learning and Teaching Development team at Otago Polytechnic, and a Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy.
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Simonne Wood, is an Educational Technology Specialist within Otago Polytechnic's Learning and Teaching Development Team. She has many years' experience in tertiary institutions in the
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The course materials were assembled from a syllabus outline originally developed by Thomas Edison State University.
