ENTREPRENEURS Lesson Objective To understand the contribution entrepreneurs make to the UK economy

Starter How could you improve/make better the following objects?

What is an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs An entrepreneur is an innovator who establishes a new business offering new or existing products or services for the reward of profit Entrepreneurs have strong beliefs about market opportunities and willingly accept a high level of personal, professional and financial risk An entrepreneur possess a variety of different characteristics that provide a skill set for achieving success and a high level of reward

Name the entrepreneurs

Role of an entrepreneur The role of an entrepreneur is to often set up and run their own business based on their own unique idea They are the owners of the business and without them the business would not exist They are often innovators who spot a gap in the market or come up with a new invention that has not been seen before. Many however just adapt or copy what another business does – BUT just do it better!

Role of an entrepreneur They are also responsible for organising factors of production – such as buying or hiring resources (materials/labour/equipment). They often have to make all of the key decisions, as they are the owners. They need to decide how to raise finance, product design, production methods, prices, wages etc… They also have to be risk takers. This is mainly due to the fact that if the business goes wrong they will lose any money that have invested Often however the prospect of making a large profit is enough to make this a risk worth taking

Famous entrepreneurs What was the role of the following entrepreneurs; James Dyson Richard Branson Anita Roddick For each entrepreneur, consider; What their role was in setting up their business/businesses. Their reasons for doing it How successful they are How they have contributed to the economy– how many people do they employ, how much money they’ve made etc… Create a fact file on each entrepreneur – we will use this in later lessons! Support it with facts/figures and references

Risk V’s Reward What did all these entrepreneurs have in common?

Entrepreneurs… Often have to take a risk, they have to be passionate about their idea and believe in it 100%. If you don’t 100% believe in what you are doing, how is anyone else going to believe in you! Lets watch a quick video

Risk V’s Reward Solvej Biddle from Content and Calm is a prime example of Risk V’s Reward She was a highly successful business woman, working in London, earning a decent salary and she gave it all up to follow her dream of running her own business – that is risky, particularly considering she had young children to look after

Risk V’s Rewards In ,000 businesses were set up, however less than half of these will survive past 5 years! RewardsRisk Offers you a chance to do something different A large chance of business failure = debts to be paid off Allows you to work for yourselfGetting a normal job after can be difficult, particularly if you left a well paid job to begin with Allows you to follow your dreamCan be hard working Potential for high rewardsDon’t always receive recognition The risk of failure could motivate you to work harder Can take a long time to make it successful – slow process

Entrepreneurs and business ideas To be a successful entrepreneur you have to have a successful business idea. These ideas can come from a range of places The main ones are; Business experience – quite often the business idea comes from their current job. A plumber might work for a plumbing company and decide to set up on their own. Personal experience – some draw on their own experience outside of work to find a business idea. They may turn a hobby into a job Skills – some entrepreneurs use their skills base to start a business. A person with good ‘people’ skills may decide to set up a business selling things Lifestyle choices – some people just want to start a new way of living. Anita Roddick set up the body shop as she was strongly opposed to testing on animals. People may have a passion to live in the country and set up their own organic food shop

One of the most famous Dragons Den appearances

Research task Using what we now know about what an entrepreneur is, their role in creating and setting up a business and their reasons for doing it Research Levi Roots and Reggae Reggae Sauce. Find out; How he came up with the idea? How he put his idea into action ? What made him successful? How successful has he been? Did he face any problems/hurdles and if so how did he overcome them? Where is he now and how well is the business doing?