Entrepreneurship

An African Perspective

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 Chapter 3: The identification and
development of business ideas

• Setting up a business
• Cultivating an entrepreneur’s creative
attitude
• Generating business ideas
• Developing and evaluating business ideas

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 Learning outcomes
• After you have studied this chapter, you
should be able to:
• Identify and explain the stages of setting up a
business
• Explain the cultivation of an entrepreneur’s
creative attitude
• Explain the generation of business ideas
• Discuss the development and evaluation of
business ideas

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Introduction
• Every entrepreneur shares a common
responsibility: developing new products that
customers find attractive and keeping the
business running

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Setting up a business
• Business set-up is divided into three main
stages:
1. The identification of a feasible and viable
business idea (the idea sage)
2. The drawing up of a business plan (planning
stage)
3. Implementation of the business plan
(implementation stage)

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Cultivating a creative attitude

• When your business idea is unique, you

must convince people that there is a need
for your products and services
• If you are second or third, you must learn
from the mistakes of others
• Your ideas must distinguish you from
other competitors

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What is creativity?
• Creativity - the generation of novel and useful
ideas
• Being creative is generating a variety of really
different ideas
• Creativity involves novelty or originality and
usefulness or appropriateness

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Am I creative?
• Characteristics of creative people:
- Solving problems in a different way
- Thinking imaginatively
- Seeing possibilities others have not seen
- Initiating change

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Am I creative? (cont.)
• Creative thought can be divided into divergent
and convergent reasoning:
- Divergent thinking = Intellectual ability to think of
many original, diverse and elaborate ideas
- Convergent thinking = Intellectual ability to
logically evaluate, critique and choose the best
ideas from a selection of ideas

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Am I creative? (cont.)
• Divergent (creative) thinking is natural for right
brain dominant people
• Convergent(logical) thinking is natural for left
brain dominant people

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Am I creative? (cont.)
• Possible to develop and improve our creative
abilities with the following methods:
- Actively seek ideas
- Write ideas down
- View a topic from another persons perspective
- Break your routine
- Explore the grey areas
- Use a creative technique

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Am I creative? (cont.)
• Ways to enhance the creativity of a team:
- Brain sketching
- Pin cards
- Trigger sessions
- Superheroes

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Generating business ideas
• An entrepreneur deliberately looks and
thinks creatively to generate ideas that can
potentially be converted into a business

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The generation of ideas from the
entrepreneur’s skills, expertise and
aptitude

• Consider the following:

– Formal training does not necessarily guarantee
success in a business enterprise
– Skills can also be gained from working experience
– Have you developed any skills through your
hobbies or other non-career activities that could
be used as ideas to start your own business?

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Generating ideas from common
needs
• Everyone has needs
• Not everyone’s needs are the same
• Business idea should satisfy a need among a
range of people for the same product or
service
• Individuals with common needs can usually be
grouped together

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Generating ideas from existing
problems
• Think of existing, unsolved problems
• Knowing these problems enables the
prospective entrepreneur to find the initial
idea for a business that is based on the
solution of a specific problem

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Generating ideas from everyday
activities
• Identify ideas by being aware of the activities that
we perform everyday
• Use the following methods:
- Use print or electronic media
- Look in other places
- Explore your surroundings
- Observe other cultures
- Talk to other people
- At work
- Go shopping
- Changes in your immediate area
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Generating ideas from other
sources

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Developing and evaluating business
ideas
• Initial sifting of ideas happens with your ‘gut feel’
• One idea can be chosen and to choose the
correct one, each one must be evaluated
• Two methods:
- Feasibility study: examine the potential of the idea to
be converted into a business
- Viability study: in-depth investigation of the
profitability of the idea to be converted into a
business

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Developing and evaluating business
ideas (cont.)
• Before you start: Two things must be clear:
- What the chief activities will be
- Who the customers will be
• Activities of the business will consist of two or
more of the following:
- Manufacture of a product
- Provision of a service
- Sale of other people’s products or services

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Developing and evaluating business
ideas (cont.)
• Your customers will consist of:
- Individuals and/or organisations

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Developing and evaluating business
ideas (cont.)
• Bow- tie diagram can be used to develop your
business idea in terms of:
- The essence of the idea
- The possible combination of ideas
- The possibility of taking a new direction with idea

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Feasibility of your business ideas
• To determine weather your business idea is
feasible, you must answer the following
questions:
- Do you want to do what the idea suggests?
- IS there a market for your idea?
- Can you meet the needs of your customer
- Can you advertise the idea to your customer?

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Summary
• First step in setting up a business was to
identify and develop a business idea
• Planning and implementation phases
• A business idea does not always have to be
innovative
• Entrepreneur must be able to think and act
creatively
• The techniques for generating business ideas

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Summary (cont.)
• Entrepreneur can generate a business idea
from
– their skills, expertise and aptitudes
– common needs
– existing problems
– everyday activities
– various other sources

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