Part 1: Entrepreneur Interview Paper
Locate a local entrepreneur to interview and write a reflection paper on your chosen
person. You are required to submit a one-page biography of your entrepreneur in Week
3 that is worth 20 points. It is important: Be sure to start this assignment as soon as
possible to insure that you find a suitable entrepreneur.
The purpose of this paper is to interview a local entrepreneur in order to develop
insights into the world of entrepreneurship. At the end of the process, you will need to
take the information and reflect upon the challenges and the rewards of being an
entrepreneur. What type of person becomes this type of risk taker? What challenges did he or she face and overcome? What failures did this person have? How many companies has he or she started? How successful is he or she? Why is this person successful? Why did he or she become an entrepreneur? What is this person’s measure of success? What did you learn about entrepreneurship from this interview?
This paper should focus on these types of questions but should not be limited to just the
ones listed above. Get creative and get into the idea that you need to learn from this
person so that you can better understand the challenges this business choice offers.
Grading Rubric:
Category Points % Description Background
Information 10 50% Ensure that you have a complete background of
your entrepreneur. Key elements include
company name, start date of company, key
historic moments in company, and basic
information on entrepreneur. Grammar and
Spelling 5 25% Insure your paper is well written. Grammar,
spelling, and punctuation should be correct. Category Points % Description Organization
and
Cohesiveness 5 25% The paper is organized, and it tells the story of
the entrepreneur. Writing is at the college level. Total 20 100 A quality paper will meet or exceed all of the
above requirements.
Part 2: Entrepreneur Reflection Paper
Expand upon the entrepreneur interview, and write a reflection paper on your chosen
person. The entrepreneur reflection paper is worth 150 points and is due in Week 5. The
purpose of this paper is to take the information from the interview and reflect upon the
challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur.
Guidelines The paper must be 4 – 5 pages in length. You must follow APA formatting. Include a table of contents. Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment and is mostly creative
in nature, references are still very important. You must reference your interviewee. Be
sure to look up how to cite an interview in APA style.
All DeVry University policies are in effect including the plagiarism policy. Papers are due during Week 5 of this course and should be submitted to the
dropbox.
Any questions about this paper may be discussed in the weekly Q & A discussion topic. This paper is worth 150 total points and will be graded on quality of research
topic, quality of paper information, use of citations, grammar, and sentence structure.
Best Practices
Cover Page: Include who you prepared the paper for, who prepared it, and the date. Table of Contents: List the main ideas and section of your paper and the pages
where they are located. The illustrations should be included separately. Introduction: Use a header on your paper. It will indicate that you are
introducing your paper.
The purpose of an introduction or opening is to o introduce the subject and why the subject is important; o preview the main ideas and the order in which they will be covered; and o establish the tone of the document.
Include in the introduction a reason for the audience to read the paper. Also, include an
overview of what you are going to cover in your paper and the importance of the
material. (This should include or introduce the questions you are asked to answer on
each assignment.) Body of Your Report: Use a header titled with the name of your project (e.g.,
“The Development of Hotel X – A World Class Resort”). Then proceed to break out the
main ideas: state the main ideas, state major points in each idea, and provide evidence.
Break out each main idea you will use in the body of your paper. Show some type of
division such as separate sections that are labeled, separate group of paragraphs, or
headers. You would include the information you found during your research and
investigation. Summary and Conclusion: Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing, but
summarizing presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An
effective summary identifies the main ideas and major support points from the body of
your report; minor details are left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they
affect the tourism industry. Work Cited: Use the citation format as specified in the Syllabus.
Grading Rubric:
Category Points % Description Insight 50 28.5% What insights have you gained from your
interview? What did you learn from your
entrepreneur? Analysis 50 28.5% How did you interpret the message from the
entrepreneur with what you have learned so far in
class? (How would you apply theories reviewed
in class?) How was the information analyzed?
What was the message of your interview? Overall 50 28.5 Was the paper organized, and did it tell the story Category Points % Organization Total Description
of the entrepreneur and your findings? The
overall paper should be cohesive and tell a story.
How complete was the paper? 150 100 A quality paper will meet or exceed all of the
above requirements.
Part 3: Entrepreneur Research Paper
You will write an extensive research paper on an entrepreneurship failure. As you may
be aware, 80% of all small businesses fail within the first five years (50% in the first
year). Your research paper must answer the following question: Why does this failure
happen, and how can it be avoided? You will need to research a small business or use
your entrepreneur that you interviewed to learn about failure. The paper will have three
sections. Failure Introduction: Your first 2 pages should be a background of the failed business.
What was the business? Who were their competitors? What was their mission or business
vision? When did the business start and then fail? Reason for Failure: This section (2 pages) requires your insights and will be a large
part of your grade. You must describe why the business failed. There are many reasons small
companies fail, and you should do some basic research (hint – some scholarly research is
required here) to determine the common causes and then compare this research to your
company. Your Analysis: The last section (2 pages) should be what could have been done, in
your opinion and based on the knowledge you received in class (another hint – more scholarly
research could be used here), to avert the failure. Could the entrepreneur have planned better?
Was the idea sound but the implementation poor? Simply put, as the observer after the fact,
how could this business have survived? It is important: Do not write 5 pages on the company and save the last page for the
reason and analysis. Please use the guidelines above to ensure that you maximize your
effort on this project.
Remember, the point of this research project is for you to evaluate a failure, determine
the causes of the failure, and introduce a way the failure could have been averted. This
project will give you some insight for your own potential business idea and help you
avoid some of the mistakes others have made. As stated above, failure is common in
small business; conduct some solid research on this project to identify the risks, so you
can create mitigation techniques to increase your chances of success when you venture
out with your plan!
Guidelines Papers must be 6 – 8 pages in length. (There would be roughly one page per area
included in the report.) You must follow APA formatting guidelines. Appropriate citations are required. Include a table of contents. Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment and is mostly creative in
nature, references are still very important. You must have at least 4 scholarly references. (For
more information, please view research information below.) Research Information Note that you will conduct online research using scholarly resources,
which can be found in the DeVry Online Library (available under Course
Home) and online research sources such as Google. Locate at least 4
scholarly articles that discuss the failures in small business for inclusion
as sources in your paper. What are current trends in this business (or in
the overall industry of which this business is a member) that might impact
customer service, customer satisfaction, or customer loyalty positively or
negatively? Grading Rubric:
Category Points % Description Introduction 50 25% The introduction (2 pages) describes the
business in detail. Start and failure dates,
industry background, company idea and
target customers all are elements that must
be included. Additionally, any information
about the founder and overall finance (if
available) should be included. Analysis 50 25% The analysis is the core of the project (2-3
pages). You must determine why the failure
occurred. You must have some research
about general reasons of entrepreneurial
failure as your base understanding and
incorporate research in the analysis of the
business failure. Recommendations 50 25% Your recommendations must demonstrate a
thorough understanding of your business’s
failure and create credible remedies to solve Category Points % Description
the problem (2-3 pages). For example, if
your company lacks capital, simply stating
that the company needed more money is not
enough. How would you raise that money?
Perhaps the business plan was not
developed properly, or no plan was created
at all, and the idea and sales projections
were unrealistic. In other words, your
analysis and research must be specific and
detailed. Organization and
Cohesiveness 25 12.5% Insure that the paper follows the guidelines
listed above and the information is
presented in an organized manner. Grammar and
Spelling 25 12.5% Grammar and spelling must be at college
level. Total 200 100 A quality paper will meet or exceed all of
the above requirements.
