Introduction to Entrepreneurship, 8e

Donald F. Kuratko

Chapter 9
Assessment of Entrepreneurial Opportunities
 Chapter Objectives
1. To explain the challenge of new-venture start-ups
2. To review common pitfalls in the selection of
new-venture ideas
3. To present critical factors involved in new-venture
development
4. To examine why new ventures fail
5. To study certain factors that underlie venture success
6. To analyze the evaluation process methods: profile
analysis, feasibility criteria approach, and
comprehensive feasibility method
7. To outline the specific activities involved in a
comprehensive feasibility evaluation
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 The Challenge of New-Venture Start-Ups
• New Venture Formation
600,000 new firms have emerged in the United States
every year since the mid-1990s.
• Ideas for Potential New Businesses
The U.S. Patent Office currently reviews more than
375,000 patent applications per year.

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 Components of New-Venture Motivation
1. The need for approval
2. The need for independence
3. The need for personal development
4. Welfare (philanthropic) considerations
5. Perception of wealth
6. Tax reduction and indirect benefits
7. Following role models

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 Reasons for Starting a Venture

Personal The
The Environment
Characteristics Venture

Entrepreneurial
Motivations

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 Figure
9.1 The Elements Affecting New-Venture Performance

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Source: Arnold C. Cooper, “Challenges in Predicting New Firm Performance,” Journal of Business Venturing (May 1993): 243. Reprinted with permission.
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 Pitfalls in Selecting New Ventures
• Lack of objective evaluation

• No real insight into the market

• Inadequate understanding of technical

requirements
• Poor financial understanding
• Lack of venture uniqueness
• Ignorance of legal issues

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 Phases in New-Venture Start-ups
• Prestart-up Phase
Begins with an idea for the venture and ends when the
doors are opened for business.
• Start-up Phase
Commences with the initiation of sales activity and the
delivery of products and services and ends when the
business is firmly established and beyond short-term
threats to survival.
• Poststart-up Phase
Lasts until the venture is terminated or the surviving
organizational entity is no longer controlled by an
entrepreneur.
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 Critical Factors for
New-Venture Development

1. Uniqueness of venture
2. Investment size
3. Expected sales growth
Lifestyle ventures
Small profitable ventures
High-growth ventures
4. Product availability
5. Customer availability

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 Table
9.1 A New-Venture Idea Checklist
Basic Feasibility of the Venture
1. Can the product or service work?
2. Is it legal?

Competitive Advantages of the Venture

1. What specific competitive advantages will the product or service offer?
2. What are the competitive advantages of the companies already in business?
3. How are the competitors likely to respond?
4. How will the initial competitive advantage be maintained?

Buyer Decisions in the Venture

1. Who are the customers likely to be?
2. How much will each customer buy, and how many customers are there?
3. Where are these customers located, and how will they be serviced?

Marketing of the Goods and Services

1. How much will be spent on advertising and selling?
2. What share of market will the company capture? By when?
3. Who will perform the selling functions?
4. How will prices be set? How will they compare with the competition’s prices?
5. How important is location, and how will it be determined?
6. What distribution channels will be used—wholesale, retail, agents, direct mail?
7. What are the sales targets? By when should they be met?
8. Can any orders be obtained before starting the business? How many? For what total amount?
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Source: Karl H. Vesper, New Venture Strategies, copyright © 1990, 172. Adapted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
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 Table
9.1 A New-Venture Idea Checklist (cont’d)
Production of the Goods and Services
1. Will the company make or buy what it sells? Or will it use a combination of these two strategies?
2. Are sources of supplies available at reasonable prices?
3. How long will delivery take?
4. Have adequate lease arrangements for premises been made?
5. Will the needed equipment be available on time?
6. Do any special problems with plant setup, clearances, or insurance exist? How will they be resolved?
7. How will quality be controlled?
8. How will returns and servicing be handled?
9. How will pilferage, waste, spoilage, and scrap be controlled?

Staffing Decisions in the Venture

1. How will competence in each area of the business be ensured?
2. Who will have to be hired? By when? How will they be found and recruited?
3. Will a banker, lawyer, accountant, or other advisers be needed?
4. How will replacements be obtained if key people leave?
5. Will special benefit plans have to be arranged?

Control of the Venture

1. What records will be needed? When?
2. Will any special controls be required? What are they? Who will be responsible for them?

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Source: Karl H. Vesper, New Venture Strategies, copyright © 1990, 172. Adapted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
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 Table
9.1 A New-Venture Idea Checklist (cont’d)
Financing the Venture
1. How much will be needed for development of the product or service?
2. How much will be needed for setting up operations?
3. How much will be needed for working capital?
4. Where will the money come from? What if more is needed?
5. Which assumptions in the financial forecasts are most uncertain?
6. What will be the return on equity, or sales, and how does it compare with the rest of the industry?
7. When and how will investors get their money back?
8. What will be needed from the bank, and what is the bank’s response?

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Source: Karl H. Vesper, New Venture Strategies, copyright © 1990, 172. Adapted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
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 Why New Ventures Fail
• Product/Market Problems
• Financial Difficulties
• Managerial Problems

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 Causes for Failure
• Product/Market Problems • Managerial Problems
Poor timing Concept of a team
Product design problems approach
Inappropriate distribution Human resource problems
strategy
Unclear business definition
Overreliance on one
customer
• Financial Difficulties
Initial undercapitalization
Assuming debt too early
Venture capital relationship
problems
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 Table
9.2 Types and Classes of First-Year Problems

1. Obtaining external financing 6. General management

• Obtaining financing for growth • Lack of management experience
• Other or general financing problems • Only one person/no time
2. Internal financial management • Managing/controlling growth
• Inadequate working capital • Administrative problems
• Cash-flow problems • Other or general management problems
• Other or general financial management problems 7. Human resource management
3. Sales/marketing • Recruitment/selection
• Low sales • Turnover/retention
• Dependence on one or few clients/customers • Satisfaction/morale
• Marketing or distribution channels • Employee development
• Promotion/public relations/advertising • Other or general human resource
• Other or general marketing problems management problems
4. Product development 8. Economic environment
• Developing products/services • Poor economy/recession
• Other or general product development problems • Other or general economic environment
5. Production/operations management problems
• Establishing or maintaining quality control 9. Regulatory environment
• Raw materials/resources/supplies • Insurance
• Other or general production/operations
management problems

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Source: David E. Terpstra and Philip D. Olson, “Entrepreneurial Start-up and Growth:
A Classification of Problems,” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (spring 1993): 19.
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 Figure
9.2 Internal and External Problems Experienced by Entrepreneurs

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Source: H. Robert Dodge, Sam Fullerton, and John E. Robbins, “Stage of Organization Life Cycle and Competition as Mediators of Problem
Perception for Small Businesses,” Strategic Management Journal 15 (1994): 129. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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 Table
9.3 Determinants of New-Venture Failures

Entrepreneur Rank Venture Capitalist Rank

I—Lack of management skill 1 I—Lack of management skill 1

I—Poor management strategy 2 I—Poor management strategy 2

I—Lack of capitalization 3 I—Lack of capitalization 3

I—Lack of vision 4 E—Poor external market conditions 4

I—Poor product design 5 I—Poor product design 5

I—Key personnel incompetent 6 I—Poor product timing 6

E = External factor
I = Internal factor

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Source: Andrew L. Zacharakis, G. Dale Meyer, and Julio DeCastro, “Differing Perceptions of New Venture Failure: A Matched
Exploratory Study of Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs,” Journal of Small Business Management (July 1999): 8.
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 New Venture Failure Prediction Model
1. Role of profitability and cash flows
2. Role of debt
3. Combination of both
4. Role of initial size
5. Role of velocity of capital
6. Role of control

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 Table
9.4 The Failure Process of a Newly Founded Firm

1. Extremely high indebtedness (poor static solidity) and small size

2. Too slow velocity of capital, too fast growth, too poor profitability
(as compared to the budget), or some combination of these
3. Unexpected lack of revenue financing (poor dynamic liquidity)
4. Poor static liquidity and debt service ability (dynamic solidity)

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Source: Erkki K. Laitinen, “Prediction of Failure of a Newly Founded Firm,” Journal of Business Venturing (July 1992): 326–328. Reprinted with permission.
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 The Evaluation Process
• Profile Analysis
Involves identifying and investigating the financial,
marketing, organizational, and human resource
variables that influence the business’s potential before
the new idea is put into practice.
• The Feasibility Criteria Approach
Involves the use of a criteria selection list from which
entrepreneurs can gain insights into the viability of
their venture.
• Comprehensive Feasibility Approach
Incorporates external factors in addition to those
included in the criteria questions.
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 Feasibility Criteria Approach
• Assessing the viability of a venture:
Is it proprietary?
Are the initial production costs realistic?
Are the initial marketing costs realistic?
Does the product have potential for very high margins?
Is the time required to get to market and to reach the break-even
point realistic?
Is the potential market large?
Is the product the first of a growing family?
Does an initial customer exist?
Are the development costs and calendar times realistic?
Is this a growing industry?
Can the product and the need for it be understood by the
financial community?
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 Figure
9.3 Key Areas for Assessing the Feasibility of a New Venture

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 Table
9.5 Specific Activities of Feasibility Analyses

Technical Feasibility Market Feasibility Financial Feasibility Organizational Competitive

Analysis Analysis Analysis Capabilities Analysis Analysis
Crucial technical Market potential Required financial Personnel requirements Existing competitors
specifications • Identification of potential resources • Required skill levels and • Size, financial
• Design customers and their • Fixed assets other personal resources, market
• Durability dominant characteristics • Current assets characteristics of entrenchment
• Reliability (e.g., age, income level, • Necessary potential employees • Potential reaction of
buying habits) working capital • Managerial competitors to
• Product safety
• Potential market share Available financial requirements newcomer by means of
• Standardization
(as affected by resources • Determination of price cutting, aggressive
Engineering
competitive situation) individual advertising, introduction
requirements • Required
• Potential sales volume responsibilities of new products, and
• Machines borrowing
• Sales price projections • Determination of other actions
• Tools • Potential sources
• Instruments Market testing for funds required organizational
• Work flow • Selection of test relationships
• Costs of
Product development • Actual market test borrowing • Potential organizational
• Blueprints development
• Analysis of market • Repayment
• Models • Competitive analysis
Marketing planning conditions
• Prototypes
Product testing issues • Operation cost
• Lab testing • Preferred channels of analysis
• Field testing distribution, impact of • Fixed costs
Plant location promotional efforts, • Variable costs
• Desirable characteristics required distribution • Projected
of plant site (proximity to points (warehouses), profitability
suppliers, customers), packaging
environmental considerations, price
regulations differentiation

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Source: Hans Schollhammer and Arthur H. Kuriloff, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1979): 56. Copyright © 1979 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. 23
 Key Terms and Concepts

• comprehensive feasibility • high-growth venture

approach • internal problems
• critical factors • lifestyle venture
• customer availability • marketability
• external problems • product availability
• failure prediction model • small profitable venture
• feasibility criteria • start-up problems
approach • technical feasibility
• growth of sales • uniqueness
• growth stage

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