Week 5 Reading Reflection

Chapter 9: Assessment of Entrepreneurial Opportunities (Kuratko)

1. The most surprising thing for me in this week's reading was one of the pitfalls in selecting new ventures. This would be: Poor Financial Understanding. I would have thought that entrepreneurs, although risk-takers, have an intelligent understanding and awareness of the required finances, their budget, and how the market can affect those two. I would not take them to be ignorant of costs or "victims of inadequate research and planning."
   
2. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was that start-up problems remain with the venture. How can an entrepreneur realize the necessity to change the relative importance of the problem areas in the life-cycle stages when there are so many internal (adequate capital, fash flow, facilities/equipment, inventory control, human resources, etc.) and external (customer contact, market knowledge, marketing planning, location, pricing, etc.) problems that could be located in any of those life-cycle stages?
   
3. The first question that I would ask the author would be, "What do you think is the most important question to ask in the feasiblity criteria approach?"
   The second question that I would ask the author would be, "What do you think was the most recent successful venture in the start-up world?"
• I would ask the author this question because I would want his insight on the most critical factor in the fesibility criteria approach, in terms of selecting which can bring forth the most valuable information for an entrepreneur.
• I would ask the author the second question because it's interesting to get an opinion take from an expert in current events of a good entrepreneurial concept in this time period.
  
4. I did not find anything in this week's reading that the author was wrong about.