Entrepreneurial process can be defined as a set of procedures and methodologies that are followed by entrepreneurs for establishing a new business or venture. All the phases in the entrepreneurship process have certain meaning and functionality; which one has to trail and pursue for setting up a venture.

Let us discuss each of the phases in brief:

Discovery: An entrepreneurial process begins with the idea generation, wherein the entrepreneur identifies and evaluates the business opportunities. The identification and the evaluation of opportunities is a difficult task; an entrepreneur seeks inputs from all stakeholder to reach to an optimum business opportunity. Once the opportunity has been decided upon, the next step is to evaluate it.

Developing a Business Plan: Once the opportunity is identified, an entrepreneur needs to create a comprehensive business plan. A business plan is critical to the success of any new venture since it acts as a benchmark and the evaluation criteria to see if the organization is moving towards its set goals.

Resourcing: The third step in the entrepreneurial process is resourcing, wherein the entrepreneur identifies the sources from where the finance and the human resource can be arranged. Here, the entrepreneur finds the investors for its new venture and the personnel to carry out the business activities.

Managing the company: Once the funds are raised and the employees are hired, the next step is to initiate the business operations to achieve the set goals. First of all, an entrepreneur must decide the management structure or the hierarchy that is required to solve the operational problems when they arise.

Harvesting: The final step in the entrepreneurial process is harvesting wherein, an entrepreneur decides on the future prospects of the business, i.e. its growth and development.

The entrepreneurial process is to be followed, again and again, whenever any new venture is taken up by an entrepreneur, therefore, it’s an ever-ending process.

Question to Consider: 

1. What is the entrepreneurial process?
2. Define briefly the entrepreneurial process.
3. List and explain distinct phases in the entrepreneurial process.