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Entrepreneur Interview Assignment
According to entrepreneurship professor Donald F. Kuratko in his text, Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process & Practice, “three major sources of information supply data related to the entrepreneurial mindset. The first source is publications, research based as well as popular. The second major source of information is direct observation of practicing entrepreneurs (e.g. interviews). The final source of entrepreneurial information is speeches and presentations” (the UT Entrepreneurship program “Main Street Speaker Series”). In order to better understand the entrepreneurial mindset we will utilize all three of these sources of information.
The Assignment:
• Each student will interview two entrepreneurs (as defined generally) from the local, regional or national business community using the interview topics from the text and developed in class. Better papers will interview one small businessperson and one “entrepreneur” (as defined in class), the latter likely being more difficult to identify and interview, and thus, if done well, awarded a higher grade for that effort. You may not interview immediate family members (parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.). The focus of the interview and subsequent paper should be on the entrepreneurs and their “entrepreneurial traits” and not on the entrepreneurs’ business. The interview must be conducted in-person (No telephone/email interviews), unless instructor grants specific permission.
• Note: Entrepreneurs are generally speaking, very busy people. Therefore, students should locate and interview their prospective entrepreneurs as soon as possible to avoid submitting a paper late. Papers turned in after the due date/time will be subject to the penalties specified in the syllabus.
• After conducting the interviews, students will submit a double-spaced paper between 3 (minimum) and 5 (maximum) pages long that summarizes the interviews (Do not submit or attach the actual interview). Due to the 5-page limit your writing will need to be concise with no excess verbage. The grade for this assignment will be based on content, writing style (i.e. correct grammar, usage, spelling, etc.) and your ability to follow the assignment’s instructions. Better papers will be those that display a level of creativity and innovativeness and, analyze/compare/contrast the information gained during the interview with the materials from our class discussions, assigned readings or other outside sources (other books, magazine articles, newspapers, etc.). All outside sources should be properly cited in a List of References located at the end of the paper. The list of references will not count toward the 5-page limit.
• Business cards containing the phone number of both entrepreneurs must be stapled to the last page of your paper as your instructor intends to call a random sample of the interviewees to verify that an interview did in fact take place.
• The paper should be stapled together in the upper left hand corner. No covers, binders or folders. E-mail submissions will not be accepted.
• The paper should be double spaced with no more than two (2) spaces between paragraphs (Caution: the new version of Word uses 1.5 spacing as a default setting). 12 pt., Times New Roman font. 1-inch top, bottom and side margins.
Make sure you proofread and edit the paper thoroughly! Check for spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization errors, as well as run-on and fragmented sentences. At your level of education, spelling and grammatical errors are not acceptable. Additionally, papers that contain multiple spelling or glaring grammatical errors (fatal flaws) will be returned ungraded. The student will then have an opportunity to resubmit a corrected version subject to a TWO (2) letter grade reduction.
