Entrepreneur – Business Owner Informational Interview (conducted remotely by phone, Facetime, What’s App or other method for personal one-on-one conversation with physical distancing). Don’t use email or text which does not have the advantage of fluid conversation, body language, or the tone of voice. Develop 3 or more pages, single spaced. Include each question with the person’s answer right below each question. Value = up to 60 points
Entrepreneur-Business Owner Informational Interview
Introduction
You will read about entrepreneurship in your textbook. There is also no shortage of books, magazines, articles, podcasts, YouTube videos and other resources about entrepreneurship, how to open a business, and how to operate one. Just reading about business start-up is only half the information you need to understand entrepreneurship and how business owners think. There is nothing like life-experience to help you gain a better understanding.
What is an Informational Interview?
An informational interview is a professional conversation between you and someone who works in an industry that you’d like to learn more about.
The purpose of this interview is to learn more about entrepreneurship and how founders think and move forward.
It IS NOT to learn about this individual person, their career or business history, or details about their business. That would be a waste of their time and yours.
30-Minute Remote Informational Interview
- The assignment is to complete a 30-minute Informational Interview to learn about more about entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs think.
- Develop about 20 open-ended questions in advance of the interview
- Do not bother collecting collect facts or the personal or career history of the individual business person you are interviewing.
Assignment Purpose
The purpose of the assignment this module is to learn how entrepreneurs think, make decisions, handle challenges, and move forward. You are interested in their “pearls of wisdom”, what they have learned through their own processes of trial and error.
This interview is not to simply have a nice chat and to collect facts about the owner or their business, which is a waste of their time and yours. Do not bother asking questions for facts about this individual person or their business. The interview is not about them…it’s to learn about entrepreneurship.
A good informational interview will expand your knowledge and understanding of entrepreneurship, the risks involved, how people make decisions and why they made them and much more. These are things you could never learn through reading and online research.
I recommend you start early this week to provide time to read about informational interviewing, develop good, in-depth opened ended questions, identify someone terrific to interview, take good notes and transcribe them, and to do great job on this important assignment. You will need:
- time to prepare
- develop about 15-20 great, in-depth, open ended questions
- select entrepreneur – business owners to interview (having a back-up person, is a great idea, in case someone has to cancel or the interview didn’t go well)
- schedule the remote interview
- conduct the interview remotely
- transcribe your questions and the answers
- complete your person reflection/summary of what you learned about entrepreneurship during the interview and how it related to what you read in our textbook
- submit your professional, error free work before the deadline
Requirements – Informational Interview = 3 or more page paper
Identify an entrepreneur – business owner with experience founding and operating their own business to interview remotely during this module.
Write open-ended questions, which encourage the person to share their thoughts and also help keep you on track (at least a dozen or more questions, with flexibility to add even more follow-up questions, when needed, during the interview to “dig-in” and learn even more.
Conduct the interview. Transcribe your notes. Create a homework paper that lists each question with the person’s answer below it.
Add your personal reflection/summary at the end which shares what you learned about entrepreneurship and/or business operations during this interview. (Not what you learned about this person or their business.)
Format Your Paper
- 3 or more pages
- typed, single spaced, using a standard size 12 font, 1″ margins
- list each open-ended question, with the person’s answer right below each question
- add your personal summary/analysis at the end which shares what you learned about entrepreneurship (not this person)
