So You Want to Be

an Entrepreneur:
How to Get Started
Contents The world is filled with aspiring entrepreneurs who believe they have what it takes to
launch and scale a company. While anyone can start a business, not everyone will
3 Characteristics of succeed.

Successful Entrepreneurs In the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials, Harvard Business School Professor
William Sahlman notes that 70 percent of businesses survive for at least two years,
roughly 50 percent last five years, and just 25 percent make it 15 years.
8 Deciding to Pursue
Entrepreneurship With these figures in mind, there are questions you need to consider if you’re thinking
about becoming an entrepreneur: Do you have what it takes to excel? How can you
prepare for the challenges you’ll inevitably face?
15 Skills You Need to Be an
In this guide, you’ll learn about what characterizes a successful entrepreneur, how
Innovative Entrepreneur to decide if entrepreneurship is right for you, what skills you need to thrive, and why
you should consider taking an entrepreneurship or innovation course to broaden your
23 How to Find the Right business knowledge.
Entrepreneurship or
Innovation Course for You
Characteristics
of Successful
Entrepreneurs
There’s no single personality profile that describes every successful
entrepreneur, but certain qualities are important when starting and leading a
venture. Here are 11 characteristics shared by successful entrepreneurs.
1. Curiosity
Successful entrepreneurs have a
sense of curiosity that leads them to
continuously seek new opportunities.
Rather than settling for what they think
they know, curious entrepreneurs ask
challenging questions and explore
different avenues.
In Entrepreneurship Essentials,
entrepreneurship is described as a
“process of discovery.” Without a drive
to consistently ask questions and
challenge the status quo, valuable ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSON
discoveries can be overlooked.
Savor Surprises
In Entrepreneurship Essentials, Scott Cook, co-founder and chairman
2. Structured of software company Intuit, highlights the power of structured

Experimentation experimentation when guiding your new venture.

Cook explains that experimentation enabled his company to capitalize
With curiosity comes the need for on an opportunity when it discovered many customers were using its
structured experimentation. As new Quicken software for business purposes instead of personal finance, for
opportunities arise, an entrepreneur which it was originally intended.
must conduct market research and
“There’s a giant market of businesses who need the kind of thing we
run tests to determine whether they’re
built, but we just never built it for business,” Cook says. “That’s why we
worth pursuing.
run experiments and run them early: So we can get those surprises and
see the things you only can see when you run an experiment to learn.”

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs 4

3. Adaptability 5. Confidence
Business is ever-changing. It’s nearly impossible for Accomplished entrepreneurs exude confidence and are their
entrepreneurs to be prepared for every scenario they business’s biggest advocates.
encounter. They need to know how to evaluate situations
Whether pitching to investors, communicating with clients,
and adapt so their business can keep moving forward when
or making conversation at an event, the way they talk about
unexpected changes occur.
their business and its potential can influence how others see
it, too. Showing a lack of confidence can deter investors or
4. Decisiveness lead customers to question their buying decisions.

An entrepreneur has to make difficult decisions and stand by

them. They’re responsible for guiding the trajectory of their
business, including every aspect from funding and strategy to
resource allocation.
Being decisive doesn’t mean having all the answers; it means
having the confidence to make challenging decisions and
see them through. If the outcome turns out to be less than
favorable, deciding to take corrective action is just as
important.

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs 5

6. Team Building
A great entrepreneur is aware of their
strengths and weaknesses. Rather than
allow shortcomings to hold them back,
they build well-rounded teams that
complement their abilities.
In many cases, it’s the entrepreneurial
team—rather than an individual—that
drives a venture toward success.

7. Risk Tolerance
Many things can go wrong when
launching a venture, but many things
ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSON
can also go right. The key, noted in
Entrepreneurship Essentials, is for Challenge Yourself to Be Challenged
entrepreneurs to actively manage the Jennifer Fonstad, founding partner of venture capital firm Aspect
relationship between risk and reward Ventures, encourages you to seek out diverse viewpoints when
and position their companies to “benefit assembling your team.
from the upside.”
“Those who embrace being challenged and different perspectives
Effective entrepreneurs are comfortable tend to be more successful and make better decisions over time,”
with encountering some level of risk to Fonstad says in Entrepreneurship Essentials. “We encourage teams
reap the rewards of their efforts, but to think about how to bring in those different voices—whether it be
they also take steps to minimize their through your employees and co-founders, your finance partners, or
chance of failure. other board members.”

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs 6

8. Comfort with Failure 10. Innovation
A startup can fail for various reasons, such as a flawed Many ascribe to the idea that innovation goes hand-in-hand
business model or lack of focus. While many obstacles can be with entrepreneurship. This is often true—some of the most
avoided, some are inevitable. successful startups have taken existing products or services
and drastically improved them to meet changing market needs.
Successful entrepreneurs prepare themselves for, and are
Innovation is a characteristic some, but not all, entrepreneurs
comfortable with, failure. Rather than let fear hold them back,
possess. Fortunately, it’s one that can be cultivated.
they allow the possibility of success to propel them forward.

9. Persistence 11. Long-Term Focus

Most people think of entrepreneurship as the process of
While successful entrepreneurs are comfortable with the
starting a business. While the early stages of launching a
possibility of failure, it doesn’t mean they give up easily.
venture are critical to its success, the process doesn’t end
Rather, they see missteps as opportunities to learn and grow.
once it’s operational. In Entrepreneurship Essentials, it’s stated
Throughout the entrepreneurial process, many hypotheses that “it’s easy to start a business, but hard to grow a sustainable
turn out to be wrong, and some ventures fail altogether. Part and substantial one. Some of the greatest opportunities in
of what makes an entrepreneur successful is their willingness history were discovered well after a venture launched.”
to learn from mistakes, continue to ask questions, and persist
Entrepreneurship is a long-term endeavor, and entrepreneurs
until they reach their goal.
must focus on the process from beginning to end to achieve
long-term success.

Now that you know what characterizes a successful entrepreneur, the question becomes: Are you ready to pursue
entrepreneurship?
The next section can help determine your answer.

Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs 7

Deciding to Pursue
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship comes with many perks, such as setting your own hours, work
location flexibility, and the satisfaction of building something from the ground
up. There are, however, some drawbacks.
Is starting a business the right choice for you? Consider the following questions
before deciding.
1. Is Now the Right
Time to Start a BUSINESS INSIGHT
Business? Using the Jobs to Be Done Framework to Identify Customer Needs

Your idea may never take off if you try to An effective way to identify underserved customer needs is by using
start your business at an inopportune HBS Professor Clayton Christensen’s jobs to be done framework, which
time. Are you currently in a position to centers on the idea that customers don’t purchase products based solely
pursue entrepreneurship? Consider on their attributes, but rather, “hire” products to do “jobs” they need to get
your relationships, financial well-being, done.
and physical health. For instance, if you
recently welcomed a baby into your One example of a job to be done that Christensen presents in the online
family, you may not have enough time course Disruptive Strategy features a fast-food chain selling milkshakes. It
and energy to dedicate to your business. was found that most of the chain’s milkshakes were sold before 8:30 a.m.,
and customers typically didn’t purchase any other items. Rather than
On the flip side, perhaps you’ve recently looking at the customers’ attributes to explain their buying behaviors, the
been laid off from your role in corporate chain focused on the job its milkshakes were being hired to do.
finance. This turn of events could spark
an ambition that can be poured into After interviewing several milkshake customers, the job became clear: They
starting your new venture, backed by your needed something to keep them full and occupied during their morning
professional experience. commutes and were hiring milkshakes to fulfill that purpose.

Also, consider if the timing is right in the When evaluating market needs, try not to dwell on what products people
broader economy and the specific market want. Instead, focus on jobs that need to be done.
you want to enter. You should ensure your
offering meets a current need.

Deciding to Pursue Entrepreneurship 9

2. Do You Have a Business Idea, and Is That Idea an Opportunity?
When starting your business, you need to know what you
plan to sell. If you haven’t fleshed out those details yet,
brainstorm using the following prompts: BUSINESS INSIGHT
• Why does it take so long to ____? Validating Your Idea by Assessing Market
Size and Share
• Why does ____ cost so much?
• Can I deliver ____ with a new business model? Before moving forward with your venture,
estimate the size of your target market and the
• What can I change about ____ to improve it? share of it you could potentially capture.

Your idea doesn’t need to be a new invention—it simply In Entrepreneurship Essentials, Sahlman uses
needs to fill an unmet need. If you have an idea for an mattress retailer Casper to illustrate this idea. In
original product, that’s great, but an improvement to 2014, Casper’s founders assessed the market size
an existing product’s cost, production, functionality, or for their product by comparing its differentiating
accessibility can go a long way. factors against the larger market. For Casper,
these differentiating factors included its online
You should also determine whether your business idea business model, 100-day return window, and the
is a viable opportunity. In Entrepreneurship Essentials, viscoelastic foam material used in its mattresses.
opportunity is defined as “a proposed venture to sell a
product or service for which customers are willing to pay Based on statistics for the mattress market at the
more than the required investments and operating costs.” time, Casper’s founders narrowed down which
segments they should target and determined they
To find out if your idea is an opportunity, first come up with could own a few percentage points of the total
a hypothesis. Next, test your hypothesis by conducting mattress market share.
market research. Sahlman recommends reaching out to
strangers from your target market segment, rather than Do this exercise for your target market to
friends, family, and colleagues, who may sing false praises. determine where your product fits and how much
The feedback you receive can inform if your hypothesis of it your business could own.
was correct or whether you need to test other ideas.

Deciding to Pursue Entrepreneurship 10

3. Are You Prepared to Pivot 4. Do You Have a Strong Team,
and Adapt? or the Ability to Form One?
Entrepreneurship is an iterative process. If you know that No successful entrepreneur got to where they are by
absorbing new information and pivoting when ideas fall themselves.
flat aren’t your strengths, develop those abilities before
“All great companies, even those with iconic entrepreneurs,
becoming an entrepreneur.
had many other people who were involved and, without whom,
Say you produce pull-up bars, and 75 percent of the people the company might not have made it so big,” Sahlman says.
you interview aren’t willing to pay $80 for your product. Given
In Entrepreneurship Essentials, Apple is used to illustrate the
this information, you need to adapt.
power a team can have when growing a business. Co-founder
You test further hypotheses and discover the majority of Steve Wozniak was the mind behind the company’s early
your target segment is willing to pay the original $80 if the products and, shortly after its incorporation, Mike Markkula
equipment is both high-quality and easy to install. This leads and Mike Scott joined as seasoned executives who proved
you to develop a new prototype, reassess manufacturing themselves essential to the company’s growth. Co-founder
costs, and conduct another round of testing. Steve Jobs, who had previously been forced out of the
company, returned when it was on the verge of failure and
Your ability to frequently adapt—especially in the early
revitalized its products. Without each of them, and countless
stages of your business—is essential.
others, Apple wouldn’t be where it is today.
Keep in mind that successful business owners know when to
ask for help and delegate tasks. Whether that means starting
your business with a partner or two, building a strong team as
you grow, or simply accepting any help and advice you can,
know that your potential success relies on the strength of the
people around you.

Deciding to Pursue Entrepreneurship 11

 5. Do You Have Access to
Funding?
To launch your business, you’ll need funding to purchase
equipment and materials, develop your product or service,
iterate on your offerings, and refine your processes. Exactly
what funding will look like depends on the type of business
you’re launching and your industry. Your options include:
• Self-funding
• Securing an SBA loan from the Small Business
Administration
ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSON
• Raising capital from investors
Hire Builders, Not Joiners
• Applying for grants (this may be especially suitable for
Abe Ankumah, co-founder and CEO of information nonprofit organizations)
technology firm Nyansa, highlights the importance of
a builder mentality when assembling your startup • Crowdfunding from the public
team. • Relying on a line of credit
In Entrepreneurship Essentials, Ankumah explains Every form of funding comes with benefits and risks. Self-
that you need to look for a certain type of funding, for example, allows you to retain complete control
personality: over your business and potential profits but requires you to
those who roll up their sleeves ready to build, versus carry the risk of failure.
those who want to join an established company.
Raising capital from investors, on the other hand, allows
“You want to find people who want to build the next you to spread your risk and, potentially, launch your
Google to make it Google, versus people who want to business quicker—but it forces you to give up a portion of
join Google because it’s already Google,” he says. your control. Ultimately, you must decide what makes the
most sense for your business.

Deciding to Pursue Entrepreneurship 12

6. Are You Prepared for the Possibility
of Failure?
Entrepreneurs must be prepared for the possibility of failure when starting a business.
“Though every entrepreneur imagines success, they must act with the full knowledge
that the odds are against them,” Sahlman says in Entrepreneurship Essentials. “Successful entrepreneurs are real
people and not superhuman. They
The very real possibility that your business may not survive is something you need to
pursued their passion, followed the
come to terms with before pursuing entrepreneurship, and you should have a plan for
principles, and continued pushing
that scenario. forward despite the challenges they
encountered. It was something I could
7. Why Do You Want to Start a Business? relate to, and it helped me understand
and know that fear can be good
because it fuels your passion to keep
As you consider becoming an entrepreneur, continually return to the most basic
moving forward.”
question: Why?
Anita Umoh
While only you can answer that, understanding the relationship between risk and
Entrepreneurship Essentials
reward can help illuminate your motivations. Ask yourself what you hope to gain from
Participant
starting a business, and list the risks you anticipate. If the pull of potential rewards
outweighs your fear of risks, it’s a good sign you’re ready to be an entrepreneur.

Deciding to Pursue Entrepreneurship 13

 BUSINESS INSIGHT
How an Entrepreneurial Mindset Can Benefit You

If now isn’t the ideal time to launch your own venture, there are still benefits you can reap from cultivating an
entrepreneurial mindset.
At any organization, conscious effort is required to fight off stagnation. As markets shift and customer needs
change, an entrepreneurial mindset can help you assess customers’ jobs to be done and develop ways to fulfill
them—either by creating new products or adapting your current offerings.
Understanding entrepreneurship and innovation theories can also enable you to craft informed strategies for your
organization.
For instance, the theory of disruptive innovation, another concept coined by Christensen and discussed in
Disruptive Strategy, is the process by which a smaller company—usually with fewer resources—moves upmarket
and challenges larger, established businesses.
By mastering theories like this one, you can help your organization strategize how to disrupt incumbent companies
or prepare for emerging competitors.

Asking yourself the questions in this section can shed light on whether you want to start a business. If you’ve
decided that you’re ready to become an entrepreneur, there are certain skills you need to start your journey on the
right path. Those are covered next.

Deciding to Pursue Entrepreneurship 14

Skills You Need to
Be an Innovative
Entrepreneur
Unlike personality traits and demographic details, entrepreneurship and innovation
skills can be learned and practiced. As you embark on your entrepreneurial journey,
focus your efforts on developing these seven essential skills.
1. Basic Financial Skills
BUSINESS INSIGHT
Financial skills, such as budgeting and financial statement Types of Financial Statements
analysis, are necessary for running a business.Creating a
reasonable budget and sticking to it can be the difference Companies produce several financial statements,
between your venture’s success and failure. By learning this each of which is tailored to the needs of a particular
skill, you can avoid overspending and appropriately allocate audience. The most common types of financial
your company’s resources. statements include:
It’s also imperative to know how to read and prepare financial • The balance sheet, which communicates the
statements. Aside from being required for reporting and tax “book value” of a company and offers a quick
purposes, these documents help you track performance, snapshot of how it’s performing. It’s a simple
make future projections, and manage expenses. They can accounting of all of its assets, liabilities, and
also be useful to investors and banks considering funding owners’ equity.
your startup because they show your business’s financial • The income statement, which conveys how much
progress. money a company has earned over a period.
• The cash flow statement, which details how a
company receives and spends its cash.
• The statement of owners’ equity, which details
changes in the equity held by shareholders,
whether they’re public or private investors.

These documents help entrepreneurs track

performance, make future projections, and manage
expenses. They can also be useful to investors
because they show a business’s financial progress.

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 16

2. Networking
Your network is one of your greatest assets. Networking can
enable you to not only meet like-minded professionals but
build your future team and keep a finger on the pulse of your
industry.Your professional network can consist of:

• Co-workers • Friends and family

members
• Alumni from educational
institutions • Business professionals in
your geographic area
• Professors and teachers
• Others in your industry
• Industry leaders and
with similar interests,
speakers
responsibilities, and goals
• Clients

Identify and reach out to people who can guide you in your
entrepreneurial journey and inform your decision-making.
Ask them about their business, how long they’ve been in
their industry, and lessons they’ve learned from successes
and failures. Perhaps they’ve started several companies and
can offer valuable advice about raising funds, developing
products, and building a client base. They may even be able
to connect you to professionals in their networks whose work
aligns with yours.
In addition to leveraging your network, expand it. You can do
so by signing up for networking events or using LinkedIn to
find professionals with whom you have shared connections,
similar interests, and job titles.

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 17

3. The Ability to Accept
and Act on Feedback
To succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to
be eager to receive and act on feedback. This
skill requires you to stay humble and accept
that your idea of the perfect version of your
product may not resonate with potential
customers.
One way to gather feedback is by conducting
interviews with potential customers from your
target market segment. These interviews
can validate your business idea and provide
ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSON
constructive criticism regarding your product, Don’t Fool Yourself
proposed business model, or assumptions
you’ve made about users. John Osher, a serial entrepreneur behind the SpinBrush
toothbrush and other successful consumer products, asserts
You may also receive feedback from that the most important thing you can do is find and listen to
investors, more experienced entrepreneurs, the truth, no matter how hard it may be.
and friends and family. Some of it may be
unsolicited. You’re not required to implement In Entrepreneurship Essentials, he points out that willful
all of their advice, but it’s beneficial to blindness to customers’ negative feedback can lead to costly
consider it. Would their suggestion increase mistakes.
the quality, value, or user experience of your “If an entrepreneur puts truth first, they’ll always find a way
product? If the answer is yes, take steps to to solve the problem,” Osher says. “Putting your personal
make those improvements. feelings and passion for the product ahead of the truth is a
recipe for failure.”

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 18

4. Pattern Recognition
ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSON
Pattern recognition—in data, market trends, and user
Testing Your Product or Service
behavior—is an often overlooked skill for entrepreneurs.
Identifying patterns in cash flow statements, for example, Testing your product with real users can prove
can enable you to make predictions about future cash invaluable when assessing market validity, and
flows. When observing market sales data, you can identify there are two types you should know: alpha and
seasonality or other time-related trends that inform your beta testing.
long-term goals.
• Alpha testing is when internal employees test
When observing how users interact with your product, pay a product in a staged setting. The purpose of
attention to how they react to specific elements and what alpha testing is to eliminate any bugs, issues,
questions arise during use. Patterns will begin emerging. or idiosyncrasies in the product before it’s
available to outside users.
If your product is an app, perhaps you notice a pattern among
teenage male users who download it and immediately open • Beta testing is when a product is tested by a
the chat function. You can use this kind of user behavior limited group of real, external users who are
trend to learn more about your customers’ motivations and specifically told to identify problems. In the
improve your product to fit their needs better. case of a software or app, beta testing might
be open to the public with a notice letting users
know the version they’re testing is unfinished.
If there’s a need in the market, but your product is
faulty, complex, or difficult to use, customers may
opt for a competitor’s offering. The feedback you
get from beta testers can help you leverage and
meet customer needs.

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 19

5. Strategic Thinking
Strategic thinking encompasses any skills that enable you to use critical thinking to
solve complex problems and plan for the future. These skills are essential to accomplish
business objectives, overcome obstacles, and address challenges—particularly if they’re
projected to take weeks, months, or even years to achieve. Strategic thinking skills
include:
• Analytical skills: To ideate a strategy that helps your organization reach its “Within five days of finishing the
objectives, you must be capable of analyzing a variety of inputs—from financial course, I had a plan of action for
statements and KPIs, to market conditions, emerging business trends, and internal a major part of our business and
resource allocation. presented it to our corporate
executive. It applied the jobs to be
• Communication skills: Putting a strategy into place for your company, regardless done theory and caused us to rethink
of its size, requires solid communication skills. The ability to communicate complex our strategy to get the customer to
ideas, collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, build consensus, and ‘hire’ us over the competition.”
ensure everyone is aligned and working toward shared goals are all central to
strategic thinking. Robbee Minicola
Disruptive Strategy Participant
• Problem-solving skills: Strategic planning is often used to solve problems or address
challenges, such as missed financial targets, inefficient workflows, or an emerging
competitor. Implementing a strategy that addresses the central challenge you face
requires you to first understand its scope and potential solutions. From there, you can
craft a strategy that solves it.
• Planning and management skills: Strategy isn’t just about thinking of a solution—
it involves implementation, too. Once data has been analyzed, the problem is
understood, and a solution has been identified, you need strong planning and
management skills to bring everything together.
The advantage of having a strategic mindset is learning how to think rather than what to
think. Although you might not always have the right answers, strategic thinking skills can
enable you to spot new opportunities, address emerging challenges, and plan for success.

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 20

6. Negotiation BUSINESS INSIGHT
Building a company requires engaging in negotiation How to Create Value in a Negotiation
with potential investors, early employees, and prospective 1. Build Trust
partners. As you work to get your business off the ground,
Trust is a foundational component of any effective
it’s vital to know how to create value and overcome
negotiation strategy. Deal-making comes with an
differences to form lasting partnerships.
inherent level of risk, making it vital to build a rapport
In the online course Negotiation Mastery, the entrepreneurs with the other party.
behind Unshrinkit, a product that unshrinks wool garments,
2. Find Uncommon Ground
recount how they used negotiation skills to close a deal with
their supplier Sourcentra. After reaching an oral agreement, Value creation requires focusing on areas where you and
Sourcentra sent Unshrinkit a written contract with modified the other party have different interests and perceptions,
terms because its CEO felt his company was assuming too rather than commonalities.
much risk. “It’s not a matter necessarily of finding things you
Instead of taking a contentious approach and bargaining agree on but things that you disagree about,” says HBS
over contractual obligations, Unshrinkit’s founders Professor Mike Wheeler, who teaches Negotiation
focused on the CEO’s motivations to salvage the deal. They Mastery, in an HBS Online video. “That could be the
emphasized how the partnership would allow them to grow value of something. You might treasure something you
their company, which spoke to the CEO’s entrepreneurial own, but somebody else is just nuts about it. You ought
background and desire to help small business owners. By to be able to make a swap there.”
appealing to the CEO’s emotions, the team was able to
3. Be Agile
convince him to proceed with the partnership and reach a
favorable agreement. Being a successful negotiator involves knowing how to
think on your feet and be agile.
This example provides a key takeaway: In addition to
pursuing your own objectives, you need to consider the “That means flexing yourself so that you deploy different
other side’s perspective at the bargaining table. Doing so skills depending on the situation and whom you’re
can enable you to maximize value in your negotiations and dealing with,” Wheeler says in an article for the Business
forge lasting relationships. Insights blog.

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 21

7. A Growth Mindset
A growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable
of improvement, as opposed to a fixed mindset, which views those same traits as
inherently stable and unchangeable over time.
Your skills aren’t static—they’re the result of your effort, practice, and persistence.
By maintaining a growth mindset, you can avoid taking your skills for granted and “While I had a deep business
capitalize on opportunities to grow and improve throughout your career. background, I wasn’t well versed
in several important aspects of
entrepreneurship, like investment
structure, fundraising, and
valuation. Entrepreneurship
Essentials covered these topics
well, and I was surprised at some of
the additional takeaways I had.”
Maggie Robb
Entrepreneurship Essentials
Participant

While there are many ways to acquire and hone these skills, one of the most effective means of doing so is by
taking an entrepreneurship or innovation course. In the next section, you’ll learn about factors to keep in mind
when exploring your options.

Skills You Need to Be an Innovative Entrepreneur 22

How to Find the Right
Entrepreneurship or
Innovation Course
for You
Furthering your education is an investment in yourself and your business,
so it’s critical to find a course that fits your needs. Here are five questions
to consider when making your selection.
1. Where Am I in My Career?
Have you decided you’ve got what it takes to be an entrepreneur but haven’t thought of
your business idea yet? Maybe you have a validated idea but aren’t sure how to make
it a reality. Determining where you are in your entrepreneurial journey can help you
decide what type of course to take.
Entrepreneurship and innovation courses can be: “I wanted to understand the emerging
technology space and how it’s
• Broad introductions to the startup world changing the world of business;
• Deep dives on specific skills, such as financing a business or market validation particularly, how it’s changing the
consumer space in which I operate.”
• Hands-on workshops that prompt learners to apply entrepreneurial concepts and
techniques to real-world situations David Lanre Messan
Disruptive Strategy Participant
Depending on the knowledge and experience you bring to the table, one of these
course types may be a better fit than the others.

2. What Format and Schedule Do I Need?

Your time is a valuable and often scarce resource. Whatever course you choose needs
to work for your schedule.
Many professionals opt for online courses because of the flexible timing and ability to
take them from anywhere. Consider your current schedule, and block out the time you
can dedicate to your learning.
Whether you’re working around children’s schedules, client meetings, or simply need
to give yourself time to sleep at night, catering your education to your needs can help
you stay dedicated.

How to Find the Right Entrepreneurship or Innovation Course for You 24

3. What Is the Background of the Course
Instructor?
When researching courses, look into the instructor’s background. Did they start a
business you admire? Perhaps they founded several failed companies before finding
success or worked in a different field before teaching.
“We are so fortunate to learn directly
Ensure the instructor has a background that inspires you and evokes questions. What from the companies themselves. This
might they have learned during their entrepreneurial journey that could impact you? way of presenting the material makes
the concepts resonate so much more,
For instance, Professor Sahlman has been a director, advisor, and investor at over and then they can be easily applied
200 companies, venture capital funds, and nonprofits. The experiences he’s had in and layered into the specifics of what
business inform the content he presents in Entrepreneurship Essentials. we’re experiencing in our daily lives
out in the working world.”
4. Will I Learn Concepts Through Case Paige Peterson

Studies? Disruptive Strategy Participant

Another factor to consider when selecting a course is whether the curriculum contains
case studies. By reading about and hearing from other entrepreneurs, you can apply
the advice of those who’ve been in your position and learned along the way.

How to Find the Right Entrepreneurship or Innovation Course for You 25

5. Does the Course Offer Networking
Opportunities?
Try to find a course that enables you to grow your professional network and foster
lasting relationships with like-minded peers.
If the course is taught in person, networking may happen naturally before or after “I became the owner of my own
class. But if you’re considering an online course, look for programs with a networking company in a foreign country, and
component built in, like HBS Online’s Community. the few negotiating experiences I had
were in the United States. I signed up
for Negotiation Mastery to practice
negotiation with people from all
different backgrounds, learn new
techniques, and gain confidence for
my ‘high-stakes’ negotiations with
people of different cultures.”
Sara Simon Pioger
Negotiation Mastery
Participant

With these questions in mind, you can find a course that meets you where you are in your career, fits your lifestyle,
provides meaningful wisdom from instructors and case studies, and helps you expand your network.
No matter what type of course you decide to take, broadening your knowledge is an investment in yourself and
your business’s future.

How to Find the Right Entrepreneurship or Innovation Course for You 26

 #Design Thinking and Innovation
Beginning Your #This course can enable you to leverage
Entrepreneurial fundamental design thinking principles and
innovative problem-solving tools to address
Journey business challenges and build products,
strategies, teams, and environments for
Countless aspiring entrepreneurs have optimal use and performance.
an innovative and compelling business
idea but don’t have the skills or qualities
to carry it to fruition. Others have
entrepreneurial skills and qualities but
DISRUPTION
lack an idea to pursue. Even those with #Disruptive Strategy
a brilliant idea and robust skill set can
fail to get their project off the ground #This course can equip you with the skills
if they don’t have access to funding. and techniques to develop executive-
Successful entrepreneurship requires level strategy, organize for innovation,
all of these components. and discover customer jobs to be done.

The good news is: Successful

entrepreneurs aren’t born—they’re
made. With the right training and
development, you can make it as an
entrepreneur. As you determine the #Entrepreneurship Essentials
next step in your career, consider how
HBS Online’s entrepreneurship and #This course can enable you to turn an idea
innovation courses can benefit you, into a viable venture through learning how
which include: entrepreneurs validate concepts with
structured experiments, refine their business
strategy, and raise the capital necessary to
create value and grow their business.

Beginning Your Entrepreneurial Journey 27

 #Launching Tech Ventures #Negotiation Mastery #Winning with Digital Platforms
#This course can provide the tools #This course can help you #This course can provide the foundation
and frameworks to navigate learn how to close deals for building, interacting with, or
the management challenges, that might otherwise be competing against digital platform
experimental research, and venture deadlocked, maximize value companies. Whether launching, scaling,
capital process that categorize the in the agreements you reach, and maintaining a platform business or
early stage of launching a scalable and resolve differences creating defensive plans, learn how to
tech startup. before they escalate into leverage network effects and overcome
costly conflicts. the digital platform economy’s
operational challenges.

By broadening your business knowledge through real-world, case-based learning, you can ensure you’re prepared for any
entrepreneurial challenges that come your way.

Beginning Your Entrepreneurial Journey 28

To learn more about what HBS Online
can do for you, visit online.hbs.edu.