Duration:

max. 2 hours

Session Guide:

1. If a prominent person is to perform an official opening for the course, ensure to the extent possible that it is somebody who understands the problems and opportunities for women entrepreneurs, and who can provide an encouraging and inspiring start to the course.

If the official is somebody with any authority in government, banking or other important circles, try to ensure that she/he is briefed as to the likely problems faced by women entrepreneurs, and can make at least some positive statements about efforts that may be taken to overcome these problems, such as allowing women to borrow money in their own right, more equitable laws of inheritance and so on.

It is not necessary that the course should be officially opened, and it is important to avoid spending too much time on this, particularly if the official person is likely to be late or to demand too much time for irrelevant speeches purely for the purposes of gaining publicity.

2. If there is no official opening, or after the official opening if there is one, start by ensuring that the accommodation, travel, funding and other arrangements for participants are all satisfactory; nobody can learn effectively if they are worried about money, their family, their sleeping facilities or food, and it is important that participants from the beginning should feel that these aspects of the programme are being taken care of just as much as the academic learning.

3. Stress that participants are likely to learn more from one another than from the instructors; it is therefore necessary from the outset for everyone to be fully acquainted with one another, and to know what each has to offer. The knowledge that one person has is not diminished if she shares it with others; if all the participants go away with only a small proportion of the joint knowledge and experience that all possess, a great deal will be gained.

4. Divide participants into pairs, including yourself and any other instructor who may be present; ask one member of each pair briefly to give the following information to the other:

· what her business or proposed business is

· whether the business is a part-time or full-time activity (if it is a part-time activity what other job the person holds)

· how long she has been in the business

· what changes (very briefly) she proposes for the coming twelve months

· specifically how she hopes the course will help her to achieve these changes.

5. Ask each participant who has heard this information briefly to summarize it to the class; list the major types of activities being undertaken on board or flipchart, and show the breadth and/or variety.

6. Ask the participants who have just spoken about their colleagues now to give their colleagues the same information about themselves, and ask their colleagues in turn to tell the group; summarize the information on the board as before.

7. Ask each participant very briefly to write down on a piece of paper what she is best at and what she is worst at; allow two or three minutes for this, and then go around the room asking each participant in turn to say what she is best at; list these on the board. Then go round the room asking them to say what they are worst at, and list these on the board as before.

Attempt to "match" the strengths and weaknesses, showing where possible that some participants' weaknesses are matched by others' strengths; summarize the major weaknesses, and relate them to the learning expectations outlined by participants when describing how they thought the course would help them to achieve their objectives. Stress that although the timetable has already been designed, the course actually belongs to the participants and it is up to them to suggest additions, omissions or any other changes which they feel will help them.

8. Distribute copies of the complete timetable, and go through it briefly, session by session, explaining what the objectives are and how the programme links together.

Stress that the workload will be heavy and that participants will be fully engaged during the days of the training course and will have no time for outside activities; invite questions and ensure, if necessary by asking participants direct questions about the programme, that they all understand what is involved and who is responsible for what.

9. If appropriate, invite participants to elect a chairwoman, and possibly other office holders if they think fit, to act as a channel of information between the group and the training institution on academic or administrative matters; ask them to carry out the selection in any way they please and to give the results to the course director the following morning.

The Enterprise Experience: Generating the Business Idea and identifying the People to do it

Objectives:	1. To enable participants to relate the Enterprise Experience to their own learning process
	2. To enable participants to generate business ideas
	3. To enable participants to appraise the respective merits of working alone or in a team
Duration:	90 minutes, followed by a reasonable period for thought and discussion, such as a weekend or a free evening

Session Guide:

1. Before the beginning of the session prepare the following:

· Write the eight steps of the "Enterprise Experience", the dates and the rime by which each should be accomplished on the board or a flipchart. Cover what you have written.

· Prepare a list of goods and services that would be useful to have at the premises where the course is taking place and where the participants stay (e.g. coffee shop, beauty saloon, restaurant, post office, disco, foto service, transport, grocery, better food, soft drinks)

2. Ask participants what they think is the best way of learning. Some at least will come up with the answer "by doing".

Participants may in the past have experienced training games and simulations, where they pretended to be doing things, or played games which in some way simulated aspects of reality. Tell them that they are about to start something with similar objectives but with a different approach: every one of them will during the period of this course start a business, raise capital, produce and sell goods or services, repay any money they have borrowed and retain any remaining profit.

Because many participants will have started their businesses they may doubt the usefulness of such an exercise when they are already "doing it" in real life. Explain that there are three reasons why they should nevertheless go through the "Enterprise Experience":

· Not all of them have been involved in their businesses long enough or intensively enough to completely realize the relation between what they will be taught during this course and their own business.

· The "Enterprise Experience" will step by step be accompanied by sessions about the different aspects of running a business, like book-keeping, marketing, costing, and so on; it is easier to learn these skills by performing them at the same time.

· Learning should also be fun and the "Enterprise Experience" is fun.

3. Participants will probably express doubts and confusion; how can they start a real business in this training situation, where will they raise capital, what will happen if they fail, who will buy their products, what kind of business will it be, and so on.

Stress the following points:

· The participants will have to generate their own ideas for businesses. In previous courses, trainees have organised taxi services, run a laundry, provided photographic processing, typing, baby sitting, consultancy, theatre, and so on.

· Trainees have successfully participated in this experience all over the world, it can be done.

· Participants may conduct their businesses individually or in groups.

· The training institution will offer banking service, providing loans up to K 300 for each enterprise, on the basis of persuasive, well-presented proposals. Interest will be charged at one percent per day.

· Participants will be expected to give the bank some collateral, such as a watch, some books, clothing or other items which could if necessary be sold to repay the loan in the event that they do not repay, for whatever reason.

· Any profits earned will belong to the participants; if they cannot repay their loans, they will have to do so from their own pockets, or to forfeit the security, or it will have to be sold and the proceeds used to repay the loan, with any balance only being given back to the borrower.

· In addition to the profits, which will be theirs to keep, the training institution is offering a prize to the owner(s) of the business which achieves the highest net profit per owner, and a prize for the best kept business books. If suitable, a third prize can be given to the most friendly business or the one with the most unusual business idea, or the one with the best promotion strategy. The winners of such additional prize(s) should be selected by the participants themselves through secret votes.

4. Uncover the board or flipchart with the eight steps of the "Enterprise Experience", read them and ask participants to write them down; make sure that they also note dates and times:

a. Generate an idea and decide whether you will work alone or with others; if the latter, make up your team.

b. Present your idea to the group

c. Study the market, identify suppliers, and so on. Prepare your proposal indicating how the business will proceed, and decide whether you need a loan or not

d. Present proposal to the group, and to the bank if you want a loan

e. Plan and produce the goods or services, and sell them; keeping records as they go

f. Prepare accounts, calculate profit or loss, divide up any profits or losses, repay the bank

g. Present your results to the group and, maybe, win a prize

h. Describe your experience to the group.

5. This evening/weekend participants will have to decide what to do, and whether to do it alone or with others. At the beginning of the next Enterprise Experience session they will have to present their results and hand in a paper which states:

· the name of the proposed enterprise
· the products or services they propose to produce or offer
· who is/are the owner(s).

6. When deciding whether to work alone or with others, participants should consider the following points:

· Personal friendship is not the same as business partnership

· Decision making is easier and quicker when only one person has to make the decisions

· Have you got all the skills you need? Who else does have them?

· Could you work well with her?

· How will you divide the wages and profit/losses if you are working with others?

· If you want to invest your own money, have you enough? If not, could you persuade your proposed partner(s) to share the risks?

· Who will be the boss?

7. Draw a big square divided into 16 smaller squares on the board. Ask participants to say how many squares they see (ask those who know the exercise, to be quiet). Answers may be one, sixteen, twenty or more. There are at least 30 squares!

Ask participants to suggest why some, probably the majority saw only sixteen squares and why others saw more. Most of us are so used to see only the obvious, we limit ourselves. But entrepreneurs have to be creative, have to be able to "look beyond the horizon" if they want to be successful.

8. Ask participants to list all goods and services they would like to be able to obtain on the premises of the training institution and/or their hotel/students residence/guesthouse. List all suggestions on the board, add your own ideas if necessary. Initiate a discussion about the possibilities of making or providing the listed goods and services. This discussion may help them to generate ideas for their own Enterprise Experience businesses.

9. Remind participants at the end of the session that they must have their business and personnel decisions ready for the next Enterprise Experience session.

HANDOUT 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE ENTERPRISE EXPERIENCE

The best way of learning something is TO DO IT. During the first weeks of this course you are therefore asked to start a little business, raise finance, produce and sell goods or services, repay any money you have borrowed and retain any remaining profit.

The Enterprise Experience will be accompanied step by step by sessions about the different aspects of running a business: How to find out about your potential market, how to promote your business, how to prepare a cash flow forecast, how and which business records to keep, how to prepare a business plan and the like.

The Enterprise Experience comprises the following eight steps:

1. Generate a business idea and decide whether you will work alone or with others; if the latter, make up your team.

2. Present the idea to the group, and get feed-back from your fellow participants about its feasibility.

3. Study the market, identify suppliers; prepare your proposal indicating how the business will proceed; decide whether you need a loan or not.

4. Present the proposal to the group, and to the bank, if you want a loan.

5. Plan and produce the goods or services, and sell them, keeping records as you go.

6. Prepare accounts, calculate profit or loss, repay the bank.

7. Present the results to the group and, maybe, win a prize.

8. Describe your experience to the group.

HANDOUT 2: RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS ALONE OR WITH OTHERS?

When deciding whether to work alone or with others, consider the following points:

· Personal friendship is not the same as business partnership

· Decision making is easier and quicker when only one person is involved

· Have you got all the skills you need? Who else has them? Could you work well with that person(s)?

· How will you divide wages and profit or losses if you are working with others?

· Who will be the boss?

· If you want to invest your own money: do you have enough? If not, could you persuade your proposed partner(s) to share the risks?

HANDOUT 3: "LOOK BEYOND THE HORIZON"

How many squares do you see here? If you count square by square printed here, you will find that there are sixteen (although some participants said that there is only one square!) But if you look carefully, there is much more to find: there are at least 30 squares! For example, the four squares in the upper left corner make one square; or the four squares in the centre; or the nine squares in the lower right corner, and so on.

If you want to be successful in business, you need to be creative, to have better ideas in order to produce new goods or services or to improve your products or services. You will have to "look beyond the horizon".

Women And Business

Objectives:	1. To identify problems women encounter or may encounter when starting a business
	2. To produce a list of recommendations from women already in business for women going into business on how to deal with the problems that have to be faced especially by women
	3. To discourage women from expecting to be treated differently than men in business life
Duration:	60 to 90 minutes

Session Guide:

1. Explain to participants the objectives of this session. Tell them that you are aware that none of them may care about the differences between women and men in business. Special training programmes for female entrepreneurs already in business or going into business are carried out all over the world and there is much discussion whether separate training for women and men is useful or not. Whatever their individual standpoint is regarding training, businesswomen certainly have to deal with some different problems than business-men. Among the participants there may be some who have dealt successfully with such problems for which others have not yet found a solution.

2. Ask participants to write down any problem or difficulty they had or still have going into business. This may cover family life, financial situation, access to training and other areas. Allow five minutes for this task; participants should only write down some key words.

3. Ask each participant for her problems and list them on the board grouping them into the different areas (family, finance, training, and so on)

4. Discuss the listed problem areas: Are they really special female problems? Most, probably many of them are not. At the end of this discussion the list should be reduced to those problems only women will have to face.

Problem areas may include the following:

· who takes care of children, old parents, young brothers/sisters

· maternity (long absence from the business)

· husband is against business

· husband takes money out of cashbox or from bank account without even asking

· husband expects housework not to be neglected but does not help

· women have to stay where the husband works and go with him when he leaves the place

· parents, brothers disagree

· banks or moneylenders refuse to give credit at all, or without the agreement of a male person (father, husband)

· legal status makes it impossible for wives to sign any contract without their husband's agreement

· the social status of women makes it difficult to be accepted as a partner by business-MEN

· women feel guilty, especially about having too little time for their children.

5. Ask those participants whose problems are still "on" to tell how they dealt with them or will deal with them or think they should. Ask others for their opinion. List these recommendations on the board.

The list may include the following suggestions:

· to develop self-confidence

· to initiate a day-care place for children

· to set up an association for business-women of the area to exchange experiences and to have a pressure group for necessary change; or to join an existing association

· to persuade husbands to cooperate in the daily housework

· to develop self-discipline

· to give "quality time" to the children instead of "quantity time"

· to develop and hold good relationships with employees so that they will be loyal in case of maternity, sickness and so on.

Tell participants that this list of recommendations will be used in future courses and will certainly encourage and help other women.

HANDOUT 1: PROBLEMS OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE SMALL-SCALE SECTOR

In addition to the many difficulties small entrepreneurs in general have to face women may be confronted with one or several of the following problems:

· Access to loans (discriminating laws or bank regulations; all property belongs to husband; bankers mistrust women's capabilities)

· Premises (women have to stay where the husband works and go with him when he leaves the place)

· Succession (in some traditional societies the family of the husband will take everything and expell the wife and her children if the husband dies)

· Time management (in addition to running a business most household and family duties have to be done by the woman)

· Sickness of family members (this is one of the most critical of the above mentioned problems of time management)

· Maternity (which means a relatively long absence from the business)

· Feeling guilty (especially about having little time for the children)

· Prejudice from men

· Improper requests from men (when trying to get a licence for example, women have been asked for "special services")

Recommendations

· Develop self-confidence

· Form pressure groups (women entrepreneurs associations and the like)

· Acquire your own premises (make sure they are registered in your name)

· Be cunning

· Persuade your husband to take care of the family as much as you do

· Develop self-discipline

· Give "quality time" to your children

· If you have employees: be the team leader more than the authoritarian boss; communicate with them.

The Enterprise Experience: Report Back

Objective:	As in the Enterprise Experience / Generating the business idea and indentifying the people to do it
Duration:	1 hour

Session Guide:

1. Ask a representative of each proposed enterprise briefly to tell the group the enterprise name, owner(s) and products or services to be offered. Ask each enterprise to hand in the paper with these details. Ensure that there is no impractical double use of resources (but competition is to be encouraged, two discos, two soft drink stands or two hair dressing businesses are fine), any partnerships are real, in the sense that all members have agreed and there are no obvious passengers all participants understand that it is for real; in spite of earlier reminders, some may still believe that it is hypothetical.

2. "Process" the first pan of the experience, by generating discussion related to the idea generation process:

· How did participants generate their ideas?

· Was it inspiration or just hard methodical work?

· Did they "network" by asking others for ideas, or did they rely on their own ideas?

· How could they have improved their use of other people?

· Are their ideas innovative or obvious?

· Are they proposing to do ordinary things, but in a better way, by making them cheaper, more convenient in time or place?

· Are obvious ideas often not better than innovative ones?

· Did they "scan the environment" methodically, to find opportunities?

· Could they apply this in their daily lives, in their own real businesses (by not complaining but by DOING something to help themselves and others, and make money?)

3. Ask questions such as the following to "process" the individual/team decision, and the team selection when that route was chosen:

· Were they able to appraise their own strengths and weaknesses, in order to find out if they needed a partner?

· To those who are going to have individual businesses:

Why is it that they prefer to work alone? Have they ever thought about a business partnership, in the "Enterprise Experience" or in their own real businesses? If not: why not? If yes: which were the obstacles, what made them change their decision?

· To those who have decided to form a partnership: Who were the initiators, how did the followers feel about their invitation?

· (If relevant:) Why did they decide for a partnership in the "Enterprise Experience" but not in their real businesses?

· Do any participants want to change their ideas, and/or partners, after hearing about their colleagues' ideas? If yes: Why? Most businesses are competing for limited purchasing power and time, even if they do not offer the same products/services. If not: Do participants feel confident that their ideas will succeed, in spite of the competition they have now heard about? If so, why? If not, why not? What can they do to improve their chances?

This session should be followed, after a short break, by the Enterprise Experience Proposal Preparation.

The Enterprise Experience: Proposal Preparation

Objectives:	1. To enable participants to identify the usefulness of, and the need for a business plan
	2. To enable participants to prepare a very simple business plan.
Duration:	1 hour

Session Guide:

1. Refer back to the flipchart shown in the first Enterprise Experience session where the different steps of the Enterprise Experience are written down. Warn participants that during the next Enterprise Experience session they will have to present their business proposal or plan. For those who want to apply for a loan: the Bank will be open and the "banker(s)" will attend the session. They are willing to provide loans up to K 300 at an interest rate of one percent per day if the applicant(s) present(s) a convincing business plan and a reasonable security.

2. Ask participants to name reasons for preparing a business plan, besides the above mentioned reason of applying for a loan. Elicit the following suggestions:

· you might want someone else to put money into your business; you should therefore be able to answer questions about your business

· a business plan can serve as a guideline for your business operations;

· it forces you to think through, and plan properly what you intend to do

· it will give you more confidence in your ability to run your business successfully

· it forces you to investigate your potential market, and your possible suppliers

· it provides you with more information to decide how best to operate your business;

· once you have a plan you have set yourself a long-term and several short-term goals.

3. Ask participants to suggest what information they will need to put together a plan for their business; elicit suggestions such as:

· availability of a market for their products
· how to market the products
· sources and costs of material and equipment
· availability of premises
· existence of competition, and their strengths and weaknesses
· need for and how to obtain permission to operate, to sell and so on
· times and places when customers will be in a position to buy

4. Ask participants to suggest what should be included in a simple business plan, in order to have a document which is useful for themselves, and also to persuade the bank to lend money.

Elicit the following:

· a statement of what product or service the business is to provide

· a statement of who the customers are, and why they will buy this product/service

· a statement of the objectives of the business

· a summary of the materials and equipment needed, and their sources and prices

· a brief description of the person(s) involved, and why she/they are likely to succeed in this business

· a calculation of the expected financial results of the business

· a calculation of the finance needed, a statement of where it is proposed to raise it, and a

· demonstration that it can be repaid on schedule.

Write the suggestions on the board: These are the guidelines for the preparation of a simple business plan.

5. Distribute the handout "Guidelines for the Presentation of Your Business Proposals". These guidelines are very similar to the ones developed by them during this session. Tell participants that they will have to prepare a very simple business plan for their proposed Enterprise Experience businesses according to these guidelines. Each business will have to hand in the plan the day before the next Enterprise Experience session, and will have to present it during the next Enterprise Experience session.

Tell participants that this is only a first step in making them familiar with the preparation of a business plan. The difficulties they may have in preparing this first simple plan will enable them to understand further sessions about business plan preparation, and to ask detailed questions.

HANDOUT 1: GUIDELINES FOR THE PRESENTATION OF YOUR ENTERPRISE EXPERIENCE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Your proposal presentation should contain the following information:

· name of the business

· name of the owner/s

· a statement of what product or service the business is to provide

· a statement of who the customers are, and why they will buy this product/service

· a statement of the objectives of the business

· a summary of the materials and equipment needed, and their sources and prices

· a brief description of the person(s) involved, and why she/they are likely to succeed in this business

· a calculation of the expected financial results of the business

· a calculation of the finance needed, a statement of where it is proposed to raise it, and a demonstration that it can be repaid on schedule.

Entrepreneurial Characteristics

Objective:	To enable participants to identify the personal qualities that are at least as important to run a business successfully as business or technical skills are.
Duration:	90 to 120 minutes

Session Guide:

1. Ask participants to suggest why they have come to this course; what have they come to learn?

Elicit suggestions such as: "record keeping skills", "learn how to market my products", "learn how to apply for a loan", and so on.

Ask participants whether business success can be guaranteed so long as the business woman has all these types of skills. Is there some other ability that is required?

Ask participants whether education, which is largely concerned with acquiring skills, is essential for success in running a business; are people with Ph. B. degrees or masters degrees usually the ones who make the most money by running their own businesses?

Participants should appreciate that higher education is not a guarantee of business success, and highly educated people do not usually go into business for themselves, either because they do not have to or because they do not want to; they become university professors, managers of large departments or possibly Ministers, which are probably less important occupations for economic development than people who create wealth and employment by running their own businesses.

2. Ask for examples of very successful people, even millionaires, who are illiterate; there are many such people and they can obviously not keep records or write loan applications. What have they got, that many very well trained or educated people apparently have not got, that enables them to be so successful?

3. Clearly there are other qualities that are at least as important, and possibly more important, than business or technical skills. The objective of this session is to identify these qualities; during the rest of the course participants will be focussing attention on them, so that they can enhance their own abilities as well as learning the skills which are required.

Some people say that these qualities can be developed, or at least improved, by training, while others say that people are born with them, or that they are acquired during childhood; it is certainly true, however, that one can gain by finding out whether or not one has these characteristics, so that one can try to develop those one does not have, or at least recognize one's own strengths and weaknesses.

4. Ask participants individually to think of one particular very successful business owner whom they know personally, and then to write down ONE adjective that best describes the sort of person she or he is. Allow up to five minutes for this, and then ask for suggestions and list them on the board; do not write down different words that mean more or less the same thing, but put "ticks" beside the word that is already written to show how many participants suggested it.

5. Divide the group into pairs; ask them to find out each other's age and then tell the younger member of each pair briefly to describe what she actually did on some occasions when she achieved something important to her in her business; the older should listen carefully, and then write down ONE adjective or phrase that best describe the way she behaved; then the older member of each pair should similarly describe something she did in her business, and the younger should write down whatever adjective or phrase she thinks best describes it. Ask participants to read out what they have written; add the words or phrases to the list already on the board, again avoiding duplication but showing how many times each word or general concept is suggested.

6. Discuss the resulting list; eliminate words that appear not to relate to business behaviour as such, and stress that entrepreneurs are not necessarily pleasant people, or honest people, or people who are very good at working in large organisations; avoid the impression that an entrepreneur is a perfect woman; she is a particular type of person, who is good at starring and running her own business, but may be quite bad at many other things which are equally necessary for society.

7. Write up or display a previously prepared list of the seventeen common types of entrepreneurial behaviour, as listed in the check list for the entrepreneurial role model session which follows, and encourage discussion as to whether this list is or is not basically similar to the one the class itself has developed, by describing each other's behaviour and that of entrepreneurs they know.

If the list developed in the session includes characteristics which are significantly different from those in the list of seventeen, and all participants are agreed that they are important, amend the list for the subsequent sessions; if there are some of the seventeen which participants themselves have not come up with earlier in the session, discuss whether they are relevant or not; if the group feel strongly that these characteristics are not relevant, in their situation, exclude them since participants must feel that the list they use in subsequent sessions is theirs.

8. If time allows, distribute a copy of the amended list and ask participants to rate themselves, honestly, as to whether or not they behave in that way; alternatively, warn them that they will have to rate themselves for the forthcoming counselling periods.

If possible, this session should be followed immediately by a session with an entrepreneurial role model, as described in the following session guide.

HANDOUT 1: ENTREPRENEURIAL CHARACTERISTICS

There are certain personal qualities that are at least as important and possibly more important than business or technical skills. Research indicates that a successful entrepreneur behaves in the following way:

· she is persistent
· she grasps an opportunity
· she makes a problem into an opportunity
· she takes a moderate and informed risk
· she makes an effort to obtain information
· she tries to make something more efficient
· she strives to improve quality
· she persuades others to do what she wants
· she uses networks to influence someone
· she tries her best to keep a promise
· she sets goals for herself
· she plans ahead, and monitors the results
· she rebounds from a failure
· she invests for tomorrow rather than spending today
· she is un-concerned about what others think of her
· she is enthusiastic
· she is self-confident

Some people say these qualities can be developed, or at least improved, by training, while others say that people are born with them, or that they are acquired during early childhood; it is certainly true, however, that you can gain by finding out whether or not you have these characteristics, so that you can try to develop those you do not have, or at least recognise your own strengths and weaknesses.

Entrepreneurial Role Model

Objectives:	1. To enable participants to meet and objectively appraise a woman who has succeeded in business
	2. To enable participants to identify entrepreneurial characteristics.
Duration:	approx. 2 hours

Session Guide:

1. This session is not intended to show participants what they ought to be, but to give them an opportunity to meet and objectively to appraise a woman who has succeeded in business, and in particular to compare this women with the entrepreneurial characteristics previously identified.

The business woman need not be dramatically successful although she should be at least as substantial a business person as the most successful of the participants. What is most important is that she should be articulate and willing to talk honestly and openly about her experiences, without idealising herself and saying what she thinks people think about her, as opposed to describing what she actually did.

2. Discuss the session well in advance with the guest, and tell her that she will neither be expected nor wanted to give a polished presentation of any kind. All you want is for her to talk freely about certain incidents in her business career, so that the participants can learn from what she has done.

3. Before the session, make sure that every participant has a copy of the entrepreneurial check list; explain that you will be asking the guest to describe certain experiences she has had, and participants will be expected to put a tick against the appropriate characteristic whenever they consider that the guest's description of her behaviour shows that she displayed that characteristic.

4. After introducing the guest, who may of course be already known to some of the participants, ask her to tell the group about an occasion when she solved a particularly difficult problem; ensure that she focuses on what she DID, rather than on what she thought about or thought that other people thought of her.

It may not be necessary to interrupt at all, other than to bring the story to a close; it may on the other hand, be necessary to steer the story on the right track, and to help the guest to recall what actually happened.

5. Depending on how long this story takes to tell, you may then ask her to describe other occasions, such as:

· when she felt she failed to do something she wanted to do
· when she felt particularly pleased with what she had done
· a particularly important milestone in her business
· when she took a risky decision
· when she had to get help from others.

The nature of the occasion is less important than the fact that the guest can talk about it clearly and openly; ensure throughout that the participants are remembering to mark their check lists, as well as paying attention to the speaker.

6. A more structured approach is to ask the guest to describe her business career from the beginning, going into particular detail when the situation was particularly difficult, and stopping at major decision points; at these points, ask participants to say what they would have done, and then ask the guest to comment on their suggestions, and to compare them with what she actually did.

This must not be allowed to distract the participants from their task of marking the guest for her display of the entrepreneurial characteristics.

7. About thirty minutes before the end of the session, draw the guest's stories to an end, and invite participants to ask questions, relating to what the guest has been saying, or to their own business problems and opportunities.

8. After the guest has left, possibly the next day, "process" the session by asking participants to say how many times they have checked each characteristic, and to recall what particular event seemed to illustrate the characteristics.

If one or more of the characteristics appears not to have been exemplified, discuss possible reasons why this may be so; does this represent a weakness in the guest's entrepreneurship, has she displayed it in other ways, or is its absence compensated by other particularly strong characteristics?

Ask participants to compare their own behaviour in similar situations; would they have behaved differently or in the same way? Would the result have been more or less successful?

HANDOUT 1: ENTREPRENEURIAL CHECK LIST

Put a tick against the appropriate characteristic whenever you consider that the guest's description of her behaviour shows that she displayed that characteristic.

She is persistent	-- -- -- -- --
She grasps an opportunity	-- -- -- -- --
She makes a problem into an opportunity	-- -- -- -- --
She takes a moderate and informed risk	-- -- -- -- --
She makes an effort to obtain information	-- -- -- -- --
She tries to make something more efficient	-- -- -- -- --
She strives to improve quality	-- -- -- -- --
She persuades someone to do what she wants	-- -- -- -- --
She uses networks to influence someone	-- -- -- -- --
She tries her best to keep a promise	-- -- -- -- --
She sets a goal for herself	-- -- -- -- --
She plans ahead, and monitors the results	-- -- -- -- --
She rebounds from a failure	-- -- -- -- --
She invests for tomorrow rather than spending today	-- -- -- -- --
She is un-concerned about what others think of her	-- -- -- -- --
She is enthusiastic	-- -- -- -- --
She is self-confident	-- -- -- -- --