Entrepreneurship Challenge – Be Your Own Boss
Entrepreneurship Challenge – Be Your Own Boss
Lesson duration is: 30 minIntroduction
Instructions
Items in this lesson
Entrepreneurship Challenge – Be Your Own Boss
Practical business planning and commercial decision-making drive this unit as learners evaluate market opportunities and financial viability. Targeted activities guide students through risk assessment, brand positioning, and enterprise fundamentals without relying on dry theory.
Lesson Aims
Understand what entrepreneurship is.
Explore the skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur.
Work collaboratively to plan a mini-business idea.
Present a business pitch with creativity and confidence.
Lesson aims
If you could invent one product or service to make life easier, what would it be?
What is your favourite invention or service and why?
This activity draws out existing awareness of successful commercial offerings, creating a visual base to analyse what makes specific products and services appealing to target markets.
Stretch: Select one item from the collective responses and explain the specific consumer problem or gap in the market it successfully addressed.
Device-Free: Students write their chosen product or service on mini-whiteboards and hold them up simultaneously to compile a master list on the main board.
What is an Entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is someone who sets up a business, taking on financial risk in the hope of profit.
Anyone can be an entrepreneur!
Establishes core enterprise terminology by connecting risk-taking and financial reward to the fundamental definition of business ownership.
Stretch: Name a well-known founder and evaluate whether the initial financial risk they took was proportional to their ultimate commercial success.
Device-Free: Students pair up to rewrite the core definition in five words or fewer on mini-whiteboards, omitting the word "money".
Match the Entrepreneurs to their Products/Companies
ENTREPRENEUR COMPANY/PRODUCT
ALAN SUGAR___________________________AMSTRAD
ELON MUSK________________________TESLA/SPACEX/X
STEVE JOBS______________________________APPLE
ANNE BODEN________________________STARLING BANK
DAYMOND JOHN____________________FUBU CLOTHING
JULIAN DUNKERTON, JAMES HOLDER_______SUPERDRY JAPAN
KASING LUNG__________________THE MONSTERS (LABUBU)
MARK ZUCKERBERG____________________________META
DANIEL EK AND MARTIN LORENTZON_______________SPOTIFY
MARKUS 'NOTCH' PERSSON_____MINECRAFT (MOJANG STUDIOS)
SOPHIA AMORUSO___________________NASTYGAL AND GIRLBOSS
WHITNEY WOLFE HERD__________________________BUMBLE
Match the Entrepreneur to their Product or Company!
Tests recognition of established founders and their associated ventures to anchor core concepts in real-world enterprise examples.
Stretch: Challenge students to research and identify whether the founder originally invented the flagship product or acquired the company later in its lifecycle.
Device-Free: Call out an entrepreneur's name aloud and have students write the matching business or primary product on their mini-whiteboards.
Which of these entrepreneurial qualities do you have?
Creativity
Risk-taking
Resilience
Leadership
Problem-solving
Multiple
Which of these entrepreneurial qualities do you have?
A poll to generate discussion - anyone who picks multiple should be expected to explain! Spinner added for random choosing of learner to explain!
Gauges self-assessed enterprise strengths across the cohort to highlight dominant personal attributes within the group.
Stretch: Select one chosen attribute and describe a practical situation where displaying that trait led to a successful outcome.
Device-Free: Read out each option in turn and ask students to raise a hand or move to designated corners of the room based on their top selection.
Work in teams to develop a business idea.
In groups, develop a business idea. You have £500 in (imaginary!) start up money.
Design a product/service.
Give it a brand name.
Plan how to sell it.
10
minute
00
second
A fun activity to develop a product or service. You could adjust the time - something like this could be expanded to include logos, slogans mock-ups even!
Pushes small teams to apply core financial and planning principles by allocating a tight startup budget across product development and sales strategies.
Stretch: Justify the exact division of the £500 budget between creation and marketing, explaining how this allocation minimises initial financial risk.
Device-Free: Distribute paper and markers to each group to map out their business concept, brand name, and budget allocation visually.
The Pitch!
Each team has 3 minutes to “pitch” their idea to the class.
10
minute
00
second
A timed pitch exercise!
Frames the presentation phase, requiring teams to deliver concise commercial justifications under real-world time constraints.
Stretch: Challenge listening peers to question one specific financial assumption or target market choice immediately after each pitch.
Device-Free: Groups present directly from physical cue cards while classmates record structured feedback on mini-whiteboards.
Vote for your favourite company/product!
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Which was your favourite product or company?
The class can vote on their favourite!
It's up to you if you offer a prize!
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