BTEC HND Diploma in Business Unit 9 Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Assignment Brief 2026

BTEC Unit 9 Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Assignment

Introduction

Aim

This unit provides students with an understanding of the definition and scope of entrepreneurship and an understanding of the enablers and barriers to business start-up.

Students will learn about the influence of national culture and economy on entrepreneurship and will explore the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs and the impact of personal situation factors, including education and background.

Students will also learn about the role and importance of small firms to the economy, and about social enterprise and the social economy. Students will also be expected to understand the balance of risk and reward in starting a new venture, and they will investigate and reflect on their own entrepreneurial and enterprising characteristics. Examples of entrepreneurs and start-up organisations will be discussed, and students will be expected to draw on local, personal and general knowledge together with their learning to be able to identify the characteristics of entrepreneurial ventures.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, a learner will:

• Explore and illustrate the range of venture types that might be considered entrepreneurial.
• Assess the impact of small businesses on the economy.
• Determine and assess the key aspects of an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Examine the different environments that foster or hinder entrepreneurship.

Submission Format

The submission is in the form of a report. You are required to make effective use of headings, bullet points and subsections as appropriate. You are required to provide a reference list using the Harvard referencing system and provide citations throughout the report using the same referencing system. The recommended word limit is between 2000 and 2500 words for each part, although you will not be penalised for exceeding the total word limit.

Assignment Brief and Guidance For Part A

Scenario and activity:

You are currently employed as a Junior Business Executive for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a UK Government Department that helps people to work and for businesses to invest, innovate and grow. In preparation for an upcoming seminar organised by the Department to help businesses in times of Brexit uncertainties, you have been tasked by your manager to investigate different types of entrepreneurial ventures and their impact on the economy.

Your line manager has asked you to produce a report that will be distributed to attendees at the end of the seminar. In writing this report, ensure that you provide your own list of UK Small and Medium Enterprises as examples of organisations that attended the seminar at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The report should cover the following:

• A critical examination of various types of entrepreneurial ventures together with their scope, development, growth and their relationship with the typology of entrepreneurship. In this section, the report should also discuss similarities and differences between entrepreneurial ventures. Ensure you have sufficiently explored entrepreneurial ventures within both the public and corporate sectors.
• Using suitable data and statistics, critically evaluate the impact of micro, start-up, small, medium and large businesses on the local, regional and national level of the economy. Expand your evaluation further to include an international context for the above. Then, comment on the growth of the social economy and the importance of small businesses and startups for the same.

Assignment Brief and Guidance For Part B

Scenario and Activity:

Following the impressive report that you submitted to your line manager from Assignment A, you have been promoted to the role of a Senior Business & Entrepreneurship Executive in the Department. Given your impressive performance at the seminar, one of the organisations that attended the seminar has asked your line manager for consultancy services. In relation to this, your line manager has asked you to prepare a report to cover the following:

• Analyse the characteristic traits, skills and motivational drivers of successful entrepreneurs that reflect their personality, supported by specific examples.
• Critically analyse how background and experience influence entrepreneurs, both positively and negatively, by comparing and contrasting examples.

Note: In writing this section of the report, consider choosing ONE of the organisations that you listed in Part A as the chosen client, provide a brief background information of the organisation

Note: (Students are required to discuss their chosen organisation with their tutor for approval prior to embarking upon compilation of the report)

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

LO1 Explore and illustrate the range of venture types that might be considered entrepreneurial

LO2 Assess the impact of small businesses on the economy

LO3 Determine and assess the key aspects of an entrepreneurial mindset

LO4 Examine the different environments that foster or hinder entrepreneurship

Support Material

Recommended Resources

BURNS, P. (2011) Entrepreneurship and Small Business. 3rd Ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

DOWN, S. (2010) Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Small Business. London: Sage.

CARTER, S. and JONES-EVANS, D. (2012) Enterprise and Small Business: Principles, Practice and Policy. London: Pearson.

GRIFFITHS, A. and WALL, S. (2011) Economics for Business and Management. 3rd Ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Journals

Journal of Small Business Management. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-627X)

Websites

The Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) website: www.isbe.org.uk

Specification of Assessment

Present your work in one business report style, which should include a table of contents, reference list, footnotes or endnotes and appendices if any

Include the reference code of this assignment on your assignment submission front page

Each page must be numbered at the bottom right-hand side.

Ensure the following information is in the footer on every page:

• Your name
• The production date of your submission
• The code number of your assignment brief
• The page number

Spell-check the document and make sure there are no grammatical errors.

Complete all the tasks.

Produce clear, specific reasoning and arguments in support of your answers.

Submit your work in a single Word-processed document of not more than 5000 words for all Learning Outcomes. This word limit is only for guidelines, and is not applied to grading.

You must include a bibliography at the end to show where your information was sourced.

Your sources must be identified using the Harvard referencing system. The words used in your bibliography will not be included in your word count.

Plagiarism and Collusion

Any act of plagiarism and collusion will be seriously dealt with according to the regulations.

‘Plagiarism occurs when a student misrepresents, as his/her own work, the work, written or otherwise, of any other person (including another student) or of any institution. Examples of forms of plagiarism include:

• the verbatim (word-for-word) copying of another’s work without appropriate and correctly presented acknowledgement;
• the close paraphrasing of another’s work by simply changing a few words or altering the order of presentation, without an appropriate and correctly presented acknowledgement;
• unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another’s work;
• The deliberate and detailed presentation of another’s concept as one’s own.

All types of work submitted by students are covered by this definition, including written work, diagrams, designs, engineering drawings and pictures.

‘Collusion occurs when, unless with official approval (e.g. in the case of group projects), two or more students consciously collaborate in the preparation and production of work which is ultimately submitted by each in an identical, or substantially similar, form and/or is represented by each to be the product of his or her individual efforts. Collusion also occurs where there is unauthorised co-operation between a student and another person in the preparation and production of work which is presented as the student’s own.’

(Carroll, J and Appleton, J. (2001) Plagiarism – A Good Practice Guide. Oxford Brookes University/JISC, Oxford)

All work for assessment must be submitted with a Turnitin Report on plagiarism. The Maximum Turnitin score admissible is 15% (after deduction of 1% & 2% records).