‘Great Expectations’ – a performance in 3 acts

Setting

Early 21^st Century – in the creative sector.

 

Cast of characters

Seven creative NAGRENTs (nascent graduate entrepreneurs) who are trying to start a business soon after graduating.

 

What are the three acts?

·         Act 1: Retrospective. The first act is a retrospective of their life before graduation, in which they have developed skills, experience and attitudes that may help them in their business quest.

·         Act 2: Zig-zag. The second act is their first year or two in business, in which they explore options and find out whether they are entrepreneurial enough to succeed.

·         Act 3. A career? In the third act they try to use their learning from the previous acts to establish themselves in a career – business, employment, or whatever – as their personal life matures and the need to make a living becomes a priority.

Who are they?

·         There are 5 males and 2 females; 5 whites and 2 non-whites.

·         They are from various parts of England, and were all born and mainly educated in England.

·         All attended University in the North-East

·         They all did creative first degrees and 3 followed on with creative masters degrees.

·         They were all 26 or under at the start of the research.

What business experience do they have?

·         5 have had some employment experience, but not all in the creative sector.

·         None have tried to start a business before.

·         2 have parents in business.

·         1 has a sibling in business.

Do they have the potential to succeed?

·         2 had attended my ‘Enterprise’ workshop series at Teesside University, and the others were on my start-up workshops as part of their DigitalCity Fellowship. This is how I found them and it was the indication of their commitment to business start-up that I needed in order to take them on.

·         All have been identified as ‘having potential’ and/or were committed to setting up a growth business. No ‘starving artists’, at least not by intention.

When does the performance start?

It has already been under way for 2 years. Nobody has reached the third act yet, but 2 of them are approaching it. In future blogs I will write about snippets of their performances.

Next week’s blog
Next week I will talk about one of the papers that originally inspired my PhD subject:  David Rae (2004) Entrepreneurial Learning: a Practical Model from the Creative Industries.