Definitions of entrepreneurial ecosystems can include the suppliers, customers and others that any particular firm in that ecosystem directly interacts with as well as other individuals, firms, and organizations that the firm might not directly interact with, but that play a role in shaping the ecosystem.

Individual competencies are the combination of learnable behaviors that encompass attitudes (wanting to do), skills (how to do), knowledge (what to do), practical experiences (proven learning), and natural talents of a person in order to effectively accomplish an explicit goal within a specific context.

While entrepreneurs must always strive to establish competitive performance advantages, it is particularly important when the potential protection afforded by patents, copyrights, trade secrets, or trademarks is weak. In these cases the best protection is to out-compete rivals with production, pricing, distribution, selling, and other strategies.

In some cases, grants that do not need to be repaid might be provided by government or other agencies to support new venture start-ups. Sometimes entrepreneurs can enter business planning or similar competitions in which they might win money and other benefits, like free office or retail space, or free legal or accounting services for a set period of time.

The business plan development process described next has been extensively tested with entrepreneurship students and has proven to provide the guidance entrepreneurs need to develop a business plan appropriate for their needs; a high power business plan.

According to Osterwalder, et al. (2010), the things we typically teach people in business school are geared to helping people survive in larger, ongoing businesses. What is taught—including organizational structures, reporting lines, managing sales teams, advertising, and similar topics—is not designed to help students understand how a start-up works and how to deal with the volatile nature of new ventures. The Business Model Canvas idea is meant to help us understand start-ups.

Entrepreneurship has existed as long as individuals have specialized in the production of a good or service to exchange with other individuals for products they needed, but did not produce themselves

Opening of a new market Global context: Culture, laws, local buyer preferences, business practices, customs, communication, transportation all set up new distribution channels Example: Honda created a new market for smaller modestly powered motorbikes