L2: The Changing Role of Entrepreneurs

Revision and practice on how the role of entrepreneurs changes as a business grows.

Key vocabulary: Entrepreneur, Delegation, Strategy

Key Concepts

Introduction to Theory: Key Terms

Entrepreneur	An individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards.
Delegation	The assignment of authority to another person to carry out specific activities. The person delegating remains accountable for the outcome.
Strategy	The long-term plan that sets out how a business will achieve its objectives.

The Role of the Entrepreneur: In the Beginning

In the beginning, the entrepreneur is the business. They are often completely hands-on and involved in every aspect of the business. Sometimes the entrepreneur is the only person working in the business!

Case Study: 'Stacey's Sweets' — When Stacey starts her online sweet shop, she does it all: she designs the website, buys the sweets from the wholesaler, packs the orders, takes them to the post office, and does her own marketing on TikTok. She is the ultimate 'doer'.

Pressure as the Business Grows

As a business grows successfully, it usually becomes impossible for one person to continue doing everything.

'Stacey's Sweets': Stacey's TikTok goes viral. Suddenly, she has dozens, and then hundreds of orders a week. She can no longer pack all the orders herself, answer all the customer emails and DMs, and manage the stock. She is overwhelmed. If she doesn't change her role, the business will fail — she will be unable to fulfil orders, and customer service will collapse.

Moving from 'doing' to 'leading'

To allow the business to grow, the entrepreneur must transition from being a hands-on 'doer' to being a strategic 'leader'. This involves three key changes:

Delegation: Stacey must hire staff and delegate tasks to them (e.g. hire someone to pack orders and someone to manage social media).
Management: She now must manage people, set them targets, monitor their performance, and motivate them. Many entrepreneurs find this tough.
Strategy: She must step back from day-to-day operations to focus on the bigger picture — where is the business going next? Should she open a physical shop? Should she launch a new product line?

The Challenge of 'Letting Go'

This transition can be very difficult for many entrepreneurs.

Loss of Control: The business is their 'baby', and they can find it very hard to trust others to do tasks as well as they can.
Lack of Management Skills: Being a great entrepreneur (a 'doer') is not the same as being an effective manager of people — they may need to learn new skills.
Fear of Being Less Involved: The entrepreneur is often passionate about the hands-on work and can struggle to step back into a more strategic role.

Real-World Case Studies

Deliveroo — Will Shu (from rider to CEO of a global company)

Will Shu co-founded Deliveroo in 2013 and was famously its first delivery rider, personally learning the operational challenges of the business. As Deliveroo grew into a multinational company — taken over by DoorDash in October 2025 — Shu's role shifted to leading a full executive team, including a Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Officer. This mirrors the lesson's "doer to leader" transition, just at a much larger scale than Stacey's Sweets.

Source: verified via search, September 2026 — Deliveroo company history and leadership structure.

BrewDog — James Watt and Martin Dickie stepping back

James Watt and Martin Dickie founded BrewDog in a shed in Fraserburgh, Scotland, in 2007, doing the brewing and running the business themselves. As BrewDog grew into a large international brewer, both founders eventually stepped back from day-to-day leadership roles — Watt stepped down as CEO in 2024, and Dickie left the business in 2025 — handing operational control to a professional leadership team, illustrating how the founder's role can change dramatically as a company matures.

Source: verified via search, September 2026 — BrewDog company history.

Quick Knowledge Check

Short, snappy recall questions — tap to reveal the answer.

What is delegation? (1 mark)

Assigning authority to another person to carry out specific activities, while remaining accountable for the outcome.

What is strategy? (1 mark)

The long-term plan that sets out how a business will achieve its objectives.

As a business grows, what must the entrepreneur shift from being to being? (1 mark)

From a hands-on 'doer' to a strategic 'leader'.

State one reason 'letting go' can be difficult for an entrepreneur. (1 mark)

Any one of: loss of control, lack of management skills.

Sort It: Doing vs Leading

From the lesson's own "Leading Vs Doing" task — tap a task below, then tap the bucket it belongs in.

🔨 Doing

🧭 Leading

0 of 6 sorted

Key Term Flashcards

0 known · 0 still learning

Tap a card to flip it, then rate yourself.

Delegation

Assigning authority to another person to carry out tasks, while remaining accountable for the outcome.

Strategy

The long-term plan that sets out how a business will achieve its objectives.

"Doer" to "Leader"

The shift from hands-on tasks to strategic leadership as a business grows.

Loss of control

A key challenge of delegation — struggling to trust others with tasks the founder used to do themselves.

A*/A Stretch

Synoptic link

Connecting to human resources: An entrepreneur's transition from "doer" to "leader" links directly to leadership styles (covered later in Unit 3.2). A founder who struggles to delegate may default to an autocratic style out of habit, even when the business has grown large enough to need a more democratic or laissez-faire approach from its wider management team.

Examiner's eye

Don't just state "the entrepreneur needs to delegate" as if it's automatic — strong answers explain the specific barrier to delegation (e.g. loss of control, lack of management skill) and link it to a consequence for the business (e.g. bottlenecks, poor decision-making at scale).

Try This With AI

Before using this: AI tools can get facts or mark scheme details wrong, and quality varies by tool. Always check anything factual against your notes or ask your teacher.

Give me a short business scenario about a founder struggling to let go of control as their company grows. Then ask me to identify the risks of NOT delegating, and mark my answer against what a strong AQA A-Level Business response would include.