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Entrepreneurship requires continued investment of time to build a successful venture. But how might we predict the amount of time an entrepreneur will invest in their venture? This research proposes that prior time invested, in conjunction with business plan usage and opportunity confidence, helps answer this question. Using data from a panel study of entrepreneurs in Australia, results show that most nascent entrepreneurs, on average, increased the time they invested in their ventures over the course of the study. However, the combination of actively using a business plan with high and moderate levels of venture confidence resulted in a decrease of time investment, as opposed to an increase when venture confidence was low. This may suggest that when supplemented by a business plan, the fear of failure motivates entrepreneurs to work harder towards achieving a goal, even when the perceived possibility of success is lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurs often submit crude business plans to potential investors and are frequently disappointed when the investor decides that the new venture is not yet 'investment ready'. This paper examines the nature of investor readiness and the differing perceptions of investor readiness by entrepreneurs relative to venture capitalists in Australia. It is found that when the assessments of each investor readiness dimension are combined they are related to the venture capitalists' intuitive (gut) assessments; that new ventures are perceived to be more marketing and management ready than technology ready; and investors and entrepreneurs differ in their perception of readiness (technology, market, management and overall). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]