Syllabus: Pearson Edexcel AS Business
Module: Entrepreneurs and Leaders
Lesson: 1.5.6 Moving from Entrepreneur to Leader

Introduction

This article supports teachers, SLT, careers leads and headteachers in delivering and embedding 1.5.6 of the Pearson Edexcel AS Business specification: Moving from Entrepreneur to Leader. The topic sits within Theme 1 – Marketing and People – and explores the pivotal transition business founders must undergo when scaling a business beyond the start-up phase.

It’s a topic that blends behavioural insight with organisational theory and is ideally placed to stretch students’ ability to analyse real-world business journeys. Done well, this lesson can also bring rich discussion around leadership styles, delegation, and personal growth – areas with direct relevance to employability and enterprise education.

Key Concepts

According to the Edexcel AS Business specification, students need to understand:

• The differences between an entrepreneur and a leader in terms of mindset, responsibilities, and required skills.

• The challenges entrepreneurs face when becoming leaders, including:

  • Adapting from ‘doing’ to ‘directing’

  • Letting go of control and learning to delegate

  • Managing teams and communication effectively

  • Formalising structures, processes, and strategy

• The role of leadership in business growth, including the need for vision, mission, and strategic planning.

• The importance of emotional intelligence, resilience and adaptability in making this transition.

This concept links closely with earlier syllabus topics such as leadership styles (1.4) and characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (1.5.1–1.5.5), forming a natural progression in student understanding.

Real-World Relevance

Plenty of start-ups falter not because of poor products but because the founder struggles to evolve. Think of Innocent Drinks’ transition when founders passed leadership to Coca-Cola. Or Ben Francis at Gymshark, who consciously stepped back as CEO before returning better equipped to lead at scale.

These case studies show the emotional and strategic pivot needed to transition from the reactive energy of early-stage entrepreneurship to the structured decision-making of leadership.

Locally, many students will know someone who has started a small business. Framing the lesson through questions like “What would they need to do differently if they hired five staff tomorrow?” makes it instantly relatable.

How It’s Assessed

Students can expect this topic to appear in Section B or C of Paper 1 (Marketing and People), often via:

• Short-answer application questions (e.g. “Explain one challenge an entrepreneur might face when becoming a leader.”)

• Data response case studies (e.g. analysing a founder’s journey from start-up to established firm)

• 10 or 12 mark questions requiring balanced arguments and conclusions (e.g. “Assess the extent to which the success of a business depends on the founder’s ability to become an effective leader.”)

Key command words to prioritise include:

• Explain – require logical chains of reasoning

• Analyse – look for application of theory to context

• Evaluate – weigh up competing factors and justify a judgement

Students must practise structuring extended responses clearly using PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explain, Link) and be confident applying theory to unfamiliar contexts.

Enterprise Skills Integration

This topic is a goldmine for embedding enterprise skills. In particular:

• Problem-solving – navigating the changing demands of business growth

• Decision-making – choosing when to delegate or formalise processes

• Adaptability – responding to the new role of leading rather than doing

• Emotional intelligence – understanding self and others to manage change effectively

It pairs well with tools like Pitch Deck Analyser or MarketScope AI for classroom activities that simulate growth decisions or leadership dilemmas.

Careers Links

The transition from entrepreneur to leader mirrors career progression in most sectors – from technician to team leader, from doer to delegator. That opens up strong Gatsby Benchmark opportunities:

• Benchmark 4 (Linking curriculum learning to careers): This lesson connects directly to leadership development pathways in business, management, digital start-ups, and more.

• Benchmark 5 (Encounters with employers): Invite local entrepreneurs or scale-up leaders to share their leadership journeys.

Relevant roles that benefit from this learning:

• Start-up founders

• Operations or project managers

• Team leads in SME contexts

• Self-employed professionals aiming to grow their practice

Teaching Notes

Common pitfalls:

• Students often conflate “entrepreneur” and “leader” without distinguishing mindset or skillset.

• They may view the topic as abstract unless tied to specific, relatable examples.

Teaching tips:

• Start with a founder story or case study and track their growth.

• Use a role-play or scenario-based task where students act as business owners facing a decision to hire, delegate or restructure.

• Map leadership challenges against business lifecycle stages.

Extension ideas:

• Compare leadership styles using 1.4.1–1.4.4 content.

• Debate: “Not every entrepreneur makes a good leader” – agree or disagree?

• Group task: simulate a board meeting where students argue for or against bringing in external management.