Entrepreneur and Personal Skills - Case Study Example

Entrepreneur interview & personal analysis Jim Designs Company is one of fast growing design and sign Company. It started in 2008 with an initial capital $500 from its founder Anthony. The company deals with advert design, vehicle branding and design of stickers. The company has grown very fast over a short period. It achieved this with little additional financing from friends. The company currently has over 80 employees for them starting when it was starting. Interview Background information: Question: What is your business about? Answer: My company deals with designs and adverts for other companies and business. Question: What ignited the spark in you to start a new business? Answer: My vision was to be an employer but not an employee. This steered me to think of what I can start to employ myself. Personal Journey: Question: What inspired you to start this business? Answer: I saw how Coca Cola Company did its advertisements and the frequency. This gave me an idea that companies will never stop advertising. Question: Do you have any family members that are, or were doing business? Do you think that you may have an impact of them? Answer: My father was a businessman. He had a café that was doing very well. He used to tell me that opportunities exist, but exploiters are minimal. This was very motivating. Question: What did you study? What made you choose this course and is it helpful in your entrepreneur journey now? Answer: I did accounts since I had a passion in business. I can attribute my success to the knowledge in accounts. Identity Factors: Question: Do you view yourself as Entrepreneur? What are the qualifications to be one, in your opinion? Answer: Personally I am an entrepreneur. I managed to start my own company which employs people today. Question: What are your ambitions? Answer: They are many but main is making my company one of the best design companies in the world. Question: What are the pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today? Answer: They need to be ambitious, determined, confident, real and problem solvers. They also need to be persistent in their ventures. Question: What are your most significant entrepreneur strengths? Which of them are the most important for you in your opinion? Answer: I am a hardworking, trustworthy, creative and flexible person. The most important strengths are hard work, creativity and trustworthiness. Challenges: Question: Can you tell a situation, when you were faced by a major problem. How did you solve it and what were the results? Answer: I wanted to purchase some equipment, but I had no enough capital. This made me seek loans from my friends and my father to finance the project. I purchased the equipment with the capital. From then I was able to handle big contracts. Question: What are the biggest challenges facing an entrepreneur in this economic climate? Answer: Competition is the biggest challenge in every venture. I see it as a benchmark for creativity which gives me the spirit to keep trying my best. Ability to locate a suitable market is also a major challenge. Future: Question: In two years’ time where do you see yourself? Answer: My wish is to transform my business to great heights and to have ten branches in different locations. Question: What would you do with unlimited resources? Answer: All resources are unlimited; the effort of acquiring them is what matters most. Anthony is the managing director of Jim Designs Company. He is an energetic entrepreneur with a vision to fly high in his business. In this interview, I realized that Anthony is a real entrepreneur. He has outstanding characteristics that keep him sailing in his business. From a humble start with $500, the company is now well founded. Anthony attributes the growth to his own hard work and resilience in the field. His journey has been long and full of challenges. He says it is through hard work that he has achieved who he is today. According to him having a dream, vision, self-belief and tolerance propelled him to where he is today. Introduction Entrepreneurship is the ability of an individual or a group of people who professionally apply knowledge, skills and competencies in monetizing new ideas by setting up an enterprise. This may also involve diversification of an existing venture or idea (Sutherland 2010). All this aims at pursuing growth while generating wealth, social good and employment. An entrepreneurial exercise requires three important features. These are: innovation, risk taking and venturing into a new business with the aim of profit making. To succeed one must be a risk taker in business. These risks involve use of money, personal time, making of new products and venturing in new markets. On taking the risks, there is no guarantee that will be recognizable incentive. For this reason, entrepreneurs must be able to withstand the downfalls and use them as benchmarks in their endeavors. Their success depends on personal motivation, availability of relevant skills and diverse experience. The significance of entrepreneurship lies on the creation of more wealth and innovation of best business practices (Sutherland 2010). In order to achieve the best outcome as an entrepreneur, one needs to research extensively. It is unmistakable that entrepreneurs are agents of change in the society. In a country, entrepreneurs are relied on for the growthof the economy. Rationale Jim designs have grown extensively over the few years after its start. Such growth is a hard thing to achieve in a business venture. This shows that the company has numerous strengths underlying its success. From a humble beginning in a single small office, Jim Designs Company is now a big firm with its own well-built offices. Its growth is a sign of good management and the ability to withstand different challenges. He started with simple design in car branding and designing advert for small businesses. The company now handles bulk orders from major companies all over the country. This shows that there exist good relationship between his company and the clients contributing to the success. Currently, hehas 80 employees as compared to two employees when it was started in 2008. This is a major incentive not only to the business but also to the society. It is clear that the company has met some of the entrepreneurial requirements by creating employment. Evaluation Starting a business requires resources, viable ideas and the spirit of taking risk. Antony knew very well that success in every entrepreneurial adventure does not come easily. He saw it as a battle that only the well adapted can survive. As a risk taker, he knew that only the strong can attempt taking it. From him, it is evident that best entrepreneurs possess common features; they have a vision, tenacity and other characteristics that go all the way to having the ability to take risks. An entrepreneur needs to have a vision. He had the ability to see an opportunity and get an idea others had not seen. His curiosity helped him identify the overlooked niche (Sutherland 2010). Design industry was not flocked thus this was an opportunity since many people needed this service. To him this was an opportunity presenting itself. It gave him the spirit for innovation and need to make the idea functional. After having an idea, he had a clear picture of the direction his business was to take. Antony had set a clear trend of what he wanted his business to be. He made a business plan which helped him in keeping a check on his venture. Self-confidence is a trait that steers many in entrepreneurial world. You have to believe yourself and have the confidence that the venture will give the world what it needs (Sutherland 2010). Antony had to risk his capital to realize the achievements he has today. He knew that by employing the best resources, customers he served would stick to his firm. Tolerance has made Antony, who he is today. At the start, he had no fear of potential failure and the uncertainties. He used to make no or very little profit from the business. This did not make him loose hope. He persevered, a reason that has made him get this far. Some of his peers had started a printing company. After two months of service, they had it closed. Anthony claimed that, lack of tolerance failed them. Were it not for his good managerial skills Jim Designs would not be where it is today. According to Sutherland (2010), every business needs the best skills to keep it alive. He ensured that his had company an efficient bookkeeping system and all the paperwork was well organized. He used the records in the analysis of the undertakings of the company thus able to check the direction he was heading. His ability to handle his employees ensured he had a good relationship with them. A reason he attributes his success to his employees. Time management was and has been his main strength. He believes that many entrepreneurs in the fields similar to his fail due to poor time management. The results of this vice are having tasks unaccomplished something that leaves customers unsatisfied. One of his competitors did not last long in the business. He shared that, clients kept on complaining of unfinished work and the inability to meet deadlines of work. He narrated of how the information was all over, something that made his competitors lose trust from the clients. According to Anthony, time management holds the success of a business. Personal reflection Creativity is very important in every business venture. Anthony knew how creativity helps get a competitive advantage through development of new solutions to clients. He knew that to get a market may have been relatively easy but to prevail, it needed one to be very creative. According to him, customers required variety of distinctive services. To achieve this as an entrepreneur he had to be creative in his brands. Were it not for his creative mind his success would not be seen. His ability to communicate helped him to be in a good relationship with his customers and employees. The way he communicated with his customers was the foundation of his flourish in business. He knew that good communication skills and personal relation with other people would steer his business positively. In this, he made sure that customers are well informed of what to expect in his services. His ability to communicate also helped him in ironing out any conflicts within the business. He knew from the start that, in every venture one needs to have business friends. According to Anthony, these are the people who helped keep the business operational. He shared that were it not for his clean relationship with his clients, he would have seen his downfall. When he needed financial support he had friends who were more than willing to assist. His employees were his greatest friends and took the business as their own. Every step they took was geared towards the targeted goals. It is real that success is for team players. Motivation to be an employer lend to him thinking outside the box. He was real in his dream to get a business he would call his. To achieve the milestone he had to have ideas that were unique and propelling. To him having the idea was not final. He had to work hard to facilitate the idea. According to him, after having the idea, a business plan gave him the go ahead to take the risk. People have plentiful ideas and unlike him they are unwilling to take the risk. For him, he believes that there is no success without trying. Anthony compared himself with his peers who had a printing shop. They failed due to poor time management. Were it not for that they would not have lost the customers’ confidence. To him customers need someone they can rely on every time they want a job done. Discussion Entrepreneurship is a field where only the well-adapted succeed. For one to be successful, entrepreneurial traits must be seen. To achieve business goals a clear vision should exist. This should be accompanied by a well laid out plan of how you want to implement your idea. A plan helps to check the progress of the business (Sutherland 2010). It does not only help check the requirements but also helps in strategizing on the mix in market entry. Realizing the motive of your venture sheds light of the final expectations. It is through self-realization that one can tolerate the challenges in entrepreneurship. It is apparent that one should not fear the possible failure due to the uncertainties in the business. However, the self confidence is essential in eliminating fear of trying. It gives the power to take a risk though it is also necessary to be conservative. Entrepreneurship is full of challenges. First being new in a market poses the greatest challenge as there are other competitors (Sutherland 2010). A business requires extensive marketing to prosper. It must offer something unique from that of the competitors. For this reason, a business should build its reputation based on quality services. Apart from competition getting reliable customers is a major challenge. A good entrepreneur should take customers as the main pillars in business. Conclusion Entrepreneurs are real go-getters. I have realized that the struggle to survive is the rule to succeed in business. Entrepreneurship is a field where only the strong and the forward minded makes it. There are numerous challenges which if not well addressed can lead to the collapse of a business. These challenges require one to be a good decision maker in order to withstand them. I have learnt that a good relationship with customers determines whether one will be in business come tomorrow. Therefore, every entrepreneur should put the interest of his clients in the forefront always. They are the pillars of any successful business and thus they must always be in a close check It’s worth noting that every venture starts with taking a risk. There is no guarantee for success, but one cannot succeed without trying. According to Anthony, the best thing he did was face the risk without fear of failing. It is a tough thing to do which requires self believe and confidence. If he did not work for it, we would not be having his success story today. Reference Sutherland. A. (2010). Entrepreneurs. 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