Amos as an Entrepreneur - Case Study Example

Entrepreneurial Motivation Characteristics Entrepreneurial Motivation Characteristics Introduction Amos is an entrepreneur who wants to venture in a dairy farm despite of the limited local resources. The business will be a start up; it is also a sole proprietorship business. The reason he wants it a sole proprietorship is because it needs few requirements to set up a business marker and does not need to share profits made by the business to anyone. The firm falls under the products of milk, which will be used to produce milk products such as butter and ghee. The objective of the business is to win more customers to realize the permanent objectives of the enterprise. According to Amos, the objective can be achieved by ensuring and maintaining high-level sales through producing best quality milk products to his customers (Carsrud & BräNnback, 2007). In order to assist Amos, there is a need to understand the meaning of an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and an enterprise. Entrepreneur is any individual willing to create a small business. He should be a calculated risk taker in that he should work hard to maximize their business returns and minimize risk. Moreover, an entrepreneur should be able to recognize opportunities as they come by and be able to create services and goods in order to take advantage of the opportunity before competitors can do so. An entrepreneur can create new products or services, improve on the existing products and services. In addition, he can look for a new way to market the existing services and products (Aulet, 2013). On the contrary, entrepreneurship involves taking advantage of the opportunity and pursuing it regardless of the currently available resources. In addition, entrepreneurship can also be defined as starting a business from scratch probably from the conception idea to managing the business for the long term. In addition, entrepreneurship can be divided into seven different concepts. Firstly, it can be seen as a small business management. It is a structural approach which is strictly linked to firms that qualify as small businesses and excludes the large established businesses (Shane, 2003). The other concept is that it is seen as imagination or creativity. When entrepreneurship is defined by psychological a personal characteristics such as creativity and imagination, it then becomes a special activity that some people are well equipped to perform. Entrepreneurship can also be seen as an innovation. In this concept, it is only demonstrated in the firm, when it introduces new strategies, new products, and processes. In addition, entrepreneurship can also be defined as alertness to opportunities. According to this conception, an entrepreneur only needs to focus on profit opportunities. He does not need to own assets, because he is just exercising privileged knowledge he is not facing any uncertainty nor bearing any risk (Spinosa, Flores & Dreyfus, 1997). It can also be defined as the ability to adjust. The definition assumes that the innovation is taking place in the economy and therefore it is the ability to relocate resources in response to the changing circumstances. Entrepreneurship can also be seen as a charismatic leadership. It is the ability to form a plan, a number of rules, vision and impose it on others. It is defined as making a judgmental decision under uncertainty conditions. In this concept, the entrepreneur is a creative and an active agent. He does not identify opportunities that he is aware of, but he creates new opportunities using his judgment. Making decisions under uncertainty is the qualifying function of entrepreneurship; it does not matter if it involves creativity, imagination and leadership or not (Fayolle, 2007). It is imperative to know what an enterprise is. An activity produces goods and services with the aim of making profit. There are two types of enterprises, namely; business and social enterprise. For the sake of Amos, it is wise to focus on the business enterprise. The business enterprise is run to make profits for a group of people or private individuals. Many enterprises are small businesses owned by a single person or owned by a family. Therefore, for small business to earn income it should run for a profit (Smilor & Sexton, 1996). Entrepreneurship has a lot of importance in the economy. It brings more economic growth by production of value; it also facilitates the usage of factors of production. It also leads to the creation of employment opportunities and spreading economic activities to the various sectors of the economy. Entrepreneurship also enables the identification of new growth methods, improvement of slow growing areas of the society and advancement of the living standards of various sections of the society. Moreover, it creates a culture of business improvement, expands industrial activities, contributes to national income, and leads to controlling of the available resources. It also leads to balanced regional development, economic independence, promotes capital formation, and reduces the concentration of economic power. Above all, entrepreneurship facilitates the overall development of the country (Kuratko, 2014). In order to understand entrepreneurship, it is also important to be equipped with the entrepreneurial traits and motivations. For an entrepreneur like Amos to succeed he needs to poses certain personal traits. The traits include he should have control a sense of and be enthusiastic. In addition, an entrepreneur should be trusting, innovative. Also he should be hardworking, responsible, ambitious, eager to learn, competitive, persuasive, target oriented, perseverance, open minded, able to recognize an opportunity, be an extrovert and materialistic. There are also certain needs and motives that can guarantee an entrepreneur success. Some of the motives include; demand in the market, unemployment, dissatisfaction with the current job, better income, good use of expertise, need for improved social status. In addition, there is also a curiosity, need for being independent, desire for knowledge, financial security for the family, need for achievement being passionate (Kuratko, 2014). In understanding entrepreneurship, it is also important to know the roles of an entrepreneur. Firstly, the entrepreneur needs to be the chief customer officer. He needs to create a good customer experience strategy and then execute it. Secondly, he needs to be the chief financial officer. Everyone in the business would like to get rid of the accounting, tax and the bookkeeping. In reality, this is the most important functions of your business and the figures do indicate the far you have come from. Therefore, it is important to be the one to keep a record of your finances. Thirdly, an entrepreneur needs to be the chief people officer. It is a leadership role even if there are no employees to look after. Therefore, you need to look after yourself, and it can lead to working all hours of the day and night. Fourthly, he needs to be the chief executive officer spending time looking at the bigger picture. He should have a vision and a vivid plan concerning the future of his/her business. Finally, an entrepreneur needs to be the chief innovative officer. It is critical for the long-term sustainability and success of the business. Forstayrelevantandthetopthegameheneedschallengethestatus. An entrepreneur should beveandsearch to (Smilor & Sexton, 1996). In addition, an entrepreneur should posses certain skills. He should have good communication skills. An entreprenure should maintain proper communication with the customers through the phone and email. If you do have employees, it is also goo to maintain communication between them since poor communication skills lead to reduced productivity. The other entrepreneurial skill is branding. Whether you are struggling to establish yourself as an expert in the industry, being able to do so online can lead to success of the business. The other skill is sales. It is wise as an entrepreneur to be involved in sales even if you have a sales team. Moreover, strategy is another skill. An entreprenure should have a big picture about the goals and long-term challenges of the business. Without a proper strategy, it will be hard to remain competitive in the market. Finally, the other skill is finance. It is wise to understand the finances, cash flow, profit margins and funding of your business.An entreprenure has the role of knowing about the costs, find ways to grow revenue and optimize efficiency (Shane, 2003). Conclusion In conclusion, in summing up all the definitions and understanding of entrepreneurship it can be generally defined below. Entrepreneurship is the starting of a business from scratch and taking advantage of the opportunity, applying all the necessary required skills and pursuing it regardless of the currently available resources. Amos fits this definition because he wants to venture in a dairy firm business which will be a start up business. In addition, he fits the definition because Amos is taking advantage of the opportunity. The opportunity is that he needs few requirements to run a sole proprietorship business and does not need to share profits generated from the business with anyone. Finally, he fits the definition since despite the fact that there are limited local resources he still goes ahead with his dream of venturing into the business (Shane, 2003). Reference List Carsrud, A. L., & BräNnback, M. E. (2007). Entrepreneurship. Westport, Conn. [u.a.], Greenwood Press. Aulet, B. (2013). Disciplined entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful start up.Retrieved:AN=622788. Shane, S. (2003). A general theory of entrepreneurship the individual-opportunity nexus. Cheltenham, UK, E. Elgar. Spinosa, C., flores, F., & dreyfus, H. L. (1997). Disclosing new worlds: entrepreneurship, democratic action, and the cultivation of solidarity. Cambridge, MA ; London, MIT Press. Fayolle, A. (2007). Handbook of research in entrepreneurship education. Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar.Retrieved:. Smilor, R. W., & Sexton, D. L. (1996). Leadership and entrepreneurship: personal and organizational development in entrepreneurial ventures. Westport (Conn.), Quorum. Kuratko, D. F. (2014). Entrepreneurship: theory, process, practice. Mason, Ohio, South-Western Cengage learning. Read More