How Did I Become An Entrepreneur - Coursework Example

How Did I Bесоmе аn Entrерrеnеur Name: Tutor: Subject: Date: Introduction An entrepreneur is someone who devises a new production methodology to producing goods or service based on the new concept that no one else has ever come up with (Kelley et al., 2012). With the help of existing technological know-how or inventions, an entrepreneur is able to initiate a process that will capitalize the existing raw materials and tools to produce goods and services to the consumer. The goods and services provided by the entrepreneur should be able to add value to te economy of a the region which he/she comes from and also in the long run he/she should benefit in the process. The entrepreneur should take the risk of either success or failure of the new invention in the market and will eventually earn the rewards. Although the fear of failure may be there but the entrepreneur should be able to see his/her business idea succeed in the market. Entrepreneurship is a term used in business environment. It entails money making which is commonly understood by many. Entrepreneurship involves coming up with an idea that no one else has capitalized on it to setup an enterprise. There are many forms of entrepreneurship and the problems encountered by the entrepreneur in making a successful business idea practically achievable (Baum et al., 2014). Skills and attributes of an entrepreneur Like in any other field one should have the right attitude in order to succeed in the business adventure? It is also necessary that one should have skills that will help him/her to succeed in the business adventure as an entrepreneur. However, the entrepreneur can easily acquire skills if he/she is willing to learn them, unlike individual characteristics and attributes which are normally not easy to change and acquire. Although the entrepreneur might not be in a position to acquire the skills likewise he/she can hire people with the necessary skills. The following are the skills which are necessary for each and every entrepreneur to succeed; Interpersonal skills: this is the ability to establish and maintain a good relationship with the business and the customers; this is crucial to the success of the business. If the business is not in a position to maintain positive relationship with the customers, it may fail in many ways to achieve its goals as an entrepreneurs’ business. The entrepreneur should be able to interact with various people from diverse backgrounds, including investors, employees, banks, consultant agencies, lawyers, accountants and most of all the clients or customers. Management skills: The entrepreneur should be able to manage every single factor in the organization. The entrepreneur must ensure that appropriate posts are created in the business and managed by competent individuals. He should also ascertain that the business resources are channeled in the right direction and are used in the most efficient way possible. Although the entrepreneur might not be in a position to manage the business in the most appropriate way he/she should employ experts to handle the job like many entrepreneurs do. Team building skills: In an organization there are many people working together to achieve the objectives and goals of a business. An entrepreneur should be able to put together a team of skilled manpower in order to achieve the common goal of the organization. The entrepreneur should lead the team as an example and to forge an effective coordination between different departments in the organization. Personal effectiveness: Time conscious is a necessary factor that each and every entrepreneur should possess. Personal appearance is also another major factor that facilitates the personal effectiveness of an entrepreneur since the first impression is always very important and goes a long way in enhancing respect between the client and the business. They should also be able to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Ability to plan: This is a key skill for an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur should be able to develop a plan which is able to attain the goals set by the business. the business should be able to plan for the available finances. Also planning for different departments including, marketing, sales, personnel and production is necessary for the business. This is the sole responsibility of the entrepreneur. Marketing skills: good marketing skills shown by the entrepreneur enables the business to reach its intended market and on which its failure results in losses encountered by the business. Marketing skills are of much importance in the business since it determines whether the products or services developed by the entrepreneur get to the target market and is able to sell the product and services to its clients. Marketing creates interest from the potential market thus the business is able to sell its products and services. Communication skills: As an entrepreneur it is essential to be able to interact with people of diverse origins. One should be able to elaborate more details about the product that the business is dealing with, explain, discuss, market and sell the products and services of the organization. Entrepreneurs should have an advanced understanding of the business products and services in order to enter into contracts and be able to read and understand the contracts. They should be able to express their opinions clearly in both writing and verbal during a meeting with other stakeholders in order to gain their full support in running and managing of business activities. Risk taker: an entrepreneur should be able to venture into a business opportunity even if there are risks involved in the adventure. This attribute enables the entrepreneur to with stand any difficulty associated with the business opportunity. Qualities required being an entrepreneur Self-Discipline: An entrepreneur must uphold a high level of personal discipline in all areas of the work environment. One should not be in a position of being reminded each and every time about something that went down or coming up on the business schedule. The entrepreneur should be able to manage his/her time well during his daily schedule in the organization. One should be in a position to report to duty at the required time and closed down business at the appropriate time. An entrepreneur should be able to avoid worldly pleasures in the expenses of the duty that are to be handled in the organizations program. If this happens, the entrepreneur may lose focus on the key agendas of the business (Spulber, 2014).  Perseverance: Any entrepreneur passes through many challenges and setbacks during the business adventure. Financial problems may be encountered while an entrepreneur is initiating the business opportunity and executing the project. Initial marketing may also pose a threat to the business product if it is not performed in an appropriate way by the entrepreneur. For a successful entrepreneurship, perseverance is the key to helping the business grow and move on, even though, there are challenges. Competitiveness: most business products and services face competition from other products from different firms. Unless the products offered by the entrepreneur are unique in many ways so as to attract the attention of the consumers, it is likely in a position to face a lot of challenges in the market. Like a footballer who wants to gain fame from his fans, he should score a lot of goals. The entrepreneur who wants to gain stability and face from his competitors he should initiate strategies which are not familiar to the one his competitors are using so as to attract interest from clients. An entrepreneur should be able to analyze the strengths and weakness of the competitors so as to forge a way of defeating them and emerging as the best choice for clients (Mawson, 2014).  Passion: this is the motivational drive that enables one to pursue his/her targets. As an entrepreneur, passion should be a quality that one has in order to put the interest of the organization in the front line. This gives the entrepreneur to enjoy the work that he is doing especially when he is spending much time in the interest of the organization. This results in the success of the entrepreneur in the business that he ventured in. Self-confidence: Entrepreneurs are responsible for their success or failure. A confident entrepreneur should be in a position to make bold steps towards achieving the goals of the business. He should not have doubts in himself while pursuing success in the business adventure. Entrepreneur should be able to promote his ideology to the world so an s to be appreciated by those who will gain interest in the products and services offered by the entrepreneur. They should be able to self-promote their products and services without fear of failure. Opportunities for an entrepreneur For an entrepreneur with the appropriate skills and qualities, he is able to analyze and identify the existing market opportunities so as to invest or venture into it. There are many opportunities in the business environment in the current society. Most parts of the country especially the New South Wales County where tourism is currently booming. There are many opportunities; Change in market structure: A slight change in the market structure of an industry as seen when there is a rapid growth in the industry leads to an opportunity. The entrepreneur should be able to identify this opportunity and create a business idea. Also, convergence in technology may lead to a business opportunity in that the initial technology thought to be separated from each finally are realized to be one and the same technology. An entrepreneur will be in a position to come up that idea that was in the other part of the technology initially used. Rapid changes in business also provide an opportunity to the entrepreneurs in that they are able to identify areas which are overseen by a rapidly growing business. A business can leave some minor business activities when it is experiencing rapid growth in other major businesses. This offers an opportunity to those entrepreneurs who can identify this loop in the market. Demographics: whenever there is an increase in the population of a place there is a business opportunity associated with this increase. Changes in age structure, employment, educational status, income and size is an indication of the changing demography in a region. This has a major effect on what will be sold or bought to in the market. In the case of an increase in population size, there is a direct increase in demand hence a business opportunity to supply the commodity that is short in supply. Changes in consumer choice and preference: When consumers change their perception and moods about the certain commodity in the market there will be a need for an introduction of a new commodity that will attract the interest of the consumers. This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to develop a business idea and implement it in order to earn the rewards. He should develop a product which most of the consumers are satisfied with when it is introduced to them in the market (Conrad, & Cates, 2015). New-knowledge: whenever an entrepreneur thinks about something new, innovation, in this case, he should be in a position to implement it and test it in the market. If the new product works, the entrepreneur will have a new innovation hence being able to deliver it to the organization and seek financial support in order to deliver the services and product to the consumer. Creativity and innovation of an entrepreneur An entrepreneur is able to create and come up with totally modified product from the existing ones. This is the essential part of every entrepreneur in this field of business, innovation either scientific of not play an important role in ensuring the continuity and development of the business. Hard work and analysis lead to creativity and innovation of an entrepreneur. The following are some of the activities that should be considered for an entrepreneur to creative and innovative. Analysis of opportunities: The entrepreneur should be able to collect information about the market then analyze the opportunities that are available so as to create a new idea to be implemented in the market. An innovative opportunity for changes in market structure enables the entrepreneur to come up with a new idea in order to satisfy the new market structures. The population should be analyzed critically in order to determine the needs of the market and the amount of products that are available in the market. A search of these opportunities must be done systematically in order to avoid any omission of important ideas. Field excursion: The entrepreneur being the innovator has to get to the field and be able to collect data about a particular topic and come up with a complete analysis of that field topic. They should then look for the target market for their products and assemble a fully workable entrepreneurship business. Determine the expectation of the customers and be able to get full details of the taste of the consumers out there. Simple and focused innovation: the type of innovation that should be done by the entrepreneur should be simple and straight to the point. The focus should not be ambiguous in that it will not be able to count in the final stages of innovation. It should be direct and less complex to understand since most customers like to buy ideas which are simple and direct. Small start: The entrepreneur should start his/her innovative work in a manageable manner so as to avoid some unnecessary challenges that are involved with large innovation. Big ideas have low chances of success in the real world, so small ideas are likely to succeed in the field of business. Leadership: The entrepreneur should be able to target the leadership of the business since invention basically targets at leadership. All strategies of an entrepreneur should aim at leadership since through leadership one is able to make sure that his idea is implemented to the later. Entrepreneurs are general risk-takers since they venture into a totally new kind of business activity. They do not know the results of the venture, the repercussion and outcome of the business (Collewaert & Sapienza, 2014). They take into account the fact that whenever the risk is high the reward is also high. The following are some of the risks involved in entrepreneurship; Competitive risk: This is the risk that involves the presence of competitors in the market. This is because there are similar products in the market that the consumers are able to choose from. It’s only a monopoly which does not experience competition since any other product or service is similar to the one offered by the monopolist. The entrepreneur has to make sure that there is adequate SWOT analysis on the market and the competitors. This will help the business to come with strategies of challenging their rivals and be a predominant figure in the market. Technological risk: In recent times entrepreneurs have not been able to gain control of technological advancement worldwide. Technology is changing very fast day in day out new technological innovation are made in various sectors of the world economy. Entrepreneurs have work with one eye on the change that would be experienced the next day. They should be able to predict what technology is likely to come in the near future so as to be prepared for that change (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2014).  Political and legal risk: change in laws and regulation governing the business is also another risk being faced by entrepreneurs. When political activities change and leaders who spearheaded business culture in a region are overthrown then this poses a greater risk to the businesses. These policies when they are changed affect most of the businesses hence becoming a threat to the development and the existence of the business. Governments who do not focus on restructuring of the country’s economic level will become a problem for the entrepreneurs since they will shy away from developing business ideas to see them not work. Economic risk: This is a risk that is not commonly experienced by many entrepreneurs; it only occur a few times in the world hence not posing much threat to the development and advancement of businesses. This risk is experienced when the economy of the whole world is affected thus not easily felt by many people. Financial risk: entrepreneurs have to be able to manage their finances well or else they face the risk of becoming financially unstable (bankruptcy). Entrepreneurs should be able to predict demand and supply and cash flow in order to gain control of the business financial status. They should be able to take decisions which are informed in order for it not to affect the financial level of the business since every decision counts on the impact that it makes on the organization. Employee risk: The employees are of greater benefit to the company since without them the business would not achieve its goals. Behind every successful entrepreneur, there is a well-organized team of employees. These employees have to be motivated to prevent them from resignation and strikes, pay increment being one of them. They should be provided with an appropriate working environment in order to ensure that they produce a higher output in their daily business activities (Kotler et al.,2014). Environmental risks: These are risks that are involved with surroundings of the business. Risks like floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and tornados are not easily controlled by human kind. To reduce the chances of experiencing these risks the business should conduct proper examination before running the business in a certain location. Operational risks: An entrepreneur should not encourage this risk to encroach the business since such risks make evaluation of the business very hard. Record keeping in the company should be done in the most efficient way since errors arising from this are not easily detected and may give a false state of the company’s progress. The entrepreneur should conduct a routine check on the operation of the business in order to avoid this risk. The social media also as a platform for entrepreneurs should be used by the entrepreneurs in order to gain recognition for their contribution made on the product (Armstrong et al., 2014). Entrepreneurs should be in a position to use social media networks such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc. to gain support from customers and also to market their products by creating AdWord used on the internet from Google. These platforms also may be used to identify the feedback that the consumers give after using the products (Aharoni, 2014).  However, there are many other responsibilities of entrepreneurs in the society. They should be able to create employment; they should uphold consumer laws, respect contribution from the government and to give back to the society. The business should also be in the front line in upholding environmental policies so as not to affect the surrounding inhabitants. Organizations should also uphold ethics in the business environment, they should ensure that employee rights are catered for and also the employee should show high level of professionalism and ethics by being truthful and open when handling organizations issues. In conclusion, being an entrepreneur does not only entail business alone by the whole community at large. An entrepreneur should be time conscious and a leader in his/her business venture. They should be able to sacrifice their time for the good of the business activities and development. It involves coming up with ideas that will support him/herself and finally supporting the community as a whole. Entrepreneurs should take risk and venture into businesses that no one can because of the risks involved. Through social media entrepreneurs should be seen sharing development ideas and sharing new innovations to the consumers in order to satisfy their needs. Lastly, they should ensure that they uphold social and ethical responsibilities to the later so as to create a conducive environment for business. The entrepreneur is the bridge between the new business product and the already existing one since they gather their resources and venture into the unknown world to come up with something exceptionally different for the consumers to enjoy. They are the ultimate promoters for the economy of the world today and in the future. . Bibliography Aharoni, Y. (Ed.). (2014). Coalitions and competition: the globalization of professional business services. Routledge. Alvarez, S. A., & Barney, J. B. (2013). Epistemology, opportunities, and entrepreneurship: Comments on Venkataraman et al. (2012) and Shane (2012).Academy of Management Review, 38(1), 154-157. Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia. Baum, J. R., Frese, M., & Baron, R. A. (Eds.). (2014). The psychology of entrepreneurship. Psychology Press. Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Cengage Learning. 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