How Did I Become an Entrepreneur - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: How Did I become An Entrepreneur Course: Date Introduction This course has helped me understand that to turn out to be a successful entrepreneur one does not need to follow a certain formula. Anybody might become an entrepreneur irrespective of age, race, ethnicity, gender, education level and income level. A look into people who have turned out to be successful entrepreneurs shows that their education level and experiences greatly differ. However, the literature demonstrates that most successful entrepreneurs share a common set of personal qualities, skills, and attributes, such as self-confidence, creativity, commitment, passion, leadership, and flexibility. It is important to note that many of these skills can be learned; they are not necessarily inborn (Hisrich, Peters, and Shepherd, 2013). Describe the skills; qualities, knowledge, Attributes required to be an entrepreneur Self-confidence: An entrepreneur needs to have the ability to listen without getting easily intimidated or wavered. There are many risks and uncertainties associated with entrepreneurship, and thus, an entrepreneur should have the ability to conduct a thorough planning so as to decrease the level of uncertainties and risks. It is also important for an entrepreneur to belief in him/herself if he/she is to become successful. Creativity: Creativity is a vital quality for successful entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur needs to be creative to invent a unique idea or else unique product. Thus, an entrepreneur should have the impetus for invention and enhancement. This entails the impulse for continuous learning, researching and thinking outside the box. Determination: A successful entrepreneur needs to have a strong desire to achieve success. This entails being persistent and having the ability to bounce back following a tough time. It implies having the inspiration to continue trying despite appearing to experience a collapse at the start and having confidence that success would be imminent at the end. Success rather than money should be the motivating factor in an entrepreneur. Dedication: Commitment and hard work should be the main qualities of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur should be ready to work for over 12 hours each day for the entire week, mostly at the early stages to ensure that the business gets off the ground. Hard work and dedication are great determinants of success. A unique and great idea need to be accompanied by commitment and handwork. Flexibility: The market is characterized by changing needs and thus an entrepreneur must move fast in reaction to the changing market needs. An entrepreneur should be true to his/her dreams whereas being cautious of market realities. He should have the ability to modify his vision to match the varying needs of consumers. Leadership: Having great leadership skills is essential for successful entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur should not only have the ability to set goals and rules for his business but should also make sure that he follows those rules and attain his objectives. Passion: Passion is what gets an entrepreneur started and sustained in the business. An entrepreneur should have the capacity to convince others to believe in his vision. Passion is what helps an entrepreneur to remain focused. Book Review This book contains great advice that is useful in starting and managing a business. It has aided me in understanding the principles and fundamentals of entrepreneurship. It has great examples of successful young entrepreneurs including Michael Dell of Dell computers, Phil Knight of Nike, Paul Allen and Bills Gate of Microsoft, Edward Land of Polaroid, Fred Smith of Federal Express and Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs of Apple Computers. Thus, it has helped me gain a good insight regarding the way to develop into a successful entrepreneur. From this book, I have learned how to deal with the mentality of personnel conditioning and helps me find out how I can get fulfillment by starting a business that is in alignment with my principles. This book has taught me how to realize profitability and realize career and personal freedom by becoming an entrepreneur. There are several case studies that are featured in this book that demonstrate real business situations, different responses, and qualities of successful entrepreneurs. From this book, I have learned that anyone can practice entrepreneurship as long as he/she has the zeal. I have learned the attributes, skills, and qualities that I should cultivate to turn out to be a successful entrepreneur. Also, it has made me understand the challenges involved in entrepreneurship and know how to address them perfectly. Reading this book has helped me understand a lot about entrepreneurship and feel more confident and equipped to venture into entrepreneurship. Weekly Lectures When planning to start a business, the first important step is to choose the type of organization. The general types of organization comprise of sole proprietorships, corporations, and partnerships. Each of these categories has its advantages and disadvantages and thus it is critical to first carefully evaluate each of them so as to choose the best. Many people tend to assume that big business can be more successful that small business. On the Contrary, a small business contains great strengths and through careful planning one can increase the chances of experiencing success. A small corporate has greater flexibility than a larger business. It can react quickly to market changes. Moreover, a small business gives one the ability to invent and create new products quickly and productively compared to larger businesses that are held in bureaucracy. Typically, a small organization does not take a lot of time to come up with decisions regarding reacting to changes in fashion, demographics, or else advertisement from a rival. Additionally, a small corporate can adjust its products in reaction to changing customer needs. A businessperson in a small corporate can clearly understand his customer base than a businessperson in a large corporation. Besides, a small business may allow customers to participate in product improvement. Moreover, in a small business an entrepreneur has an obsessive aspiration to succeed. Consequently, the entrepreneur works better and harder. Furthermore, most small businesses have an elusive value that emanates from an individual who is fully involved and enjoys. When an individual works to create an opportunity for outstanding accomplishment than is otherwise prevailing generates an atmosphere of fun and excitement and fun. This may attract, retain and motivates an employee to work hard (Kirby, 2002). Workshops Bi Weekly I have come to understand that it is important for an entrepreneur to develop an elevator pitch that notifies people of the business and demonstrates to them the way they can gain from the corporate. The elevator pitch needs to include a description of the key benefits of the product the company deals with to consumers or the way the product outstrips those of competitors to persuade them to purchase it. Also, the elevator pitch includes the basic education, experience and credential of the entrepreneur to attract investors to the business. The elevator pitch must be concise; taking less than a minute to go through. It is crucial for the elevator pitch to be short since attention spans are short, and therefore a businessperson need to hook his audience very fast or else he may not be able to hook them with a long elevator pitch. It is also critical to create a PowerPoint that summarizes all the details in the business plan. This PowerPoint should not be presented in a hurry; it should take about 15 minutes to present it to the target audience. It is imperative for the entrepreneur to rehearse how to present the pitches with friends, family or coworkers since one might become nervous as regards pitching the business. Of great importance is to request for an honest opinion from the people. For example, one can ask whether he sounded nervous when expressing his ideas, whether they feel he presented it very slow or fast or else what he needs to remove or add to make it shorter or longer respectively ICT & social media I have come to understand that an entrepreneur should communicate with different types of people, such as consumers, suppliers, and distributors. E-mail offers a fast and reasonably cheap method to send information, emails, and photocopies to these people. An entrepreneur also should conduct thorough research before opening a business and the internet can provide him with all the information he needs very fast. Many companies, government agencies, colleges, and businesses provide details online free of charge and this information can be useful to a person planning to join entrepreneurship (Timmons, Gillin, Burshtein, Spinelli, 2010). Moreover, to develop into a successful entrepreneur, one must create a strong social association with other businesspersons in person and the internet using social media sites including LinkedIn. Besides, an entrepreneur needs to utilize social media sites including Twitter and Facebook to develop awareness of his idea. Thus, he should create a Twitter handle a Facebook Page for his business and use them to advertise his product as well as get the feedback from people about his product and subsequently use the opinion to enhance on his product. Communication & Networking An entrepreneur needs to do a research of his target market. Before opening a business, it is vital first to explore whether people like the idea. This entails finding out if what one is planning to deal with is something innovative or else if there is a low supply of it but rather a high demand. There are a wide variety of sources that are free and that an entrepreneur can use to get information as related to the business he wants to venture into, particularly on the internet. To obtain this information, the entrepreneur should search for the specific industry he is interested and business associations in his target market and analyze the articles as well as press releases that they post. Moreover, he should analyze census information to obtain important demographic information about his target market. Furthermore, an entrepreneur should strive to talk to prospective consumers so as to persuade them to accept his ideas (Kuratko, 2005). This implies that to develop into a successful entrepreneur; one must have great communication skills. Conversing with potential consumers can help the entrepreneur obtain honest feedback regarding his idea. This is vital as an entrepreneur's friends can play nice with him when he proposes his idea to them, failing to give him critical feedback that brings out the weakness that may be useful although hurting to hear. Thus, an entrepreneur should strive to attend trade and industry conferences in his field so as to discuss with exhibitors about his idea. Moreover, an entrepreneur needs to join appropriate professional associations. Participating in networking events including local exhibitions organized by the chamber of commerce can offer an entrepreneur a better way to connect with other businesspersons in his industry of interest and get their support, opinions as well as get better opportunities for his product (Kuratko, Ireland, & Hornsby, 2001). Inspiration An entrepreneur should have outstanding inspiration to join entrepreneurship. He should have a great desire to be extremely creative so as to present his customers with something inventive. Many people join entrepreneurship with the main aim of making good money, become prominent or else gain the freedom of being their manager. However, an entrepreneur is supposed to venture into entrepreneurship mainly because he feels innovative enough and can think on his own. Working for someone else involves helping that person achieve his goals and objectives, mostly at the expense of your goals and objectives. If one is inspired to make his vision become a reality, then entrepreneurship is the way to go. In today's competitive world, one need to be creative, determined, committed and above all inspired to succeed. When one believes that he have all it takes to develop into a successful entrepreneur, the inspiration to start a business comes freely. Creativity and inspiration are critical if one is to remain competitive in this era. Of great importance is for one to be enthusiastic and excited about starting a new business. An entrepreneur needs to have a strong passion for sharing his ideas, being open to new ideas and being ready and having the capacity to learn continually how to operate the business, how to deal with customers and important life skills (Phan, 2004). Creativity and Innovation An entrepreneur should have the capacity to develop a new product as well as keep improving the quality of that product to enrich the lives of people. This calls for top notch creativity and innovation. To become a successful entrepreneur one must have the ability to think critically and come up with unique things. An entrepreneur must have the ability to brainstorm an enthralling idea. This doesn't entail developing something brand-new or groundbreaking. It entails being able to do something in a better, extraordinarily and great way than your competitor. Success in entrepreneurship is not guaranteed by coming up with a unique idea. To become a successful entrepreneur one should have the capacity to transform that idea into a real product (Morris and Schindehutte, 2005). An entrepreneur needs to venture into something he knows about and has the passion for doing and not what he is told by people he should do. Moreover, an entrepreneur should not venture into something because he has seen another entrepreneur succeed in it. An entrepreneur needs to be passionate about his idea because if his heart is absent in what he is doing, he may lack the determination to keep going. Besides, entrepreneurship involves a lot of challenges and hence an entrepreneur needs to discover innovative solutions to them. Moreover, an entrepreneur requires having great tolerance to disappointments and the ability to think through challenges so as to become successful (Drucker, 1985). Your Risk-Taking From this chapter, I have come to learn that entrepreneurship often entails taking a risk and thus an entrepreneur should ready to take the risk. Though an entrepreneur expects to make a profit, the possibility of risks is higher, particularly at the beginning. Thus, an entrepreneur must take stock of every asset in the business and find out how much money, energy and time he needs actually to invest. In addition to considering his savings, credit and other sources of capital, an entrepreneur need also consider how long he can survive without having an income. It is hard to make a profit instantly in case of a small business and hence an entrepreneur needs to have the ability to stay for several months without making an income. Thus, it is critical to determine the possible downside of the business before starting it and consequently invest what one consider as an acceptable loss in the event of the business collapse as this limits the extent of failure (Kuratko, & Hodgetts, 2007). Social & Ethical Responsibility An entrepreneur needs to be ethical and accountable. Being ethical involves making entrepreneurship decisions that are reliable and profitable. Also, it entails providing favorable workplace and good employment policies. An entrepreneur should strive to treat every customer fairly. This involves acting in a way whereby the whole community does benefit from his action. Moreover, it entails the entrepreneur acting in ways that sustain the balance between the ecosystem and the economy. In short, being socially responsible involves shunning engaging in any destructive act when carrying out activities intended towards the achievement of the business goals. It involves conducting the business whereas ensuring the equilibrium between the long-term goals of the business and the expectations, norms, and values of the society (Morris, Kuratko, and Covin, 2008). Additionally, an entrepreneurship must support the disadvantaged and deprived individuals in the society. He should engage in philanthropic, sponsorship and charity activities to benefit the whole society. In short, an entrepreneur's actions should benefit everybody, and this must be visibly apparent in the society. This means that when an entrepreneur is successful, then the society too should feel the impact. It is pretty clear that if the activities of an entrepreneur are likely to harm instead of benefiting the larger community, then this could limit the percentage of his profits (Kuratko, 2005). Overall Conclusions and Reflections Successful entrepreneurs have a wide range of skills, qualities, and attributes that can either be inherent or learned. Entrepreneurship seems to run in the family. It is probable for an entrepreneur to have a relative who is also in entrepreneurship. Learned skills are more important than specific genetic qualities. The desirable and learnable skills, qualities and behaviors of successful entrepreneurship are determination, commitment, leadership, creativity, motivation, passion and tolerance for uncertainty and risks. A business plan is vital for a successful private enterprise. A business plan defines what the entrepreneur will deal with, offers a market analysis and a detailed description of the business and forecasts the expected economic future of the business. An in-depth and comprehensive business plan is critical to the attraction of investors to the business. There are several sources of capital that an entrepreneur might use to finance his business, such as personal savings, banks and project investors and friends and family. Effective entry approaches to new ventures include niche specification, differentiation, and innovation. Large companies have more likelihood of success since they are more predictable and have larger business capitals compared to smaller companies. Therefore, they may present a full product line and capitalize on product promotion and development. Also, they are privileged by economies of scale since they manufacture goods in a large amount, resulting in reduced costs and lower prices. Moreover, many large companies including Nike, Starbucks, and Boeing benefit from the credibility that comes with a famous name. References Drucker, P. F. 1985. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. New York: Harper Business. Hisrich, R.D, Peters, M.P, and Shepherd, D. 2013. Entrepreneurship, Ninth Edition. McGraw- Hill Irwin, Boston. Kirby, 2002. Entrepreneurship. McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead Berkshire UK. Kuratko, D. F. 2005. The emergence of entrepreneurship education: Development, trends, and challenges. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(5): 577-598 Kuratko, D. F. & Hodgetts, R. M. (2007). Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice 7th ed. (Mason, OH: Thomson/SouthWestern Publishing Kuratko, D.F, Ireland, R.D. & Hornsby, J.S. (2001). Improving firm performance through entrepreneurial actions: Acordia's corporate entrepreneurship strategy. Academy of Management Executive, 15(4): 60-71. Morris, M.H., Kuratko, D.F., and Covin, J.G. (2008). Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Mason, OH: Thomson/SouthWestern Publishers Morris, M. H. and Schindehutte, M. (2005). Entrepreneurial Values and the Ethnic Enterprise: An Examination of Six Subcultures, Journal of Small Business Management, 43 (4): 453- 497. Phan, P. H. (2004). Entrepreneurship Theory: Possibilities and Future Directions, Journal of Business Venturing 19(5): 617–620. Timmons, J.A, Gillin, L.M, Burshtein, S.L and Spinelli, S. 2010. New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, A Pacific Rim Perspective. 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