Five Critical Skills That Entrepreneurs Need - Case Study Example

? Running Head: Entrepreneur Interview & Personal Analysis Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts Writer Inserts Date Here (Day, Month, Year) Every business or service organization is run with the contributions of human, financial and material resources which are all managed by an entrepreneur. In business terms, an entrepreneur refers to a manager or owner of a business enterprise who earns finance through taking initiatives and risks. In order to become an entrepreneur and controlling a business, irrespective of size, requires skills, abilities and such personality traits which can cater to taking up risks and challenges. A decision maker, leader, communicator and a good team player is what an entrepreneur is. This paper provides an analysis of the personality of a small business entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial Interview This paper deals with analyzing and conducting the reflective study of the small business entrepreneurs. The interview conducted here reflects upon the background, motivating factors and personalities of the businessmen. The survey questionnaire contains 15 questions which are aimed upon discovering the personality traits and capacities. The survey has been conducted with the owner of fashion boutique, Ellen Sandry. Ellen has been a successful entrepreneur for a few months and has been really successful in quite a short time. Fashion industry has motivated him a lot and considering the interests, the interview responses have been analyzed below: What is you educational background? Ellen has studied fashion designing at a reputable institute and this education aroused interest in pursuing the field of fashion as his personal career. Besides interest, Ellen feels that the scope of fashion industry has gained great heights in the present era and thus, it would be a good initiative to take up. What have your previous experiences been? The entrepreneur’s response to this question was amazing as he mentioned many experiences that he has been through recently. He has taught, worked as a steward at a hotel and interned at a local bank for a while. Later on, his professional enthusiasm compelled him to start his own business. How did you get into this business? In reply, Ellen mentioned that his interest brought him into this business. He had a passion for colors, beauty and money. Thus, this capacity seemed to be suitable. How many employees do you have? Ellen has only two people who look into his business. He calls them his helpers and pays them a good salary at the end of every month. They manage his boutique on a daily basis and even stay overtime and help Ellen wind up the necessary tasks. How do you finance your business? Ellen mentioned that he already had enough capital at the time of initiation of his business. Besides this, he takes small loans from the financial institutions and invests them into business. What have been the major challenges that you have countered while initiating and managing the business? Ellen Sandry has been a successful owner of a small boutique and earns good profits every month. According to him, it is necessary to take risks and accept challenges with good entrepreneurial skills. During the starting up of his fashion boutique, he had to counter the shortages of finance, skilled labor, and inventory. Moreover, decision-making was an area where he was not much confident. Besides this, arranging for a considerably sophisticated infrastructure also became a problem which he quickly managed with the help of his own skills. Do you take social and environmental factors into consideration? To this Ellen replied that while starting up his boutique, he assured that it will not create any negative externalities for the society. He took care of all the security standards, societal costs, and made sure that the environment is not affected from the existence of his business in any way. How does the economic environment impact your business? The economic booms and depressions impact all the businesses and similarly, Ellen also faced challenges due to rising costs and lowering profits. At the time of increasing inflation, the entrepreneur has to bear all the costs of the utilities and other assets in order to keep his business running. Moreover, the rising interest rates also make it difficult for the small entrepreneurs to take loans in order to provide finance to the business. How do you deal with the cultural influences which your business might be subject to? According to Ellen, the fashion industry, amongst all other industries, is affected by the cultural variables the most. He has to satisfy the needs of Asian and English cultures at the same time. Since, the trends and preferences are shifting quickly in the present times; Ellen thinks that through his accurate market research and good speculations, he is able to address the needs of customers with respect to their culture and traditions. According to your viewpoint, what do you think are your most useful abilities for the success of business? Ellen feels pride that he is a creative, talented and skillful entrepreneur with good decision making and comprehension abilities. He possesses good marketing and selling skills which make him compete easily with cutting edge rivals in the industry. Thus, the interview responses showed that Ellen has become a successful businessman in a short period of time. He has taken up they field of fashion designing with both motives – personal interest and profit generation. Moreover, the entrepreneur, through his experiences, indicates some major features that a good business manager should possess. According to him, a good entrepreneur must have the drive; energy and self confidence to gear the business ahead even in the critical situations. Features such as personal responsibility, internal locus of control and effective use of resources are what constitute the capabilities of a successful entrepreneur. Besides this, a business owner essentially needs to have good skills and abilities to make decisions, take risks and tolerate ambiguity. A clear use of goals and standards is also the major need of managing a business with success. At the end of the interview, Ellen advised all the entrepreneurs, working on small and large scale, to be effective and confident in their work and activities. He was of the view that there is a skilled leader in every entrepreneur who makes decisions, communicates effectively and listens to the workers and employees. He briefly explained how he managed challenges in an effective manner and the major reason that accounted fro his success, according to him, was his interest in the work that he had taken up. Thus, the interest in the task being performed is the factor which makes an entrepreneur successful. Part B- Analysis and Reflection The interview conducted with Ellen Sandry seems to give an idea that the entrepreneur is convincing enough to sell his abilities. It also shows that the entrepreneur believes that his interest and skills determine all that he does more than the chance or probability of taking up an action or a task (The Open Learn Team, 2011). It also indicates that the prime motivation for the individual in opening up his own business is the need for personal independence and the autonomy. Many researchers and management experts have undertaken various studies regarding the entrepreneurial characteristics and features. According to them, a successful business manager appreciates the differences in culture, learn and follow them. He/she has integrity, honesty, personal responsibility and respect as the basic personality values. Moreover, a successful entrepreneur possesses a sense of commitment and a long-term involvement with the owned business. The ability of learning form failures and taking criticism as improvement are the inbuilt features in his personality (Jerry Kaplan, 2003). Money generated from businesses serves their owner as a reward and not the sole reason to work. Personal rewards, financial gains and satisfaction are the necessary elements for the satisfaction of an entrepreneur. The interview conducted here also suggests that the entrepreneur is primarily goal-oriented but also tends to be opportunistic at the same time while keeping the goals intact. Despite so many challenge that Ellen faced, he still continued to chase the goal with the help of his workers. As an entrepreneur, he worked as a catalyst to bring change and a spirit of autonomy and ownership for the workers in the organization. Not only this, but he also proved to be a source of creativity, innovation, and motivation for his employees. The positive factor for the entrepreneur is that he faced all the challenges with an optimistic viewpoint due to the fact that he enjoyed his work and had interest in it. If it was not his passion then he probably would have slipped regarding the tackling of challenging. In my opinion, and after the analysis of the interviews and researches, it is learned that there are various factors which are most important for entrepreneur during his entire involvement with business. He needs to keep a long term commitment with the business and own it with an intention of making it successful. Only after his possessiveness about it, the employees or the workers would value the vision and the existence of the business. Some qualities such as self-confidence, risk taking, flexibility, need for autonomy and achievement, and the desire for independence are the essentials for the personality of an entrepreneur. Conclusion The paper deals with the concept of entrepreneurs and aims to look into the personality and characteristics through interview. In order to discover the features of a small business entrepreneur, Ellen Sandry has been interviewed for all the roles and responsibilities that he performed to make his business a success. The fashion designer has a boutique and he manages it with two employees from the beginning. He has tackled all the problems and dealt with all the challenges that obstructed his way during the management and maintenance of his boutique. The interview analyses that an entrepreneur is a catalyst who helps bringing changes, creativity and innovation in business. He possesses good personality, charisma and an influencing ability for his workers. Money serves as a motivator but is not the sole reason for doing the businesses. Moreover, a good entrepreneur always sticks to the goals, follows his vision and be opportunistic without compromising on the mission of the organization. REFERENCES Jerry Kaplan, (2003). Five Critical Skills That Entrepreneurs Need. Stanford University’s Entrepreneur Corner. Accessed online, Retrieved on Dec 9, 2011 from http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=366 The Open Learn Team, (2011). Are you an Entrepreneur? The Open University. Accessed online, Retrieved on Dec 9, 2011 from http://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-management/management/business-studies/are-you-entrepreneur APPENDIX This questionnaire has been designed for a purely research purpose. 1. What is you educational background? 2. What have your previous experiences been? 3. How did you get into this business? 4. Does this type of business interest you or you are compelled to take it up because of higher revenue generation? 5. What has been your primary motivation for starting a business? 6. How many employees do you have? 7. How do you finance your business? 8. What have been the major challenges that you have countered while initiating and managing the business? 9. Do you take social and environmental factors into consideration? 10. How does the economic environment impact your business? 11. How do you deal with the cultural influences which your business might be subject to? 12. Considering the satisfaction factors, do you think that you feel good with the decisions that you have made until now? 13. What are the few pieces of advice that you would give to the fresh entrepreneurs these days? 14. According to your viewpoint, what do you think are your most useful abilities for the success of business? Read More