What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur - Essay Example

Student name Subject Lecturer University Date What it takes to be an entrepreneur Entrepreneurship requires a delicate balance between skill and qualities, and the right attitude. It is not as simple as it is made out to be, but with hard work and the right approach, becomes one of the most fulfilling experiences. It is important for an entrepreneur to realize what it takes to succeed. First, success in business, especially when starting off, is all about finding a gap in the service sector and filling it. Entrepreneurship is about thinking about a problem and thinking about how to solve it. It might be an obvious problem, or one that not many have thought of. The success of the enterprise depends on how potent the solution the business provides. Some problems have many dimensions, though. It is important for the entrepreneur to focus on just a single dimension of the problem. Entrepreneurship requires passion and a strong work ethic. At the beginning at least, the days will definitely be longer than the conventional working day (White & White 2014). There will be challenges, anticipated and otherwise. It requires a strong work ethic, dedication and commitment. The reason the most successful startups achieved the astronomical levels of success is the fact that their founders were doing the things they loved the most. Only ideas and topics one is passionate about can have them working 80 hours a week. The best entrepreneurs think about and plan for the future. Even when they start small, they must think about their long and short term plans for the future. Thinking about the future involves setting of goals, realistically achievable goals, and being able to track the progress of the business. Planning for the future involves being progress oriented. One must not simply work for the sake of starting the business, but must think about moving forward. Goal setting and progress require a sounding board. The best way to go about this is to have a strong business plan from the beginning, a point of reference that one can use to gaugewhether they are going in the right direction. Even for those who go into business in a field that they are passionate about, the business landscape often has many lessons. It is important for the entrepreneur to be open minded when they get into business. They must realize that even though it is their baby, they will likely not be able to do everything, and must seek the help of others. The best entrepreneurs understand the value of looking for the best help they can find. In the course of the startup process, mistakes will happen. The entrepreneur must be open to these and learn from them. One of the most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur is adaptability. Entrepreneurship is a difficult journey, and being non-conventional, does not always receive support from everyone. The entrepreneur must have the ability to block out the naysayers and take in constructive criticism. It is almost a guarantee that not everything will go according to plan. Not all the plans or prototypes will receive as much reception as anticipated. However, the entrepreneur must be adaptable to their business environment. In the same way, they will likely stumble upon things that work that they did not expect. Every entrepreneur requires a mentor or inspiration. They must seek and foster relationships in and out of the industry they work, and have several people to whom they can go for advice. This should preferably be someone who once was an entrepreneur like them. The advice, encouragement and criticism received from a mentor will be priceless in the course of growing the business. ICT and social media Technology and entrepreneurship are becoming increasingly related in business literature, hence the phrase technology entrepreneurship (Baileti 2012). Entrepreneurship is about finding new solutions to existing problems. To come up with creative solutions, innovation is necessary. Technology enables startup businesses come up with ideas and prototypes that solve the common problems people have. The spread of technology also impacts entrepreneurship. For instance, the number of people that own mobile devices and computers, and have access to the internet has grown considerably. This means access to a wider market. Social media is another contributor to entrepreneurship. Success in business is all about finding gaps and filling them. With the growth of social media, it gets easy to gather information about market gaps from potential and current customers. Feedback is important in moving the business forward. Social media also offers marketing opportunities. The evolution of marketing today means that companies can only make propositions, but the customer is the one that determines the value of the product or service offered. Through social media, companies have an opportunity to make strong value propositions by increasing their online presence, while also influencing how the customer determines the value of their products or services. Social media has changed the idea of pricing from the simple monetary to a more complex psychological, geographic and social concept (Jagongo & Kinyua 2013). Communication and networking Every industry has its unique characteristics that a beginner will likely not know. Successful business people recognize the fact that turning an idea into a business requires a thorough knowledge of the landscape. The better prepared business person will find it easier to navigate through the guarantees pitfalls. There are three levels of communication important in a startup setting for the continued success of the business person. The entrepreneur must be willing to do some leg work before they launch their business. Talk to a number of prospective customers or embers of the target population of the business, and find out whether or not the solutions proposed by the business are viable. The recommended number of people one should talk to in order to get a clear picture is a thousand. The second aspect of communication also involves legwork, but this time the entrepreneur should talk to industry professionals. Talk to people who have been there for some years and hear about the difficulties they faced when they started their business, the dynamics of the business environment and what every entrepreneur must look out for. The choice of industry professionals to interview must happen carefully, since many professionals also have their own agendas and angles in a competitive business environment. Thirdly, there has to be general communication to the target market. The entrepreneur must market their products or services to the people to whom it is targeted. A lack of resources might get in the way of this, but in the world of social media and the internet, there are several tool a startup businessman can use to tell people about what they offer, from the conventional Facebook and Twitter, to emails, Google plus and adverts on websites. Inspiration Just like most things in life, it is almost impossible to succeed alone. It is simply not enough to have ambition and drive, there needs to be an active inspiration in the life of the entrepreneur that keeps them going forward. Every entrepreneur should have a good mentor to guide them. Often in the entrepreneurship world, decisions must be made quickly relying only on gut feeling. In fact, the smaller the business, the faster one has to make decisions. The unwritten rule in the startup world is that a good plan effected now is better than waiting for the perfect plan down the road(Ebrahimi 2013). Entrepreneurs constantly braek the rules and gather information from various sources, using them to to make short and long term decisions about their business. Without the right guidance, the possibility of making mistakes is very high. Mentors, hwever, bring unique characteristics to the table. The have expert experience and the skills that the entrepreneur lacks. The mentor must not necessarilt be an industry veteran or legend; in fact, this is generally discouraged for the beginner. Whatever the choice, though, the entrepreneur must be one with real time experience on a simillar veture. The best shoukd be one who themselves have had entrepreneurship experience. While asking for advice from a manager friend might be helpful, one never realy understands until they speak to someone who has followed the same path. There are unique business and personal pressures that only one who has been an entrepreneur can help with. Evidence of this exists in silicon valley, where the established entrepreneurs often take the younger startups under their wing. Look also at the actions of the mentor before deciding to choose them. It is important for the mentor to be supportive, but they also have to be direct. They must not soften their stance just to make the entrepreneur feel good about themselves. The business environment will not be quite so forgiving. They must strike the delicate balance between delivering the tough messages while at the same time being supportive. The best mentor should be one who offers timely, honest advice, and encourages the entrepreneur to take action. Creativity and innovation The role of innovation and creativity on the success of a business is important for every business. One of Asia’s most successful entrepreneurs Rex Sham reiterated this recently, advicing young people to focus on themselves and their creativity (Woodhouse 2015). Creativity and innovation are some of the nost important international global business elements. Entrepreneurs are mostly concerned with bringing a new idea or product to the market. creativity and innovation help the entrepreneur create products through imaginative skill and bring them to life. It is not just a process but an attitude. The entrepreneur must cultivate in their organization the ability to accept change and new ideas. The company must be willing to accept new possibilities, tweaking them till they reach the required level of excellence. When starting up, the company requires three important forms of creativity and innovation (Babu, et al. 2013). The company must embrace creativity and innovation in its processes. they must embrace practices that increase productivity, lower costs and improve the quality of the product or service hence increasing demand. One must embrace innovation and productivity in the actual products and services. While it is important to embrace progressive innovation, for the stratup to make an impact in the market, there has to be an aspect of radical inovation and creativity in their products. Balancing between radical and progressive innovation opens up new markets and maintains the demand for the product. The organization must also embrace inovation in their management and work, through how they make use of tehir employees and how they formulate techniques of leadership and management. Risk taking Risk is part of the entrepreneurial spirit. Most of the time, the individual leaves the security of a regular job and dives into the shark infested ocean to go it alone. While risk and reward go hand in hand, it is not simply a blind dive. The entrepreneur must determine how tolerant they are to risks before they dive in. They must understand themselves and their risk taking ability, because risky situations will always be there even after the best efforts to minimize risk. Secondly, the individual must make sure they have a supportive social network. Every entrepreneur must brace the people closest to them for the effects of their chosen life. It is almost impossible to deal with the pressures alone. No matter how much one tries to compartmentalize, the effects will eventually spill onto close family, friends and loved ones. It is important to have them prepared, and have them know that they are part of the journey. The third dimension of risk taking in entrepreneurship touches on money. One must not take the leap simply for the money. Go into business with a passion. The passion will help in those situations where the risks seem insurmountable. Social and ethical responsibility While many entrepreneurs go into business for themselves to follow their passions, ultimately, the end game is profitability and returns. This often gets in the way of decisions, providing ethical dilemmas to the entrepreneur and their team. The possibility of maximizing profits might tempt the entrepreneur to take shortcuts and engage in unethical business practices, affecting both their customers and employees. Ethics was never a major problem in the past, and many people considered the responsibility of any business to be profit making. The business environment is changing, though. Today, there are many markers of ethics and responsibility, like ISO certification. Customers like to associate themselves with companies that meet their business bottom line, satisfy the demands of the current generation of customers while at the same time preserving the needs of future generations (Seretny & Seretny, 2012).For instance, many customers today pride themselves in green shopping or only buying organic food. The company must recognize the fact that even though they provide service, or produce goods that provide service, they are also consumers. The decisions they make must be sustainable in the long run. The entrepreneur must not only learn to make ethical decisions, but must build an organizational culture of strong ethics and a sense of responsibility in their decisions, however small their business. Thinking long term, the business will only gain and keep the trust of customers with big decisions if they remain accountable with the small decisions at arguably the most difficult moment in the life of the business, the startup process. References Babu, R. R., Krishna, M. M. & Swathi, A., 2013. Role of Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship. Innovative Journal of Business and Management, 2(5), pp. 112- 115. Baileti, T., 2012. Technology Entrepreneurship: Overview, Definition, and distinctive aspects. [Online] Available at: http://timreview.ca/article/520[Accessed 13 May 2015]. Ebrahimi, R., 2013. Why Entrepreneurs Need Good Mentors. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rodebrahimi/2013/11/14/why-entrepreneurs-need-good-mentors/[Accessed 13 May 2015]. Jagongo, A. & Kinyua, C., 2013. The Social Media and Entrepreneurship Growth. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3(10), pp. 213- 227. Seretny, M. & Seretny, A., 2012. Sustainable Marketing -A New Era in the Responsible Marketing Development. Foundations of Management, pp. 63-76. White, D. & White, P., 2014. 3 Qualities Every Successful Entrepreneur Must Have. [Online] Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240559 Woodhouse, A., 2015. South China Morning Post. [Online] Available at: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1794695/innovation-way-forward-young-says-entrepreneur-rex-sham[Accessed 13 May 2015]. Read More