Introduction
Entrepreneurship is an important business aspect that has helped bring new businesses in the world. Entrepreneurship is important and should be embraced by many students. It is entrepreneurship that has helped people get new employment because entrepreneurs create these new opportunities. The path that an entrepreneur takes in the entrepreneur life will depend on the environment and the personal issues that they value. This is something that will be looked into in this paper. The paper will also focus on personal evaluation of the entrepreneurship skills that I personally have and those that I should develop. It will also look at the entrepreneurship skills for Allis Janine and compare them with mine.
Background of the entrepreneur
The entrepreneur that I will analyze in this paper is that of Janine Allis. Allis is the owner of Boost Juice, a brand which has gained international recognition and expansion. Boost Juice deals with making fruit juice from natural fruits. Allis has excelled in the business and is now considering expanding to China, one of the largest countries and largest populations in the world. This does not mean that Boost Juice has not expanded to other countries; in fact it has made a debut in 16 countries. Allis started with a small store selling juice in Adelaide city in Australia. Back then, there was no other juice competitor that has been established in Australia. Before starting the business, she was engaged in various menial tasks. She did not have any formal education and experience with starting businesses. She did not complete high school because she dropped while she was 17. She worked previously in David Bowie’s yacht as a rock star; she also worked as a media assistant in one of the advertising agencies.
All along, she has shown tenacity and struggle to have made the company reach the place it is now. She has all it takes to be an entrepreneur. She sees opportunities and makes swift steps to get these opportunities. She saw the need to expand the business to new markets. This is one feature that an entrepreneur should have when carrying out a business venture.
Another aspect that shows that she is an entrepreneur is that she started the juice business when there was no other juice business in Australia. She was not copying any business in Australia. An entrepreneur is someone who starts a totally new thing that has not been practiced anywhere and makes it a success. This is one thing that Allis Janine did. There was no other juice business in Australia but she was the first one to start one. She can be regarded as an entrepreneur.
Another feature of an entrepreneur is that of planning and leadership. She ensures the operations are well planned and articulated in everything. Allis Janine has leadership skills that are evident in the way she looks for opportunities and makes sure that the staff knows these opportunities. She also ensures that the risks that are associated with a new venture are avoided as much as possible. She goes through invoices any bill to be paid. She says that it is important to look at the numbers so that one understands where the company is.
She is also willing to learn new skills herself. She says that each day is a new day of learning. She ensures that she gets new skills in every venture. She also does most things herself. She does this by ensuring that most of the tasks she does them with the others. She ensures that these things are done in the right manner.
Effects of environment, personality, and sociological issues of entrepreneurship
One theory that has been applied regarding entrepreneurship is that of the effect of the environment for the entrepreneur. This is where the environment and other factors like personal and sociological issues have on the far an entrepreneur will go. According to the theory of Preziosi (2007), the environment, personal and sociological issues affect the career of an entrepreneur. The environment of an entrepreneur will affect the venture that the entrepreneur will take. In case of Allis Janine, there was no other business that was dealing with fruit juice. This means that Janine had ample time and a ripe market that was ready for fruit juice. There was a need to ensure that potential clients liked what was offered and had to know that that is what they missed in that country. The countries that the business ventured to were new to this business. The country that was selected for expansion was where fruit juice had not been a common business. This is the reason the countries that are seen in the case became.
Another issue is that of personal issue. This issue of personal choice affects the path that an entrepreneur takes. Allis Janine had a desire to have a product that would improve on health and lives of people. She, therefore, went for fresh fruit juice. This is how she decided to venture into fruits and smoothie business. It is because of her desire to improve business.
The last factor is that of psychology, factor. The sociological factor that affected the career of Janine Allis is the desire by many to improve their lives and health. People wanted fruits or something that was not far from natural fruit. Artificial juice that is seen in shops has been refused to be taken in by many. This is the reason why the business model that was chosen was accepted by the populace and grew fast.
Evaluation of my entrepreneurial skills
Myself
Janine Allis
Strengths
Weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
i. Aggressive - I have innovative skills where I want to get something done and will devise a way of doing this,
ii. I am innovative
iii. Determined – I ensure that I do not lose focus on a subject for a long time.
iv. Self starter - motivate myself into getting something started and done. I do not have to be motivated by someone.
i. I am slow in decision making. I take long to make a decision on something that is to be done.
ii. I am not so keen on detail. Once I have delegated some duty, I do not follow to know how it was done.
i. She is focused – Allis ensures that she gets what she wants done and even though there are many stores worldwide, she is still focused.
ii. Keen on detail – she follows the small details that are undertaken in her stores. She still has to keep track of the events that take place in each of the stores.
i. She does not give employees the liberty to make their own decisions. She seems to be doing everything. In the case, there is little that she says about her staff. It is like she likes making all the decisions.
Evaluation of my entrepreneurial skills
Reflecting on what I have done before, I have a strong belief that I am an entrepreneur and can work on some ventures to come up with a successful business. Although I have not started anything tangible but I have the feeling in me that I have all it takes to be an entrepreneur. I am able to see an opportunity and know how these opportunities can be used to benefit. I have been contributing to suggestions about new business deals that can be started. I once suggested to friends that one could start operating a petty errand business. Petty errand business was still a new service and now it has thrived in major cities. By the time I came up with the idea, there were no petty errands in small cities. I thought it could be a good venture as people have become busy of late and they have no time to attend to small petty errands. This could be the right service that could be embraced by such people. The problem I had, and still have, is the lack of capital to start the business.
I am also aggressive to see at opportunities and work towards ensuring that these opportunities have been exploited. I, therefore, am sure that I can manage starting a completely new venture. I have argued before that the internet has a galore of opportunities that can be exploited. One area that this can be undertaken is with the buying and selling of websites. This is a venture that I suggested to friends and they warmed up to the idea only to abandon it later.
I have also demonstrated entrepreneurial strengths where I could manage a website for a company. Website management is something that has been neglected by many people. I have suggested before that I can work on management of company websites, at a fee. I have suggested, in particular, that for websites which have data which change daily, managing and uploading this data could be tedious to the organization. I can start a company with data entry clerks and be managing the data.
I have also demonstrated entrepreneurship in that I have suggested that cloud computing could be brought a notch higher by starting a data backup business. I can have a server and sign a contract with various companies so that I keep backup information for them. Although it takes a lot of effort to achieve this, I have argued before that this is something that can be achieved easily.
One area that I would like to improve is with time management and quick decision making. I feel that I have had good business venturing ideas but I have failed in making quick decisions to seize that opportunity. There are many decisions that I could have made with the government encouraging business ventures and entrepreneurs of late. I have not been able to tap into all these because of my slow process of enterprising.
Conclusion
All in all, entrepreneurship is something that is different from business skills. Business oriented person someone who can start a business that has been done by others. An entrepreneur is someone who undertakes a business which is unique in the environment they are undertaking. It is now clear that entrepreneurship requires that one has to have some values and characteristics. These characteristics help someone to work on the venture well. It is, therefore, important to ensure that one had what it takes to venture into a new deal. They should be ready to go into coalitions with other entrepreneurs so that they encourage growth.
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