Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
Introduction
The term ‘entrepreneurship’ became very popular in the 21st century when people recognized the importance of introducing major changes in the world. Today, many people abandon their career as an employee and start entrepreneurial ventures with intent to earn unlimited income and to meet their self-actualization needs. Considering the scope of entrepreneurship in supporting a country’s economic growth, governments worldwide are willing to finance potential entrepreneurial start-ups today. This paper will critically explore the scope of entrepreneurship, giving particular emphasis to the operations of small business houses.
Obviously, time and money are two important factors determining the success of a business venture. For an entrepreneur, the effectiveness of the use of time and money plays a significant role in influencing the entrepreneurial success. According to Hogeforster and Jarke (2013), when entrepreneurs invest time and money sensibly in their entrepreneurial venture, they will be able to set a personal working schedule. To explain, they can determine what hours to work and have the flexibility to adjust their work schedule to balance between their professional life and family life (p.390). In other words, entrepreneurs can enjoy time freedom to a great extent so that they would not miss precious moments of their life. In addition, entrepreneurs have complete control over their business and have final decision making authority. Therefore, they do not have to depend on others to operate their venture, and the situation gives them the opportunity make flexible decisions. Every entrepreneur has an opportunity make unlimited income and this is the most fascinating feature of entrepreneurship. In case of any other profession, people’s ability to earn income is limited. Hence, thoughtful use of time and money would enable entrepreneurs to earn unlimited income and thereby secure their lives. A person with extreme entrepreneurial abilities may adopt the strategy of serial entrepreneurship, which is the practice of coming up with new ideas and establishing new entrepreneurial ventures repeatedly. Once a venture is established, the entrepreneur may sell it for a huge price. Through effective use of time and money, a serial entrepreneur can earn unlimited income for a lifetime. To illustrate, prominent serial entrepreneurs like Andreas von Bechtolsheim and Richard Branson earned unlimited income throughout their lifetime through serial entrepreneurship. It is identified that entrepreneurship helps people limit their worksite stress notably because they are their boss. In addition, having enough time to spend with family and friends can assist entrepreneurs to keep themselves refreshed mentally. Experts say that entrepreneurship can be an exciting profession as it gives entrepreneurs new opportunities every day to challenge their determination, skills, and capabilities. The chance of earning unlimited income can keep entrepreneurs motivated always, and therefore, they would take constant efforts to achieve higher targets. It is really meaningful to invest time and money in entrepreneurship, which aids people to plan their life properly and to improve their living standards constantly.
Scope of Entrepreneurship
I strongly disagree with the statement that one needs to be born an entrepreneur. This has been a hot topic for debate for the last few decades because many people believed that an individual’s personality and other innate qualities are the crucial factors determining successful entrepreneurship. The biographies of successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, and Theo Paphitis support their claim as all these persons left school at the age of 16 to start their own business. However, I still say that most of the entrepreneurs are not born but made. It is an indisputable fact that an entrepreneur is a person who sees and seizes opportunities that others do not. Hence, identifying unexplored segments of the market or potential opportunities emerging in the market should be a major quality of an entrepreneur. It is clear that there are several people with potential skills, passion, and strong determination but still fail to become a successful entrepreneur. The major problem with these people is that they fail to identify opportunities that others do not see. However, long-year experience in the market or a particular sector can assist people to align their skills and passion with potential opportunities. Therefore, experience is the key to entrepreneurship and not innate qualities. According to a recent Ernst & Young survey that covered 685 entrepreneurs, experience was recognized to be the key factor determining the success of entrepreneurial endeavors. This survey found that 58% of the respondents were transitioned entrepreneurs who had not demonstrated entrepreneurial skills or abilities in their earlier stages of life. Many of them responded that their exposure to a corporate environment for a long time benefited them to develop essential entrepreneurial skills and abilities. They added that this corporate exposure gave them a potential training ground for building a successful corporate career. Undoubtedly, long corporate experience can assist to master in dealing with change, handling failures, accumulating resources, and managing human capital. Hence, an individual can acquire entrepreneurial skills and attributes from his/her life experiences, and proper education can also play a notable role in molding a successful entrepreneur. In the words of Jamal Edwards, founder of SB. TV, “an entrepreneur was 5% born with innate abilities and 95% made by life experiences” (as cited in Dawson, 2014). Many successful entrepreneurs state that entrepreneurial success is not about merely using innate abilities but is about the determination to face challenges when bringing a change. Greg Davies, behavioral and quantitative finance head at Barclays Bank, indicates that many elements of entrepreneurship can be taught. To illustrate, he says that successful entrepreneurs will be more efficient at ‘securing funding on subsequent project’ implying that they acquire many entrepreneurial skills during the initial process (cited in Dawson, 2014). If an individual has strong determination to achieve a goal and powerful mind to manage challenges, he has passed the first stage of becoming a successful entrepreneur. While going through the history, one can see that many successful entrepreneurs were transitioned entrepreneurs who faced severe setbacks in their initial phases of professional life.
Distinction between Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
It is important to note that entrepreneurs and small business owners are not the same even though both are self-employed and working for some sort of profit. There are significant differences between entrepreneurs and small business owners in various aspects of everyday business. One of the major differences is that entrepreneurs never want things remain the same. In other words, entrepreneurs constantly strive to introduce changes and to improve their profitability. In contrast, most of the small business owners would be happy with what they possess currently and are less likely to take further efforts to improve the venture. Entrepreneurs will be eager to explore and invent new things and to introduce technological innovations whereas small business owners are more likely to follow something that others have already introduced. Entrepreneurs will be always looking for entering the next phase of business or achieving the next big thing once their venture grows enough. On the other hand, small business owners tend to be more conventional and to give more emphasis to the sentiments of community. In case of small business owners, their one and only motive to do business is profit. However, entrepreneurs are motivated by other factors such as excitement, passion, and self-actualization needs in addition to profit. Another notable difference is that entrepreneurs want to change the way the world lives whereas small business owners simply want to enhance their living standards. Small business owners are always well-informed of their business and target audience and they know what to do to keep their customers satisfied and loyal to them. They take every possible effort to serve their customers well and to improve earnings. However, entrepreneurs often dream big and come up with big ideas yet to be tested in the real life. In some cases, entrepreneurs cannot assure whether their idea is even possible. As Spring (2014) purports, entrepreneurs and small business owners differ noticeably when it comes to risk taking behavior. Small business owners would like to take calculated risks only when the outcome is almost clear. Even though the result may not be very appealing, it is less likely to put their business sustainability at risk (Spring, 2014). In case of entrepreneurs, they love to take higher risks as they have greater confidence in their abilities to come up with potential innovations and to change the industry. It seems that small business owners plan their business activities and policies for the short-term whereas entrepreneurs develop their ventures for long-term (Spring, 2014). Many entrepreneurs say that they think ahead of at least six months to take advantages of opportunities emerging in the market.
Conclusion
In total, investing money and time in entrepreneurship is justifiable. By effectively utilizing valuable resources such as a time and money, an entrepreneur can earn unlimited income from his entrepreneurial venture and enjoy a great balance between professional life and family life. Entrepreneurs are not born but made. Evidences suggest that experience is crucial to entrepreneurial success, and therefore, a person can acquire many entrepreneurship attributes from his/her real-life experiences. Finally, there are many notable differences between entrepreneurs and small business owners in the sense that the former works to change the way the world lives whereas the latter simply attempts to improve their living standards.
References
Dawson, F. (Dec 25, 2014). Are Entrepreneurs Born Or Made? Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/freddiedawson/2014/12/25/are-entrepreneurs-born-or-made/#3fea3295832b
Hogeforster, M & Jarke, P. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility and Women's Entrepreneurship around the Mare Balticum. BOD GmbH DE.
Spring, M. (May 15, 2014). Are You a Small-Business Owner or an Entrepreneur? The Difference Is Important. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233919
