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Characteristics of Entrepreneur in Business and Socio-Economic Development

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week; but today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s

This is what entrepreneurship is all about. You need to have ‘fire in the belly’ to be a successful entrepreneur; the adamant urge to make your business ideas transform into reality, and successful. According to Peter Drucker, entrepreneurship is “a systematic innovation, which consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and it is the systematic analysis of opportunities such changes might offer for economic and social innovation.” It is the inherent ability to build and create something relevant and successful from practically nothing. On a broader outlook, entrepreneurship is an attitude; a quality to seek challenging opportunities, take only calculated risks and drive the benefits in the way of setting up a profitable venture.

There are several roles that come with the quality of entrepreneurship, and most of these are aimed at wider socio-economic development. Discussed herewith are the primary roles of an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur as Risk-Taker.

According to Richard Cantillon, entrepreneurship is all about having the willingness and foresight of assuming risks, while taking calculated actions in making a profit, or loss. According to him, an entrepreneur has to be risk-taking, forward-looking and efficiently alert if not innovative in true sense. The role of an entrepreneur involves two types of risks; measured and unmeasured. However, a successful entrepreneur is one who has the potential to foresee and assume the unmeasured risks in his business, transforming them into business opportunities for growth and profit.

Entrepreneur as Innovator.

Entrepreneurship has a major role in assimilating knowledge, which is not in recent use, and setting up new forms and functions of production to design, produce, and market new and innovative products. Joseph Schumpeter pointed out here that innovation does not mean that it has to be newly discovered. The quality of an entrepreneur lies in utilizing the existing knowledge that has never been used before in production. More from being an inventor, an entrepreneur needs to possess the potential of driving invention into lucrative commercial exploitation.

Entrepreneur as a Leader.

This is one of the primary roles of entrepreneurship. According to Alfred Marshall, an entrepreneur “must be a natural leader of men who can choose assistants wisely but also exercise a general control over everything and preserve order and unity in the main plan of business.” He should be on constant lookout for innovative methods that guarantees to be most effective with respect to the costs presently in use. He should possess the inherent quality of leading the business and work force, towards a better socio-economic scenario in a broader perspective.

Entrepreneur as Restorer or Perceiver.

John Bates Clark views entrepreneurship as the process responsible for maintaining coordination that helps in restoring the socio economy to the position of effective equilibrium. Through a comprehensive “discovery process,” entrepreneurs identify new lucrative opportunities and risks, thus, driving the market towards equilibrium. Role of entrepreneurship lies in being alert to the profitable business opportunities, and for this, the quality of perception is a primary trait of a successful entrepreneur.

Characteristics to Evaluate in a Prospective Partner

When a female business owner is considering a business partnership, evaluating her prospective partner based on several criteria increases the likelihood that the match will yield positive results for both parties. While gut instinct and good chemistry may make the partnership friendly and enjoyable, those two components on their own do not necessarily create a recipe for business success. Rather, careful evaluation of specific business-related components of the prospective partner’s personality and experience can lead to entrepreneurial harmony – and business success.

Extensive research with women business owners about all aspects of business ownership reveals the importance of due diligence when selecting a business partner. Further, research shows there are seven main characteristics to consider in prospective partners. This article discusses the details of two of those characteristics.

Characteristic 1: Suitability for Entrepreneurship

The question: “Is the prospective partner well-suited for being self-employed?”

Although a prospective partner may have great ideas, tons of money, or be a complete sales superstar, that doesn’t necessarily mean she is cut out to be a great businessperson. If both partners have been self-employed before, the question of suitability may be easy to answer. If one of the partners (or neither) has been self-employed, consider the financial risks of self-employment, the self-discipline required, family tension, and the challenges of working at home (if applicable), just to get started.

It is important to realize that even if a prospective partner seems like a perfect match, if he or she is not suited to the entrepreneurial lifestyle, then he or she may end up unhappy or dissatisfied, or even unknowingly causing business problems.

If a prospective partner is cut out for business ownership and/or has succeeded at running a business of his or her own already, then the partners must determine whether they are well-suited to work together. If they’re not sure, they should do themselves a favor and discuss the challenges of entrepreneurship as much as they discuss the possibilities.

Characteristic 2: Compatible Business Goals and Values

The question: “Are there any conflicts around the partners’ business goals and values that would prohibit or jeopardize their ability to successfully partner together?”

Different types of business owners strive for different balances in their work. For a partnership to work well, the prospective partners must determine, ahead of time, how well their goals for business and for work-life balance fit together – and if they are not similar, how the partners can work out the differences.

For example, if one partner sees business ownership as a way to spend more time with her family and the other expects to put in 60-hour work weeks, the two partners may not be compatible. If one partner wants to build a multi-million dollar empire and the other wants to run a small, home-based business, they may not be compatible.

Here are some examples of partnerships between two types of business owners – and their potential high points and conflicts:

• Jane Dough and Go Jane Go: Both are driven to succeed, but for different reasons, with Jane Dough looking for growth and profit while Go Jane Go strives for service and deep customer relationships. To avoid miscommunication, these two types should discuss how to be of service while also hitting profit goals. Also, it is important for Jane Dough and Go Jane Go to keep lines of communication open, because Go Jane Go may tend to shoulder more than her share of work.

• Accidental Jane and Merry Jane: This partnership has the potential to be strong, because both types want life balance and time freedom. One point to consider: finding the right mix of business to deliver sufficient income to make both partners happy.

• Accidental Jane and Tenacity Jane: This partnership may be tricky because Accidental Jane wants an ideal job while Tenacity Jane may seek business growth (although she lacks experience or important skills). To succeed, they must discuss expectations about time and effort, as well as how they will handle financial decisions. Tenacity Jane may also seek a mentor who can help her develop skills that Accidental Jane may care less about.

Women business owners should keep in mind that all partner pairings can work, given a commitment to open dialog and mutual understanding. The best exercise to determine whether your business goals are in harmony – whether they’re two different entrepreneurial types or two entrepreneurs of the same type – is to put together a business plan, or at least start sketching out the process. The business planning process has the potential to reveal significant differences in partners’ long-term goals and approach. Those differences do not necessarily mean the end of a business partnership before it even begins. Rather, a complementary approach, in which partners consider all points of view and arrive at solutions that draw on their mutual experiences, will strengthen all business decisions.

One more key consideration: essential and desirable values. From creativity to risk-taking, and religion to parenting styles, all values come into play when two people work closely together.

If business partners share core values, their relationship will likely be more harmonious and rewarding. It is important for partners to understand each other’s entrepreneurial type and values, to increase the possibility that the partnership will thrive.

When two prospective partners are compatible in terms of entrepreneurial style and experience, and in terms of core values, their partnership is more likely to produce excellent business results that meet both their needs and desires.

Five Characteristics of a Good Business Plan

A business plan like any other write – up can either be good or bad. And if you want to know the difference of a good business plan from something that can be mediocre or even bad, then read on. But first off, let us start with giving everybody an idea of what a business plan is.

As implied, a business plan is a document that specifies and discusses the following:

• The company’s nature and identity

• Your objectives and the purpose of your existence in the world of consumers and entrepreneurs.

• The products you sell and offer

• Your marketing strategies

• The goals that you plan to achieve

• Your niche – the market that you plan to conquer

• Your plans for the business’ future

• And of course your financial standing prior to starting

By having all those information, you can see that a business plan is very much like a blueprint that will help you or anyone start and manage a business regardless of its nature.

Now that you realize its importance, the next thing that you should start working on is learning how to make one. But before you have the urge to get your computer going and start writing, here are the qualities of a good business plan that you have to keep in mind.

1. A business plan should be detailed. In listing your products and services for example, you should not really stop by just enumerating them. You also should write down the descriptions and scope of your products and services, touch base on production and identify means on how you can market your “brain – child” to your targeted niche.

2. It should include a market research that identifies your competitors, their share of the market and the range of the products they produce. By learning how they conduct their operations, you may learn tricks of the trade in the business you want to enter and you also get to have a basis on what you can do to excel.

3. It needs to have a list of everything you need. Note that the word everything here comprises of the equipment, technology, raw materials, financial and other resources that you may need when starting and running your business venture. Having all these listed will give you an idea on how much capital you need before you start and how much money should you make in a day to make your business survive.

4. It also needs to be written in formal format and style. You have to remember that a business plan is something that you may have to present to your business partners, financial firms and banks. So if you can, refrain from using slang in any part of your plan.

5. Finally, a business plan should be error – free. This is important because your business plan defines who you are as a business person. If it turned out sloppy, then that does not speak too highly of you.

Again those are five characteristics of a good business plan. Now that you know of them, you can start your research and start drafting your write – up.