It’s no secret that “career” doesn’t mean the same thing today that it did a generation ago. Generous pensions, retirement parties and company watches are a thing of the past and job-hopping every few years has become the norm. But what does the shifting economy and tightening job market really mean for the success prospects of Millennials?
According to Mark Hopkins, VC and author of Shortcut to Prosperity: 10 Entrepreneurial Habits and a Roadmap for an Exceptional Career which hit shelves January 1, the changing employment landscape means that every one of us—from the mailroom to the mid-level managers–is in need of an entrepreneurship reality check.
“For someone in their first or second job, it’s not unusual to be questioning what you’re doing, where your path is headed or what success and prosperity even means for you,” he says. “Personal entrepreneurship is the answer.” For anyone embarking on their career, entrepreneurial examples are instructive, he says—these risk-takers live and breathe risk in the relentless pursuit of success.
But Hopkins’ message isn’t for American youth to quit their jobs and strike out on their own en masse. Instead, he’s sharing the trade secrets of some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs—their most ingrained habits and thought-processes—that he says everyone can make a part of their playbook for success.
Secret No. 1: Find Your Field Of Play
Success, in entrepreneurship as in career-climbing, depends on identifying and making the most of opportunities. From Hopkins’ standpoint identifying the end-game is the first in many steps towards those opportunities and, ultimately, prosperity. Entrepreneurs excel in this area: they benefit from single-minded commitment to their projects and ideas and unshakable passion for fulfilling their dreams.
Seth Godin, the marketing evangelist and guru to a generation of entrepreneurs, says, “The universal truth is beyond question—the only people who excel are those who have decided to do so.” Entrepreneurs, Hopkins says, have made that decision in spades.
For those of us still in the career trenches, though, deciding on success requires that we fully understand not just what we’re passionate about, but where our skills lie—and ultimately in identifying what Hopkins calls a “personal vision” for success. “It takes a lot of soul-searching to identify what you’re truly passionate about,” he says. Some benefit from journaling, others from simply following their natural curiosity. Whatever the method, identifying your unique passions and vision for success in your career, he says, is absolutely imperative.
Why? Because once the vision of your ideal future is established—whether it’s the C-suite or creative control or just a massive paycheck—something quite powerful takes place. Hopkins calls it creative tension. Once you identify where you want to be in your career (your end game) a natural tension occurs between where you are currently and that ideal future. “From here on out you’re either working towards that goal or you’re giving up on success,” he says. “It really is that simple.”
Secret No. 2: Develop an Unfair Advantage
Entrepreneurs have a natural hustle about them—a go-big-or-go-home sensibility to the way they live their lives, run their businesses and pursue opportunities. Hopkins says this “I can do anything attitude” is natural to entrepreneurs who are building businesses in uncharted territory. “Being a pioneer is scary,” he says. “Taking risks that may or may not be successful is scary, but for entrepreneurs, that’s where you need to be to make it.” And from those risks, he says, comes hard-won lessons and, in turn, confidence.
In the context of career development, conveying confidence can be a tricky issue. If you swan about the office as a first-year associate your confidence could seem unwarranted, alienate your colleagues and earn you a bad reputation. “If you’ve paid your dues though,” Hopkins says, “If you’ve put in the work and won the successes to earn that confidence, you’ll be well-regarded—and walking the path to success.”
So what, exactly, does earning your confidence entail? Identifying opportunities and pursuing them, even if they seem like extreme risks. “I don’t care if you’re in a big organization or a small one, the people who are going to get noticed and advance are the intrapreneurs,” Hopkins says. If there’s a process or a workflow that you think could be fine-tuned or overhauled, he suggests asking your manager to allow you to test it out. “If you position yourself and embrace the pioneering, risk-taking spirit of an entrepreneur, you’re going to be noticed.”
Secret No. 3: Recruit Allies
Have you ever watched entrepreneurs at a networking event or industry conference? These people hobnob like their lives depend on it. And that’s because, professionally speaking, they do.
The success of any organization—from startups to bluechips—is only as strong as its team. With that in mind, Hopkins advises to build your personal dream team from the first day of your first job. “Call it building a rolodex or call it relationship building, but what it really comes down to is the fact that every person you interact with counts towards achieving your ultimate goal,” he says, “You’re meeting and collecting your allies along the way.”
But just collecting business cards isn’t the path to prosperity. “The secret is in really truly caring about the individuals that you meet,” Hopkins says. He points to Millennials, who will hold between 15 to 20 jobs during the course of their career. “Along the way you will meet people who complement your strengths, who can support your weaknesses, or who you just really click with,” he says. “Keep track of them, help them keep track of you,” for you never know when your paths will cross again or you’ll be able to help each other find success.
How entrepreneurship really works
Born entrepreneurs are risk takers? Is there something about their personalities that predispose them to take risks that others can not stomach? Can entrepreneurship be taught?
According entrepreneurship researcher Saras Sarasvathy, entrepreneurs are no different from others, they just take a different approach to solving problems.
Dr. Sarasvathy suggests that entrepreneurs actually create their own chances of success by taking additional measures as closer to their goals. Having been an entrepreneur for over 25 years, and the study of the behavior of many others, I think she's right. She calls this progressive approach "effectuation" because it takes advantage of cumulative effects that the contractor caused by their own actions.
Here are six key points to understand about the theory of effectuation Dr. Sarasvathy:
Entrepreneurs begin with what they have and what they are. What do you know a lot about? That early and very personal experiences have affected? What links do you have? Take advantage of these strengths to do something and then see what comes of it. This first step leads to the additional possibility, and sometimes these opportunities are very large and unpredictable. Action attracts others, and other opportunities and improve the chances of success.
Contractors limit the risk by understanding what they can afford to lose at every stage. True entrepreneurs never take great risk to both. In general, the calculation goes something like this: "I think it would be worth investing $ 50,000 in exploring this opportunity. If I lose, I can survive. What's the worst that can happen "There are two possible outcomes of this reasoning is the experience is successful, in which case the investment is rewarded and leads to other opportunities monitoring, or experience fails, which probably also lead to other opportunities followed. Anyway, new opportunities emerge usually because the action attracts others.
Entrepreneurs create their own market opportunity. When Burt Rutan began building Spaceship One, it was not because he perceived that there was a large market for expensive single spacecraft was going unmet. He started with what he could do and affordable risk. When Pierre Omidyar started Ebay, he did not expect it to become a multibillion dollar company. Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google tried to sell Google for $ 1 million, but were instead forced to see through and become multi-billionaires. The market for business is often not clear at the time of the foundation. Entrepreneurs to find their way to market creation, iterative lever and know what.
Contractors trust people. The best entrepreneurs internalize the African proverb: "If you want to go quickly, go alone, if you want to go far, go together." To discover the cuisine, it is often necessary to coordinate the interests of many. The best entrepreneurs involve more people in the effectuation process, because more people means more assets, which often has a nonlinear impact on the final result. In fact, Sarasvathy argues that some degree of calculated "over-confidence" and "intelligent altruism" is a rational strategy for discovering great multiplayer options that would otherwise be hidden or impossible.
Effective thinking can be taught. Because entrepreneurship is just an application of the effective logic and not the result of innate personality traits, it can be taught. We do not accept the idea that "scientists are born, not made", and although it might seem that some people are more willing to work with other scientists, we do not accept the idea that people can not be taught to think scientifically. It is even possible to teach people effective thinking. Tellingly, in communities where the effective thinking is common (Silicon Valley, for one), people who don ' had not previously shown effective trends are often motivated to adopt the model once they see that it can be effective to solve problems or generate wealth. effective reflection can not only be teachable, it may be contagious in the right circumstances.
Failure increases the chances of individual success. While the success rate of a typical single company could be quite small, an entrepreneur who experiences a failure is more likely to succeed in later rounds. Failure teaches entrepreneur about affordable risk, suggests limits on behavior-trust, and offers advice on how to maximize the chances. We should never stigmatize failure, but understand that this is part of effective processes.
Pop Business Books
It is fashionable to tell people stories about Purple Cows, tipping points, outliers, whuffie, crush, and practicing a work week of four hours. However, these books all have their roots in effective thinking. Do something. Use what you know to really stand out and be different. Work with others to discover whether you want to find. If books like this can motivate people to act, they are probably a good thing. But I think they can be crazy-making because they do not provide the intellectual underpinnings of why (and how) these approaches could actually work. They are most often shame you into action, and in the end they give you a fish, instead of teaching you.
Realization and Social Networks
The Internet (in general) and social networks (like Twitter and Facebook in particular) are platforms for effectuation. They allow entrepreneurs to find people who, at each successive stage, help contribute to the success of their business. These could be customers, partners or investors. Any platform that allows like-minded people to find each other is an accelerator to the effectuation process. In fact, the common understanding of them is more important than the roles they play. What is the difference between a company and a customer when both are involved in the product? Who pays whom for what and when it is a detail that needs to trend, but without finding the people who will participate in the conversation that maximizes the usefulness of the product, maximizing revenue will never be considered.
The myth of the visionary entrepreneur
We give a lot of credit for successful entrepreneurs. Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are some of the most admired people in the world. In some ways, that credit is deserved (but it could be argued that officials and aid workers are praiseworthy more). However, we give them too much credit, or at least we give them credit for bad ideas.
These people did not anticipate the circumstances of their success, and do not seek to achieve specific achievements for which they are best known. Instead, these people are all effectuators master. They took early action. They participate more. They took many successive steps that are moved closer to their passions. They suffered setbacks. And perhaps more importantly, they are alive to talk about it.
There are many unsung heroes and effectuators teachers who have had great success, but whose stories have ended worse. And we do not hear much about them. The end result should not diminish their achievement.
You do not need to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, or even have an idea right now, to be a successful entrepreneur. Start now and enjoy the ride. You'll be glad you did.
Entrepreneurship for you?
Entrepreneurship for you?
Starting your own business can be an exciting and rewarding experience. It can provide many benefits such as being your own boss, set your own schedule and make a living doing something you enjoy. But becoming a successful entrepreneur requires careful planning, creativity and hard work.
Determine if you have the following characteristics and skills commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs:
Comfortable with risk taking: Being your own boss also means that you are the person to make difficult decisions. Entrepreneurship involves uncertainty. Do you avoid the uncertainty in life at all costs? If so, then entrepreneurship may not be the best solution for you. Do you enjoy taking calculated risks? Then read on.
Independent: Contractors must make many decisions on their own. If you find that you can trust your instincts - and you do not have fear of rejection from time to time - you could be on your way to being an entrepreneur.
Persuasive: You can have the greatest idea in the world but if you can not convince customers, employees and lenders or potential partners, you may find entrepreneurship to be difficult. If you like public speaking, hire new people at home and you find convincing arguments based on facts, it is likely that you are ready to make your idea succeed.
Able to negotiate: As a small business owner, you will need to negotiate any lease contract clauses rates. Political negotiation techniques will help you save money and keep your business running smoothly.
Creative: Are you able to find new ideas? Can you imagine new ways to solve problems? Contractors must be able to think creatively. If you have any ideas on how to take advantage of new opportunities, entrepreneurship can be a good fit.
Supported by others: Before starting a business, it is important to have a strong support system in place. You will have to make many important decisions, especially in the first months of opening your business. If you do not have a support network of people to help you, consider finding a business mentor. A business mentor is someone who is experienced, efficient and ready to provide advice and guidance. Read the steps to find an article Mentor help on research and work with a mentor.
Still think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and start a new business? Great! Now ask yourself these 20 questions to help ensure that you have thought about right financial and commercial details.
Starting your own business can be an exciting and rewarding experience. It can provide many benefits such as being your own boss, set your own schedule and make a living doing something you enjoy. But becoming a successful entrepreneur requires careful planning, creativity and hard work.
Determine if you have the following characteristics and skills commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs:
Comfortable with risk taking: Being your own boss also means that you are the person to make difficult decisions. Entrepreneurship involves uncertainty. Do you avoid the uncertainty in life at all costs? If so, then entrepreneurship may not be the best solution for you. Do you enjoy taking calculated risks? Then read on.
Independent: Contractors must make many decisions on their own. If you find that you can trust your instincts - and you do not have fear of rejection from time to time - you could be on your way to being an entrepreneur.
Persuasive: You can have the greatest idea in the world but if you can not convince customers, employees and lenders or potential partners, you may find entrepreneurship to be difficult. If you like public speaking, hire new people at home and you find convincing arguments based on facts, it is likely that you are ready to make your idea succeed.
Able to negotiate: As a small business owner, you will need to negotiate any lease contract clauses rates. Political negotiation techniques will help you save money and keep your business running smoothly.
Creative: Are you able to find new ideas? Can you imagine new ways to solve problems? Contractors must be able to think creatively. If you have any ideas on how to take advantage of new opportunities, entrepreneurship can be a good fit.
Supported by others: Before starting a business, it is important to have a strong support system in place. You will have to make many important decisions, especially in the first months of opening your business. If you do not have a support network of people to help you, consider finding a business mentor. A business mentor is someone who is experienced, efficient and ready to provide advice and guidance. Read the steps to find an article Mentor help on research and work with a mentor.
Still think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and start a new business? Great! Now ask yourself these 20 questions to help ensure that you have thought about right financial and commercial details.
Concepts of Entrepreneurship
The concepts of entrepreneurship
The concepts of entrepreneurship The workshop participants were introduced to various aspects of entrepreneurship, namely the importance of getting ideas for a business, how to get ideas, identify the appropriate trade, factors to consider in the choice of a business, the factors to be considered in the decision to start a business, and functions of a business. Details on the topics covered during the session include:
Importance of Building on a basic business ideas are necessary in all cases to perform a job successfully should acquire the basic concepts of entrepreneurship before launching his company This knowledge allows a contractor to run the business smoothly and also to explore the possibility of taking new initiatives It also helps in making correct decision.
See how to find ideas with those who are currently in the company Respect other companies to identify problems and consider possible solutions Talk with friends and neighbors Get ideas of goods available on the market
Identify appropriate trade Be selective in identifying his job. Choose according to the capacity and interest of the Contractor. Decide only after obtaining relevant information enough on a trade or business in particular. It will help you to: • manage business smoothly • avoid the loss of large errors 4. Factors to consider in choosing a successful business Opportunities What are the risks Profitability Seduction
Small-scale Enterprise for Neo-literates through CLCs 5. Factors to consider when deciding on starting a business Availability of experienced and competent persons to consult Mobilizing sufficient capital Sufficient demand for products / goods on the facility to the marketing of goods storage facility Availability of raw materials ability to obtain government support 6. Business functions Preparation of the mobilization capital market business Surveying Plan Cost analysis price goods Marketing products The bookkeeping identify risk factors
He assumed great importance to accelerate economic growth in both developed and developing countries. It promotes capital formation and creates wealth in the country. There are hopes and dreams of millions of people around the world. It reduces unemployment and poverty, and it is a way to thrive. Entrepreneurship is the process of exploring opportunities in the market and have the resources to exploit these opportunities for long-term gain. This is the process of planning, organizing, opportunities and assuming. Thus, there is a risk business. It can be distinguished as an ability to take risks independently for maximum profits in the market. It is a creative and innovative competence and response adaptation to the environment.
The concepts of entrepreneurship The workshop participants were introduced to various aspects of entrepreneurship, namely the importance of getting ideas for a business, how to get ideas, identify the appropriate trade, factors to consider in the choice of a business, the factors to be considered in the decision to start a business, and functions of a business. Details on the topics covered during the session include:
Importance of Building on a basic business ideas are necessary in all cases to perform a job successfully should acquire the basic concepts of entrepreneurship before launching his company This knowledge allows a contractor to run the business smoothly and also to explore the possibility of taking new initiatives It also helps in making correct decision.
See how to find ideas with those who are currently in the company Respect other companies to identify problems and consider possible solutions Talk with friends and neighbors Get ideas of goods available on the market
Identify appropriate trade Be selective in identifying his job. Choose according to the capacity and interest of the Contractor. Decide only after obtaining relevant information enough on a trade or business in particular. It will help you to: • manage business smoothly • avoid the loss of large errors 4. Factors to consider in choosing a successful business Opportunities What are the risks Profitability Seduction
Small-scale Enterprise for Neo-literates through CLCs 5. Factors to consider when deciding on starting a business Availability of experienced and competent persons to consult Mobilizing sufficient capital Sufficient demand for products / goods on the facility to the marketing of goods storage facility Availability of raw materials ability to obtain government support 6. Business functions Preparation of the mobilization capital market business Surveying Plan Cost analysis price goods Marketing products The bookkeeping identify risk factors
Characteristics of an entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs have many of the same character traits as leaders, similar to the early great man theories of leadership; however trait-based theories of entrepreneurship are increasingly being called into question. Entrepreneurs are often contrasted with managers and administrators who are said to be more methodical and less prone to risk-taking. Such person-centric models of entrepreneurship have shown to be of questionable validity, not least as many real-life entrepreneurs operate in teams rather than as single individuals.
There is no such thing as a typical entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs are quiet and hard-working, while others are more outgoing and flamboyant. The key to being a successful entrepreneur lies in the ability to take an idea and then, through the process of innovation, develop it in such a way that it becomes a marketable product or service. Research indicates that there are a number of characteristics that are quite likely to be present in high-achieving entrepreneurs:
The ability to learn from others – entrepreneurs tend to be good at networking. They benefit from being members of organisation like the IET where they can learn best practice ideas from others.
Self confidence – a belief in their own abilities and ideas.
Being innovative/inventive – being able to generate ideas, either for new products/services or new ways of applying them.
Self motivation and determination – the drive to keep going and see things through.
Showing initiative – it is necessary to have not only the ideas for the business, but also the detailed plans to achieve objectives (both thinking and doing).
Analytical abilities – capable of researching and evaluating each aspect of the business, from development, through finance, production, to marketing and sales.
The ability to make decisions and to take (considered) risks.
A focus on results that ensures products are sold for a profit.
The combination of many of these skills and qualities, with the right support, ensures ideas do not just remain as dreams but become real, viable businesses.
There is no such thing as a typical entrepreneur. Some entrepreneurs are quiet and hard-working, while others are more outgoing and flamboyant. The key to being a successful entrepreneur lies in the ability to take an idea and then, through the process of innovation, develop it in such a way that it becomes a marketable product or service. Research indicates that there are a number of characteristics that are quite likely to be present in high-achieving entrepreneurs:
The ability to learn from others – entrepreneurs tend to be good at networking. They benefit from being members of organisation like the IET where they can learn best practice ideas from others.
Self confidence – a belief in their own abilities and ideas.
Being innovative/inventive – being able to generate ideas, either for new products/services or new ways of applying them.
Self motivation and determination – the drive to keep going and see things through.
Showing initiative – it is necessary to have not only the ideas for the business, but also the detailed plans to achieve objectives (both thinking and doing).
Analytical abilities – capable of researching and evaluating each aspect of the business, from development, through finance, production, to marketing and sales.
The ability to make decisions and to take (considered) risks.
A focus on results that ensures products are sold for a profit.
The combination of many of these skills and qualities, with the right support, ensures ideas do not just remain as dreams but become real, viable businesses.
Schumpeter and entrepreneurship
Schumpeter
In Schumpeter, the entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation. Entrepreneurship employs what Schumpeter called "the gale of creative destruction" to replace in whole or in part lower in all markets and industry innovations, creating new products, including new business models simultaneously. This way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of the industry and economic growth in the long term. supposition that entrepreneurship leads to economic growth is an interpretation of the residual interest in the theory of endogenous growth and as such is very controversial in the academic economy. Another description posed by Israel Kirzner suggests that the majority of innovations may be much more incremental improvements, such as replacing paper with plastic in the construction of a straw.
For Schumpeter, entrepreneurship resulted in new industries, but also in new combinations of currently existing entries. First example of Schumpeter is the combination of a steam engine and wagon current manufacturing technologies to produce the horseless carriage. In this case, the innovation, the car was transformational but did not require the development of new technology, the application of existing technologies in a new way. It does not replace the carriage immediately, but over time, incremental improvements that have reduced the cost and improved technology has led to the complete replacement of animal practice drawn vehicles in modern transportation. Despite the early 20th century contributions of Schumpeter, the traditional microeconomic theory did not formally consider the entrepreneur in its theoretical frameworks (instead assuming that resources would find each other through a system of price) . In this treatment, the entrepreneur was an implied but unspecified actor, but it is compatible with the concept of the entrepreneur as the agent of x-efficiency.
In Schumpeter, the entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation. Entrepreneurship employs what Schumpeter called "the gale of creative destruction" to replace in whole or in part lower in all markets and industry innovations, creating new products, including new business models simultaneously. This way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of the industry and economic growth in the long term. supposition that entrepreneurship leads to economic growth is an interpretation of the residual interest in the theory of endogenous growth and as such is very controversial in the academic economy. Another description posed by Israel Kirzner suggests that the majority of innovations may be much more incremental improvements, such as replacing paper with plastic in the construction of a straw.
For Schumpeter, entrepreneurship resulted in new industries, but also in new combinations of currently existing entries. First example of Schumpeter is the combination of a steam engine and wagon current manufacturing technologies to produce the horseless carriage. In this case, the innovation, the car was transformational but did not require the development of new technology, the application of existing technologies in a new way. It does not replace the carriage immediately, but over time, incremental improvements that have reduced the cost and improved technology has led to the complete replacement of animal practice drawn vehicles in modern transportation. Despite the early 20th century contributions of Schumpeter, the traditional microeconomic theory did not formally consider the entrepreneur in its theoretical frameworks (instead assuming that resources would find each other through a system of price) . In this treatment, the entrepreneur was an implied but unspecified actor, but it is compatible with the concept of the entrepreneur as the agent of x-efficiency.
History of Entrepreneur
History of Entrepreneurship
A History of Entrepreneurship is a brief survey of what several well-known, and several less-well-known, economists have had to say about the role of the entrepreneur in the economy. Hébert and Link have collaborated on the history of entrepreneurship before. Besides some papers, their 1988 monograph is substantially the same as the current monograph and their 2006 monograph appears identical except for new versions of the very brief Preface, Introduction and Conclusion. (If you decide the monograph is useful to you, you may want to buy the 2006 version available for download through SSRN for a mere $19.) Since this is a very slight revision of their 1988 monograph, it is not surprising that almost all of the literature cited is from the mid-1980s or earlier. Much recent literature is ignored (e.g., Mark Blaug’s insightful 1998 paper).
Economic writings on entrepreneurship are organized, mainly by time and geography, into ten brief chapters – Schumpeter is given his own chapter. Chapters are devoted to French economists, English economists, the neo-classicals, and American economists. Among twentieth-century economists, besides Schumpeter, significant attention is devoted to Frank Knight, Israel Kirzner, and Ronald Coase.
The monograph does not aim to make a contribution to economic history, and none is made. Economic historian Arthur Cole's Harvard workshop on entrepreneurship receives a couple of pages (pp. 78-79) of discussion, but almost entirely in terms of the theoretical stance of the workshop participants.
In the Introduction and Conclusion, the authors try to justify their efforts by claiming that investigation of the history of thought on entrepreneurship will provide insights to current questions on entrepreneurship. For instance, they are curious “why is capitalism reviled in Western Europe?” (p. xix). Their brief answer in the Introduction is: “the inability of many intellectuals to escape Marxist patterns of thought” (p. xix). The question is of interest, and their answer is worth considering, but the body of the monograph holds no elaboration.
Another current question raised by the authors is why “the entrepreneur was squeezed from economics” (p. 104). Their answer is the mathematization of the discipline. This is a plausible conclusion, but one that has been reached by others before, without having to rehearse all of the details of early economic writings on entrepreneurship.
Mainly what the monograph actually does is to catalog what position a variety of economists took on a few issues that are important to the authors. The primary issue of interest is to identify which roles the economist emphasized for the entrepreneur. One of the most useful features of the monograph is a resulting compendium of twelve roles that an entrepreneur can have, with a parenthetical listing of the economists who mentioned each role. The twelve roles are: assumer of risk, supplier of capital, innovator, decision-maker, industrial leader, manager, organizer of resources, owner of firm, employer of inputs, contractor, arbitrageur, and allocator of inputs.
The authors give special emphasis and praise to those economists who saw the entrepreneur as a dynamic assumer of risk or innovator. I share an interest in the entrepreneur as innovator and believe the monograph will be useful for giving credit where credit is due. For instance, I had never heard of Abbé Nicholas Baudeau, and so was interested to learn (pp. 14-15) that he had anticipated Schumpeter in emphasizing the role of entrepreneurs as innovators. Bentham is much better known, but I had not known that Bentham (pp. 28-32) also appreciated the role of entrepreneur as innovator.
In concluding, the authors’ main prediction is that: “In the future ... Knight may be more relevant to the subject of entrepreneurship than Schumpeter, at least among management specialists who study entrepreneurship” (p. 103). They reach this prediction by extrapolating the academic theorizing in an article by Alvarez and Barney (2005). An alternative approach would be to identify which entrepreneurs have mattered most for achieving the spectacular economic growth of what McCloskey (2010, p. 48) has called the “Great Fact” of economics; and then to study carefully the history and biography of those innovative entrepreneurs. Following that approach, Schumpeter’s continued relevance is assured.
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History of entrepreneur
The entrepreneur is a factor in microeconomics, and the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to the work of Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but was largely ignored theoretically until the late 19th and early 20th centuries and empirically until a profound resurgence in business and economics in the last 40 years.
In the 20th century, the understanding of entrepreneurship owes much to the work of economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek.
History's 10 greatest entrepreneurs
How many entrepreneurs have there been in the history of the world? Millions, certainly, probably even billions. These are the men and women who take capital -- their own or somebody else’s -- and use it to beget more capital. Some fail, some succeed, some excel.
With so many candidates to choose from, any list of the 10 greatest entrepreneurs of all time will necessarily be somewhat arbitrary. It will also be top-heavy with Americans, just as a list of great chefs would be disproportionately French or of great eccentrics dominated by the British.
Business is what America does. If that sounds chauvinistic, get over it.
Here, without further ado but with tongue occasionally in cheek, are history’s 10 greatest entrepreneurs.
1. King Croesus. A pick by our veterans committee, Croesus, who ruled the Asia Minor kingdom of Lydia in the sixth century B.C., is owed a huge debt of gratitude for minting the world’s first coinage, thereby creating in a single stroke the lifeblood of every business: liquidity and cash flow. Moreover, his opulent lifestyle has given entrepreneurs throughout history something to shoot for. Is there a greater distinction for the commercially inclined than to be deemed “as rich as Croesus”?
2. Pope Sixtus IV. Sixtus gets the nod for realizing that the “wages of sin” meant more than unpleasant repercussions. There was money to be made in damnation, and Sixtus mined it by opening up a new market -- the dead -- for the indulgences the church had been selling for years. Relatives of the deceased quickly filled the Vatican’s coffers with payments intended to lessen the time their loved ones spent in purgatory. In 1478 Sixtus “grew his market” by authorizing the Spanish Inquisition, which swelled purgatory’s ranks by 100,000 souls in 15 years. He also was the first pope to license brothels.
3. Benjamin Franklin. In a real sense, Franklin was America’s first entrepreneur. Unlike other of the Founding Fathers -- the hypermoral Washington, the prodigiously intellectual Jefferson -- whose virtues and attainments are seen today as anachronisms, Franklin truly was a model of what many of us would become. Beneath the statesman’s mantle resided a popular author, a printer, an inventor (the lightning rod, bifocals) and a very savvy businessman who knew how to commercialize the fruits of his fertile mind.
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4. P.T. Barnum. Americans have always loved a good scam and Phineas Taylor Barnum took the art to new heights. He played on our fascination with the bizarre and freakish with sideshow acts ranging from the midget Tom Thumb to Jumbo the giant elephant. In between was a host of more dubious curiosities. He created the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a showcase for all this wonderment, and dubbed it “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Along the way he invented modern advertising and became rich. For the record, he never said “There’s a sucker born every five minutes,” but he left behind plenty of other bon mots. Among them: “Every crowd has a silver lining.”
5. Thomas Edison. What do you say about the man who gave the world the electric light, the phonograph, talking motion pictures and more than 1,300 other patented inventions? That he was the world’s greatest inventor, certainly. But he was also able to exploit the profit potential in his creations, an entrepreneurial bent that asserted itself when Edison was a teen-ager, printing a newspaper in the baggage car of a rolling train and then selling copies to passengers. His impact on the way people live was and is pervasive. As a combination of inventive genius and entrepreneurial flair, he stands alone.
6. Henry Ford. Ford also fundamentally changed human lifestyles by making available a vehicle, the Model T, that vastly extended people’s range of movement. The automobile would allow America’s masses to fulfill their Manifest Destiny to populate every corner of the continent. But his more profound impact was on industry. The moving assembly line he designed to build his cars was the signal breakthrough of the Industrial Age. Appropriately, Ford earned the seed capital for his enterprise by working as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.
7. Benjamin Siegel. Known as “Bugsy” to his friends,Siegel was a notorious mobster with a touch of the visionary. Legend has it that he single-handedly invented Las Vegas, and that’s a stretch. But he was the first to see what the town could become: a lush oasis of pleasure where gambling was just one of the attractions. He also proved adept at attracting other people’s money to build his iconic resort, The Flamingo. Trouble was, some of those other people belonged to an outfit called Murder Inc., and Siegel was gunned down in 1947 amid rumors he had stolen from his partners. But give the devil his due: Before there was the Bellagio, there was Bugsy.
8. Ray Kroc. Nothing says entrepreneur like persistence, and nothings says persistence like Ray Kroc, the kitchen wares salesman who in 1954, at age 52 and in poor health, had his imagination hijacked by a family-run restaurant in the desert outside Los Angeles. Once he had bought out the McDonald brothers, Kroc proceeded to take their concept of a limited menu, fast service and low prices and expand it nationally, in the process creating the fast-food industry and dramatically affecting America’s lifestyle and, sadly, collective health.
9. H. Ross Perot. Within every entrepreneur lurks a touch of the cowboy, and there’s no better example of the strain than Perot, the diminutive Texan who has become best known in recent years as a political gadfly. Before that, though, he was all business, using a $1,000 loan from his wife in 1962 to launch Electronic Data Systems. Perot’s winning idea was that large corporations and organizations needed data-processing help if they were to take full advantage of computer technology. When in the mid-’60s he won contracts with two new federal health-care programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- EDS was off and running and Perot was on his way to being one of America’s richest citizens.
10. Jobs & Wozniak. Apple Computer’s two Steves weren’t the first Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to launch a billion-dollar business from a Palo Alto garage -- Hewlett and Packard were there before them -- but they were the first to democratize computing by creating a machine whose use was so wonderfully intuitive that even technophobes embraced it. Combine the elegance of Wozniak’s operating system design with Jobs’ marketing savvy (remember Apple’s “1984” ad?) and the result was a true phenomenon. Yes, the Apple was eclipsed by the PC, but only after Microsoft (behind the vision of two other notable entrepreneurs, Bill Gates and Paul Allen) developed Windows to ape its rival’s ease of use.
A History of Entrepreneurship is a brief survey of what several well-known, and several less-well-known, economists have had to say about the role of the entrepreneur in the economy. Hébert and Link have collaborated on the history of entrepreneurship before. Besides some papers, their 1988 monograph is substantially the same as the current monograph and their 2006 monograph appears identical except for new versions of the very brief Preface, Introduction and Conclusion. (If you decide the monograph is useful to you, you may want to buy the 2006 version available for download through SSRN for a mere $19.) Since this is a very slight revision of their 1988 monograph, it is not surprising that almost all of the literature cited is from the mid-1980s or earlier. Much recent literature is ignored (e.g., Mark Blaug’s insightful 1998 paper).
Economic writings on entrepreneurship are organized, mainly by time and geography, into ten brief chapters – Schumpeter is given his own chapter. Chapters are devoted to French economists, English economists, the neo-classicals, and American economists. Among twentieth-century economists, besides Schumpeter, significant attention is devoted to Frank Knight, Israel Kirzner, and Ronald Coase.
The monograph does not aim to make a contribution to economic history, and none is made. Economic historian Arthur Cole's Harvard workshop on entrepreneurship receives a couple of pages (pp. 78-79) of discussion, but almost entirely in terms of the theoretical stance of the workshop participants.
In the Introduction and Conclusion, the authors try to justify their efforts by claiming that investigation of the history of thought on entrepreneurship will provide insights to current questions on entrepreneurship. For instance, they are curious “why is capitalism reviled in Western Europe?” (p. xix). Their brief answer in the Introduction is: “the inability of many intellectuals to escape Marxist patterns of thought” (p. xix). The question is of interest, and their answer is worth considering, but the body of the monograph holds no elaboration.
Another current question raised by the authors is why “the entrepreneur was squeezed from economics” (p. 104). Their answer is the mathematization of the discipline. This is a plausible conclusion, but one that has been reached by others before, without having to rehearse all of the details of early economic writings on entrepreneurship.
Mainly what the monograph actually does is to catalog what position a variety of economists took on a few issues that are important to the authors. The primary issue of interest is to identify which roles the economist emphasized for the entrepreneur. One of the most useful features of the monograph is a resulting compendium of twelve roles that an entrepreneur can have, with a parenthetical listing of the economists who mentioned each role. The twelve roles are: assumer of risk, supplier of capital, innovator, decision-maker, industrial leader, manager, organizer of resources, owner of firm, employer of inputs, contractor, arbitrageur, and allocator of inputs.
The authors give special emphasis and praise to those economists who saw the entrepreneur as a dynamic assumer of risk or innovator. I share an interest in the entrepreneur as innovator and believe the monograph will be useful for giving credit where credit is due. For instance, I had never heard of Abbé Nicholas Baudeau, and so was interested to learn (pp. 14-15) that he had anticipated Schumpeter in emphasizing the role of entrepreneurs as innovators. Bentham is much better known, but I had not known that Bentham (pp. 28-32) also appreciated the role of entrepreneur as innovator.
In concluding, the authors’ main prediction is that: “In the future ... Knight may be more relevant to the subject of entrepreneurship than Schumpeter, at least among management specialists who study entrepreneurship” (p. 103). They reach this prediction by extrapolating the academic theorizing in an article by Alvarez and Barney (2005). An alternative approach would be to identify which entrepreneurs have mattered most for achieving the spectacular economic growth of what McCloskey (2010, p. 48) has called the “Great Fact” of economics; and then to study carefully the history and biography of those innovative entrepreneurs. Following that approach, Schumpeter’s continued relevance is assured.
In some modern theories of thesis, entrepreneurs also include the top tier of executives Have you are running a corporation.Along with entrepreneurial theory, it is Observed That The growing importance of entrepreneurship theories Regarding Emerged side by side with the historical events whichintegrated , contractor as an essential part of a modern, capitalist society. Historicalentrepreneurships, for instance, the establishment of Coca Cola in the 19
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History of entrepreneur
The entrepreneur is a factor in microeconomics, and the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to the work of Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but was largely ignored theoretically until the late 19th and early 20th centuries and empirically until a profound resurgence in business and economics in the last 40 years.
In the 20th century, the understanding of entrepreneurship owes much to the work of economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek.
History's 10 greatest entrepreneurs
How many entrepreneurs have there been in the history of the world? Millions, certainly, probably even billions. These are the men and women who take capital -- their own or somebody else’s -- and use it to beget more capital. Some fail, some succeed, some excel.
With so many candidates to choose from, any list of the 10 greatest entrepreneurs of all time will necessarily be somewhat arbitrary. It will also be top-heavy with Americans, just as a list of great chefs would be disproportionately French or of great eccentrics dominated by the British.
Business is what America does. If that sounds chauvinistic, get over it.
Here, without further ado but with tongue occasionally in cheek, are history’s 10 greatest entrepreneurs.
1. King Croesus. A pick by our veterans committee, Croesus, who ruled the Asia Minor kingdom of Lydia in the sixth century B.C., is owed a huge debt of gratitude for minting the world’s first coinage, thereby creating in a single stroke the lifeblood of every business: liquidity and cash flow. Moreover, his opulent lifestyle has given entrepreneurs throughout history something to shoot for. Is there a greater distinction for the commercially inclined than to be deemed “as rich as Croesus”?
2. Pope Sixtus IV. Sixtus gets the nod for realizing that the “wages of sin” meant more than unpleasant repercussions. There was money to be made in damnation, and Sixtus mined it by opening up a new market -- the dead -- for the indulgences the church had been selling for years. Relatives of the deceased quickly filled the Vatican’s coffers with payments intended to lessen the time their loved ones spent in purgatory. In 1478 Sixtus “grew his market” by authorizing the Spanish Inquisition, which swelled purgatory’s ranks by 100,000 souls in 15 years. He also was the first pope to license brothels.
3. Benjamin Franklin. In a real sense, Franklin was America’s first entrepreneur. Unlike other of the Founding Fathers -- the hypermoral Washington, the prodigiously intellectual Jefferson -- whose virtues and attainments are seen today as anachronisms, Franklin truly was a model of what many of us would become. Beneath the statesman’s mantle resided a popular author, a printer, an inventor (the lightning rod, bifocals) and a very savvy businessman who knew how to commercialize the fruits of his fertile mind.
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4. P.T. Barnum. Americans have always loved a good scam and Phineas Taylor Barnum took the art to new heights. He played on our fascination with the bizarre and freakish with sideshow acts ranging from the midget Tom Thumb to Jumbo the giant elephant. In between was a host of more dubious curiosities. He created the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a showcase for all this wonderment, and dubbed it “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Along the way he invented modern advertising and became rich. For the record, he never said “There’s a sucker born every five minutes,” but he left behind plenty of other bon mots. Among them: “Every crowd has a silver lining.”
5. Thomas Edison. What do you say about the man who gave the world the electric light, the phonograph, talking motion pictures and more than 1,300 other patented inventions? That he was the world’s greatest inventor, certainly. But he was also able to exploit the profit potential in his creations, an entrepreneurial bent that asserted itself when Edison was a teen-ager, printing a newspaper in the baggage car of a rolling train and then selling copies to passengers. His impact on the way people live was and is pervasive. As a combination of inventive genius and entrepreneurial flair, he stands alone.
6. Henry Ford. Ford also fundamentally changed human lifestyles by making available a vehicle, the Model T, that vastly extended people’s range of movement. The automobile would allow America’s masses to fulfill their Manifest Destiny to populate every corner of the continent. But his more profound impact was on industry. The moving assembly line he designed to build his cars was the signal breakthrough of the Industrial Age. Appropriately, Ford earned the seed capital for his enterprise by working as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.
7. Benjamin Siegel. Known as “Bugsy” to his friends,Siegel was a notorious mobster with a touch of the visionary. Legend has it that he single-handedly invented Las Vegas, and that’s a stretch. But he was the first to see what the town could become: a lush oasis of pleasure where gambling was just one of the attractions. He also proved adept at attracting other people’s money to build his iconic resort, The Flamingo. Trouble was, some of those other people belonged to an outfit called Murder Inc., and Siegel was gunned down in 1947 amid rumors he had stolen from his partners. But give the devil his due: Before there was the Bellagio, there was Bugsy.
8. Ray Kroc. Nothing says entrepreneur like persistence, and nothings says persistence like Ray Kroc, the kitchen wares salesman who in 1954, at age 52 and in poor health, had his imagination hijacked by a family-run restaurant in the desert outside Los Angeles. Once he had bought out the McDonald brothers, Kroc proceeded to take their concept of a limited menu, fast service and low prices and expand it nationally, in the process creating the fast-food industry and dramatically affecting America’s lifestyle and, sadly, collective health.
9. H. Ross Perot. Within every entrepreneur lurks a touch of the cowboy, and there’s no better example of the strain than Perot, the diminutive Texan who has become best known in recent years as a political gadfly. Before that, though, he was all business, using a $1,000 loan from his wife in 1962 to launch Electronic Data Systems. Perot’s winning idea was that large corporations and organizations needed data-processing help if they were to take full advantage of computer technology. When in the mid-’60s he won contracts with two new federal health-care programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- EDS was off and running and Perot was on his way to being one of America’s richest citizens.
10. Jobs & Wozniak. Apple Computer’s two Steves weren’t the first Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to launch a billion-dollar business from a Palo Alto garage -- Hewlett and Packard were there before them -- but they were the first to democratize computing by creating a machine whose use was so wonderfully intuitive that even technophobes embraced it. Combine the elegance of Wozniak’s operating system design with Jobs’ marketing savvy (remember Apple’s “1984” ad?) and the result was a true phenomenon. Yes, the Apple was eclipsed by the PC, but only after Microsoft (behind the vision of two other notable entrepreneurs, Bill Gates and Paul Allen) developed Windows to ape its rival’s ease of use.
The concept of entrepreneurship
The concept of entrepreneurship has a wide range of meanings. On the one extreme an entrepreneur is a person of very high aptitude who pioneers change, possessing characteristics found in only a very small fraction of the population. On the other extreme of definitions, anyone who wants to work for himself or herself is considered to be an entrepreneur.
The word entrepreneur originates from the French word, entreprendre, which means “to undertake.” In a business context, it means to start a business. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary presents the definition of an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.
Schumpeter’s View of Entrepreneurship
Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter ‘s definition of entrepreneurship placed an emphasis on innovation, such as:
new products
new production methods
new markets
new forms of organization
Wealth is created when such innovation results in new demand. From this viewpoint, one can define the function of the entrepreneur as one of combining various input factors in an innovative manner to generate value to the customer with the hope that this value will exceed the cost of the input factors, thus generating superior returns that result in the creation of wealth.
Definitions of an entrepreneur
Stems: from the French word ‘entrependre’ meaning one who undertakes or one
who is a ‘go-between’
1725: Richard Cantillon: An entrepreneur is a person who pays a certain price for a product to resell it at an uncertain price, thereby making decisions about obtaining and using the resources while consequently admitting the risk of enterprise.
1803: J.B. Say: An entrepreneur is an economic agent who unites all means of production- land of one, the labour of another and the capital of yet another and thus produces a product. By selling the product in the market he pays rent of land, wages to labour, interest on capital and what remains is his profit. He shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.
1934: Schumpeter: According to him entrepreneurs are innovators who use a process of shattering the status quo of the existing products and services, to set up new products, new services.
1961: David McClleland: An entrepreneur is a person with a high need for achievement [N-Ach]. He is energetic and a moderate risk taker. 1964: Peter Drucker: An entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits opportunities. Innovation is a specific tool of an entrepreneur hence an effective entrepreneur converts a source into a resource.
1971: Kilby: Emphasizes the role of an imitator entrepreneur who does not innovate but imitates technologies innovated by others. Are very important in developing economies.
1975: Albert Shapero: Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of failure and have an internal locus of control.
1983: G. Pinchot: Intrapreneur is an entrepreneur within an already established organization.
The word entrepreneur originates from the French word, entreprendre, which means “to undertake.” In a business context, it means to start a business. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary presents the definition of an entrepreneur as one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.
Schumpeter’s View of Entrepreneurship
Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter ‘s definition of entrepreneurship placed an emphasis on innovation, such as:
new products
new production methods
new markets
new forms of organization
Wealth is created when such innovation results in new demand. From this viewpoint, one can define the function of the entrepreneur as one of combining various input factors in an innovative manner to generate value to the customer with the hope that this value will exceed the cost of the input factors, thus generating superior returns that result in the creation of wealth.
Definitions of an entrepreneur
Stems: from the French word ‘entrependre’ meaning one who undertakes or one
who is a ‘go-between’
1725: Richard Cantillon: An entrepreneur is a person who pays a certain price for a product to resell it at an uncertain price, thereby making decisions about obtaining and using the resources while consequently admitting the risk of enterprise.
1803: J.B. Say: An entrepreneur is an economic agent who unites all means of production- land of one, the labour of another and the capital of yet another and thus produces a product. By selling the product in the market he pays rent of land, wages to labour, interest on capital and what remains is his profit. He shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.
1934: Schumpeter: According to him entrepreneurs are innovators who use a process of shattering the status quo of the existing products and services, to set up new products, new services.
1961: David McClleland: An entrepreneur is a person with a high need for achievement [N-Ach]. He is energetic and a moderate risk taker. 1964: Peter Drucker: An entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits opportunities. Innovation is a specific tool of an entrepreneur hence an effective entrepreneur converts a source into a resource.
1971: Kilby: Emphasizes the role of an imitator entrepreneur who does not innovate but imitates technologies innovated by others. Are very important in developing economies.
1975: Albert Shapero: Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of failure and have an internal locus of control.
1983: G. Pinchot: Intrapreneur is an entrepreneur within an already established organization.
5 Competencies of an Entrepreneur vs. Small Business Owner
5 Competencies of an Entrepreneur vs. Small Business Owner
About a week ago I received a really good article “Is there a difference between entrepreneurs and business owners?” It states what I’ve said for years as people throw around the term “entrepreneur” like it’s something that you wake up one day and decide you’re going to be one! Nothing could be further from the truth.
The problem is many who would call themselves entrepreneurs is they really are small business owners in disguise. They could become an entrepreneur if they only mastered the competencies of entrepreneurship. But, that means that they must admit that they’re not currently an entrepreneur, but instead an entrepreneur in training.
True entrepreneurs have learned to create something self-sustaining. This requires some very specific competencies. Let’s take a look at what it takes to call yourself an entrepreneur!
Identify a Need (Problem)
While many will say there are many people that demonstrate this competency, I would agree. Any good manager has this skill, but, it is the entrepreneur that knows how to create cash flow from a problem. It is this innate ability to see opportunity in the marketplace that allow them to replicate success over and over again.
Create a Solution
Entrepreneurs are natural problem solvers. Again, a skill that many others possess, but entrepreneurs have a distinct ability in solving a problem. They see the opportunity created by a problem and attack it with abandon. With laser-like focus they are able to create something innovative; something that involuntarily attract attention. It creates buzz. And, through this buzz the entrepreneur creates what most inventor struggle in vain to do – make piles of money!
Generate Cash Flow by Selling Their Solution
Generating cash flow is about more than just making money. It’s about maximizing the efficiency through which an order moves through the operational cycle – tuning your revenue engine. If this isn’t your understanding of cash flow I would highly recommend reading the post “Cash Flow: An Entrepreneur’s View.”
Once you’ve mastered the cash flow challenge, then what? How about increasing the horsepower of your revenue engine!
Demonstrate Scalability
You increase the horsepower of a business’ revenue engine by increasing sales. But, increasing sales means you have to produce more of what you’re selling. That meaning scaling your entire operation and this is where small business owners fall short. Many have a hard time “letting go of their baby” and delegating, so their business stagnates because of its most scarce resource – THEM!!!
This is a bad situation in which to be, as it will not allow you to get to the next step. An even sadder fact is that some small business owners work for decades at their business and are never able to turn it into cash. A harsh reality when it was their retirement plan all along!
Get Investors to Buy-In to Their Solution
The final competency is the “exit” for an entrepreneur. This usually means selling their business for a pile of cash that allows them to retire. For most it’s too late. They’ve caught “the bug”, so they never really retire. They love the love the thrill of creating a self-sustaining business so they move on to solve the next problem (opportunity) they can find out there!
Transitioning from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur
For those stuck in a small business, don’t fret. If you’re stuck it’s because you haven’t mastered one of the competencies of entrepreneurship. Find the help you need to focus on you deficiency and correct them. When you have mastered them you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to find a buyer.
The problem is usually you don’t think like an investor. So, you’re not doing the things that will make your business appealing to a buyer/investor – cash flow and scalability!!!
For those entrepreneurs out there, would you agree or not and why? Are there other competencies that you believe entrepreneurs demonstrate vs. small business owners?
About a week ago I received a really good article “Is there a difference between entrepreneurs and business owners?” It states what I’ve said for years as people throw around the term “entrepreneur” like it’s something that you wake up one day and decide you’re going to be one! Nothing could be further from the truth.
The problem is many who would call themselves entrepreneurs is they really are small business owners in disguise. They could become an entrepreneur if they only mastered the competencies of entrepreneurship. But, that means that they must admit that they’re not currently an entrepreneur, but instead an entrepreneur in training.
True entrepreneurs have learned to create something self-sustaining. This requires some very specific competencies. Let’s take a look at what it takes to call yourself an entrepreneur!
Identify a Need (Problem)
While many will say there are many people that demonstrate this competency, I would agree. Any good manager has this skill, but, it is the entrepreneur that knows how to create cash flow from a problem. It is this innate ability to see opportunity in the marketplace that allow them to replicate success over and over again.
Create a Solution
Entrepreneurs are natural problem solvers. Again, a skill that many others possess, but entrepreneurs have a distinct ability in solving a problem. They see the opportunity created by a problem and attack it with abandon. With laser-like focus they are able to create something innovative; something that involuntarily attract attention. It creates buzz. And, through this buzz the entrepreneur creates what most inventor struggle in vain to do – make piles of money!
Generate Cash Flow by Selling Their Solution
Generating cash flow is about more than just making money. It’s about maximizing the efficiency through which an order moves through the operational cycle – tuning your revenue engine. If this isn’t your understanding of cash flow I would highly recommend reading the post “Cash Flow: An Entrepreneur’s View.”
Once you’ve mastered the cash flow challenge, then what? How about increasing the horsepower of your revenue engine!
Demonstrate Scalability
You increase the horsepower of a business’ revenue engine by increasing sales. But, increasing sales means you have to produce more of what you’re selling. That meaning scaling your entire operation and this is where small business owners fall short. Many have a hard time “letting go of their baby” and delegating, so their business stagnates because of its most scarce resource – THEM!!!
This is a bad situation in which to be, as it will not allow you to get to the next step. An even sadder fact is that some small business owners work for decades at their business and are never able to turn it into cash. A harsh reality when it was their retirement plan all along!
Get Investors to Buy-In to Their Solution
The final competency is the “exit” for an entrepreneur. This usually means selling their business for a pile of cash that allows them to retire. For most it’s too late. They’ve caught “the bug”, so they never really retire. They love the love the thrill of creating a self-sustaining business so they move on to solve the next problem (opportunity) they can find out there!
Transitioning from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur
For those stuck in a small business, don’t fret. If you’re stuck it’s because you haven’t mastered one of the competencies of entrepreneurship. Find the help you need to focus on you deficiency and correct them. When you have mastered them you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to find a buyer.
The problem is usually you don’t think like an investor. So, you’re not doing the things that will make your business appealing to a buyer/investor – cash flow and scalability!!!
For those entrepreneurs out there, would you agree or not and why? Are there other competencies that you believe entrepreneurs demonstrate vs. small business owners?
Empretec continues to aid small business owners after 10 years
Empretec continues to aid small business owners after 10 years
Commemorating a decade in the business, Empretec Guyana will be launching its anniversary activities on Friday.
Empretec, a non-profit institution with a programme designed to help support and advance small business operators with entrepreneurial skills was initiated in Guyana 10 years ago through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Managing Director of Empretec Judy Semple-Joseph
According to the institution’s Managing Director Judy Semple-Joseph, a research was conducted on key items that make entrepreneurs successful regardless of their location. The research identified ten entrepreneurial competencies with three main behavior patterns that, if practised, will build the capacity of the entrepreneur to improve their businesses.
“At the end of it, participants understand their personal strengths and weaknesses, what it is they need to do for themselves and how they can achieve it,” Mrs. Joseph explained. She added that the programme is not business skills training as some might have identified. Rather, it is about an attitude toward success.
The Entrepreneurial Training Workshop (ETW), the key product of Empretec, is designed to afford budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to identify the entrepreneurial competencies within themselves and practise the behaviour.
With six days of intense capacity building, the workshop provides hands-on practical activities aimed at allowing entrepreneurs to assess their present position as business owners and their capacity to improve.
Among the ten competencies that the workshop expounds on is the commitment to quality and efficiency, characteristics of successful businesses. Participants are enlightened on the importance of quality customer service, in their presentation, environment and even in their personal dress.
Taking risks, business planning, developing confidence, networking and continued research are all entwined into the training programme that helps entrepreneurs to steer their business while taking it to the next level.
Participants of the practical training programme are placed in an environment where they essentially learn the secrets of being successful entrepreneurs; they cultivate the behaviour of successful entrepreneurs, and make decisions directed to reaching their goals.
According to some, the workshop had resulted in a total ‘turn-around’ of their businesses and is seen, not only as an investment in their businesses, but as an investment in themselves as ambitious individuals.
Shawn Benn, who is currently the owner and manager of Professional Auto Body Work Establishment, said that through the Empretec programme that he had attended in 2005, he was exposed to some of the sciences and intricacies of business that he would not have previously stumbled upon.
Benn said that from an early age he had been interested in the trade and wanted to operate his own business, which he started doing in 1994. He related that although he had been encountering success in his field, he was still interested in the “fineries” of the business world.
Benn said that he personally benefitted from the entrepreneurial competencies which taught him to be persistent and to take risks. He added that he was taught that “if you wanted anything badly enough, even the heavens will open up to allow you to pass”.
This, he explained, was what he implemented when tragedy struck twice, with floods and a fire, resulting in losses, personally, and to his business.
Benn was able to bounce back and rebuild his life and business using the skills and attitudes taught at the workshop.
Currently, Benn is operating a flourishing business which he has even expanded to accommodate an Investment Agency. In addition, he collaborates with a Ministry of Labour apprenticeship programme through the Board of Industrial Training to teach his trade to young men.
Halema Rodrigues added that the Empretec programme benefitted her immensely, and like Shawn Benn, proved to be useful in times of adversity. Her business was broken into and robbed.
“If it wasn’t for Empretec, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said.
Halema attributes her success largely to the workshop and also to Republic Bank for sponsoring the Venture Out for Women programme, also hosted by Empretec. She is currently embarking on an added location of her business.
Commemorating a decade in the business, Empretec Guyana will be launching its anniversary activities on Friday.
Empretec, a non-profit institution with a programme designed to help support and advance small business operators with entrepreneurial skills was initiated in Guyana 10 years ago through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Managing Director of Empretec Judy Semple-Joseph
According to the institution’s Managing Director Judy Semple-Joseph, a research was conducted on key items that make entrepreneurs successful regardless of their location. The research identified ten entrepreneurial competencies with three main behavior patterns that, if practised, will build the capacity of the entrepreneur to improve their businesses.
“At the end of it, participants understand their personal strengths and weaknesses, what it is they need to do for themselves and how they can achieve it,” Mrs. Joseph explained. She added that the programme is not business skills training as some might have identified. Rather, it is about an attitude toward success.
The Entrepreneurial Training Workshop (ETW), the key product of Empretec, is designed to afford budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to identify the entrepreneurial competencies within themselves and practise the behaviour.
With six days of intense capacity building, the workshop provides hands-on practical activities aimed at allowing entrepreneurs to assess their present position as business owners and their capacity to improve.
Among the ten competencies that the workshop expounds on is the commitment to quality and efficiency, characteristics of successful businesses. Participants are enlightened on the importance of quality customer service, in their presentation, environment and even in their personal dress.
Taking risks, business planning, developing confidence, networking and continued research are all entwined into the training programme that helps entrepreneurs to steer their business while taking it to the next level.
Participants of the practical training programme are placed in an environment where they essentially learn the secrets of being successful entrepreneurs; they cultivate the behaviour of successful entrepreneurs, and make decisions directed to reaching their goals.
According to some, the workshop had resulted in a total ‘turn-around’ of their businesses and is seen, not only as an investment in their businesses, but as an investment in themselves as ambitious individuals.
Shawn Benn, who is currently the owner and manager of Professional Auto Body Work Establishment, said that through the Empretec programme that he had attended in 2005, he was exposed to some of the sciences and intricacies of business that he would not have previously stumbled upon.
Benn said that from an early age he had been interested in the trade and wanted to operate his own business, which he started doing in 1994. He related that although he had been encountering success in his field, he was still interested in the “fineries” of the business world.
Benn said that he personally benefitted from the entrepreneurial competencies which taught him to be persistent and to take risks. He added that he was taught that “if you wanted anything badly enough, even the heavens will open up to allow you to pass”.
This, he explained, was what he implemented when tragedy struck twice, with floods and a fire, resulting in losses, personally, and to his business.
Benn was able to bounce back and rebuild his life and business using the skills and attitudes taught at the workshop.
Currently, Benn is operating a flourishing business which he has even expanded to accommodate an Investment Agency. In addition, he collaborates with a Ministry of Labour apprenticeship programme through the Board of Industrial Training to teach his trade to young men.
Halema Rodrigues added that the Empretec programme benefitted her immensely, and like Shawn Benn, proved to be useful in times of adversity. Her business was broken into and robbed.
“If it wasn’t for Empretec, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said.
Halema attributes her success largely to the workshop and also to Republic Bank for sponsoring the Venture Out for Women programme, also hosted by Empretec. She is currently embarking on an added location of her business.
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