Not all people who open and run businesses can be termed as entrepreneurs. Despite some entrepreneurial skills being attained through learning and experience, the art is more of a call than an acquired skill (Barkham 2009). There are numerous characteristics that distinguish an entrepreneur from other business operators. The different entrepreneurial characteristics are critically analyzed below.
An entrepreneur is self-confident
In times of change, most business operators are faced with dilemma on what to adopt and what to disregard. However, entrepreneurs are found to comfortably accommodate any change that comes their way in their day to day operations. As entrepreneurs believe in their capacity in dealing with any contingency that occurs as they continue with their business, they use their past experience to come up with strategies for coping with the implemented changes (Branson 2010). They use different strategies to deal with ambiguity that may arise at workplaces. Some of these strategies include market intelligence collection, work activities and teambuilding. Instead of perceiving the changes as setbacks to their business operations, they consider them as opportunities and look for all possible chances of using them to improve their businesses.
Increase in market competition has led to numerous organizational transformations (Casto 2010). This is because of the desire by every business to stand out from others. For one to be successful in any business, he or she ought to have self-confidence. In stead of taking all challenges that arise in the business as drawbacks, it is imperative to believe in oneself and use the opportunity to come up with strategies to counter the challenges.
Entrepreneurs are ambitious
There is strong link between entrepreneur’s spirit and his destiny (Drucker 2008). Unlike other business operators who venture into business with an aim of accumulating wealth, entrepreneurs view their main objective of venturing into the business world as to help them make a difference in their life. For them, business is an endless expedition and they are compelled to work harder by their desire to make significant influence. They go to an extent of sacrificing themselves so as to make significant long-term achievements (Drucker 2008).
A good example is Richard Branson. In his book, he argues that entrepreneurs act out of their desire to achieve their destiny. They do not mind making negative decisions as they always believe it is through this that they can be able to identify the right decision to use in achieving their destiny (Branson 2010). It is the desire by Branson to see that he effectively capture the airline industry that led to his heavy investment in the industry.
For one to achieve his or her ambition in the business world, he is supposed to be ambitious and have self-confidence. One need to have a specific objective rather than viewing a business as an avenue through which he or she aims at generating financial wealth.
Entrepreneurs are hardworking
Entrepreneurs are known to grab any opportunity that comes in their way. Not all opportunities are vital to entrepreneurs. They critically analyze any opportunity that arises to identify some of the possibilities that may be hidden in it (Godin 2004). The success of most entrepreneurs lies behind their determination to track all the upcoming changes and look for possible benefits in them. This helps them use their past experience to develop ideas and strategies of converting the upcoming changes to opportunities for improving their growth and development (Godin 2004). Apart from monitoring changes, they go an extra mile to identify other potential business ventures as well as markets for their products or services.
Entrepreneurs are action oriented
Unlike most of the business operators who fail to invest in some opportunities due to risks associated with the opportunities, entrepreneurs are found to take calculated risks in all their ventures (Hadzima 2005). For entrepreneurs, risk is inevitable and the greatest mistake one can do is to fail to risk (Hadzima 2005). They believe that living an insignificant life amounts to a loss. Most people view entrepreneurs as risk takers while on their perspective they view it as a way of facing the subsequent challenge after cautiously assessing the risk and believing in their capacity to overcome it (Hadzima 2005). Despite the threat, entrepreneurs prefer taking risks to saving their resources and assets. As the issue of returns and risks is central to the investment as well as financial industry, the same applies to entrepreneurial life. The entrepreneur does not get contented with the middling life rewards of comfort and gratification. Instead, he or she wishes to strive for a life a meaningful life, one that has a purpose and destiny and that is full of joy.
As an entrepreneur, one need to be action oriented. It is vital for one to be a risk taker as it is the ultimate way through which one can have an opportunity to make better use of an opportunity accompanying any venture that is associated with risks. One needs to go beyond investing in bid to make profit or accumulate wealth and strive at ensuring that he leads a life that has a specific target and destiny (Kling 2007). This is the only way that one can be able to enjoy life in business.
Entrepreneurs are committed
Commitment is one of the features that distant entrepreneurs from other business operators (Low & MacMillan 1988). They are not only committed to investing in any emerging opportunity but are also committed to ensuring that they have made the investment a success. Entrepreneurs do not give up after an investment fail to go as per their expectation. Instead, they go back to the drawing board and look for hitches that might have led to the outcome (Low & MacMillan 1988). They never lose hope in pursuing their dream no matter the hurdles. The main factor that reinforces their commitment is their desire to live a significant life. They believe that their actions are not just geared towards self-fulfillment but towards the good of all their relations. It is this commitment that makes them not hold back in time of set backs.
To be a successful entrepreneur, one has to ensure that he or she is committed to all his endeavors. One ought to understand that disappointments are inevitable when it comes to investment. Consequently, instead of running away from disappointments, one ought to use this opportunity to identify the areas that he went wrong thus not achieving the expected outcomes (Srinath & Supriya 2009). Through this, one can be able to improve his or her entrepreneurial skills thus managing all business set backs that may arise.
It is through commitment that Sam Walton (Owner of Wal-Mart stores) managed to come up with one of the biggest stores in the world. He was committed to venturing into small markets that other bigger companies were not willing to venture (Lunn 2009). It is from these markets that he accumulated resources that later helped him establish bigger stores.
Entrepreneurs have strong ego
An exclusive characteristic of entrepreneurs is that they have strong ego (Lunn 2009). Their high spirit makes it possible for them to interact and network with different people in the market. It is their ego that helps them influence customers as well as investors to buy into their ideas. Generally, entrepreneurs have the capacity to luring investors to fund their business ideas despite the investors not being certain that the idea will materialize (Lunn 2009).
Entrepreneurs are achievement oriented
As aforementioned, entrepreneurs are ambitious and ever committed to their businesses. Hence, their ambition and commitment are driven by the fact that they are achievement oriented. For them, once they embark on working on a certain goal, they do not look back and are not discouraged by any set back that may occur in the process. They works towards completing their objective with one idea in mind: achieving the objective. It is a common feature of entrepreneurs that they are never swayed by changes in the external environment (Puri & Robinson 2006). They stay focused on their objective till they accomplish it. It is out of their conviction that they are capable of developing and controlling their future that they are able to ensure that they stick to an established plan till they achieve the ultimate objective.
Entrepreneurs are autonomous
The fact that entrepreneurs have varied skills in dealing with numerous challenges encountered during the day-to-day operations of the business leaves them at a better position to solve their problems (Roper 2008). They use their skills to creatively come up with problems solving strategies on issues affecting their operations. Generally, entrepreneurs make independent decisions on maters affecting their operations and are never sorry for making wrong judgments (Roper 2008). Rather, they take this as an opportunity to understand the best ways of conducting their businesses. Entrepreneurs believe that the utmost decision to work on a specific project is to commence working on the project.
A reflection on the extent of entrepreneurial skills required
Having a single entrepreneurial characteristic does not qualify one to be an entrepreneur. One ought to have a combination of the different skills so as to be able to respond to different challenges encountered in the business world. Despite one having self-confident, he or she can not venture into the business if he is not ambitious, achievement oriented and action oriented (Thomas 2008). Blending these characteristics can help one successfully manage problems encountered in running a business. Being hardworking and committed can help one make informed judgment thus being able to achieve his or her objectives.
How I completed the market challenge element
To complete the market challenge, the team was required to come up with a business idea on the location to establish a stall as well as the products or services that will be offered in the stall. It is with this respect that the group decided to locate its stall in Cambridge city. Through brainstorming, the group came up with an idea of establishing a grocery stall. This stall will stock varied grocery products ranging from serials to green vegetables. To decide on establishing a cereal store, the group had identified different stalls which included one that would stock second-hand clothes and a stall that served tea and snacks (Rochford 2002). It is after the group identified that grocery products were in high demand that we decided to establish this stall. This is not a unique idea as there are numerous grocery stores already operating in United Kingdom.
The group conducted a feasibility study in the market to identify the level of demand of grocery products. We also interviewed some of the entrepreneurs already dealing with groceries. Some formal sources of information were used in this exercise. With the country’s population increasing with time, the group projected that demand for these commodities will be high in the near future. To determine if stocking a variety of grocery products would attract customers, the group monitored some of the grocery stores that were most visited by customers. It was realized that these stores stocked a variety of products.
During the feasibility study, the group managed to identify some of the competitor products and services as well as highlighted some of the weaknesses and strengths of the different entrepreneurs. To assess the quality of these stalls, the group monitored some of the customer services that were offered by the stall operators (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2002). From the study the team learnt that prices of most products were set based on their demand and supply. For products that are in high demand and limited supply, their prices were higher compared to those that were in unlimited supply but low demand.
The group learnt that sales made by the stall would be affected by different seasonal characteristics. These include changes in customer buying behavior as well as variations in amount of income especially for customers who are casual laborers. To stand out from other stalls dealing with similar products, the team intends to come up with quality customer services as well as pricing mechanisms. For instance, the stalls will first use the penetration method in pricing its products so as to capture the market.
As this business requires substantial funding, the team has resolved to take a loan from one of the financial institutions. They have also agreed to make some contributions from their personal savings. To run the stall, the team will be expected to pay £20 daily during the weekdays and £25 during the weekends. However, no deposit will be required and payment will be made on daily basis once the stall is used. To arrive at this revenue and cost methods, the team made numerous assumptions. First, the team assumed that penetration pricing is the ultimate strategy that would help them successfully capture the market (Tellis 1996). We also made the assumption that the varied financial instructions within the country would be ready to embrace our proposal hence accept to fund it.
The market challenge significantly helped the team gain knowledge on some of the factors that ought to be considered when determining the potential of any business or market. Also from the market challenge we learnt about some of the varied pricing strategies that can be employed in a new market to help the business capture the market.
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