Entrepreneurs need to be reminded from time to time about the basic functional areas, regarding their enterprises so that they can be up to date and for them to be efficient and effective managers. In the light of this, we have to recognize information as a veritable resource of entrepreneurship development.
Nature and Types of Information Required By Entrepreneurs
(a) Marketing Information
Whoever engages in a business, whoever embarks on entrepreneurial tasks will-knowingly or unknowingly engage in marketing. We can state that whenever people engaged in business, they also engage in marketing. Some aspects of marketing have over the years changed dramatically. Selling alone was considered to be the actual marketing activity.
Quality products and services in the historical sense were no longer all that customers were looking for. More manufacturers, more distributors and increasing buying power changed the “market-place”. Globalization of markets set in, and new and more sophisticated management instruments were needed to help manufacturers, distributors and entrepreneurs 10 stay in business and grow with growing markets and all of this despite over-increasing competition and fighting over market shares.
Any market primary consists of people and entrepreneurs need to concentrate his/her efforts on one of the segment of the market in which the products have the greatest potential appeal. Good market segmentation is a must for any successful marketing approach.
(b) Technical Information
In developing a business idea there is a need for potential entrepreneur to adopt a carefully moderated and intelligent technical approach.
Planning is a process that never ends for business. It is extremely important in the early stages of any venture when the entrepreneur will need technical information to prepare a preliminary business plan. There are different types of technical information that may be part of any business operation. This may include-designing of premises, products others may include nature of products/services you will like to engage in. it may also includes tools and equipment you require or materials needed for your production process. It may also be technology choice or advice on location and premises.
(c) Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Information and communication technology is very important source of information for Entrepreneurship development as we know that the whole world is now a global village where information about a product/service can be easily sourced. One can source through the internet and find out the kind of hardware, software for the kind of business one want to venture into. It may be packages on accounting and production or databases appropriate for the business.
(d) Technology Is Constantly Changing the Demands of Consumers
Businesses use new technologies to produce new products and services. Entrepreneurs should realize’ that new technological developments such as the internet and cell phones increase the exchange of information and may have an effect on the operations of their business, Entrepreneurs may not be aware of the nature and effects of all new technologies, yet, they must try to determine technical developments which are likely to have the greatest impact on their business operations.
(e) Financial Information
Whether a business is small or large, owners and executives-must have financial information relating to the type of business they want to establish. One of the most often overlooked areas of information for entrepreneurship development is the financial information. Often regarded as a ‘back-office’ aspect of the business, the financial information plays a critical role for decision making. Because decisions are only as good as the information on which they are based, establishing a reliable data from business: environment must be a priority for all businesses regardless of size and industry. It is only when you have proper financial information than an entrepreneur will know the amount of capital require for the kind of business he is going into and ways of sourcing fat it. Money plays a major role in an enterprise. At the beginning of any business, money is needed to purchase the necessary tools/equipment, materials/supplies and other needs. To be competitive, small business owners must prepare for all future events and market changes. One of the most important aspects of such preparation is the cash flow planning.
Failure to properly plan cash flow is one of the leading causes for small business failure.
Knowing some basic accounting will help you better manager of your cash flow.
(f) Legal Information
Business is the totality of the economic and commercial life of any nation. Business could be carried on as a small, medium or large scale enterprise. It could also be carried on as domestic or international business but you have to know the legal implication on each one of them. This is where the legal information is very important. That is why small businesses and corporations alike employ the likes of Sun Document Filings to take care of some of their legal paperwork. For example, if one wants to establish a private company in Nigeria, it has to be a minimum of two (2) persons and maximum of fifty (50) members and there are other documents required by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Registrars of Companies before incorporation of any company. One also needs to know about the copyright and Trade Mark Laws and also compliance with legal requirement with regard to Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA).
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