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Entrepreneurship: What does it REALLY mean?
Starting your own business sounds like an exciting career option to several people. It is all the rage these days to be an ‘entrepreneur’. It’s is a popular option for millennials who are educated and business savvy. Many millennials youngsters are equipping themselves with the knowledge of entrepreneurship by enrolling themselves in entrepreneurship certificate online or through a degree course at a business school.
The dictionary defines entrepreneurship as the willingness and capacity to develop, organize and manage a business along with its inherent risks. The end objective of an entrepreneurship is generally to make a profit. In case of a social entrepreneurship, the goal could also be a social cause.
However, to be an entrepreneur is not limited to getting an entrepreneurship education alone. While it adds substantial value to a person’s preparation, to be an entrepreneur requires an attitude of risk taking. An entrepreneur is also a leader who can lead his business out of sticky situations. He is able to handle the risks to guide his business to the set-out objectives. An entrepreneur needs to take care of the following things on priority –
Identify Need of a New Product or Service
Entrepreneurship is characterised by a spirit of innovation. It is not a job. An entrepreneur requires capital to turn his ideas to reality. It gives a product or a service to its target customers in an area where they see a need gap. They are able to answer a problem or a need that customers have, that others might not have even thought of. Sometimes even customers have not thought of a need that they have. It is a latent need which a great entrepreneur can identify and answer through his venture.
Identify Potential in a New Market
Another aspect through which an entrepreneur builds his business is by exploring a new market. It is possible that a product or service already exists in a market. An entrepreneur can see an opportunity for that product or service in a new market. A good entrepreneur is able to identify the potential of a new market for an existing product or service.
A great example of this type of entrepreneurship is Mohammed Yunus’ venture Grameen Bank. It is a micro-financing venture that started with a meagre $26 distributed as loan among people in a Bangladesh village. The loan was distributed for buying small items for the villagers to start their own businesses. In the last 22 years, Grameen Bank has disbursed over $2 Billion. Many micro-financing ventures were started taking inspiration from Grameen Bank.
The founder of Grameen Bank, Mohammed Yunus created easy banking and lending operation for the poor sections of society. While banking in itself is not a new venture, it was a unique idea for that village segment. It is an example of both innovation as well as risk-taking appetite of an entrepreneur.
Employ New Methods of Promotion and Distribution of Product or Service
An entrepreneur can also sell a product or service using a new tool of marketing or distribution or production. E-commerce venture Amazon is a great example of this type of entrepreneurship. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon was the first one to start selling books online. Before this, book buying was something people did in book stores. While selling books is not a new business and his market was also the same as usual, but the difference was in the platform that he used for selling the books.
An Eye for Choosing the Right People
While an entrepreneur needs both capital and a great idea, the execution of that idea requires inherent entrepreneurial qualities to succeed in a business. It also needs to be supported with a stable team of people and hence an entrepreneur should also have a knack for choosing the right set of people for the right job.
An entrepreneur needs to be encouraged as entrepreneurial spirit is needed to build an economy. Entrepreneurs are wealth creators and job creators. They uplift the economy and provide opportunities to people to be employed. It also needs to be understood that entrepreneurship is not just a business. A business is setting up a regular shop in a regular market. It may make money and help earn livelihood. But, an entrepreneurial venture is more than that. It is built on the cornerstone of innovation. It is an improved version of an existing business or a product or service that creates a new domain altogether. Entrepreneurship thus has many facets. It is not limited to starting a business and earning a profit. The success of an entrepreneurial venture lies in the details. It is a mix of innovation, risk management, hard work and smart execution. An entrepreneur has the ability to identify future trends. He is able to unlock potential from a market that might not be explicitly aware of its latent needs.
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