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Writer's pictureZPerry78

The Foundations of Entrepreneurship


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Entrepreneur is someone who creates new business in the face of risk/ uncertainty to achieve profit/ growth by identifying opportunity/ assemble resources to capitalize on them


Characteristics: desire for responsibility, high level of energy, risk eliminators, future orientation self reliance, organized, value achievement over money, determination, confidence to succeed, desire for feedback

  • Operational Entrepreneurship- people start a business when they see a market opportunity

    • Necessity Entrepreneurship- people start a business when they can’t find work

    • Serial Entrepreneurship- repeatedly start a business/ grow into a sustainable size before striking out again

      • leap froggers- manage until bored then sell the business

      • Jugglers (parallel entrepreneurs) manage several companies at once

    • Bootstrapping- strategy that involves conserving money/ cutting costs during start up so entrepreneurs can put into their business (no limitation in ECN expression)

Exhibits: high degree of commitment, tolerance for ambiguity, creativity, flexibility, resourcefulness, tenacity, willingness to work hard, vision, passion, drive, integrity, innovation, risk taking, resilience, proactive approach, customer focus, teamwork

Diversity: everyone can become an entrepreneur but not everyone should

Entrepreneur Business Facts

  • ⅛ adults engaged in launching a business (Us launches 476K monthly)

  • Businesses have introduced innovative products/ pushed back tech frontiers/ created new jobs/ open foreign markets-

  • Small businesses is the core of our economy’s growth

  • Flurry of “pink slips” has spawned new entrepreneurs/ “cast offs” by larger corporations

  • While giants are studying consequences, entrepreneurs are changing the world

  • Thrilling and dangerous but also rewarding financially and emotionally

  • They are more than business creators/ They are “Change Agents in Society”

  • Creative Destruction- building new business to make older ones obsolete

  • Fleet footed/ agile/ small companies have competitive advantage/ create security & success

    • Dart in/ out of niche markets as they emerge and recede

  • Move faster to exploit opportunity/ use modern tech

  • Makes economy more flexible/ adaptable to structural changes

Benefits of Entrepreneurship

  • Opportunity to create your own destiny- independence/ personal achievement

  • Opportunity to make a difference- Social Entrepreneurs use skills to create profitable business to achieve economic/ social/ environmental goals

  • Opportunity to reach full potential- entrepreneure's business become instruments of self expression/ actualization

  • Entrepreneurs create environments/ maximize value of education/ skills become instruments of self expression/ actualization. Entrepreneurs seek higher wages and build own business

  • Opportunity to contribute to society- significant impact on nation’s economy/ gives a higher price quality

  • Opportunity to do what you enjoy- have interest in the field/ journey rather than destination is the reward/ passion gets through hard times

Drawbacks of Entrepreneurship

  • Soft economy/ difficult keeping pace with tech/ more competition

  • Uncertainty of income- owner is always paid last

  • Risk of losing investment- can you cope with the consequences?

  • Long hours and hard work- demanding average 51 Hours weekly rather than 40

  • Lower quality of life until established- take toll on personal life/ requires sacrifice

  • High levels of stress- left behind safety and security of steady pay/ benefits

  • Complete responsibility- make uncertain decisions may make or break company

  • Discouragement- requires dedication, discipline, tenacity, knowing obstacles

Behind what’s feeding Entrepreneurs Fire

  • Entrepreneurs as heroes- held accomplishments as models to follow

  • Entrepreneur education- influence students to start up businesses right out of college/ More promising than the downsizing industry

  • Demographics/ Econimic Factors- 75% start at 20-44/ 103 million Americans/ created more opportunities

  • Demographics/ Economic Factors- start up costs/ popular service business for entrepreneurs

  • Technical advancements- powerful computer/ smartphones/ communication equipment are low reduced cost of business/ made testing idea much easier in market

  • Independent Lifestyle- self sustaining freedom to choose residence/ hours/ tasks

  • Cloud computing- subscription allows business. To use apps of database management/ inventory control/ customer relationship management/ accounting

    • Reduced business start-up/ fast growing companies can use this over office spaces

  • International opportunities- shift to global economy (80% purchase power lie outside US)

    • Micro Multinationals- small companies that operate globally from inception

Cultural Diversity of Entrepreneurs

  • Young- embrace as career choice (use skills/ abilities)

  • Women- discriminated but determined (30% owns) smaller/ less likely for capital

  • Minority- Most likely to be entrepreneurs (Hispanics 8.5% -Blacks 7% - Asian 5.9%)

  • Immigrant- arrive with more education/ experience to develop business (make 29% less)

  • Founded 24.3% of high technical companies/ started 41% of fortune 500 companies

  • Part time- ease into own business without sacrificing security/ testing market ideas

  • Home based bus (52%) low start up costs. Flexible lifestyles/ electronic cottages

  • Family Bus. (2 members with financial control) 90% transfer to next generation and 30% of businesses survive- Bitter feuds cripple bus/ need to build positive relationships

  • Copreneurs- entrepreneur couples work together/ create division of labor on experience

  • Corporate cast offs- downsizing leads to purchase franchises with management system

  • Corp. dropouts- created trust gap for others to leave

  • Retiring baby boomer- (55-64) exceed (20-34) range with more experience/ wisdom

Power of small business- employs fewer than 100 people

  • Majority business in service/ construction/ retail- create more jobs than big business

  • Gazelles- small company growing at 20+percent a year with $100k in sales (70% jobs)

  • Mice- small companies that never grow much/ Elephants- shed jobs for years

  • Small business is 3rd largest economy after US/ china. Create 16x more patents

  • US as entrepreneurs economy system built on nimble/ low overhead with fluid workforce

Putting failure into perspective

  • Limited resources/ inexperienced management/ lack of financial stability/ suffer high mortality rates/ new companies replace old with new ideas/ approaches/ products

  • Failure is inevitable and part of the creative process

  • Ability to fail intellectually (learn). Failure is temporary/ quitting is permanent

Avoid Pitfalls

  • Know your business in depth- best education/ experience. Contact with suppliers/ associates/ consumers

  • Build/ test business model with customers to verify success

  • Develop solid business plan- provide pathway to success/ measures performance

    • Replace assumptions with facts before marketing decisions

  • Understand financial statements- know condition of business tax purposes

  • Manage Financial resources- develop practical informational system/ make decisions

  • Manage people effectively- motivated people are dominant sustainable resource

  • Set business apart from competition - customer service/ convenience/ speed/ quality

  • Maintain positive attitude- passion enables you to try again/ doubt in obstacles

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