Am I An Entrepreneur - Essay Example

Am I An Entrepreneur? Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur as many people will start ventures but fail becausethey do not have the appropriate skills that are required to have a successful entrepreneurial venture. The starting point of understanding entrepreneurship is knowing who are entrepreneurs and what they do, from where one can know if they posses the right skills to call themselves an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are innovative people who take and use personal initiative and engage in risk taking to create new ventures that will meet the demands of the market (Brockhaus, 1980). The entrepreneur will see an opportunity that if invested in, will have the propensity to bring benefits. Entrepreneurs will use their innovativeness to exploit or create a certain change or opportunity, which they expect to bear profits (Gilbert, 2006). Entrepreneurs will gather resources and take the risk of investing these resources into a venture that they are not certain will bring profits, and this is what will cut them out from just normal business people. Creativity and innovation are paramount for entrepreneurs as creativity enables them to develop, and discover new ways of bringing solutions while innovation gives them the ability to apply creative solutions to problems and openings in their effort to enhance peoples’ lives and make profits. Entrepreneurship will entail the actions taken by entrepreneurs to bring about change and to attain financial benefits and the satisfaction that something was changed for the better. Entrepreneurship will also entail the act of creating something after seeing an opportunity, shaping a goal to be achieved and taking advantage of the situation in order to make profits (Gilbert, 2006). The entrepreneur or the person with the idea will then plan, persuade and raise the capital needed to initiate the business from where he will run the business to ensure success. For entrepreneurs to be deemed as successful various characteristics are required, which will play a crucial role in determining their entrepreneurial success. Personally, as an entrepreneur, I have realized that I have the required skills and knowledge needed to become successful in the banking sector. I have engaged in various activities that have proved to me that I can be rich and successful as it has been my long term goal to be rich and retain control of my ventures (Gilbert, 2006). At a tender age, I engaged in various money raising ventures that have enabled me to cater for my personal needs and also save a lot. In fifth grade, I made profits from noticing that students were carrying snacks to school, and there was only one canteen in school that was unable to attend to the needs of the whole school. Being a member of the business club in school, I developed the idea that we could start our own canteen, where we could employ one person to run the business. Other students supported the idea, and we proposed the idea to the school administration, which was reluctant to accept it, but finally did after we convinced them that it would not interfere with our studies. We collected start up from membership fees that were charged for admission into the business club from where we started the venture. Profits from the canteen were used to expand the venture and by the time I was clearing school the canteen had grown and all members had benefited from it, and the whole school had also benefited from readily available snack. I have ever since acquired the skills of seeing an idea and investing in it in order to gain and benefit those who what I serve. As an entrepreneur, I have acquired the skill and knowledge of examining needs, wants and problems to see how I can bring solutions or improve how they are solved in the existing ways (Hamm, 2002). I have the skill off narrowing all the possible opportunities into one specific opportunity which carries more weight or is more probable to bring profits. I am innovative and come up with creative ideas to solutions of needs of people, and this is a core skill required for entrepreneurs. Through learning that customers are the core of the business, I am aware of the various tactics that can be practical to acquire and retain customers as I have done through out my life. For example, since I have had a long-term goal of venturing into the banking sector, I have endeavored to know how banks operate and on what basis they give loans. This got me curious of if I could start giving small loans to students at a lower interest rate than banks do. I put up a few posters with the idea that I would give loans of up to 200$ with a 10% interest rate, which would compound if not returned in the first month. To my surprise, I got 4 customers in the first week and after realizing that the business would boom, I asked my father to give me a loan, which I invested in my business. As time passed I got more customers, and this has helped me to save and also use part of these savings to cater for my daily needs. As an entrepreneur, I have the skills of researching opportunities, evaluating risks and employing resources in order to see that the business venture I start will grow and benefit me and the society (Hamm, 2002). There are various personal traits that make me an entrepreneur. I like to be in control of my own fate, and I am achievement oriented. I have a clear vision of what I want to be, and I have endeavored to ensure that I make the right choices that will fit with my banking career. I do not procrastinate and make decisions promptly knowing that time is important, and I should be steadfast in all my undertakings. I am positive, optimistic and I am always committed to the decision I make, and I bear the consequences. I accept challenges and am open to any that come my way, and this has made it possible for me to be devoted to success in anything I start or venture into (Hull, Bosely & Udall, 1980). To be successful, I know that education is important, and I have endeavored to learn new things in the business world and look up to role models such as Steve Jobs. I believe that environmental factors will also be of importance in my career as my personal attributes. These include; role models, opportunities, competition, resources customers, investors and the government just to name a few. I have role models who I look up on, and I have the belief that if I follow their examples I will also be a success. I have learnt that for a business to be successful, customers, suppliers and investors are paramount, and this has given me the opportunity to research different markets and know their viability, which I will use to evaluate if my venture will be successful (Hamm, 2002). Being aware of barriers such as competitors has made me realize that I must stay above the competition in order to be successful. Resources are also a major barrier for entrepreneurs, but through savings, I have been able to venture into various businesses and achieved remarkable success. Sociological factors have also played a crucial part in shaping my entrepreneurial spirit. I come from a family of business people as my family has a business, which sustains it. My father deals with real estates and I have seen his venture grow, and this has always motivated me to start my own financial institution where people like him can save up their money. From him, I have learnt that loans are important but also one has to gain more from them by ensuring that they are put into good use. This has made me to be independent at a tender age and ensure that I do not have many dependents, which will enable me to invest as I have extra money to spend. From a tender age, I have admired the banking career, and I plan to further my studies as I have realized that education is paramount for success. My long term goal is to start my own financial institution, which will give better services to customers than banks. With the entrepreneurial proficiency that I have acquired so far, I plan to start a financial institution that will be preferred to as the best in the market owing this to the superior services it offers. With my various traits such need for achievement, self belief, risk taking ability, self confidence, creativity, leadership, commitment proactiveness and decisiveness I believe that I will be able to achieve this endeavor. I plan to open an institution that will give loans at a lower interest rate and this will enable me to have many customers, and this will be the basis of my growth. Creativity will enable me to develop new ideas of attaining and retaining customers such as giving bonuses and engaging in cooperate social responsibility initiatives, which will give my company a good name. I envision myself being a successful entrepreneur because of my abilities to spot opportunities, taking risks, investing and running the venture to ensure it is triumphant and it brings profits. References Brockhaus, R. H., 1980, Risk Taking Propensity of the Entrepreneur, Academy of Management Journal, 23(3), p509-520. Gilbert, S. J., 2005, How Can Start Ups Grow? HBS Working Knowledge, November 14 (available at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/cgi-bin/print?id=5089) . Gilbert, S. J., 2006, Rich or Royal: What do founders want? HBS Working Knowledge, November 29 (available at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5543.htm Hamm, J., 2002, Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Scale, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 80(12), December, p110-115 Hull, D.L, Bosely, J.J, & Udall, G.G., 1980, Reviewing the Heffalump: Identifying Potential Entrepreneurs by Personality Characteristics, Journal of Small Business Management, 18(1), p11-18. Kariv, D., 2011, Entrepreneurship: An International Introduction, Taylor & Francis, New York. Kim W Chan & Mauborgne, R., 2000, Knowing a Winning Business Idea When You See One, HBR, 78(5), p129-138. Read More