How to Start from Scratch: Entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur means taking on the role of both manager and employee within a business. It means taking on the risks and responsibilities of owning a company, but also places the courageous entrepreneur in line for both profit and fulfillment. Production in the business world is not merely driven by intrinsic factors like natural resources and available capital. It also relies on the talents of entrepreneurs to spark innovation. Being an entrepreneur is as simple as noticing a business opportunity and capitalizing on it by deciding to fill that niche. The debate whether entrepreneurs are born or made still rages, however, most business experts feel that successful entrepreneurs share certain common personality traits.
Personalities that are not worried by risky ventures may feel more comfortable as entrepreneurs, but that does not mean that the field as a whole is wildly risky. In fact, most of the risks that entrepreneurs are likely to be calculated ones. Successful entrepreneurship involves being willing to live with some risk, but also being able to assess and evaluate those risks. Balancing risk with reward is how an entrepreneur generates a valuable product for his or her customers. An entrepreneur is someone who can build and create something from practically nothing, as described by entrepreneurial researcher Jeffry Timmons.
A small beginning is no barrier to success. The entrepreneur must, however, be willing to take risks and look for opportunities in the market that have been missed by others. A home business and an entrepreneurial venture are alike in many respects: in potential for wealth creation, risk, speed of wealth creation, and innovation; but, an entrepreneurial venture can vary more widely in terms of scale. The entrepreneur needs to exhibit an incremental approach towards taking risk, exposing him or herself to only a limited amount of risk at each stage.
There are many different ways to sort businesses: by size, by field, by development stage or by revenue bracket. An entrepreneur may work alone, but strong entrepreneurial teams can also be created to take advantage of multiple perspectives and skill sets. Identifying an unnoticed market and offering a new option to that market is the key to a successful business venture, no matter who is doing the identifying.
Entrepreneurs can be occupied by many unexpected fields. Social entrepreneurs, for example, may be found improving the goods and services available to an under-reached community. Some people may make a career out of beginning businesses, handing over control and moving on using the revenue generated from the first venture to build up a second. Others may put their entrepreneurial bent to use in technical fields, streamlining and perfecting things like manufacturing or quality control procedures.
Complete avoidance of the inherent risks of business is difficult, although the incentive will always be present. For an entrepreneurial profile, energy, hard work, and focused approach are essential elements. Whatever the business may be, the value of a motivated entrepreneur behind it is not to be underestimated.
