ale Encyclopedia of Small Business: Entrepreneurship

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An entrepreneur is one who organizes a new business venture in the hopes of making a profit. Entrepreneurship is the process of being an entrepreneur, of gathering and allocating the resourcesfinancial, creative, managerial, or technologicalnecessary for a new venture's success. One engages in entrepreneurship when one begins to plan an organization that uses diverse resources in an effort to take advantage of the newly found opportunity. It usually involves hard work, long hours, and, usually, the hope of significant financial return. More importantly, entrepreneurship is characterized by creative solutions to old or overlooked problems; ingenuity and innovation are the entrepreneur's stock in trade. By taking a new look at difficult situations, the entrepreneur discerns an opportunity where others might have seen a dead end. Entrepreneurship is also a source of more entrepreneurship. Societies around the world have always been fueled by the innovations and new products that entrepreneurs bring to the market. All big businesses started out small, usually as one man or woman with a good idea and the willingness to work hard and risk everything. While it is true that many new businesses fail, the ones that succeed contribute a great deal to the creation of other new ventures which leads, in turn, to a dynamic national economy. Indeed, today's economists and business researchers cite entrepreneurship as a key component of future economic growth in North America and around the world. "Entrepreneurship is viewed as the catalyst to transfer a segment of our new generation of [downsized] people into self-employed business owners who will, in turn, provide jobs for the rest," wrote Mitch Lenko in CMA. "It is viewed as the necessary component to the creation of new wealth; and hopefully represents the fountainhead from which will spawn innovative management techniques for the design, manufacture and marketing of products that will compete globally."

Successful entrepreneurship depends on many factors. Of primary importance is a dedicated, talented, creative entrepreneur. The person who has the ideas, the energy, and the vision to create a new business is thecornerstone to any start-up. But the individual must have ready access to a variety of important resources in order to make the new venture more than just a good idea. He or she needs to develop a plan of action, a road map that will take the venture from the idea stage to a state of growth and institutionalization. In most instances, the entrepreneur also needs to put together a team of talented, experienced individuals to help manage the new venture's operations. Entrepreneurship also depends on access to capital, whether it be human, technological, or financial. In short, entrepreneurship is a process that involves preparation and the involvement of others in order to exploit an opportunity for profit.
Entrepreneurship Defined

The multiplicity of the entrepreneur's motivations and goals leads to questions aimed at distilling the essence of entrepreneurship. To what or to whom does one refer when one uses the word? Is there any difference between a person who opens yet another dry cleaning establishment, sandwich shop, or bookstore and the entrepreneur? If so, what is it that separates the two? What characteristics define an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship itself? Historians and business writers have struggled with providing the answers. Even today, there is no widely accepted definition, but the variety of possibilities provides important clues as to what makes entrepreneurship special. Harvard professor Joseph Schumpeter, for example, argued that the defining characteristic of entrepreneurial ventures was innovation. By finding a new "production function" in an existing resourcea previously unknown means through which a resource could produce valuethe entrepreneur was innovating. The innovation was broadly understood; an innovation could take place in product design, organization of the firm, marketing devices, or process design. Nevertheless, innovation was what separated the entrepreneur from others who undertook closely related endeavors. Other researchers, such as professor Arthur Cole, defined

entrepreneurship as purposeful activity to initiate, maintain, and develop a profit-oriented business. The important part of this definition is the requirement that individuals must create a new business organization in order to be considered entrepreneurial. Cole's entrepreneur was a builder of profit-minded organizations. Still other observers, such as Shapero and Sokol, have argued that all organizations and individuals have the potential to be entrepreneurial. These researchers focus on activities rather than organizational make-up in examining entrepreneurship. They contend that entrepreneurship is characterized by an individual or group's initiative taking, resource gathering, autonomy, and risk taking. Their definition could theoretically include all types and sizes of organizations with a wide variety of functions and goals. In his book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter F. Drucker took the ideas set forth by Schumpeter one step further. He argued that Schumpeter's type of innovation can be systematically undertaken by managers to revitalizebusiness and nonbusiness organizations. By combining managerial practices with the acts of innovation, Drucker argued, business can create a methodology of entrepreneurship that will result in the institutionalization of entrepreneurial values and practice. Drucker's definition of entrepreneurshipa systematic, professional discipline available to anyone in an organizationbrings our understanding of the topic to a new level. He demystified the topic, contending that entrepreneurship is something that can be strategically employed by any organization at any point in their existence, whether it be a start-up or a firm with a long history. Drucker understood entrepreneurship as a tool to be implemented by managers and organizational leaders as a means of growing a business.
The Entrepreneurial Personality

Writing in his book The Entrepreneurial Mind, Jeffry Timmons defined entrepreneurship as "the ability to create and build something from practically nothing." His definition captures the spirit of the word, the sense that entrepreneurs are like magicians, creating thriving

organizations out of good ideas by virtue of hard work, canny business dealing, and personal skills. Timmons's words hint at the myths inherent in the common understanding of entrepreneurship. They bring to mind the great entrepreneurs who have become icons of American business mythology. Many businesspeople believe that entrepreneurs have a personality that is different than those of "normal" people. Entrepreneurs are seen as having "the right stuff." But defining the various characteristics and qualities that embodyentrepreneurial success can be an elusive task, for as Lanko indicated, "today's entrepreneurs are big and tall, and short and small. They come from every walk of life, every race and ethnic setting, all age groups, male and female, and from every educational background. There is no mould for the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs make their ownmold." But while it is hard to generalize about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, some personality traits seem to be more important than others. "While many authors and researchers have disagreed on the relative significance of individual entrepreneurial traits, all agree on one quality that is essential to all entrepreneurs, regardless of definition," wrote Lanko. "That quality is 'commitment'; it is self-motivation that distinguishes successful entrepreneurs from those that fail. It is the common thread in the lives and biographies of those that have succeeded in new enterprises. It is the one quality which entrepreneurs themselves admit is critical to the success of their initiatives." Other traits commonly cited as important components of entrepreneurial success include business knowledge (business planning, marketing strategies, asset management, etc.), self-confidence, technical and other skills, communication abilities, and courage. But there are other, less obvious, personality characteristics that an entrepreneur should develop as a means of further ensuring their success. In his book Entrepreneurship: Texts, Cases, Notes, Robert C. Ronstadt indicated some additional traits that help entrepreneurs build thriving organizations, including creativity and the ability to tolerate ambiguous situations.

Creative solutions to difficult problems may make or break the young and growing business; the ability of an entrepreneur to find unique solutions could be the key to his or her success. One of the most vexing situations entrepreneurs face is the allocation of scarce resources. For instance, owners of new ventures need to be able to decide how to best use a small advertising budget or how best to use their limited computer resources. Furthermore, they must be creative in their ability to find capital, team members, or markets. Entrepreneurial success is often directly predicated on the business owner's ability to make do with the limited resources available to him or her. In addition to being creative, an entrepreneur must be able to tolerate the ambiguity and uncertainty that characterize the first years of a new organization. In nearly all cases, business or market conditions are bound to change during the first few years of a new business's life, causing uncertainty for the venture and for the entrepreneur. Being creative enables entrepreneurs to more successfully manage businesses in new and ambiguous situations, but without the ability to handle the pressure that uncertainty brings upon an organization, the entrepreneur may lose sight of his or her purpose. Finally, environmental factors often play a significant part in influencing would-be entrepreneurs. Often, personal or work history has led individuals to be more open to taking the risks involved with undertaking a new venture. For instance, individuals who know successful entrepreneurs may be stimulated to try their hand at running their own business. The successful entrepreneurs act as role models for those thinking about undertaking a new venture, providing proof that entrepreneurship does not always end in bankruptcy. In addition, work experience can provide entrepreneurs with invaluable experience and knowledge from which to draw. "First and foremost, entrepreneurs should have experience in the same industry or a similar one," insisted thePortable MBA in Entrepreneurship. "Starting a business is a very demanding undertaking indeed. It is no time for onthe-job training. If would-be entrepreneurs do not have the right

experience, they should either go out and get it before starting their new venture or find partners who have it."
The Process of Entrepreneurship

The myths that have grown up around the great entrepreneurs in America have focused more on the personality of the individual than on the work that he or she did to create a prosperous organization. What sticks in our memories are the qualities of a great entrepreneur, those personality traits that "make" a great businessperson. Successful entrepreneurs, however, work hard to build their organizations, starting from little and undertaking a process that results in a thriving business. Even the best ideas become profitable only because the entrepreneur went through the steps necessary to build a company from the ground up. Successful new ventures do not appear magically out of the swirl of the marketplace; they are planned, created, and managed. It is important to understand some of the stages a businessperson must go through in order to create a successful entrepreneurial venture. All entrepreneurs go through three very general stages in the process of creating their ventures: a concept formation stage where ideas are generated, the innovation and opportinity are identified, and the business begins to take shape; a resource gathering stage where necessary resources are brought together to launch the new business; and a stage where the organization is actually created. CONCEPTFORMATION. Before any business opens its doors, it must make crucial decisions about the way the business will be run. This first step in the entrepreneurial process is where the entrepreneur determines what kind of potential market exists for the business and forms a rough idea of how to penetrate the existing market. During the concept formation stage, the entrepreneur must answer hard questions about the potential business as well as his or her own motivations for starting his or her own business. The answers to these questions will provide the framework for future planning, growth, and innovation.

There is a great deal that is unknown to the entrepreneur before he or she starts out. The viability of the venture depends on the individual's ability to lessen that which is unknown and maximize that which is known. The central question an entrepreneur should ask him or herself during the idea generation stage is whether there is actually an opportunity for a successful venture. That is, will starting a new business enable the entrepreneur to accomplish things or meet personal and professional goals that he or she might not otherwise meet? Some entrepreneurs want to make a certain return on their efforts and investment or are looking to run a business that will afford them a certain lifestyle. Others are looking to capture a certain percentage of the market and thus increase their wealth. Still others go into business for themselves because it would afford them the independence and freedom that working for someone else would not. Before taking the plunge, prospective entrepreneurs should investigate the extent to which their envisioned business will give them an opportunity to meet their goals. A new business can be opened by anyone with the capital and time to do it. Nevertheless, businesses that will be successful for years to come must maintain a certain level of financial soundness. Among the first questions an entrepreneur should ask are those that explore the potential profitability of the venture. The entrepreneur should be able to estimate sales and selling expenses as well as other costs of doing business. In order to develop a sense of the economic feasibility of a venture, the entrepreneur should investigate the size and other characteristics of the potential market for the product or service, including competitive pressures and capital start-up requirements. Quantitative analysis of the opportunity is a vital part of the conceptualization of the business. The results of "running the numbers" and creating a set of figures with which the future can be planned will enable the entrepreneur to determine whether the potential business will be profitable. "There is no more luck in becoming successful at entrepreneurship than in becoming successful at anything else," wrote William D. Bygraves in The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship. "In entrepreneurship, it is a question of recognizing a good opportunity when you see one and having the skills to convert that opportunity into a thriving business. To do that, you must be prepared.

So in entrepreneurship, just like any other profession, luck is where preparation and opportunity meet." RESOURCE GATHERING. The first stage of the entrepreneurship process should give the individual enough information to decide whether or not the business has the capacity to meet the individual's personal and professional goals. Once the decision has been made, the entrepreneur may: 1) continue to work in his or her present employment capacity; 2) begin looking for a new entrepreneurial opportunity that is a better fit; or 3) beings the second step in the entrepreneurial process, that of gathering the necessary resources. Without a sufficient supply of resources the opportunity might never be turned into a business that makes money for the entrepreneur. In the resource gathering stage the entrepreneur begins to assemble the tools that he or she will need to make the business idea a successful one. In general, a person has to gather three types of primary resources: capital, human/managerial, and time. Capital can be financial (in the form of cash, stock ownership, or loans), intellectual (patents, trademarks, brand names and copyrights), and technical (innovations in design or production that competitors can not or will not duplicate). Human resources refers to the individuals who will help the entrepreneur take advantage of the opportunity, either as employees of the new organization or as paid and unpaidcounselors. In order to create a viable organization, an entrepreneur has to be ready and able to manage the resources at his or her disposal, bringing them together in advantageous, efficient ways that meet the needs of thefledgling organization. An often-overlooked consideration in the resource gathering stage is time. Many entrepreneurial ventures that manage to succeed do so in part because they were launched at an opportune time, and because their founders were able to carve out an adequate amount of timea most valuable resource, after allto attend to the myriadstart-up needs of the business. For instance, a business based on a patented technological innovation has a certain amount of time to operate before the patent expires and competitors can duplicate the innovation. When the patent expires, the competitive advantage held by the business is diminished or

gone. Other businesses may be based on selling to an emerging market. The entrepreneur who runs the business has a certain amount of time before potential competitors notice that the business is (or will be) profitable. In that time framethe window of opportunitythe entrepreneur who found the opportunity must manage resources so that the business is established and protected from the threat of competition. In such instances, however, the would-be entrepreneur also needs to avoid the common mistake of rushing in to take advantage of the opportunity without adequately addressing all of the various elements that produce a successful start-up. ORGANIZATION CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT. This stage of the entrepreneurial process is the actual establishment and opening of the business. During this stage, the entrepreneur goes from being just a visionary to a visionary with a business to run. One way to examine the changing managerial activities of the entrepreneur is to look at the different roles filled by the entrepreneur as the business develops. As the founder of the organization, the entrepreneur sets the philosophy of the organization, establishes the strategic focus, and educates new employees. In this role, the entrepreneur lays the groundwork for the emerging corporate culture. In addition, most entrepreneurs serve as the primary promoters for their new start-ups. They must act as the new venture's chief spokesperson in contacts with financial backers, prospective clients, employees, suppliers, and others. In addition, as founders (or founding team members) of organizations, entrepreneurs are often called upon to provide counsel or advice to community members or employees. The roles that an entrepreneur must fill demand flexibility and creativity. In order to successfully manage a new venture, an entrepreneur must be comfortable in all the roles.
Entrepreneurship and Leadership

Entrepreneurs must also be able to balance their managerial duties with leadership activities. In other words, they have to be able to handle both the day-today operations of the business as well as decision making obligations that determine the organization's long-term direction,

philosophy, and future. It is a precarious relationship, but entrepreneurs must be both managers and visionaries in order to build their organizations. Indeed, researchers contend that many otherwise talented entrepreneurs have failed because they were unable to strike an appropriate balance between details of management and the larger mission that guides the new venture. Many entrepreneurs eventually reach a point where they realize that these twin obligations can not be fully met alone. It is at this point that staffing decisions can become a critical component of long-term business success. In general, entrepreneurs should search for ways to delegate some of their management tasks rather than their leadership tasks. After all, in most cases the new business has long been far more dependent on its founder's leadership and vision than on his or her ability to monitor product quality or select new computers. The mission of the new venture can only be fulfilled if the entrepreneur remains entrepreneurial throughout the life of the organization. That is, innovation has to be a primary strategy of the venture. Drucker pointed out that the venture must be receptive to innovation and open to the possibilities inherent in change. Change must be seen as a positive for a business to remain entrepreneurial. Therefore, management of an entrepreneurial organization requires policies that encourage innovation and rewards those who innovate. If the venture is to remain dedicated to entrepreneurship, management has to take the lead in establishing the patterns that will lead to a dynamic, flexible, and vital organization.
Further Reading:

Brockhaus, Robert H., Sr. "The Psychology of the Entrepreneur." In Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship, edited by Calvin A. Kent, Donald L. Sexton, and Karl H. Vesper. Prentice-Hall, 1982. Bygrave, William D., ed. The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship. 2d ed. John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Collins, James C., and William C. Lazier. Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company. Prentice Hall, 1995. Dalley, Jeff, and Bob Hamilton. "Knowledge, Context, and Learning in the Small Business." International Small Business Journal. April-June 2000. Drucker, Peter F. Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. Harper & Row, 1986. Hamilton, Barton H. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay?" Journal of Political Economy. June 2000. Lenko, Mitch. "Entrepreneurship: The New Tradition." CMAThe Management Accounting Magazine. July-August 1995. McGrath, Rita Gunther, and Ian MacMillan. The Entrepreneurial Mindset. Harvard Business School Press, 2000. Ronstadt, Robert. Entrepreneurship: Texts, Cases & Notes. Lord Publishing, 1985. Timmons, Jeffry A. The Entrepreneurial Mind. Brick House Pub. Co., 1989.

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Wikipedia on Answers.com: Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship is the implementation of an individual's talent in the resources in which he is available with; and expanding these resources in the future so that one can get individual as well as general i.e. social success.Entrepreneurship comes from the French verb 'entreprendre' which means 'To undertake,' is the act and art of being an entrepreneur or one who undertakes innovations or introducing new things, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods.[1] This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses (referred as Startup Company); however, in recent years, the term has been extended to include social and political forms of entrepreneurial activity. When entrepreneurship is describing activities within a firm or large organization it is referred to as intrapreneurship and may include corporate venturing, when large entities spin-off organizations.[2] According to Paul Reynolds, entrepreneurship scholar and creator of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, "by the time they reach their retirement years, half of all working men in the United States probably have a period of self-employment of one or more years; one in four may have engaged in self-employment for six or more years. Participating in a new business creation is a common activity among U.S. workers over the course of their careers."[3] And in recent years has been documented by scholars such as David Audretsch to be a major driver of economic growth in both the United States and Western Europe. "As well, entrepreneurship may be defined as the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled (Stevenson,1983)"[4]

Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization and creativity involved. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities. Many "high value" entrepreneurial ventures seek venture capital orangel funding (seed money) in order to raise capital to build the business. Angel investors generally seek annualized returns of 20-30% and more, as well as extensive involvement in the business.[5] Many kinds of organizations now exist to support would-be entrepreneurs including specialized government agencies, business incubators, science parks, and some NGOs. In more recent times, the term entrepreneurship has been extended to include elements not related necessarily to business formation activity such as conceptualizations of entrepreneurship as a specificmindset (see also entrepreneurial mindset) resulting in entrepreneurial initiatives e.g. in the form of social entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, or knowledge entrepreneurship have emerged.
Contents

1 History 2 Characteristics of an entrepreneur 3 Concept 4 Promotion 5 Financial Bootstrapping 6 External financing 7 Entrepreneurship Education 8 Entrepreneurship Research 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links
History

The entrepreneur is a factor in microeconomics, and the study of entrepreneurship reaches back to the work ofRichard Cantillon and Adam Smith in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but was largely ignored theoretically until the late 19th and early 20th centuries and empirically until a profound resurgence in business and economics in the last 40 years. In the 20th century, the understanding of entrepreneurship owes much to the work of economist Joseph Schumpeterin the 1930s and other Austrian economists such as Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek. In Schumpeter, an entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation.[6] Entrepreneurship employs what Schumpeter called "the gale of creative destruction" to replace in whole or in part inferior innovations across markets and industries, simultaneously creating new products including new business models. In this way, creative destruction is largely responsible for the dynamism of industries and long-run economic growth. The supposition that entrepreneurship leads to economic growth is an interpretation of the residual in endogenous growth theory and as such is hotly debated in academic economics. An alternate description posited by Israel Kirzner suggests that the majority of innovations may be much more incremental improvements such as the replacement of paper with plastic in the construction of a drinking straw. For Schumpeter, entrepreneurship resulted in new industries but also in new combinations of currently existing inputs. Schumpeter's initial example of this was the combination of a steam engine and then current wagon making technologies to produce the horseless carriage. In this case the innovation, the car, was transformational but did not require the development of a new technology, merely the application of existing technologies in a novel manner. It did not immediately replace the horsedrawn carriage, but in time, incremental improvements which reduced the cost and improved the technology led to the complete practical replacement of beast drawn vehicles in modern transportation. Despite Schumpeter's early 20th-century contributions, traditional microeconomic theory did not formally consider the

entrepreneur in its theoretical frameworks (instead assuming that resources would find each other through a price system). In this treatment the entrepreneur was an implied but unspecified actor, but it is consistent with the concept of the entrepreneur being the agent of xefficiency. Different scholars have described entrepreneurs as, among other things, bearing risk. For Schumpeter, the entrepreneur did not bear risk: the capitalist did.

Some notable persons and their works in entrepreneurship history.

For Frank H. Knight[7] (1921) and Peter Drucker (1970) entrepreneurship is about taking risk. The behavior of the entrepreneur reflects a kind of person willing to put his or her career and financial security on the line and take risks in the name of an idea, spending much time as well ascapital on an uncertain venture. Knight classified three types of uncertainty.

Risk, which is measurable statistically (such as the probability of drawing a red color ball from a jar containing 5 red balls and 5 white balls). Ambiguity, which is hard to measure statistically (such as the probability of drawing a red ball from a jar containing 5 red balls but with an unknown number of white balls). True Uncertainty or Knightian Uncertainty, which is impossible to estimate or predict statistically (such as the probability of drawing a red ball from a jar whose number of red balls is unknown as well as the number of other colored balls).

The acts of entrepreneurship are often associated with true uncertainty, particularly when it involves bringing something really novel to the world, whose market never exists. However, even if a market already exists, there is no guarantee that a market exists for a particular new player in the cola category. The place of the disharmony-creating and idiosyncratic entrepreneur in traditional economic theory (which describes many efficiency-based ratios assuming uniform outputs) presents theoretic quandaries. William Baumol has added greatly to this area of economic theory and was recently honored for it at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Economic Association.[8] The entrepreneur is widely regarded as an integral player in the business culture of American life, and particularly as an engine for job creation and economic growth. Robert Sobel published The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition in 1974. Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch have produced an edited volume surveying Entrepreneurship as an academic field of research,[9] and more than a hundred scholars around the world track entrepreneurial activity, policy and social influences as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)[10] and its associated reports. nowadays, information on this site is not available
Characteristics of an entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs have many of the same character traits as leaders,[11] similar to the early great man theories of leadership; however trait-based theories of entrepreneurship are increasingly being called into question. Entrepreneurs are often contrasted with managers and administrators who are said to be more methodical and less prone to risk-taking. Such person-centric models of entrepreneurship have shown to be of questionable validity, not least as many real-life entrepreneurs operate in teams rather than as single individuals. Still, a vast literature studying the entrepreneurial personality argues that certain traits seem to be associated with entrepreneurs:

Bird - mercurial, that is, prone to insights, brainstorms, deceptions, ingeniousness and resourcefulness. they are cunning, opportunistic, creative, and unsentimental. Busenitz and Barney - prone to overconfidence and over generalizations. Cole - found there are four types of entrepreneur: the innovator, the calculating inventor, the over-optimistic promoter, and the organization builder. These types are not related to the personality but to the type of opportunity the entrepreneur faces. Collins and Moore - tough, pragmatic people driven by needs of independence and achievement. They seldom are willing to submit to authority. Cooper, Woo, & Dunkelberg - argue that entrepreneurs exhibit extreme optimism in their decision-making processes. John Howkins - focused specifically on creative entrepreneurship. He found that entrepreneurs in the creative industries needed a specific set of traits including the ability to prioritise ideas over data, to be nomadic and to learn endlessly.[12] David McClelland - primarily motivated by an overwhelming need for achievement and strong urge to build.

Qualities 1. Disciplined These individuals are focused on making their businesses work, and eliminate any hindrances or distractions to their goals. They have overarching strategies and outline the tactics to accomplish them. Successful entrepreneurs are disciplined enough to take steps every day toward the achievement of their objectives. 2. Confidence The entrepreneur does not ask questions about whether they can succeed or whether they are worthy of success. They are confident with the knowledge that they will make their businesses succeed. They exude that confidence in everything they do. 3. Open Minded

Entrepreneurs realize that every event and situation is a business opportunity. Ideas are constantly being generated about workflows and efficiency, people skills and potential new businesses. They have the ability to look at everything around them and focus it toward their goals. 4. Self Starter Entrepreneurs know that if something needs to be done, they should start it themselves. They set the parameters and make sure that projects follow that path. They are proactive, not waiting for someone to give them permission. 5. Competitive Many companies are formed because an entrepreneur knows that they can do a job better than another. They need to win at the sports they play and need to win at the businesses that they create. An entrepreneur will highlight their own companys track record of success. 6. Creativity One facet of creativity is being able to make connections between seemingly unrelated events or situations. Entrepreneurs often come up with solutions which are the synthesis of other items. They will repurpose products to market them to new industries.[13] 7. Determination Entrepreneurs are not thwarted by their defeats. They look at defeat as an opportunity for success. They are determined to make all of their endeavors succeed, so will try and try again until it does. Successful entrepreneurs do not believe that something cannot be done. 8. Strong people skills The entrepreneur has strong communication skills to sell the product and motivate employees. Most successful entrepreneurs know how to motivate their employees so the business grows overall. They are very good at highlighting the benefits of any situation and coaching others to their success. 9. Strong work ethic

The successful entrepreneur will often be the first person to arrive at the office and the last one to leave. They will come in on their days off to make sure that an outcome meets their expectations. Their mind is constantly on their work, whether they are in or out of the workplace. 10. Passion Passion is the most important trait of the successful entrepreneur. They genuinely love their work. They are willing to put in those extra hours to make the business succeed because there is a joy their business gives which goes beyond the money. The successful entrepreneur will always be reading and researching ways to make the business better. Successful entrepreneurs want to see what the view is like at the top of the business mountain. Once they see it, they want to go further. They know how to talk to their employees, and their businesses soar as a result.
Concept

It has assumed super importance for accelerating economic growth both in developed and developing countries. It promotes capital formation and creates wealth in country. It is hope and dreams of millions of individuals around the world. It reduces unemployment and poverty and it is a pathway to prosper. Entrepreneurship is the process of exploring the opportunities in the market place and arranging resources required to exploit these opportunities for long term gain. It is the process of planning, organising, opportunities and assuming. Thus it is a risk of business enterprise. It may be distinguished as an ability to take risk independently to make utmost earnings in the market. It is a creative and innovative skill and adapting response to environment.
Promotion

Given entrepreneurship's potential to support economic growth, it is the policy goal of many governments to develop a culture of entrepreneurial thinking. This can be done in a number of ways: by integrating entrepreneurship into education systems, legislating to encourage risktaking, and national campaigns. An example of the latter is the United Kingdom's Enterprise Week.

Outside of the political world, research has been conducted on the presence of entrepreneurial theories in doctoral economics programs. Dan Johansson, fellow at the Ratio Institute in Sweden, finds such content to be sparse. He fears this will dilute doctoral programs and fail to train young economists to analyze problems in a relevant way.[14] Many of these initiatives have been brought together under the umbrella of Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide celebration and promotion of youth entrepreneurship, which started in 2008. Empirical evidence obtained from real-world data also suggests that in transition economy and in troubled times, entrepreneurship and creativity are factors that can save the corporate sector from plunging into a downward spiral of unemployment, downsizing and further chaos.[15]

Mokale

Financial Bootstrapping

Financial bootstrapping is a term used to cover different methods for avoiding using the financial resources of external investors. Bootstrapping can be defined as a collection of methods used to minimize the amount of outside debt and equity financing needed from banks and investors.[16] The use of private credit card debt is the most known form of bootstrapping, but a wide variety of methods are available for entrepreneurs. While bootstrapping involves a risk for the founders, the absence of any other stakeholder gives the founders more freedom to develop the company. Many successful companies including Dell Computers and Facebook were founded this way. There are different types of bootstrapping:

Owner financing Sweat equity Minimization of the accounts receivable Joint utilization Delaying payment

Minimizing inventory Subsidy finance Personal Debt

External financing

Many businesses need more capital than can be provided by the owners themselves, and in this case a range of options are available including:

Angel Investors Venture capital investors. Crowd funding Hedge Funds Alternative Asset Management

Some of these source provide not only funds, but also financial oversight, accountability for carrying out tasks and meeting milestones, and in some cases business contacts and experience - in many cases in return for an equity stake.
Entrepreneurship Education

Most prominately entrepreneurship education and the teaching of the adedemic culture of entrepreneurship, remains with the catalyts of the Australian Graduate school of Entrepreneurship (AGSE) at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia which in March 1989 formed the first Master of Entrepreneurship and Innovation which teaches the corporate, technological and socio-environmental importance of entrepreneurship, also Swinburne has an undergraduate entrepreneurship program that teaches entrepreneurship from a grassroots level.
Entrepreneurship Research

Most Entrepreneurial research hot spots occur within a large entrepreneurial community such as the Masters of entrepreneurship and innovation (MEI) alumui and entrepreneurship PHD students at Swinburne University and Babson college which focuses primarily on the characteristics of entrepreneurs and the changes within the business culture as the result of more entrepreneurial management and thinking.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/entrepreneurship1#ixzz2xS9daH2P