What is Entrepreneur? Meaning, definition, qualities/skills and personality

An entrepreneur is a person who perceives opportunities, organizes the resources needed to exploit the opportunity and sets up an enterprise. The process of setting up an enterprise is called entrepreneurship. An enterprise is a business venture. It is an undertaking that involves uncertainty and risk as well as innovation. In this article, we are going to discuss definitions, qualities of successful entrepreneur and entrepreneur’s personality.

What-is-Entrepreneur-Meaning-definition-qualities-and-personality
What is an entrepreneur ?

An individual has the right to choose any income generating activity or self-employment or entrepreneurship as a career option. Functionally income generating and self-employment activities are the initial stages of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) refers to a programme which helps in developing entrepreneurial capabilities. The skills that are essential to run a business effectively is developed among the students through this programme. Usually, students may have skills but it needs to polish and incubation.


Difference

The main difference between Entrepreneur and Intrapreneur is that Intrapreneur is an employee, and Entrepreneur is free and the leader of the operation. 

Intrapreneurship is the change initiatives taken within a going concern by the people working in that organization.

The concept of entrepreneurship has a wide range of meanings. On the one extreme an entrepreneur is a person of very high aptitude who pioneers change, possessing characteristics found in only a very small fraction of the population.


Definitions of Entrepreneur

1) Peter Drucker:

“An entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits opportunities. Innovation is a specific tool of an entrepreneur hence an effective entrepreneur converts a source into a resource.”

2) Albert Shaper:

“Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of failure and have an internal locus of control.”

3) Gilbreath:

“An entrepreneur must accept the challenge and should be willing hard to achieve something”.


Qualities/Skills of successful entrepreneur

The Indian business has seen great successful entrepreneurs like Tatas, Birlas, Dalmia and many more who came up recently such as Ambanis, Mittals, Jindals, etc. The question is what makes an entrepreneur successful? Did they all have certain common qualities?

The answer is, they all had certain prominent qualities which can be summarized as follows:-

1. Initiative: An entrepreneur must have an innovative aptitude, pick the right opportunity, and initiate action. If he/she does not initiate action at the right time the opportunity may be lost. Hence, the ability of an entrepreneur to take initiative is the key to the success of the venture to a great extent.

2. Wide Knowledge: An entrepreneur should have wide knowledge of the economic and non-economic environment of business like the market, consumer attitudes, technology, etc. In the absence of such adequate knowledge, the decisions taken by him may be poor and will not contribute to the profitability of his business in the long run.

3. Willingness to assume risk: Entering any venture is full of risks and uncertainties. In order to deal with various kinds of risks and uncertainties efficiently, the entrepreneur should have willingness and necessary foresightedness to assume risks. The quantity and quality of risk taking would determine the quality of business decisions.

4. Open mind and optimistic outlook: An entrepreneur should have an open mind. He/she must possess a dynamic and optimistic outlook so as to predict changes in the business environment and respond effectively without delay.

5. Adaptability: The entrepreneur must understand the ground realities of the business environment. He/she should be prepared to adapt to the changes taking place in the system. Any resistance to change and delay in responding thereto, shall lead to losing the opportunity of taking advantage thereof.

6. Self-confidence: For achieving success in life, one should have confidence in himself/ herself. A person who lacks confidence can neither do any work himself/herself nor inspire others to work. Self-confidence is reflected in courage, enthusiasm and the ability to lead.

7. Leadership Qualities: An entrepreneur should possess the qualities of a good leader. He/she should have the traits of self-discipline, presence of mind, sense of justice, honor and dignity and above all, a high moral character.

8. Orientation towards hard work: There is no substitute for hard work in life. While running a business, one problem or the other may occur. The businessman has to be vigilant about these and find solutions thereof as early as possible. This requires hard work on the part of the entrepreneur. He has to put in extra efforts to ensure success of the enterprise started by him.


Entrepreneur’s Personality:

1) Self-Motivation:

This is the most important skill of any entrepreneur. It is the ability to wake early in the morning and start working. Self-motivation comes through practice and it is essential for every entrepreneur in times of odd and even phases of business.

2) Ethics and Morals:

These are the foundations of an every entrepreneur. It is up to the will of the entrepreneur, what he stands for and how he conducts the business on a daily basis.

3) Culture and Values:

It recommends that the culture is most effective constant for entrepreneur. Good cultural values also influence the entrepreneur intention. The appropriateness, consistency, effectiveness, (ACE) model of persuasion is the three main thought of culture importance, stability, efficiency.

4) Problem Solver and a Decision Maker:

In the initial phases of an enterprise many teething problems do occur and an entrepreneur should be a creative problem solver to turn difficulties into advantages.

5) Innovation:

Innovating is a process of creating, changing, experimenting, transforming and revolutionizing. Innovation is one of the key distinguishing characteristics of entrepreneurial activity.

6) Effective Communication:

Proper communication helps entrepreneurs in managing the affairs of the business more efficiently. If the right type of information is made available at the right time through proper communication then the management can utilize it in the best possible manner.

7) Time Management:

This goes hand in hand with self-motivation. As, an entrepreneur, it needs to stick with the schedule. Time is extremely valuable.

8) Leadership Quality:

An entrepreneur must assume a wide range of roles, tasks, and responsibilities. But over and above all these roles the role of leader is very much important to become successful entrepreneur.

9) Personal Efficacy:

Self-efficacy is a useful construct in explaining the dynamic process of evaluation and choice that surrounds the development of entrepreneurial intentions and the subsequent decisions to engage in entrepreneurial behavior.

10) Technology Backup:

Success of an entrepreneur depends largely upon his ability to adopt latest technology. Technical knowledge implies the ability to devise and use new and better ways of producing and marketing goods and services.


Thanks for reading the topic.

Please comment on your feedback whatever you want. If you have any questions, please ask us by commenting.


References: –

https://academicsb.blogspot.com/