Entrepreneurship

Hisrich, Peters, and Shepherd (2010) defined entrepreneurship as "the process of creating something new with value by devoting the necessary time and effort; assuming the accompanying financial, psychological, and social risks and uncertainties; and receiving the resultant rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction and independence" (p. 6).

Successful entrepreneurs are from both genders and come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. What does a successful entrepreneur do? A successful entrepreneur begins a business, builds that business, or manages that business. Successful entrepreneurs share common behaviors. They work hard and are driven by a fierce commitment and determination, tend to be positive, strive for integrity, burn with the competitive desire to excel and win, are discontented with the status quo, seek openings to improve every situation they confront, and use failure as a tool for learning. To become successful, an entrepreneur must have vision, passion, commitment, and motivation to transmit the vision to others (such as partners, customers, suppliers, and employees). An entrepreneur must be willing to take calculated risks, both personal and financial, and to do everything possible to influence the odds for success.

Analyzing types of organizational ventures

The legal format an organization chooses to use will depend on many factors among them people, legal and tax consequences, the culture, the context and also the social norms. This can basically be grouped into the internal and the external factors.  This factors determine a lot and influence an entrepreneur’s decision (Maula, 2009). The entrepreneur though, will sit and decide on which form to employ so as to achieve the set goals and objectives.

New ventures start from small shops and businesses and grow gradually to broader, high impact organizations. However, this will differ from important social corporations which often start as nonprofit ventures. This, also, will defer from the family owned businesses whose running will be totally different. The family businesses will also defer from the private owned venture businesses which arise from grown ventures (Narayanan, 2009).

Strategies used by entrepreneurs to attain success.

An individual seeking an entrepreneurial venture should work through a series of three steps: finding, evaluating, and developing. In order to locate an opportunity, both formal and informal means may be used. The formal means are more likely found within an existing corporation. The entrepreneur is more likely to use informal means, such as pursing a comment made by a friend, a complaint about an existing service or product, or simply a chance comment in a passing conversation.

1. Once the idea is identified, the entrepreneur must have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to move it to development, and the desire to see the venture to fruition. Before that, however, a full evaluation of concerns such as technology, competition, laws, potential market demographics, and financial wherewithal must be completed. When you’re frustrated with the lack of progress and income in your business, you naturally look to those who are successful. You think if you copy what they’re doing, you could get the results they’re getting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

2. When you’re the carbon copy of someone else, people will do business with that person, not you. Model systems that work and use successful frameworks. Learn from the strategies that make them successful, but do it in a way that’s unique to you and your business. Successful entrepreneurs serve a specific target market. They realize that you can’t reach everyone, and if you try, your efforts will be ineffective and scattered. To grow your business, you have to spend your time and resources in the places that will get you the best results.

Chasing people who will probably never buy from you is not a great use of your time. Time is money for entrepreneurs. Wasting it in the places unlikely to generate income is not what helps you become successful. Social media has been great for businesses, but it has become the crutch for too many entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs have a very diverse strategy that doesn’t rely too heavily on any one thing. They realize that at any time, what used to work might now anymore. They leave room to pivot. A case in point is the algorithm changes for Google and Facebook. There were some entrepreneurs who businesses folded because they relied to heavily on one strategy. The smart entrepreneurs moved on to plan B. We live in a time when information is readily available. Everyday, we listen to podcasts, watch videos and read blogs that give us amazing strategies to grow our business. The problem comes in the form of information overload.

We get stuck because we get confused on what we should be working on right now and what will lead to the best results. Successful entrepreneurs firmly believe in the speed of implementation. How fast can you take a good idea and create a product or service from that idea? Successful entrepreneurs realize that seeking perfection is a curse. Instead, they get their idea to market and improve upon it through customer feedback. They keep it simple by learning, then implementing. Keep all aspects of your business lean and clean.

Comparison of qualities, characteristics, behaviors, and leadership styles of successful entrepreneurs.

Leadership style defines how leaders direct the work of a group of individuals. Leadership style refers to the actions leaders take to gather input from subordinates, make decisions, solve problems and review results. In contrast, leadership traits describe the personality types of successful leaders. Historically, measuring these traits encompasses the emotional, social, physical and intellectual capacity to lead others. For example, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment developed by Kathryn Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers during World War II, measures psychological preferences and how people make decisions. At small businesses, entrepreneurs can use the same leadership styles as world leaders. Using the commanding style, you make decisions without consulting employees. Use this in emergencies. Using the pacesetting style, you set high standards and motivate employees to achieve lofty goals that establish and maintain a competitive advantage. Using a democratic style, you take the time to come to a consensus before making a decision. To use the collaborative approach, get input from your subordinates and make a decision that makes the most sense for everyone. To use a visionary style, focus on defining the mission and allowing your subordinates to come up with the action plan. If your employees lack skills and experience, use a coaching style to get them up to speed. Choosing an appropriate leadership style typically depends on the situation. Employees at every level of an organization can develop their leadership skills by learning to accurately assess a scenario, consider leadership approaches and take action. For example, to maintain a safe environment, leaders in a construction environment must mandate strict adherence to local, state and federal regulations. In a marketing department, leaders typically use a more collaborative style to elicit creativity and innovation in the workplace.

References

Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2009). Craft of research (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Hisrich, R., Peters, M., & Shepherd D. (Eds.). (2010). Entrepreneurship (8th ed.)New York, NY:

Morris's 2012, "Business Ideas – Creation and Evaluation," in A Practical Guide to Entrepreneurship: How to Turn an Idea Into a Profitable Business, pages 29–38

Hallam and Seebohm's 2007 article, "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," from A Life in the Day, volume 11, issue 1, pages 12–15.

Kobia and Sikalieh's 2010 article, "Towards a Search for the Meaning of Entrepreneurship," from Journal of European Industrial Training, volume 34, issue 2, pages 110–127.

Hill, S. A., Maula, M. V., Birkinshaw, J. M., & Murray, G. C. (2009). Transferability of the venture capital model to the corporate context: Implications for the performance of corporate venture units. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 3(1), 3-27.

Narayanan, V. K., Yang, Y., & Zahra, S. A. (2009). Corporate venturing and value creation: A review and proposed framework. Research policy, 38(1), 58-76.