eWhat it takes to be a successful Entrepreneur

1st year / 3rd Trimester Course: Industrial Management and Technology Teacher: Elisabete Lopes Student: Fernando Miranda Nº 1202750 0

Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3 What is an entrepreneur? .................................................................................................... 4 Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur? ...................................................... 4 A True Entrepreneur ........................................................................................................... 5 8 traits of successful entrepreneurs – Do You have what it takes? ..................................... 6 Example Of How An Entrepreneur Responds To An Opportunity .................................... 9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 10 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 11

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Abstract

A successful Entrepreneur must have strong leadership qualities, highly self-motivated, strong sense of basic ethics and integrity, willingness to fail, serial innovators, lnow what you don't know, competitive spirit and understand the value of a strong peer network

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Introduction

I chose this topic because I would like to know more about what goals have a successful Entrepreneur. Just had a thought, the key to a successful entrepreneur is to take the idea and make it work, but it's more than that ... so I decided to explore, trying to understand all the steps and show them in this work.

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What is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit. Someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it or simply someone who is looking to build a company. It is important to understand that an entrepreneur is not necessarily someone that is selfemployed (works for themselves). As more and more people become self-employed we need to understand what makes people entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?
It seems like every person I meet these days wants to be an entrepreneur. They hear all the amazing success stories about young kids who started their own companies and become millionaires. It sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? But what they don’t hear about is the extremely difficult road it takes to get there –the fight to survive, the never-ending persistence and the many sleepless nights. Lots of people decide to become entrepreneurs, thinking it’s their ticket to success. But then reality kicks in and they don’t understand why it’s not working for them. Perhaps they’re too focused on trying to fill those shoes of an entrepreneur. Personally, I think the word “entrepreneur” is so over-rated. You’re either innovating, or you’re not. The title doesn’t help you get there. If you’re a struggling entrepreneur, ask yourself these questions: 1. Have I made little or no profit in the last 12 months and say to myself “It’s not me, it’s the economy”? 2. Am I losing (or not getting) clients because I can’t meet their expectations? 3. Do I stay out late partying on a weeknight and convince myself that I’m networking? 4. Do I wake up late and think to myself “That’s the perk of being an entrepreneur”? 5. Do I take a day off once or twice a week for some “me time”, even though I don’t have staff managing or growing my business? 6. Do I procrastinate or find excuses to push things off for tomorrow? 7. Do I find myself constantly changing my business ideas (or second-guessing my venture)? 8. Do I hold myself back from taking instrumental (or costly) steps because I’m afraid of failing? 9. Am I easily discouraged or give up when things don’t go my way? 10. Am I afraid of change or the unknown? If you can’t relate to these questions, you probably already have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. But if you see yourself on this list, you should take a step back and focus on making some big changes. 4

A True Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs have passion and determination. Their goals keep getting bigger and bolder. When something is not working, they do everything in their power to fix it. They blame no one but themselves. They wake up early each morning because they are excited to execute their ideas. For entrepreneurs, there is never enough time in the day. Real entrepreneurs are confident in their venture. They are not afraid of failure; when they do fail, they see it as a new challenge to push harder. They welcome change. Entrepreneurs put every penny they have into their business, and they are the last to take salaries. For the first couple of years, vacations are never really vacations; they spend all their energies coming up with ways to create change. It’s not easy being an entrepreneur, and it certainly isn’t for everyone. Some entrepreneurs make it big and spend the rest of their lives helping others, while others work extremely hard until the day they die. Many spend their lives starting new businesses over and over again, just because it’s what they love doing. The key is to be fully aware of what you’re getting yourself into, before you spend the next few years trying to be someone you aren’t – and don’t want to be. A few people trying to convince themselves (and everyone around them) that they were entrepreneurs, only to find themselves miserable, client-less and broke. When they finally came to terms with the fact that entrepreneurship isn’t for them, they went out and eventually found a job that was perfect for them.

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8 traits of successful entrepreneurs – Do You have what it takes?

Starting a business is a lot of work. Anyone who tells you it's not is either lying or has never actually started one themselves. The hours are long, sacrifices are great and you are assulted with new problems and challenges every day with seemingly no end. If you don't have the constitution to weather these things, your business could implode on you faster than it started. Clearly, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. But how do you know whether it’s for you? You should start by asking yourself what it takes to be a leader because, for the most part, you'll be doing a lot of the work up front by yourself. If you can't lead yourself through startup, chances are you won't likely be able to lead your business and future employees through growth and on to success. If you enjoy only a few actual hours of real work per day, the rest of the time spent either looking busy or hanging out at the water cooler to catch up on TV talk, a modest but steady paycheck and benefits and are okay with routine day-in and day-out, stop reading here and go back to your cushy desk job. If you seek a challenge wrought with risk but with tremendous potential reward both financially and morally, read on friend, for you have something of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs, from Henry Ford to Steve Jobs, share similar qualities with one another. To see how you rank against these distinguished entrepreneurs, do you share at least half of these qualities?

1.Strong leadership qualities Leaders are born, not made. Do you find yourself being the go-to person most of the time? Do you find people asking your opinion or to help guide or make decisions for them? Have you been in management roles throughout your career? A leader is someone who values the goal over any unpleasantness the work it takes to get there may bring. But a leader is more than just tenacious. A leader has strong communication skills and the ability to amass a team of people toward a common goal in a way that the entire team is motivated and works effectively to get there as a team. A leader earns the trust and respect of his team by demonstrating postive work qualities and confidence, then fostering an environment that proliferates these values throught the team. A leader who nobody will follow is not a leader of anything at all.

2.Highly self-motivated You probably know from knowing even a little bit about some of the most famous business entrepreneurs in history that leaders are typically pretty intense personalities. 6

Nobody makes progress by sitting back and waiting for it to find them. Successful people go out into the world and invoke change throught their actions. Typically, leaders enjoy challenges and will work tirelessly to solve problems that confront them. They adapt well to changing situations without unraveling and are typically expert of helping their teams change with them by motivating them toward new goals and opportunities. Often you will learn that successful entrepreneurs are driven by a more complete vision or goal than simply the task at hand and able to think on a more universal level in that regard. They are also often very passionate about their ideas that drive toward these ultimate goals and are notoriously difficult to steer off the course.

3. Strong sense of basic ethics and integrity Business is sustainable because there is a common, understood code of ethics universally that underpins the very fabric upon which commerce is conducted. While cheaters and thieves may win in the short term, they invariably lose out in the long run. You will find that successful, sustainable business people maintain the highest standards of integrity becauase, at the end of the day, if you cannot prove yourself a credible business person and nobody will do business with you, you are out of business. With importance in working with clients or leading a team, effective leaders admit to any error made and offer solutions to correct rather than lie about, blame others for, or dwell on the problem itself.

4. Willingness to fail Successful entrepreneurs are risk takers who have all gotten over one very significant hurdle: they are not afraid of failure. That's not to say that they rush in with reckless abandon. In fact, entrepreneurs are often successful because they are calculating and able to make the best decisions in even the worst of cases. However, they also accept that, even if they make the best decision possible, things don't always go according to plan and may fail anyhow. If you've heard the old adage, "nothing ventured, nothing gained," that's exactly what it's saying: do not be afraid to fail, put it out there and give it your best shot. Again, there's not one successful entrepreneur out there sitting on his couch asking, "what if?"

5. Serial innovators Entrepreneurs are almost defined by their drive to constantly develop new ideas and improve on existing processes. In fact, that's how most of them got into business in the first place. Successful people welcome change and often depend on it to improve their effectiveness as leaders and ultimately the success of their businesses as many business concepts rely on improving products, services and processes in order to win business.

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6. Know what you don't know While successful entrepreneurs are typically strong personalities overall, the best have learned that there's always a lesson to be learned. They are rarely afraid to ask questions when it means the answers will provide them insight they can then leverage to effect. Successful entrepreneurs are confident, but not egotistical to the point that their bullheadedness is a weakness that continually prohibits them from seeing a bigger picture and ultimately making the best decisions for the business.

7. Competitive spirit Entrepreneurs enjoy a challenge and they like to win. They would have to since starting a business is pretty much one of the biggest challenges a person can take on in their lifetime. In business it's a constant war with competition to win business and grow market share. It's also a personal challenge to use all of this to focus inward and grow a business from nothing into a powerhouse that either makes a lot of money or is so effective that it is sold or acquired for a profit as well.

8. Understand the value of a strong peer network In almost every case, entrepreneurs never get to success alone. The best understand it takes a network of contacts, business partners, financial partners, peers and resources to succeed. Effective people nurture these relationships and surround themselves with people who can help make them more effective. Any good leader is only as good as those who support him.

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Example Of How An Entrepreneur Responds To An Opportunity An interesting way to understand an entrepreneur is to examine how they approach things. We have taken a case of a social entrepreneur to examine how an entrepreneur thinks and acts in comparison to other career choices;
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Identifying and solving large-scale social problems requires a social entrepreneur because only the entrepreneur has the committed vision and inexhaustible determination (passion) to persist until they have transformed an entire system. The scholar comes to rest when he/she expresses an idea. The professional succeeds when he/she solves a client’s problem. The manager calls it quits when he/she has enabled his organization to succeed. Social entrepreneurs go beyond the immediate problem to fundamentally change communities, societies, the world. There is a dramatic difference between entrepreneurs and other business people.

Entrepreneurs approach problems and opportunities with greater vision and passion which creates much greater impact then most people. If most people take a situation from A to B, an entrepreneur would take it from A to Z.

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Conclusion
Starting a new business is not an easy task; however, despite the obstacles, many entrepreneurs work hard in order to achieve success. Regardless of country of origin or gender, successful entrepreneurs share some very common characteristics that are highly distinguishable. Many successful entrepreneurs are extremely passionate about their business ideas. This passion is what motivates them to go above and beyond an ordinary individual. They tend to remain strong even through the toughest of times and learn from mistakes. In addition, they are also organized individuals who are well-prepared to present their funding proposal, elevator pitch, and business plans to prospective investors. Many successful entrepreneurs are also enthusiastic risk takers who are not afraid of failure. Last, they are able to find a balance between family and work life and have the unconditional support of their family members.

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Bibliography

http://www.teachingkidsbusiness.com/entrepreneurship-program-what-it-takes.htm http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/2013/01/15/25-young-entrepreneur-success-stories/ http://www.mbda.gov/node/337 http://www.success.com/articles/581--entrepreneurship-quiz

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