Community Media/IFEPAC/Entrepreneurship1

UNIT 1

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Introduction

Welcome to our first unit which is on the entrepreneur. As you may be aware, success or failure of a small business relies on people who start and manage it. This unit looks at the personal abilities of people who make businesses happen so that participants can be guided to enter the small business sector.

Aim

By the end of this unit, the participant should be able to apply entrepreneurial abilities to start and manage businesses.

Objectives

By the end of this unit, the participants should be able to:

• Explain the meaning of the term entrepreneur
• Indicate the characteristics of an entrepreneur
• Identify their own entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses
• Demonstrate qualities of an entrepreneur.

Reference Materials

• Start and Manage Your Business; Department of Adult Education
• Learning About Small Scale Business. Adult Education. Learners Text book Department of Adult Education
• Guide to Starting and Managing a Small Business; – Equity Building Society.

Study Activities:

• Discussion
• Reading Texts / Taking Notes
• Exercises

Content

Step 1: Meaning of Entrepreneur

Individual Activity 1 (Time: 15 Minutes)

List down some businesses that you know or have heard about. It could be a shop, restaurant or other services that you use. Suggest the actions the owners took before they started the businesses. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Check whether they might have taken the following steps:

• Took a look at the environment.
• Identified existing business opportunities.
• Brought the resources together.
• Took up the advantage of existing business opportunities.

Can you now try to define the term entrepreneur? ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Individual Activity 2: (Time: 10 minutes)

     List five responsibilities of an entrepreneur.

i) ……………………………………………. ii) …………………………………………….. iii) …………………………………………….. iv) ……………………………………………… v) ………………………………………………

Summary:

An entrepreneur is a person who is able to identify business opportunities and obtain the necessary resources to initiate a successful business activity even if there are some risks.

Step 2: Characteristics of an Entrepreneur

In the previous section, we tried to define an entrepreneur. In this section, we want to look at the characteristics of an entrepreneur.

To start and succeed in your business you need to have a desire to achieve your goals and you should be willing to work a little longer in your business.

a)A high degree of self confidence. b)Being prepared to take moderate risks. c)Having initiative and independence. d)Possessing organizational skills. e)Having the need and the desire to achieve. f)Seeking solutions to problems. g)Having positive outlooks. h)Taking a clear vision of goals. i)Having a positive attitude to tasks.

Individual Activity 3: (Time: 20 minutes)

Study the following table of characteristics of an entrepreneur. Look at each characteristic and ask yourself where you come on the five point scale. Put a tick at that point in order to establish basic entrepreneurship profile.

Establishing Entrepreneurial Profile

Characteristics Not true at all Occasionally true True about 50% of the time Usually true Very true

• A high degree of self confidence
• Prepared to take moderate risks
• Initiative and independence
• Possessing organizational skills
• Need and desire to achieve
• Seeking solution to problems
• Having a positive outlook
• Taking responsibility for decisions
• Clear vision of goals
• Having positive attitude to tasks

Summary:

Your success as an entrepreneur mainly depends on you. You owe it to yourself to make the business profitably continue and grow. Success comes to those who wait patiently but work hard while they wait. If you cannot find a way, create one and if you are not the leader things will never change.

=Step 3: Identifying your Entrepreneurial Strengths and weaknesses

We have looked at the characteristics of an entrepreneur in the previous section. Let us find out how you can identify your strength and weakness in business.

Every person has some strengths and weaknesses. You need to assess your strengths and weaknesses in order to gauge your abilities and inabilities for the purpose of retaining the abilities and improving inabilities.

Assess your business strengths and weaknesses on the basis of the following factors:

FACTORS VISIBLE SIGNS Entrepreneurial qualities - Creativity - Desire to control your own life - Independence - Optimism - Risk taking - Need to achieve - Positive attitude - Self confidence - Decision making - Action oriented

Entrepreneurial skills

- Skill application - Good workmanship - Marketing - Management

Activity 4: (Time: 30 Minutes)

i) Use the entrepreneurial qualities identified above to determine your entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses. List down the qualities you believe you have.
…………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………. 

…………………………………………………….

Summary

Self assessment of an entrepreneur involves the process of identifying your abilities and inabilities with an aim of developing your abilities and positively improving your inabilities. Some of the factors you can use to assess entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses are entrepreneurial qualities and skills.

Step 4: Demonstration of qualities of an entrepreneur:

Do you know that learning is made better by doing? There is a saying that; I hear, I forget, I see, I remember, I do, I understand. You see and forget, you hear but you do not memorize but you do and you remember.

Demonstration is the best way of learning entrepreneurial qualities.

The following qualities are necessary if you are intending to start and manage a business.

• A willingness to take a risk (gamble).
• A driving force that makes you desires to accomplish a goal.
• The desire to control your own future.
• A feeling of confidence that you are on the right track.
• A feeling that you can succeed i.e. a belief in yourself.
• The ability to stick to a job and focus on your goals.
• Ability to persuade people to follow you.
• Desire to make something happen.
• Ability to adapt, change or maneuver.

Individual Activity 5 :( Time: 15 Minutes)

Discuss with you business friend why you think you should demonstrate the good qualities of an entrepreneur? i) ……………………………………………………………………… ii) ……………………………………………………………………… iii) ……………………………………………………………………… iv) ………………………………………………………………………. v) ………………………………………………………………………

Summary

Demonstration is the most important method of learning entrepreneurial qualities as the saying goes “experience is the best teacher”. With proper application of entrepreneurial qualities, there is a likelihood of an entrepreneurial success.

What we have learnt in this unit:

Congratulations on successfully going through this unit. I hope you found the unit enjoyable. Now move to the next unit “A suitable business opportunity”