People who are self employed are often called entrepreneurs and some would equate that all the self employed or small business owners are entrepreneurs. This I suppose is a matter of definition, in my eyes an entrepreneur creates enormous value whereas in many cases the self employed or even the small business owner is replacing income stream that would normally be coming from employment with one from their business.
Whatever the successful entrepreneur is doing it s going to be risky, probably requiring high levels of innovation and market disruption. The rewards however will be high and if it all comes together they will come faster! A non entrepreneurial business owner will more than likely be operating in a less risky area, requiring less innovation probably with an existing product or service and competing on price alone.
To balance this discussion and understand the confusion you need to look at where most business owner and entrepreneurs started from. And it is most cases, it’s the same place. To make money, by adding value to people’s lives in some form or another. And both have followed the well walked (and very brave) route of setting up as a business, a limited company or sole trader and trying to get their idea accepted. Many have failed as some of the most successful entrepreneurs and small business owners will tell you.
Can we clarify further? Are there any defining characteristics of an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is often seen as someone who is smart, innovative and creative. They are seen as driven and people who look at everything that happens to them, good or bad as a learning opportunity. Problems are inevitable in any business and like many business owners, entrepreneurs will see these as opportunities. The word entrepreneur comes from the French ‘entrependre’ which means ‘to undertake’ or ‘to begin something’ , and having a passion to deliver something new, creative, innovative and big is core to the entrepreneurial spirit.
I think the entrepreneurial spirit exists in some way in us all. Certainly many of us want to set up our own business and if you believe some of the surveys taken last year, that figure would be at least half of us! Those businesses in the main would be based on new and exciting ideas, entrepreneurial, creative and innovative products. And guess what happens? Well, only about 5% of those people actually get their idea off the ground. Which when you consider how significant the role of the entrepreneur is in our lives, it is a little disappointing. It would be good to see how the figures in the UK compare to the rest of the World.
The focus is starting to shift towards the development of entrepreneurs through schools and colleges. It has been recognised that it is important to ensure that young adults are schooled in business processes and have the necessary education to allow them to fulfil their entrepreneurial dreams. As David Cameron said ‘the future of our economy depends on a new generation of entrepreneurs coming up with ideas’.
Universities and colleges are becoming the leading lights in the education of our budding and youthful entrepreneurs. It’s difficult to find a campus nowadays that does not have an enterprise unit designed to support, educate, advice and encourage student entrepreneurs. And the back drop to this is a rising number of students who are actually describe themselves as entrepreneurial (i.e. working for themselves). HESA or the Higher Education Statistics Agency reported that over 45% more students describe themselves as either self employed or freelancing in 2009 compared to 2002! This is a big increase.
HESA also report that young adults are far more likely to be unemployed than starting a business. A fact that has not gone unnoticed by Government. Last year the Iain Duncan Smith talked about reverting back to a 1980′s scheme called Enterprise Allowance that basically helped the long term unemployed to start their own business. David Cameron announced that later this month the scheme would be launched in Merseyside and then rolled out across the UK. The Enterprise Allowance not only helps financially but also provides assistance in terms of mentoring support and guidance.
The move to development of entrepreneurs through the education systems can only be a good one however a counter point is that true entrepreneurs are not developed, they are born. Or they come from some form of necessity (i.e. poverty). Obviously these are all true and all equally valid. The foundation for all of these is being clever and working hard. I don’t think I have ever met a successful entrepreneur who wasn’t smart and hasn’t worked hard, I’m talking about really hard, to the detriment of family and friends. Having these two attributes is going to set anybody on the right track which ever route they take.
As the business landscape changes the entrepreneur has to adapt to the ever changing challenges and opportunities. With the support mechanisms that are available today and as markets develop and open then you start to realise that this decade is the decade of the entrepreneur. And the world needs them. As serial entrepreneur and Dragon Peter Jones says, have a vision, be confident, be results orientated, take action, use your influence and don’t underestimate your capabilities. And what do we say? Work hard, be smart and be lucky!
Howard writes for Just Commercial Mortgages, the UK’s No1 site for commercial property finance news, and information and the latest commercial mortgage rates.
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