-What is Entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship, the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control, is now a subject with segmented interest across a wide variety of fields and topics, including new venture creation, venture capital, social ventures, business model innovation, open software, internet, corporate entrepreneurship, global business, and biotechnology. The Centre For Money Making Ideas continues to evolve and adapt to this environment and provides value in all of these areas through a diverse array of activities. We consistently challenge students and community members to undertake entrepreneurial challenges that will have real impact and create significant value for all stakeholders, including indirect parties such as society at large. This goal often means creating ventures that deeply utilize linkages and innovation and must interact with global markets.
Six F Words Every Entrepreneur Should Knowby Paul Furiga
Start your own business, and soon enough, you find yourself in a situation where there are many things you want to say, all of them unprintable.
It happens to every entrepreneur – a moment of extreme challenge that causes you to wonder why you started the (expletive) business in the first place. I’ve had my share of those moments since starting our public relations firm in March 2002.
But while trading notes with a fellow entrepreneur recently, I started to think about all the moments of extreme challenge I left behind when I decided I no longer wanted to be somebody else’s employee.
That got me thinking about what really matters to me as an entrepreneur. As I shared my thoughts with my friend, a new list developed – the “F” words I believe every entrepreneur should know. They’ve done the job for me so far, keeping me rooted, married and talking to my kids while we build a successful business. I hope they have the same effect for you.
Faith: I’m not a street corner preacher, but I have a deep and abiding faith that starting my business is what I was meant to do in life. I also have a strong faith that I’ve been given the tools to do the job – even in a moment of extreme challenge. Without faith in yourself, in your business and in your purpose, how can you succeed as an entrepreneur?
Family: My wife and daughters are the most important people in my life. Starting my business has enabled me to put them at the center of my life, where they belong. Oh yes, I work long and hard, but today, it’s with a clear purpose. The generations of entrepreneurs who built this country understood this principle. Their businesses often bore the family name, and generations of people who were born, lived and died together managed to build great businesses together.
Friends: Fortune 500 companies have boards of directors. Entrepreneurs have friends. When no one else will listen, friends will. When others fail to see the beauty of the product or solution, friends will. And when no one else will talk straight to you about a dumb business move, friends will. And they won’t send you a bill.
Focus: It’s nice to say you’re an entrepreneur, that you are your own boss. But do you have the commitment to turn that idea into true success? The ultimate measure is your ability not only to set a goal, but stick with it, despite those moments of extreme challenge. You may have to change course along the way, but like a good sailor, you focus, keeping your business pointed to the right shore.
Finances: Let’s face it – most of us strike out as entrepreneurs because we believe we can improve our financial situation. I know I have not missed the constraining limits and miniscule salary increases of corporate America. How much do I want to make this year? There is only one answer: How hard am I willing to work? And there is only one reason to ask that question: to make good on my commitment to all the “F” words that rank ahead of
money on my list.
Freedom: This may be the greatest gift of entrepreneurship. But it is the one that comes only after you can act on all the other “F” words in your entrepreneurial vocabulary. So many entrepreneurs strike out to find success, which they define as freedom from all the things they hated about working for someone else. Unfortunately for these folks, they lack a true entrepreneurial vision – they’re merely running away from something. True entrepreneurial freedom comes from a vision that encompasses what’s really important to you.
Are these the only “F” words an entrepreneur needs to know? Obviously not. But in moments of extreme challenge, remembering these “F” words may help you weather a moment of extreme challenge without resorting to the unprintable variety. And if you’re like me, they may also help you remember why you started the business in the first place.
About This Learning Center ArticlePaul Furiga is president of WordWrite Communications LLC, a Pittsburgh-based virtual agency. He is the former editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times, and has also covered Congress, the White House, edited magazines and written for publications ranging from Congressional Quarterly to Frequent Flyer magazine
http://www.entrepreneur.com/-Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company, enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. The term is a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome. In common understanding it is taken as describing a dynamic personality.An entrepreneur is someone who attempts to organize resources in new and more valuable ways and accepts full responsibility for the outcome.
Etymology
The word "entrepreneur" is a loanword from French. In French the verb "entreprendre" means "to undertake", with "entre" coming from the Latin word meaning "between", and "prendre" meaning "to take". In French a person who performs a verb, has the ending of the verb changed to "eur", comparable to the "er" ending in English.
Enterprise is similar to and has roots in, the French word "entrepris", which is the past participle of "entreprendre". Entrepreneuse is simply the French feminine counterpart of "entrepreneur".
According to Miller, it is one who is able to begin, sustain, and when necessary, effectively and efficiently dissolve a business entity.
Entrepreneur as a leader
Scholar Robert. B. Reich considers leadership, management ability, and team-building as essential qualities of an entrepreneur. This concept has its origins in the work of Richard Cantillon in his Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général (1755) and Jean-Baptiste Say (1803) in his Treatise on Political Economy.
A more generally held theory is that entrepreneurs emerge from the population on demand, from the combination of opportunities and people well-positioned to take advantage of them. An entrepreneur may perceive that s/he is among the few to recognize or be able to solve a problem. In this view, one studies on one side the distribution of information available to would-be entrepreneurs (see Austrian School economics) and on the other, how environmental factors (access to capital, competition, etc.) change the rate of a society's production of entrepreneurs.
A prominent theorist of the Austrian School in this regard is Joseph Schumpeter, who saw the entrepreneur as innovators and popularized the uses of the phrase creative destruction to describe his view of role of entrepreneurs in changing business norms.The modern myths about entrepreneurs include the idea that they assume the risks involved to undertake a business venture, but that interpretation now appears to be based on a false translation of Cantillon's and Say's ideas. The research data indicate that successful entrepreneurs are actually risk averse. They are successful because their passion for an outcome leads them to organize available resources in new and more valuable ways. In doing so, they are said to efficiently and effectively use the factors of production. Those factors are now deemed to include at least the following elements: land (natural resources), labour (human input into production using available resources), capital (any type of equipment used in production i.e. machinery), intelligence, knowledge, and creativity. A person who can efficiently manage these factors in pursuit of an opportunity to add value, may expand (future prospects of larger firms and businesses), and become successful.
Entrepreneurship is often difficult and tricky, as many new ventures fail. Entrepreneur is often synonymous with founder. Most commonly, the term entrepreneur applies to someone who creates value by offering a product or service. Entrepreneurs often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and organize their resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions.
Some observers see them as being willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue that opportunity, but the emerging evidence indicates they are more passionate experts than gamblers.
Business entrepreneurs are viewed as fundamentally important in the capitalistic society. Some distinguish business entrepreneurs as either "political entrepreneurs" or "market entrepreneurs," while social entrepreneurs' principal objectives include the creation of a social and/or environmental benefit.
Business entrepreneurs who adhere to Cultural Creative values are defined as innerpreneurs as their principal objectives include personal development and social change.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneur-Advice For New Entrepreneurs
Being an entrepreneur requires that you are intelligent, focused, and passionate. As such, most business fail in the first year because the entrepreneur either doesn't have those qualities, or makes one of the following mistakes. No Business Plan: How can you expect to accomplish anything if you haven't actually sat down and made a map of your goals. A detailed, well-written business plan that maps out the comapanies missions, goals, and financials is a must if you intend to succeed. The biggest reason behind this is that it requires you to do some research into your industry, better understand your market, and have a cohesive grasp of what you intend to do. Even more importantly.. if you want investment, your going to need something other than an elevator pitch. Rapid Expansion: Don't take on more business than you can handle, and make sure you customers understand your limits. If you don't follow this rule, you tarnish your name, and bye-bye company. One of the other more common mistakes a infant and growing company makes is trying to appear bigger than they are by hiring too many employees, and getting a plush
office. This can easily lead into ... Running out of Money: If you don't have a business plan, you most likely didn't make sales projections, expense budgets, etc.. Therefore, you will most likely run out of money. When you start your business, be sure to have a rock star accountant that you talk to often. If you can't obtain angel funding or other investment, consider a small business loan. Not having a solid marketing plan: How are you going to reach your customers?.. Did you assume that you were just great, and they would come flocking to you? Be sure to have a firm grasp on your competitors strategies, and a large enough budget to experiment with different marketing tactics. If cold-calling is your marketing plan, don't expect to do anything else (like actually run your business) Not creating a distinct brand: Who are you? What makes you unique? Make sure you have a brand that reflects these traits, and you have a winner. Unless you have something that will stick in the mind of your customers and potential clients... you'll lose out to the person who does. Why do you think even the largest of comapanies are constantly micro-adjusting their brand. Not being Passionate: If you are not passionate about what you are doing.. just quit. You have to have that fire deep inside of you that you forces you into battle when you try to sleep at night. An unbridled attraction towards the business and concept that it promotes. If the business doesn't excite you up front, you won't have the extra push that it takes to break through to success. Being a quitter: Some of the most successful businesses have started out as failures. If something isn't working... be adept to change, rethink, remold, and redeploy.. if that doesn't work, rinse and repeat. re, re, re.. just keep going. The moment you stop trying.. You've failed, and so has your business.Jake is a financial services and entrepreneurship expert.. Article on entrepreneur, obstacles, business plan, marketing, strategy, advice by Jake Bohall
The System - How to Build Wealth through Entrepreneurship
There are many different ways to become wealthy in our world today. You can become rich through inheritance, crime, entertainment, sports, or building a business. There are certain advantages and disadvantages to each method. Receiving an inheritance can be very helpful, but many do not have this option and even those who do often do not know how to properly manage and grow this money once they have it. As a criminal, you can make money fairly easily and very quickly, unfortunately your conscience may get to you, you'll destroy your reputation, and likely spend much of the rest of your life in a jail cell eating pre-packaged thawed lima beans. One can surely make a lot of money through entertainment but unless you are extremely talented, are a white rapper, or win American Idol or star in Eurovision, the chances are slim you'll make it. Professional sports is an option. Again, however, the chances are very low and the chance of serious injury, numerous surgeries, and a life of chronic pain, worn cartilage, and sore joints does not sound too appealing.
That leaves being an entrepreneur. While there are many risks to being an entrepreneur, it seems that as long as one learns from his or her mistakes, keeps his or her ear to the marketplace, and persists, he or she will eventually succeed. The dynamic, always changing, life and the chance for significant personal gain make building a business the choice many make who wish to obtain financial
security and become wealthy.
There are two ways to build wealth through entrepreneurship. The first way is to build a business and pay yourself a salary. If your business grows large enough to have an ample net profit margin, you can re-invest part in your company and still have enough pay yourself a large salary. You may personally earn a few hundred thousand dollars per year, and may be happy with this amount, at all times maintaining majority ownership in your company and doing things the way you like to do them while still making time for other commitments such as a family. This method of becoming wealthy is often associated with that of the lifestyle entrepreneur, small business owner, family business owner, and the S corporation. It is surely one option.
While a few hundred thousand dollars per year may make many happy, in order to make tens or hundreds of millions, you'll have to change your goals, thinking, and methodology. In order to make hundreds of millions of dollars, you'll have to build a high potential company. To use this method you'll have to be a high potential entrepreneur and a C corporation. You'll have to develop a novel technology, obtain solid intellectual property, or have a good business idea. You'll need to write a complete business plan and pay $15,000 for a private placement memorandum to be created so you can raise equity capital from accredited private investors, angel investors, or venture capitalists, in turn giving up a significant portion of ownership to the investors.
You'll have to bring on a top tier team, in turn giving up a good part of the remaining ownership to your initial founders and top performers. You'll need to bring on additional products, build systems and processes, outsource operations across the globe, launch international marketing campaigns, use derivatives to hedge risk in overseas currency markets, and attract seasoned executives and newly minted MBAs to your growing firm. You'll need to attract a solid Board of Directors led by representatives of your investors and industry leaders. And you'll have to reach proof of concept, raise a second and third round of financing, ensure your books meet GAAP standards, expand market share, and turn profitable.
Finally, you'll have to attract potential acquirers or talk to investment bankers about going public. If a company wishes to buy your company, you'll go through a process of extensive due diligence and evaluation. If you choose to go public, you'll file form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, have a prospectus created, and go on an investor road show to pitch the merits of investing in your company. Finally, you'll sell, part or all of your company—either to an acquirer or the public markets. Your equity, your ownership, will soon be liquid and you'll be able to cash in on the past six years of ninety-hour weeks. You may make $5 million, you may make $500 million—dependent on the market capitalization of your company and the amount of equity you were able to retain through all the financing rounds and option pool dilutions.
This is how, at the basic level, the system works. Going public or selling a company is a dream of all high potential entrepreneurs. If you can start with a product that the market demands, raise funding, build a good team, establish market share, turn profitable, add additional products and revenue streams, and position yourself as a market leader in your niche, you'll make it. This process is not exactly easy, however, and more often than not, even the most experienced, well educated, well connected entrepreneurs fail at following this path. Then again, there is nothing wrong with deciding to become wealthy through the cash flow of a small or lifestyle business. Ryan P. Allis, 20, is the author of Zero to One Million, a guide to building a company to $1 million in sales, and the founder of zeromillion.com. Ryan is also the CEO of Broadwick Corp., a provider of the permission-based email marketing software and CEO of Virante, Inc., a web marketing and search engine optimization firm. Ryan is an economics major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a Blanchard Scholar.
[learn more]. . Article on Wealth Entreprenuership by Ryan P Allis
