Today's world is not one that encourages anyone to sit arms folded.
Even with the prevalence of white collar jobs, it is expedient to acquire entrepreneurial skills, which can be used as a means of generating extra income Records of the world's most successful men and women today do not reveal people who sat in one place from dawn to the dusk, for some monthly wages, but those who took up the challenge to start up worthwhile ventures not fearing risks or the lack of finance. These are the real entrepreneurs. And you can be one of them!
Entrepreneurship is the process of identifying, developing, and bringing a vision to life. The vision may be an innovative idea, an opportunity, or simply a better way to do something. An entrepreneur is also viewed as an innovator. He introduces new ideas, new products, new techniques, opens up new markets etc. The entrepreneur thus perceives business opportunities and takes advantages of the scarce resources to use them. It is he alone who bears the non-insurable risk in the enterprise and directs the human and material resources towards his business objective. Skill acquisition on the other hand is getting all the necessary training and experience needed to carry out a trade or business successfully.
That you have no degree or financial support is not an excuse for you to stay idle. You can harness your innate abilities and talents for your own betterment and for the advancement of your family. You can acquire skills and become the owner of your own business instead of living from hand to mouth or waiting endlessly for that dream job. Like the godly woman in Proverbs 31 who actively and heartily sought for wool and flax, worked them and used the proceeds to bless her family and others, you too can for the love of your family rise up, work, save and lay up treasures for them! If nothing else let love for these loved ones (whether or not they are there now) spur you into action today.
Character Traits Of Prospective Entrepreneurs
To become a successful entrepreneur, you must be
1. Agile:
You must have an agile mind. An entrepreneur thinks fast and reasons intelligently. This enables him to assess business opportunities after identifying a need and then moves quickly to satisfy it.
2. Business-conscious:
Most successful entrepreneurs are business-conscious people. Their eyes and ears are mostly focused on hearing about or seeing a business opportunity and they easily notice one when it appears
3. Courageous:
You alspeneed to exhibit extreme courage to cope with all the risks of operating your own business. Low patronage, harsh economic envirtumes of risk of losing one's total investment and dwindling of the business hardly discourage successful entrepreneurs.
4. Dynamic:
A successful entrepreneur must possess the energy and enthusiasm to turn his business ideas into reality. He works tirelessly to lift his business out of a state of declining profit or margin of distress to a margin of safety. He injects new ideas, creates new business environment, adds new product lines and turns around the fortunes of his business for the better.
5. Enterprising:
Like the virtuous woman who was so enterprising that she entered many businesses, an entrepreneur has the ability to venture into new business areas. He may start from the scratch or buy an existing business and bring creative innovations that are bound to succeed. In the same vein, he may bring new ways of doing things and make them successful.
6. Focused on profit:
His eyes are fixed on profit he can make and his goal in any venture into which he ventures is what he can gain from it. He is not a kind of person who is doing business for its sake or because its in vogue. As a result he evaluates his progress from time to time and takes appropriate steps.
7. Hard working:
As a prospective entrepreneur you must have appetite for hard work. Your aim of owing your own business should not be so that you can open or close the business anytime you so wish. Most successful enterpreneurs work long hours and hardly give up. The ability to work hard usually contributes greatly to their success story.
8. Discerning:
To be successful as an entrepreneur you must have a good sense of judgment. Doing business involves decision making i.e. choosing between alternatives. Successful entrepreneurs think carefully and make sensible decisions.
9. Knowledgeable of markets: Successful entrepreneurs usually have a good idea of who the customer or target market will be before implementing decisions related to the marketing mix variables (product, price, distribution, and promotion).
10. Full of leadership skills:
Even if you don't consider
yourself a born leader, since you have to manage your business, you will need to develop certain leadership skills-(attend seminars, read good books etc) This is because you have to establish direction, initiate actions, communicate, inspire and motivate your employees towards achieving organizational goals.
11. Ready to take risk:
Entrepreneurs have preference for moderate risk. They hardly seek wild risk. An entrepreneur tries as much as possible to reduce risk by removing as many obstacles to the successful launch of his venture. He plans and takes calculated risks based on knowledge of the market, available resources, and a predetermined measure of the potential for success.
Several small bussiness ideas abound from Agriculture to manufacturing, construction to transportation and communication. The important thing here is to seek the Lord and not to jump presumptuously into any venture.
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