Entrepreneurship is a term not new to many. It’s an old activity which keeps evolving as can be seen in today’s business world. Whereas many people simply see it as starting your own business (gofourpercent.com), business experts have put more thought into it. For instance, economists believe an entrepreneur is a person ready to take on the risk of a new opportunity with the hope of making great grains. Other experts (digitalera.io)believe an entrepreneur is simply an innovator selling their innovation to their target or potential markets.
But one thing is certain: It’s a person venturing out on their own in pursuit of a new opportunity. To help you understand this better, here’s a complete definition.
Entrepreneurship defined
Entrepreneurship is an act of discovering or creating new ideas or opportunities with the intention to create value, and forming an organisation to assist you to achieve that mission. The person behind it is called an entrepreneur.
At its core, it’s an act of setting out to do a business from scratch. It starts from visualisation to conception to implementation and finally to managing the business in the long run.
Even though many people have ideas and visions, very few ever end up taking the action of pursuing them. A true entrepreneur will not leave anything to chance. He’s a go-getter.
Entrepreneurship mostly centres on innovation. You can’t separate the two from each other. Here’s how the two are tied together.
Entrepreneurship and innovation
It goes true for any type of entrepreneurship that its prime aim should be centred around creating or discovering innovative ways to improve the world. For instance, Steve Jobs is a famous entrepreneur who went on to create a digital revolution in the form of communication devices, computers and a few other gadgets that would later change how the world operates.
Generally, without discovery and innovation, the market economy will be stagnant as there will be no improvement whatsoever. But entrepreneurship paves a way for this as it promotes economic growth through discovery and innovation. In a climate of intense competition, as it is today, it also becomes hard be a successful entrepreneur without being innovative.
Innovation creates, recreates and uncovers systems and process that are sometimes applied in areas such as production, organisation, marketing, resources amongst others.
An entrepreneur, therefore, seeks innovation with the hope of turning it into an economic good.
Most entrepreneurs bear a certain set of skills. It’s what sets them apart in relation to what they have accomplished as an entrepreneur. Some of them include:
- Interpersonal skills
- Leadership skills
- Best management skills
- Leadership skills
- Communication skills
- Ability to plan
Risks and rewards
It would be incomplete to define entrepreneurship without mentioning both its dark and brighter sides. Just the same way it has promises of huge returns, compensations, incentives, and other rewards, entrepreneurship also has its dangers, hazards, perils, threats and other risks.
You will definitely be your own boss, work at hours of your choice, choose your preferred location and enjoy a slew of other benefits. At the same time, you will also be at risk of not getting paid, or having sporadic income and sometimes, no income at all. There’s also the risk of security.
But regardless of the risks, entrepreneurship is still a suitable option for those passionate about creating wealth and are ready to step up to it.
In summary, entrepreneurship is simply offering a great solution to a problem through innovations and discoveries and forming a system that will ensure this is done successfully. Most importantly, many who do it look to making gains out of it. Keep in mind that innovation is a concept that should never be left out in the pursuit of entrepreneurship.