The Foundations of Entrepreneurship

A recent study from the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship revealed some really interesting statistics about entrepreneurs including average age, background, and motivation that will surprise you. The study is called The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur and its based on a survey of 549 company founders across a range of industries.
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Chapter 1: Entrepreneurship

Here are the five main takeaways from the report that is most interesting:
The average age of company founders when they started their current companies is 40. Less than 1 percent came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds. 70% were married when they launched their first business. 60% had at least one child when they launched their first business (and 44% had two or more children). The majority of respondents (75.4 percent) had worked as employees at other companies for more than six years before launching their own companies.

Chapter 1: Entrepreneurship

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Misconceptions about Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are born and entrepreneurship is heredity Only rich people can become entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is a monopoly of certain communities.

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What Is an Entrepreneur?
One who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them.

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Introduction

The term Entrepreneur is derived from the French word entreprendre which means, to undertake i.e. the person who undertake the risk of new enterprise. According to Mark Casson, an Entrepreneur is a person who specializes in taking judgmental decision about the coordination of scarce resources.

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Characteristics of Entrepreneur

Positive self concept Leadership skill Innovators Analytical ability of mind Flexibility Stress takers Ability to mobilize resources Risk bearing etc..
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Benefits of Entrepreneurship
The opportunity to: Create your own destiny Make a difference Reach your full potential Reap impressive profits Contribute to society and to be recognized for your efforts Do what you enjoy and to have fun at it

Chapter 1: Entrepreneurship

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Small Business Owners' Work Week

Number of Hours Worked per Week More than 60 hours 17% Less than 30 hours 11% 30 to 40 hours 24%

51 to 60 hours 20% 41 to 50 hours 28%

Entrepreneurs' Age at Business Formation

55 - 64 6.7% 45 - 54 17.4%

Over 65 1.0%

18 - 24 12.0%

25 - 34 32.3% 35 - 44 30.6%

Source: 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

Drawbacks of Entrepreneurship

Uncertainty of income Risk of losing your entire investment Long hours and hard work Lower quality of life until the business gets established High levels of stress Complete responsibility Discouragement

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Entrepreneurial competencies

A competence is an underlying characteristic of a person which leads to his superior performance.

Skills, knowledge, traits can be considered as an elements of competencies.

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Entrepreneurial Competencies

Awareness
Assessment

Development

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Awareness of competencies

In order to build entrepreneurial competencies it is very essential that one must be aware of different essential competencies because awareness forms the basis for any activity to be finalized.

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Assessment of competencies

It includes measurement of competencies. Measures include biodata instruments, structured interviews, job knowledge tests etc..

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Development of competencies

1. 2. 3.

4.

For developing the competencies one need to follow the procedure, which involves four steps: Competency recognition Self-assessment Competency application feedback

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Entrepreneurship and Enterprise

Entrepreneurship is an act of being an entrepreneur. Enterprise may be defined as an undertaking involving uncertainty and requiring innovation. So, entrepreneurship is a process involving various actions to be undertaken to establish an enterprise.

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Role of Entrepreneurship in Economic Development

1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

New products, new services and new business Balanced regional development Better standards of living Bringing change in structure of business and society Product evolution process
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Product evolution process

1.
2. 3.

4.
5.

Exploration Screening Development Testing Commercialization

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Bridging the gap between Innovation and Marketplace

Through product evolution process, the innovative ideas are developed and commercialized using different medium, which in turn stimulate economic growth. The different medium consists the following: Government as an innovator Intrapreneurship Entrepreneurship
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