Who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is someone who creates or starts a new business, the individual bears most the risk and also enjoys most of the reward that comes with the business. Let us discuss entrepreneurship types and characteristics of successful entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs are individuals that create solutions to problem in a society. When they see challenges, they do not complain instead they look for a solution, so you can also say that entrepreneurs are solution providers.
They are also important to the economy of every nation because their businesses provide jobs for others and their profit also make up for economic growth.
Being an entrepreneur has high risk because when they fail, there is no one to fall back on. Entrepreneurs go through a lot of stress, pain and challenges at the initial stage of the business that people cannot see. Most people only see their success and envy them but they do not know the story behind their success.
The truth is that being an entrepreneur has its advantages and disadvantages. A lot entrepreneurs usually fail at their first attempt but a lot of entrepreneurs also succeed too and it is possible to succeed as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship Types
Now, it is time to discuss about entrepreneurship types and the character the possess which makes the successful. Character is one of the keys to being a successful entrepreneur.
Small business entrepreneurship
This is a type of entrepreneur the focus of the owner is to make profit in business to support his family and live a modest lifestyle.
They are not looking at getting large scale profit, they are not really bothered when they don’t make big profit. Small business entrepreneurship is usually a business being operated by the owner with 1 or 2 staff members possibly from the neighborhood or the environment.
We have several small business entrepreneurship around us, examples include small boutiques, small pharmaceutical stores, local food stores, barbing saloon, small restaurants
Large business entrepreneurship
This is a type of entrepreneurship for advanced professionals that have the knowledge of managing and growing a business.
This is typically a small business that grows rapidly to become a big business and their operation is sustained by servicing other big companies also. Companies such as Dangote, Globacom and Proxynet Group are examples of large business entrepreneurship.
Digital entrepreneurship
Digital entrepreneurship are businesses that work with technology and have the ability to affect the world, they usually offer online services.
Their main purpose is to solve problems through technology. A good example is Facebook and you can see that they are in business to offer solution to businesses. one of those solutions is online marketing, helping businesses to promote their products and services to their audience.
Other examples include Jumia and Opay. You will notice that businesses like this grow rapidly because they service a lot of people by providing solution to an existing problem in the society through technology
Social entrepreneurship
This is a business whose main purpose is to develop products or services that can solve social problems in the society. Their drive comes from making the world a better place. They are not in business to make profit rather they are more interested changing and affecting lives.
These types of entrepreneur’s startup with nonprofit companies that focusing on working of social good of others. Examples are STEAM Empowerment Foundation, CLEEN Foundation, Friends of the environment.
Innovative entrepreneurship
These are people who come up with new ideas that is different from that of others. They are known for inventing new things.
Innovative entrepreneurs turn ideas into big business ventures. Their aim is to change the way people live by coming up with new ideas. These set of entrepreneurs are very motivated and are willing to go the extra mile to bring about change in the world.
They have the mind of transforming the world rather than conforming to norm on ground. They create products and services that stands out from other in the market.
Examples are mobile toilet and SpaceX
Hustler entrepreneurship
These are entrepreneurs that have the passion to succeed irrespective of the line of business. Their focus is scouting for opportunities and making use of those opportunities.
The hustler entrepreneurship works better with networking and information because that is how the hustlers get opportunities.
They are not scared of taking risk but are focused on achieving success in any line of business.
Imitator entrepreneurship
Imitator entrepreneurship try to play it safe in business by copying a successful business model and work on making it better instead of taking the risk of coming up with their own business idea.
The imitators work on the ideas of the innovators and get a competitive advantage in business because they already have important details about the business. They the opportunity and shortcoming of the business and they also have an already working strategy for the business.
Signal, wechat and Konga are examples of imitators in business.
Buyer entrepreneurship
This is atypical situation where by entrepreneurs use their wealth to fuel businesses. They specialize in using their wealth to buy businesses they think will be successful or a business that is already growing.
They buy businesses with promising future and make necessary changes so as to make the business grow and become more successful.
This type of business is less risky because the entrepreneur is buying an already successful business
Researcher entrepreneurship
These type of entrepreneurship starts with research before a product or service is birthed. The essence of the research is to find out what customers really need.
They depend on getting the right information and right preparation, which gives a higher chance of being successful at business.
Researchers make sure they understand everything about the business before going into it at all. They rely on facts, data and logic rather than intuition when going into a business.
In this type of business, a detailed business plan is needed to achieve success and it minimizes chances of failure in business.
Serial entrepreneurship
This is an entrepreneur that starts several business one after the other rather than beginning one venture and staying focused on it for many years like other entrepreneurs.
They may decide to sell their businesses after they have grown to a certain level. They may also retain ownership of the business while delegating duties to management team in the company so as to maintain the performance of the business. They may also decide to close down the business and move to another business idea.
Characteristics Of Successful Entrepreneurs
In the world today, we have entrepreneurs that are successful and we also have those that are not successful. You might be wondering the difference between those entrepreneurs that are successful and those that area not.
The major difference between these two sets of entrepreneurs is the characteristics they possess and I will be sharing with you in the post some characteristics every successful entrepreneur should possess.
Bold
Being bold is one of the characteristics an entrepreneur should possess because being an entrepreneur is challenging and most people usually quit when they face one or two challenges but someone who is bold keeps going even when going gets tough. Instead they get tougher as the going gets tougher.
Most people that start a business with so much excitement but as time goes on, they get scared and tired but it is only the bold that can follow through to the end.
Creativity
Every successful entrepreneur needs to be creative and innovative; they need to be able to think outside the box.
The business world is always changing and very competitive, for any business to succeed and maintain that success, the business owner must be creative and willing to adjust to changes that occur in the business world. They must be able to come up with creative solutions when changes occur that can affect their business.
For instance, government can come up with policies that can affect business but it is left for the entrepreneur to react or respond creatively
Professionalism
Entrepreneurs should learn to be professional in their dealings, if they are not professional with their business, their employees also won’t be professional with their work which will also affect their dealings with customers and this will affect the whole business at the end of the day.
Risk taking
Risk taking is one of the major characteristics of entrepreneurs because someone who is not willing to take risk cannot explore new opportunities.
They are willing to take risk because they know the results, they can get from taking that risk. This type of risk is called a calculated risk.
They do not take risk without calculating the benefits, they know what they want and they are willing to take the risk to get their desired result.
Vision
What it means to have vision is to have a clear picture of the goals you want to achieve. An entrepreneur without a vision is not a good entrepreneur.
You also need to put time to your vision because it does not make sense to have a vision without having a timeline. One of the major things that keeps entrepreneurs going is that they have a time they have given themselves to achieve their goals.
One of the greatest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is starting a business without having a vision of where the business is headed towards.
Passion
One major characteristic every entrepreneur should have is the passion to succeed. They should be willing to go the extra mile to achieve their goals.
If you do not have the passion to succeed then you might likely not succeed because it is only passion that can give you the zeal to goon when the going gets tougher.
It is passion that makes entrepreneurs to work at night, during the weekends and during holidays. They keep working when others are resting. You might not see the effect of this at the initial stage but with time, you will see the result of those sleepless nights and working during rest periods.
Planning
It is not enough to have vision; you also need to add planning to your vision and that is the best way the vision can be achieved.
Planning is simply coming up with strategies to achieve your goals. It also makes it easy for you to make corrections when you don’t get the desired results you want.
Planning can be done daily, weekly, monthly and yearly but the most important thing is that you have a plan and you keep to it.
Knowledge
A good entrepreneur needs to be equipped with the right knowledge because without knowledge of the business they are into they cannot be the best in their industry.
They also need to update their knowledge regularly to stay on top of their industry. The most successful entrepreneurs in the world read books and they don’t stop reading books and acquiring more knowledge.
Communication skills
Having a good communication skill is important for every entrepreneur because helps the entrepreneur to communicate his vision to employees and customers.
Good communication skills also help entrepreneurs build good relationship with their employees and customers. One of the major reasons why customers keep patronizing a business is based on the customers relationship they have built with the customers.
Teachable
A good entrepreneur should be willing to learn for mistakes. Some people make mistakes and then find it hard to get over that mistake because they fail to learn from it. Instead the approach should be that they accept their mistakes and learn from it.
They should also be willing to learn from the knowledge and experience of other entrepreneurs. They should not feel they have all the know.