The Role of an Entrepreneur

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS? 

From what you have read about the strengths and weaknesses of a small business, you can see the crucial importance of the role played by the owner-manager – whom we would now better call “entrepreneur.”

The entrepreneur is the most important person in the business. He takes the key role in controlling and administering the firm in all its aspects and functions. He is the one who takes most of the risks (as when he loses his shirt and faces scorn) and receives most of the rewards (as when he gets rich and reaps recognition).

Before you decide to be one, you should know what is expected of you, as an entrepreneur.

The Role of an Entrepreneur

The entrepreneur is sometimes described as someone who allocates and manages the factors of production, bears risks, innovates, and makes major decisions.

v  The entrepreneur plans, organizes, and puts together all the resources required to start a new enterprise and to run and operate it on a sustained basis. These resources are human (workers, managers, customers, and suppliers) and non-human (land and building, money, machines, materials, and methods or processes).

v  The entrepreneur takes risks – not just in the way gamblers and speculators do – but rather in terms of putting resources together in order to realize business objectives. It takes risk-taking to invest money, efforts, and other resources into a new undertaking whose result is uncertain. He might win or lose, get rich or go bankrupt – but he takes chances anyway.

v  The entrepreneur innovates. He continuously creates and develops new products and services based on what he understands to be the needs of society. He also looks for ways by which these goods and services can be produced more economically.

v  In the process of starting, running and growing their business, small entrepreneurs help build the nation. They are often called the “backbone of the economy,” or “the engine of growth” because – consciously or unconsciously – entrepreneurs play the following roles in society:

ü  Bring about employment. When entrepreneurs put up a business, they often need to hire other people to get things done. This is why when business slows down, the country’s unemployment increases. On the other hand, when people are employed, they are able to feed their families, send their children to school, provide them with decent homes, and contribute to government revenues through the income taxes that they pay.

ü  Improve the quality of life. Entrepreneurial activities contribute to the continuous improvement of living standards. The development of new products and the delivery of needed services make life easier and more comfortable for society. Cooking, for example, has been revolutionized by entrepreneurs. Today, we cook with better and faster stoves like micro wave ovens, turbo broilers, pressure cookers, multi-purpose cookers – thanks largely to entrepreneurial innovations.

ü  Contribute to a wider distribution of income. Entrepreneurs continuously search and develop raw materials they need in order to produce goods and services. They often find these in the rural areas. And when they locate in the provinces, they are actually spreading the benefits of development to these often, neglected communities. This will help slowdown migration and overcrowding in the metropolis.

ü  Utilize resources for national productivity. Economic development is hastened if our natural and other resources are put into good use. Entrepreneurs are famous for utilizing them. For example, handicraft entrepreneurs have made use of locally-grown and in abundance, weeds and reeds like pandan, rattan, bamboo, anahaw, nipa, buri … even, would you believe, cogon grass? Entrepreneurs also make productive use of capital resources such as family or personal savings, which may otherwise be used in unproductive ways like gambling or luxury spending.

ü  Generate social benefits through government. With revenues that the government collects from taxes, duties and licenses paid by entrepreneurs, the government is able to allocate the money to different social services in the communities. These services come in the form of infrastructure like roads and bridges, educational and medical services and facilities, and maintenance of peace and order.

Are you willing to accept these responsibilities?

If you answered “Yes” to that, the next question is: Do you have the “it” to be an entrepreneur? Refer to the personal traits in the next section that are considered “entrepreneurial.”

You may have already formed an idea from what you have read so far – that entrepreneurship is not for the weak-hearted or the shy. Neither is it for those who want to take things easy. And it isn’t for those who want sure returns on their investments.

See if you can identify with the personal qualities and competencies associated with successful business people.

Click here for the Table of Contents of Your Guide to Starting a Small Enterprise

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The information contained in this article is for general information purposes only. We would like to extend our thanks to DTI and the people behind in realizing this guidebook. There efforts are greatly appreciated. Now we have this information FREE for us to use and eventually be one of the best guide in starting your own small enterprise in the Philippines.
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