The Role and Responsibility
of Entrepreneur
After studying this lesson, you will be able to:
• Learn about the characteristics and responsibility of entrepreneur
• Explain the trait of entrepreneur should posses
• Identify the benefits and cost of becoming an entrepreneur
• Explain what leads a person to engage and start a business
Activity
1. Evaluate yourself and identify 5 traits that can help you become a
successful entrepreneur.
1.____________________
2.____________________
3.____________________
4.____________________
5.____________________
Activity
2. Evaluate yourself and identify what personal traits needs to
improved to become a successful entrepreneur.
1.________________________
2.________________________
3.________________________
4.________________________
Activity
3. Observe your local community and identify what problems they are
facing?
Answer:
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Activity
4. What business opportunities can we generate to address their
problems?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this business
proposal?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Abstraction
Characteristic that successful entrepreneur
apart
1. Passion
✓ Is there something you can work on over and over again
without getting bored?
✓ Is there something you have built and want to continue to
improve upon?
✓ Is there something you enjoy so much you want to continue
doing it for the rest of your life?
Characteristic that successful entrepreneur
apart
2. Not afraid to take risk
✓ Is this risk worth the cost of my career, time and money?
✓
✓ What will I do if this venture doesn’t pay off?
Characteristic that successful entrepreneur
apart
3. Hardworking
If you are determined to run your own business, you must
concentrate on your work✓ either as a producer or a seller.
4. Adaptable and Flexible
Being passionate and dedicated is important, but being
inflexible about client or market needs will lead to failure.
Characteristic that successful entrepreneur
apart
5. Product and Market Knowledge
Entrepreneurs know their product inside and out. They
also know the market.
6. Creative
Do not stay inside the box which means go out and flaunt
your potential to be effectively different.
Characteristic that successful entrepreneur
apart
7. Profit-Oriented
When you enter into the world of business, obviously, you
are looking for income because you know that this will be
your family’s bread and butter.
8. Effective Planning Skills
Entrepreneurship is about building a business from scratch
while managing limited resources (including time, money
and personal relationships), which requires planning.
Characteristic that successful entrepreneur
apart
9. Strong desire to achieve.
Develop a competitive attitude. Right pricing and quality-
based product development or service delivery will draw
more business revenues.
10. Ability to learn from past
Bad experiences in business should never be taken as
traumatic.
Responsibility of Entrepreneurs
• Visionary/Business Innovator
• Business Owner
• Economy Booster
• Entrepreneurial First Steps
Trait About Entrepreneurs
• Discipline
• Optimistic
• Self-confident
• Self-confident
• Courageous
• Committed
• Superb Record Keeping Skills
• Leadership ability
Trait About Entrepreneurs
• Flexibility
• Ability to Set Boundaries
• Responsible
• Decision-making Skills
• Desire for immediate feedback
• Possesses People Skills
Benefits and Costs of Becoming an
Entrepreneur
• Entrepreneurs put a great deal of time and effort into launching their
own businesses. While establishing a business, an entrepreneur may
also pour all of his or her money into it. Even if you have a clear vision
that you believe will motivate you through ups and downs of running
a business, look closely at the costs and benefits of being an
entrepreneur before you decide whether this is the life for you. This
examination is fundamental in the decision to become an
entrepreneur.
The entrepreneur is working for the following
potential rewards:
1. Control over time.
✓ Do you work better at midnight than at 8 A.M.?
✓ Are you the kind of person who would rather work
really hard for two weeks, nonstop, and then take a break?
2. Fulfilment.
Successful entrepreneurs are passionate about their
businesses. They are excited and fulfilled by their work.
The entrepreneur is working for the following
potential rewards:
3. Independence
Because they are not reporting to managers or
supervisors, business owners do not have to follow orders
or observe working hours set by someone else. They have
control over their decisions.
4. Creation/ownership
Doing what they love to do or turning a skill, hobby, or
other interest into a business can be highly satisfying.
The entrepreneur is working for the following
potential rewards:
5. Financial reward/control over compensation
✓ Pay yourself a salary, a fixed payment made at regular
intervals, such as every week or every month.
✓ Pay yourself a wage, a fixed rate per hour.
✓ Take a share of the company’s profit; as the owner, you
can pay yourself a portion of the business’s profits.
✓ Take a commission on every sale you make. A
commission is a percentage of the value of a sale.
The entrepreneur is working for the following
potential rewards:
7. Self-esteem
Knowing that they created something valuable can give
business owners a strong sense of accomplishment. It can
help them feel good about themselves and increase their
self-confidence.
8. Contribution to society
Business owners decide how they can add value to their
communities and the wider world. The issues they care
about can be “designed in” when they form their
companies
Potential Costs of Entrepreneurship
• 1. Business Failure
About one in five new businesses fails in the first eight
years. Another third close because the entrepreneurs
become discouraged and give up.
2. Obstacles
Entrepreneurs run into problems that they will have to
solve, primarily by themselves. In addition, their families
and friends may not support their vision and may actively
discourage them.
Potential Costs of Entrepreneurship
3. Loneliness/isolation
It can be lonely and even a little frightening to be completely
responsible for the success or failure of a business.
While owners have control, they also have responsibility
and cannot defer to someone else for decisions.
4. Financial insecurity
Owners are not guaranteed a set salary or benefits. They
may not always have enough money to pay themselves, particularly in
the first 18 months or so of a new enterprise. They also
have to set up and fund their own retirement funds.
Potential Costs of Entrepreneurship
5. Long hours/hard work.
Entrepreneurs have to work long hours to get their
businesses off the ground. While they decide when to
work, they often end up working or thinking about their
businesses many more hours as entrepreneurs than they
would as employees.
6. Strain on personal relationships
Even with the strong support of family and friends, the
inherent challenges of a small business can strain
relationships to breaking point.
Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have to
be able to tolerate a higher degree of risk and uncertainty than people
who work steady jobs for established employers. With higher risk,
however, comes the potential of higher rewards.
WHAT LEADS A PERSON TO STRIKE OUT ON
HIS OWN AND START A BUSINESS?
Sometimes a person is frustrated with his or her current job and
doesn’t see any better career prospects on the horizon. Sometimes a
person realizes that his or her job is in jeopardy. Sometimes a person is
frustrated with his or her current job and doesn’t see any better career
prospects on the horizon. Sometimes a person realizes that his or her
job is in jeopardy
WHAT LEADS A PERSON TO STRIKE OUT ON
HIS OWN AND START A BUSINESS?
Those who are attracted to entrepreneurship by the advantages of
starting “their own thing”. These include:
• Entrepreneurs are their own bosses
• Entrepreneurship offers a greater possibility of achieving significant
financial rewards than working for someone else.
• It provides the ability to be involved in the whole lifecycle of the
business, from concept to design and creation, from sales to business
operations and customer response.
WHAT LEADS A PERSON TO STRIKE OUT ON
HIS OWN AND START A BUSINESS?
Those who are attracted to entrepreneurship by the advantages of
starting “their own thing”. These include:
• It offers the prestige of being the person in charge.
• It gives an individual the opportunity to build equity, which can be
kept, sold, or passed on to the next generation.
• It gives an individual the opportunity to build equity, which can be
kept, sold, or passed on to the next generation.
