Characteristics of an Entrepreneur
Personal Characteristics of an Entrepreneur. Some of the personal traits of an entrepreneur are:-
- 1. Great Need for Achievement
- 2. Urge for independence
- 3. Urge for Power
- 4. Family Background
- 5. Flexibility
- 6. Creative and Innovative Spirit
- 7. Fluency
- 8. Decision-Making Capacity.
Factor # 1. Great Need for Achievement:
This is a critical factor in the personality of an entrepreneur. People with a great urge for achievement have a desire for success in competition with others or with a self-imposed excellence level.
The internal urge to do some meaningful, the impulsive motive to change’ his life style and create something new are the forces which affect entrepreneurship. The internal urge present in the individual continuously compels him to do some new plus something unique and also to perform better than competitors.
Entrepreneurial urge cannot be expected from people who live in illiteracy, poverty and ignorance. A good entrepreneur requires a clear perception of economic opportunities and the investment capability so as to pursue these opportunities.
Generally in backward areas where there is tough struggle for existence per capital income very low and whose illiteracy prevents their access to business information, there is neither perception of opportunities nor they have capacity to exploit these opportunities, in such cases to develop entrepreneurship the requirement is to change the living conditions and environment in which they live.
Factor # 2. Urge for Independence:
It is the prime characteristic which drives the individual to start his own business. The people possessing high activity level, creativity, and orientation capacity do not like to work under the control of others.
They have originality in ideas and thoughts and they do not feel satisfied with routine work/jobs. They decide their targets and try to achieve these goals. They select their own course of action. Thus they are masters of their own activities and hold full responsibility for their actions.
Factor # 3. Urge for Power:
The entrepreneur also requires influencing and leading others. It is the motive power which is really an urge to keep control over others in order to direct their course of activities towards the goal which one would like to achieve. Such a drive to influence people and to lead them to implement his ideas may he be termed as the urge for power which motivates the people to undertake entrepreneurial activities.
Factor # 4. Family Background:
The family background also plays a vital role in building up the personality essential for turning into an entrepreneur in the later life. There are several studies which suggest that a good proportion of entrepreneurs emerge from families with entrepreneurial background or business traditions.
In India Marwadi’s, Punjabi’s and Gujrati’s have shown an entrepreneurial culture as compared to others. In the family situations where challenging, adventures and uncertainty actions are encouraged from early age, the psychological process which leads men to enter business environment start in the very early life and have a cumulative effect.
Thus in a business family, the parents tend to socialise their children towards self-reliance and independence which might move an individual towards entrepreneurship.
Factor # 5. Flexibility:
With independence an entrepreneur prefers flexibility, the conditions during employment are entirely different and flexibility is seldom available. This could be for the working hours, nature of business or the area of operation etc.
As a self-employed person or an entrepreneur can work for 12 hours a day and seven days a week or can take off at his own sweet will in view of marketing opportunities he may change the business line.
Thus an entrepreneur must be flexible and willing to adopt change. This is essential in view of the fact that the technological advancements or developments create new needs for the entrepreneur as for as adaptation and adjustments are concerned.
The entrepreneur must be willing to incorporate changes in the product and redesign it to meet the customer requirement. In nutshell, a constant re-examination is essential for possible utilization and improvement of existing technical now how.
Factor # 6. Creative and Innovative Spirit:
Entrepreneurs are highly creative people. They keep on trying to develop something new may be new products, new processes etc. Normally they are people with initiative, confidence, and boldness in the ability. The market is always demanding something different.
An entrepreneur will, therefore, have to be innovative all the time. The innovation could be in product or process development, packaging marketing or even in promoting the product. The entrepreneurs are the people with great vision and are able to perceive opportunities in the environment where other people are unable to do.
With these personality characteristics, they approach the job with a hope of success and not with a fear of failure. So this creative and innovation split in them leads to originality in products.
Factor # 7. Fluency:
It is another very important factor which affects entrepreneurship. If an entrepreneur possesses fluency, he would be able to communicate effectively with his customers, suppliers, creditors and employees.
He would be able to sell his ideas by skillful communication. A person who is fluent and has good communication ability is more likely to bring about a change in consumer/buyer’s attitudes and perception thus would enhance the sales volume of his products.
Factor # 8. Decision Making Capacity:
Every day and every hour, an entrepreneur will be confronted with problems, may be while starting a business and also during course of its running.
These problems arise due to changes in situation/environment and due to unforeseen circumstances during the course of running or initiating a business. On some problems he/she may have control while many others will be non-controllable. In other words it may be termed as decision making under certainty and uncertainty.
Decision making under certainty implies that all facts are known for sure. The decision making under uncertainty involves more risk since the future conditions cannot be judged accurately.
An entrepreneur must develop the ability to overcome the problem by finding the alternatives or in other words, he must be capable of taking decisions skillfully under certainty as well as uncertainty conditions with a calculated risk.
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