Risk and reward in business venture equals to entrepreneurship. The backdrop of entrepreneurship begins with spotting a need and positioning to solve this need. Finding a need, designing strategies to meet this need and hoping to be rewarded financially on the long run is what entrepreneurship is all about. Building a successful entreprise will be easy with the requisite understanding of entrepreneurship.

MORE DEFINITION INSIGHTS

Though entrepreneurship has a broad definition, our focus will hinge to the simplest definition of entrepreneurship. At the same time, I will create a premise to make it very relatable and understandable.
Entrepreneurship is a business venture that involves undertaking a financial risk: with the hope of making a profit.
With this understanding, the next question is, who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is a person who sees a need and takes up a financial risk to set up a business to fill that need with the hope of making a profit.
Let us take it further to define who is not an entrepreneur: this will help provide more clarity and understanding to this topic. To do this, let us use one example.
For instance, Jane works for the XYZ brick-and-mortar supermarket, and she discovers that the company could generate additional 20% revenue if the XYZ Company could offer online shopping and home delivery.
Then she provides a solution and pitches it to the company management: the management implements her ideas. Though, Jane’s ideas have created value, solved a problem, and generated profit for her company: possibly earn her a promotion, she cannot be referred to as an entrepreneur because she did not take on the financial risks, but her company did.
An entrepreneur is someone who sees a need and takes up a financial risk to set up a business to fill that need with the hope of making a profit: while entrepreneurship is a business venture that involves undertaking a financial risk to create a business or businesses with the hope of making a profit.

TYPES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Though entrepreneurship is a topic that is constantly evolving, it is important to note that there are two fundamentally different types of entrepreneurship upon which all kinds of entrepreneurship stems from.
These two basic types of entrepreneurship are Small Medium Enterprise (SME) entrepreneurship and Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship (IDE).

Small Medium Enterprise (SME)

Small medium enterprises are small companies that serve the local markets. They are mostly service businesses that service local opportunities and not looking to go global. These companies identify local needs, and focus on filling them.
Ownership is mostly an individual, family, and family friend. This type of enterprise does not require a lot of cash injection.
It could be a beer parlor, hair salon, local grocery store, dry cleaner, restaurant, etcetera. These businesses are very relevant to the local economy because they solve a need. Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) has a linear growth characteristic, and the cash flow is small compared to Innovation-Driven Enterprise (IDE). It is also important to state that Small and Medium Enterprises are the backbone of every economy.

Innovation Driven Enterprise (IDE).

Innovation-driven enterprise is the type of entrepreneurship that targets a much broader market. It simply serves a global economy or a super-regional market and therefore requires more cash.
The dynamics of IDE’s is that it loses money from the beginning or starts with a negative cash flow but generates huge revenue if it works. In essence, Innovation Driven Enterprise initially requires more cash injection: and if it takes off, the reward is massive because it has an unlimited market.
Innovation Driven Enterprise requires more time to take off than Small Medium Enterprises. The main reason is that IDE’s addresses are broader market while SME’s addresses an immediate local market.

KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SMEs AND IDEs

• IDEs are owned by many shareholders, while SMEs by an individual, family and friends.
•  IDEs require much more cash to start than SME’s
•  IDEs require more time to start generating revenue, while SME’s do not.
•  SME’s addresses local markets, while IDEs address a broader market.
•  SMEs are needed to generate a lot of jobs,while IDEs are not.

THE BASICS OF CREATING SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Having explained what entrepreneurship is and its two major types, it is imperative to note that what guarantees the success of an enterprise most times is not how good the enterprise seems or the amount of cash invested, though both are very important as well.

In short, the success of every enterprise is hinged on these three; organization, set goals, and execution (completion).

• Organization: Every enterprise requires a proper organization to succeed; arrangement, structuring, and an administration that is capable enough to formulate an efficient plan and strategies to drive the enterprise to success. The organization provides an order which is very essential for success.
• Set goals: A successful entrepreneurship must have set goals; what your goals are as a business and when you want to accomplish them. This provides for a thorough think-through and a better decision-making process.
• Execution and Completion: When embarking on the entrepreneurship journey, you must have a clear execution plan and must be consistent, and at the same time complete what you have started. You must avoid the habit of abandoning the set goals which you have set out to do. Form the habit of completing whatever you start and not jump from one business idea to another. This attitude is dissipating and once you indulge it, you will find out that you will not be able to complete anything.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD ENTREPRENEUR

It is not surprising that many enterprises fail where others succeed. This could be the thin line between good entrepreneurs from a bad one. Here, we are going to be considering what makes for a quality entrepreneur and you pay attention and act on it, you could become the next good entrepreneur in your area of choice.

Skill set

Every entrepreneur must engage in ardent study and learning to acquire the required knowledge and capabilities to perform entrepreneurial responsibilities. These skill-sets include decision-making skills, management, human relations, digital marketing, computer skills, negotiation, research, planning, leadership, and many more.

Innovation.

Being innovative is a very important quality of a good entrepreneur. It does not have to be something huge but in most cases, an entrepreneur does not have to reinvent the wheel but could achieve just as much with a little twitch. For example, an entrepreneur could introduce new ideas to the old ways of running a business or redesigning an idea to provide a better user experience.

If you are planning on becoming an entrepreneur, then you must be ready to think outside the box. You must be ready to come up with ingenious ideas that will make a difference.

For instance, MySpace was a social media network but that did not stop Mike Zuckerberg from coming up with Facebook, neither did Facebook stop Jack Dorsey from building Twitter. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2012 went on to introduce Instagram. We could go on and on.

In essence, the lesson is that is no space too crowded, every business space still has an entry point, and with the right idea and innovation, something useful could be created. This is the reason why every good entrepreneur should be innovative.

Self-motivation

One of the qualities of a good entrepreneur is self-motivation. A good entrepreneur does not need to wait to be told by someone else to keep moving, you can do this by yourself, you have this covered, etc. Rather, every entrepreneur should be self-motivated to get his gear on and show the world how good your idea is.

Communication.

The ability to communicate an idea in the simplest ways is a very good quality that every entrepreneur should possess. Without proper communication, it will be very hard for an idea to fly, and also for an entrepreneur to land investment.

Every good entrepreneur should know his enterprise very well or simplify his ideas to be able to communicate it with clarity to the point that the average Joe would understand.

Ability to listen.

Entrepreneurs should be good listeners. Being able to take feedback from others; staff and customer’s alike. To process and implement this feedback is a good entrepreneurial quality that cannot be overemphasized.

Decisive.

Decisiveness is an imperative quality of a good entrepreneur. A good entrepreneur should be able to make decisions quickly and effectively whenever required and this is what being decisive is about.

An entrepreneur is a leader and being a leader requires making regular key decisions; decisions that will possibly affect the lives of many, for this reason, an entrepreneur must be decisive. Being decisive simply means the ability to make decisions with speed and clarity, and without this quality, it will be hard for any entrepreneur to succeed.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A lot of entrepreneurs are encumbered with the question; how do I build a successful enterprise?

This question is very important because millions of enterprises are launched daily across the world but only handfuls succeeds or even grow to become a colossus. Given this reality, the need to identify the components that are paramount in building successful entrepreneurship is very important. Let us take a moment to share a few of them.

Identify a problem or need.

Every entrepreneur desiring to build a successful enterprise must start by identifying a problem or a need. It is not advisable to start an enterprise because you feel the urge to or because you think people will like your idea.
It is suitable to build enterprise on the demand of filling an existing vacuum: solving existing problems or filling a need. To run a successful enterprise, it must start by identifying a problem or need to fill.
If an enterprise solves a problem or fills a need no other business fills, you are on your way to success.

Be aware of your environment.

You must be wondering how being aware of your environment will help the building of successful entrepreneurship, and the answer is simple. Understanding the environment opens you up to the need within and how to address it .
Any entrepreneur who hungers to build a successful enterprise must be in tune with his environment and the world around him.

Provide solution.

Once an entrepreneur aligns with his environment and has identified a need, the next step should be providing solutions. It is not enough to identify a problem: going ahead to provide a solution is what matters.
Perfect solution begins with solid research in that space. A survey is in order, possibly using a questionnaire, word of mouth, or any other method. The idea is to understand the view of target customers and how to address it.

Quality affordable solution.

Enterprises that succeed do not only solve a problem but provides quality and affordable solution. As an entrepreneur who wants to build a business that would scale the heights, providing quality, and affordable solution is not negotiable. If it is not of good quality, you have created an opening to be overtaken by a similar enterprise because your users will not be satisfied, and will find another product that provides them a quality solution. Once a product builds this bad reputation, it will be hard to be redeemed.

Above all, you must find a way to make your solution affordable. Affordable solution guarantees a good customer base which translates to huge success.

Accessibility.

Accessibility is key to the growth of every entreprise. If you have built an enterprise that serves the need of people, and it is of good quality and affordable, then make it accessible to as many as possible. With proper coverage, your business stands a better chance.

Marketing.

Another important characteristic of successful entrepreneurship is marketing. No matter how great an idea or product is, without proper and intense marketing: its full potential will not be attained. At the same time, it may not reach as many as possible.

Marketing opens doors for businesses. It provides the needed interaction between the product and the people it is designed to serve. Harnessing the element of marketing is fundamental to the growth and success of entrepreneurship.