What is an entrepreneur?

Passing your examination!

In the written examination for this Unit, you will need to be able to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the following assessment criteria:

1.1.1 Being an entrepreneur

You will know and understand what it means to be an entrepreneur and what motivates them, including:

  • Definition of an entrepreneur
  • Entrepreneurial motivators – financial, personal, social

1.1.2 Entrepreneurial characteristics and skills

You will know and understand the characteristics and skills of an entrepreneur and their applications in business, including:

  • Confident
  • Motivated
  • Determined
  • Results focused
  • Initiative
  • Decision making
  • Analytical ability
  • Communication

You’ll find lots of useful information over the following pages to help you complete this part of your examination.

This course is all about business and enterprise. Businesses would not exist without people to plan and run them…these people are known as entrepreneurs.

Think first

Make some notes on what you think an entrepreneur is. Think of a couple of examples too, if you can!

Entrepreneurs are people who start up new businesses, often with the intention of trying to make lots of money! They are usually ambitious people, who are willing to take risks.

Entrepreneurs are all around us, setting up and running successful businesses. Famous entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson (Virgin), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple) and Lord Alan Sugar (Amstrad) are great examples of how one business idea can grow into a huge success with the help of the right entrepreneurial skills and characteristics.

While no two entrepreneurs are the same, there are a number of skills/characteristics that most successful entrepreneurs are likely to have.

Click through the slide panel below to see some of the skills and characteristics most often found in successful entrepreneurs.

  • Ability to think creatively/innovatively

    Entrepreneurs are often very inventive people. They are able to recognise that consumers need a particular product or service and they can think creatively about how to deliver this product or service. For example, James Dyson recognised that consumers wanted a vacuum cleaner that was highly efficient and effective – so he designed and developed the hugely popular Dyson bagless vacuum cleaner.

  • Willing to take risks

    When an entrepreneur starts a new business with a new idea, they are almost certainly taking a risk – they don’t know for certain that their business is going to be a success and, if they are using their own money to fund the business, they could make a fortune or lose the money forever! Some people would not feel comfortable taking such a risk – they would be too afraid of failure.

  • High levels of determination and motivation

    Entrepreneurs need to be determined in order to make their business succeed. A successful business does not appear overnight – it takes months and years of planning and hard work. When an entrepreneur is faced with a problem or setback, he or she needs to be determined and motivated enough to keep trying new things in order to keep their business on track. They are very results-focused.

  • Self-confidence

    Entrepreneurs have to have confidence in their own skills and abilities, as well as their business ideas. If they aren’t convinced that their ideas will succeed, then no-one else will be!

  • Working well with others

    When a business is set up, the entrepreneur will need to find people to join the business and help it to grow. If the business is to succeed, the relationship between the entrepreneur and the people who join the business needs to be strong and effective. The entrepreneur must also have excellent communication skills in order to work effectively with others – this includes people who work in the business as well as external contacts (business partners, banks, investors, customers, suppliers, etc).

  • Making good decisions

    Entrepreneurs have a particular skill for judging situations and making good decisions. In new businesses, decisions often have to be made very quickly, in order to make the most of an opportunity or to avoid losing out to competitors.

    Some people aren’t comfortable making important decisions on their own, but an entrepreneur has to be…in the early days of the business, the entrepreneur will make every decision and will be happy doing so.

  • Initiative

    Initiative is all about having the ability and confidence to take action and achieve objectives. A person with high levels of initiative has the ability to ‘make things happen’. This is why initiative is an important characteristic of successful entrepreneurs – they have a natural sense and understanding of what needs to be done in order to achieve objectives (without having to rely on other people telling them what to do).

  • Analytical ability

    A successful entrepreneur needs to be able to analyse many things, including market conditions, financial data, costs, customer demand, strengths and weaknesses of the business, etc. An entrepreneur with strong analytical abilities will be better able to understand what is needed to make their business a success.

On the web

Click here to read a case study about Duncan Bannatyne, one of the UK’s best-known entrepreneurs (and star of Dragon’s Den).