Entrepreneurship is the process of creating something new with value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic, and social risks, and receiving the resulting rewards if monetary and personal satisfaction and independence. An entrepreneur is a person who starts and or operates a business. An entrepreneur is vital in the economic development of the country especially in tourism industry. It provides employment and income that moves economy forward.
The four basic aspects of being an entrepreneur are:
1. Creation of something of value - means entrepreneurs create products or services that can be offered for a price.
2. Devotion of necessary time and effort - They devote their time and effort towards the attainment of their personal goals such as to earn profits, to make service or product available, to provide employment and generate income to their family.
3. Assumption of necessary risks - They assume risk on the possibility of losing whatever they put in, there is the possibility to fail and lose everything.
4. Getting Rewards- the prestige of being a business owner provides intrinsic satisfaction.
The relationship of entrepreneurship to tourism industry is that they are the service provider itself, they provide services in tourism destination needed by the tourists or guests such as travel agent, tour guide, tour operator and other related activities to tourism. The entrepreneurs are also the mobilizer of the capital as they use their own savings as capital for their business ventures. However, if they do not have the capital, money can be borrowed from the banks to finance their intended business. In entrepreneurship they act as an employer because they hire people to help them in the business. A travel agency owner should hire the travel agent to make his business operate and also a tour guide to make the guest’s experience as great as possible. They are also tax payers. They pay taxes to the government, thus more business would mean more taxes and better government services. The entrepreneur also acts as suppliers of products because they make the products or services available in the tourism industry. Without them, there will be scarcity in the product or services needed by the tourists.
The characteristics of entrepreneurs are shown below.
For one wanting to be in business, he should test himself against the above competencies. The benefits of entrepreneurship in the succeeding sections will help in making decision on which course of action is taken.
The rewards of entrepreneurship are:
1. Money or material return or profit generally comes in the form of money or cash. This is what is left after deducting the cost and expenses from the selling price of products and services.
2. Freedom includes what product or service to sell and when to sell. This is what is referred to as being one’s own boss.
3. Psychological rewards is the good feeling of being of service to others. The entrepreneur is able to satisfy customer needs, to give employment and to support community. They feel like they are always socializing with their customers, their employees and their business associates.
The problems of entrepreneurship are:
1. Entrepreneurship demands hard work; entrepreneurs work harder than others who are employees.
2. Entrepreneurship demands long working hours; entrepreneurs do not have specific working hours. They work as long as their business need them.
3. Entrepreneurship may cause emotional stress; some entrepreneurs encounter different kinds of problem in their workplace. As the own boss of the business, they make critical decision making.
Entrepreneurial Qualities
What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? These two questions will guide you in your self-evaluation with regard to entrepreneurship. Skill, knowledge, health, interest, the desire to grow are strengths that will push a person to be an entrepreneur. Weaknesses, like lack of self- confidence or inability to speak well and convince people are temporary and can be reversed.
How do you fit into the identified characteristics of entrepreneurs? How do benefits of entrepreneur’s appeal to you? Do you feel the problems of entrepreneurship? At the end of this module you will be in a better position to do a repeat identification of your strengths and weaknesses as regards to doing business.
The 10 Personal Entrepreneurial Characteristics
These are grouped into Achievement Cluster, the Planning Cluster an Power Cluster.
Achievement Cluster- the desire of an individual to fulfill or to realize something. In this cluster, the entrepreneur will not stop at any obstacle but take such obstacle as challenges. These are the characteristics dominant to them:
1. Opportunity- Seeker: perceives and acts new business opportunities to obtain financing, equipment, land, work, space or assistance.
2. Persistent: takes repeated or different actions to overcome obstacles and makes sacrifices or expends extraordinary effort to complete a task.
3. Committed: accepts full responsibility for problems encountered and help own employees to get the job done.
4. Risk-taker: takes moderate risks and prefers situations involving moderate risks.
5. Values Efficiency and Quality Oriented: always strives to raise standards and aims for excellence.
Planning Cluster- the entrepreneur plans his every move because he knows that eliminated resources will be used. A plan is a blue print of the project that he wants to establish. Such quality of an entrepreneur are:
6. Goal-seeker: sets clear and specific short term objectives and sets clear an long term goals.
7. Information seeker: personally seeks information in clients, suppliers and competitors.
8. Systematic in Planning and Monitoring: develops logical, step by step plans to reach goals and monitors progress and switches to alternative strategies to achieve goals.
Power Cluster- the power to lead; to convince people of your ideas; the power to make people believe in you. Therefore, the entrepreneur must:
9. Be persuasive and Good in Networking: uses deliberate strategies to influence or persuade others.
10. Possess Strong Self- Confidence: believes in self and expresses confidence in own ability to complete a difficult task.
After studying the personal entrepreneurial characteristics, the entrepreneur determines those characteristics he already possesses, those where improvements are necessary and environmental factors. These are:
1. Personal Interest. It is a deciding factor in getting into business. It will drive them into something that will give them satisfaction. Example is if you love to travel, you can be a tour operator.
2. Knowledge/ Talents. The skills or knowledge of an individual serve as his best asset in venturing into something that will earn him an income. People who are good in places and destination can eventually be a tour guide.
3. Training / Work Experience. The kind of training or experience of an individual influences his desire to go into business.
4. Government Support/ Assistance Programs. This is done through investment, business and employment. Thus, support is available in terms of technology, marketing or training.
5. Rate of Growth of Business. There is no profit in venturing into business where the rate of growth is negative.
6. Other considerations. Consider the rate of return of the capital you will put into the business.
Given the characteristics and other considerations in entrepreneurship, the list of entrepreneurial personality therefore can be lumped into three, namely:
1. High need for achievement. Here lies the strong desire of an individual to pursue his dream, a dream that could be long range or immediate. His dream keeps on flashing in his mind until he makes a move for it to be realized.
2. Strong belief that they can control their destiny. William Jennings Bryan said, “Destiny is not a matter of change, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
3. Risk taker. Risk is present in every activity, but it can be lessened. Business risk can be learned or avoided by careful planning, insurance and being alert of what is happening around.
In spite of the risk involved in business, entrepreneurs establish their business because they prefer to be independent, to be personally responsible for solving problems, setting goals and reaching goals through their own efforts.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
1. Briefly discuss 10 new ideas and/or concepts that can be learned in this chapter. Write in two paragraphs (Introduction and body) explaining each new idea and/or concept.
2. Write your reflection about a specific topic discussed in this chapter. The reflection can include the reasons why are interested in the subject matter and the prior knowledge about the topic.
The four basic aspects of being an entrepreneur are:
1. Creation of something of value - means entrepreneurs create products or services that can be offered for a price.
2. Devotion of necessary time and effort - They devote their time and effort towards the attainment of their personal goals such as to earn profits, to make service or product available, to provide employment and generate income to their family.
3. Assumption of necessary risks - They assume risk on the possibility of losing whatever they put in, there is the possibility to fail and lose everything.
4. Getting Rewards- the prestige of being a business owner provides intrinsic satisfaction.
The relationship of entrepreneurship to tourism industry is that they are the service provider itself, they provide services in tourism destination needed by the tourists or guests such as travel agent, tour guide, tour operator and other related activities to tourism. The entrepreneurs are also the mobilizer of the capital as they use their own savings as capital for their business ventures. However, if they do not have the capital, money can be borrowed from the banks to finance their intended business. In entrepreneurship they act as an employer because they hire people to help them in the business. A travel agency owner should hire the travel agent to make his business operate and also a tour guide to make the guest’s experience as great as possible. They are also tax payers. They pay taxes to the government, thus more business would mean more taxes and better government services. The entrepreneur also acts as suppliers of products because they make the products or services available in the tourism industry. Without them, there will be scarcity in the product or services needed by the tourists.
The characteristics of entrepreneurs are shown below.
Figure 1. Characteristics of Entrepreneur
For one wanting to be in business, he should test himself against the above competencies. The benefits of entrepreneurship in the succeeding sections will help in making decision on which course of action is taken.
The rewards of entrepreneurship are:
1. Money or material return or profit generally comes in the form of money or cash. This is what is left after deducting the cost and expenses from the selling price of products and services.
2. Freedom includes what product or service to sell and when to sell. This is what is referred to as being one’s own boss.
3. Psychological rewards is the good feeling of being of service to others. The entrepreneur is able to satisfy customer needs, to give employment and to support community. They feel like they are always socializing with their customers, their employees and their business associates.
The problems of entrepreneurship are:
1. Entrepreneurship demands hard work; entrepreneurs work harder than others who are employees.
2. Entrepreneurship demands long working hours; entrepreneurs do not have specific working hours. They work as long as their business need them.
3. Entrepreneurship may cause emotional stress; some entrepreneurs encounter different kinds of problem in their workplace. As the own boss of the business, they make critical decision making.
Entrepreneurial Qualities
What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? These two questions will guide you in your self-evaluation with regard to entrepreneurship. Skill, knowledge, health, interest, the desire to grow are strengths that will push a person to be an entrepreneur. Weaknesses, like lack of self- confidence or inability to speak well and convince people are temporary and can be reversed.
How do you fit into the identified characteristics of entrepreneurs? How do benefits of entrepreneur’s appeal to you? Do you feel the problems of entrepreneurship? At the end of this module you will be in a better position to do a repeat identification of your strengths and weaknesses as regards to doing business.
The 10 Personal Entrepreneurial Characteristics
These are grouped into Achievement Cluster, the Planning Cluster an Power Cluster.
Achievement Cluster- the desire of an individual to fulfill or to realize something. In this cluster, the entrepreneur will not stop at any obstacle but take such obstacle as challenges. These are the characteristics dominant to them:
1. Opportunity- Seeker: perceives and acts new business opportunities to obtain financing, equipment, land, work, space or assistance.
2. Persistent: takes repeated or different actions to overcome obstacles and makes sacrifices or expends extraordinary effort to complete a task.
3. Committed: accepts full responsibility for problems encountered and help own employees to get the job done.
4. Risk-taker: takes moderate risks and prefers situations involving moderate risks.
5. Values Efficiency and Quality Oriented: always strives to raise standards and aims for excellence.
Planning Cluster- the entrepreneur plans his every move because he knows that eliminated resources will be used. A plan is a blue print of the project that he wants to establish. Such quality of an entrepreneur are:
6. Goal-seeker: sets clear and specific short term objectives and sets clear an long term goals.
7. Information seeker: personally seeks information in clients, suppliers and competitors.
8. Systematic in Planning and Monitoring: develops logical, step by step plans to reach goals and monitors progress and switches to alternative strategies to achieve goals.
Power Cluster- the power to lead; to convince people of your ideas; the power to make people believe in you. Therefore, the entrepreneur must:
9. Be persuasive and Good in Networking: uses deliberate strategies to influence or persuade others.
10. Possess Strong Self- Confidence: believes in self and expresses confidence in own ability to complete a difficult task.
After studying the personal entrepreneurial characteristics, the entrepreneur determines those characteristics he already possesses, those where improvements are necessary and environmental factors. These are:
1. Personal Interest. It is a deciding factor in getting into business. It will drive them into something that will give them satisfaction. Example is if you love to travel, you can be a tour operator.
2. Knowledge/ Talents. The skills or knowledge of an individual serve as his best asset in venturing into something that will earn him an income. People who are good in places and destination can eventually be a tour guide.
3. Training / Work Experience. The kind of training or experience of an individual influences his desire to go into business.
4. Government Support/ Assistance Programs. This is done through investment, business and employment. Thus, support is available in terms of technology, marketing or training.
5. Rate of Growth of Business. There is no profit in venturing into business where the rate of growth is negative.
6. Other considerations. Consider the rate of return of the capital you will put into the business.
Given the characteristics and other considerations in entrepreneurship, the list of entrepreneurial personality therefore can be lumped into three, namely:
1. High need for achievement. Here lies the strong desire of an individual to pursue his dream, a dream that could be long range or immediate. His dream keeps on flashing in his mind until he makes a move for it to be realized.
2. Strong belief that they can control their destiny. William Jennings Bryan said, “Destiny is not a matter of change, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
3. Risk taker. Risk is present in every activity, but it can be lessened. Business risk can be learned or avoided by careful planning, insurance and being alert of what is happening around.
In spite of the risk involved in business, entrepreneurs establish their business because they prefer to be independent, to be personally responsible for solving problems, setting goals and reaching goals through their own efforts.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
1. Briefly discuss 10 new ideas and/or concepts that can be learned in this chapter. Write in two paragraphs (Introduction and body) explaining each new idea and/or concept.
2. Write your reflection about a specific topic discussed in this chapter. The reflection can include the reasons why are interested in the subject matter and the prior knowledge about the topic.