KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

(Western Campus)

Name: Tumushabe Immaculate

REG No: BBA/0003/152/DU

Course unit: Entrepreneurship

Lecturer: Bainemashanyu Mary

Semester: 2.2

Year: 2

Question
What is needed to become a successful entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship in simple terms is a factor of production that is concerned with having the
creativity or innovation to generate business ideas.
It also involves having the ability to mobilize or combine resources in order to come up with new
products or services (organizing production). It also involves risk taking and management (risk
management).
An entrepreneur is that person who creates value by bringing together a unique range of
resources to exploit an opportunity.
An entrepreneur achieves profits and growth by identifying opportunities and assembles or
organizes (Marshall) the necessary resources to capitalize on those opportunities.
Entrepreneurial characteristics are the qualities or factors that make a successful entrepreneur as
listed below
Optimism
Optimism is truly an asset, and it helps an entrepreneur get through the tough times that many
entrepreneurs experience as they find a business model that works for them.
Vision: Can an entrepreneur easily see where things can be improved? Can he quickly grasp the
"big picture," and explain this to others? And can he create a compelling vision of the future, and
then inspire other people to engage with that vision?
Initiative: Does the entrepreneur have initiative , and instinctively start problem-solving or
business improvement projects?
Desire for Control: Does an entrepreneur enjoy being in charge and making decisions? Is he
motivated to lead others?
Drive and Persistence: Is the entrepreneur self-motivated and energetic? And is he prepared to
work hard, for a very long time, to realize his goals?
Risk Tolerance: Is he able to take risks, and make decisions when facts are uncertain?
Resilience: Is he resilient , so that he can pick himself up when things don't go as planned? And
does he learn and grow from his mistakes and failures?

As a successful entrepreneur, he'll have to work closely with people this is where it is critical to
be able to build great relationships with his team, customers, suppliers, shareholders, investors,
and more.

Interpersonal skills
Leadership and Motivation: Can he lead and motivate others to follow him and deliver hid vision?
And is he able to delegate work to others? As a successful entrepreneur, he'll have to depend on
others to get beyond a very early stage in his business there's just too much to do all on his own!
Communication Skills: Is he competent with all types of communication. He needs to be able to
communicate well to sell his vision of the future to investors, potential clients, team members, and
more.
Listening: Does he hear what others are telling him? His ability to listen can make or break him as
an entrepreneur. Make sure that his skilled at active listening and empathetic listening .
Personal Relations: Is he emotionally intelligent ? The higher his EI, the easier it will be for him
to work with others. The good news is that he can improve his emotional intelligence!
Negotiation: Is he a good negotiator ? Not only does he need to negotiate keen prices, he also
needs to be able to resolve differences between people in a positive, mutually beneficial way.
Ethics: Does he deal with people based on respect, integrity , fairness, and truthfulness? Can he
lead ethically? He'll find it hard to build a happy, committed team if he deals with people staff,
customers or suppliers in a shabby way.

Creativity
As an entrepreneur, he also needs to come up with fresh ideas, and make good decisions about
opportunities and potential projects.
Many people think that his either born creative or his not. However, creativity is a skill that he can
develop if he invests the time and effort.

Creative Thinking: Is he able to see situations from a variety of perspectives and come up with
original ideas? (There are many creativity tools that will help he do this.)
Problem Solving: How good is he at coming up with sound solutions to the problems his facing?
Recognizing Opportunities: Does he recognize opportunities when they present themselves? Can
he spot a trend ? And is he able to create a plan to take advantage of the opportunities he
identified?
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Practical Skills

He also needs the practical skills and knowledge needed to produce goods or services effectively,
and run a company.

Goal Setting: Does he regularly set goals , create a plan to achieve them, and then carry out that
plan?
Planning and Organizing: Does he have the talents, skills, and abilities necessary to achieve his
goals? Can he coordinate people to achieve these efficiently and effectively? (Here, effective
project management skills are important, as are basic organization skills .) And does he know how
to develop a coherent, well thought-through business plan , including developing and learning
from appropriate financial forecasts ?
Decision Making: How good is he at making decisions? Does he make them based on relevant
information and by weighing the potential consequences? And is he confident in the decisions that
he makes?
Business Knowledge.

He needs knowledge in several areas when starting or running a business. For instance:
Business knowledge: Does he have a good general knowledge of the main functional areas of a
business (sales, marketing, finance, and operations), and is he able to operate or manage others in
these areas with a reasonable degree of competence?
Entrepreneurial knowledge: Does he understand how entrepreneurs raise capital? And does he
understand the sheer amount of experimentation and hard work that may be needed to find a
business model that works for him?
Opportunity-specific knowledge: Does he understand the market his attempting to enter, and does
he know what he needs to do to bring his product or service to market?
Venture-specific knowledge: Does he know what he needs to do to make this type of business
successful? And does he understand the specifics of the business that he wants to start? (This is
where it's often useful to work for a short time in a similar business.)
Builds for the future:
The goal of most successful people is to build a secure job and income for themselves and
improves livelihood and wealth for their families, which is based on the own abilities. This means
entreprenurs understand that it may take several years to build up business income to a reasonable
standard.
Cope with failure:
All business ventures inevitably contain disappointments and failures as well as successes. Coping
with failures involves recognizing these failures, learning from them and seeking new
opportunities. Without this feature, early failures may end a persons attempt at self-employment.
Demonstrates initiative:
This can be termed as the ability to work independently or an opportunity to act before others.
Research shows that successful entrepreneurs take the initiative and put themselves in positions
where they are personally responsible for success or failure.
Commitment
Starting and running an enterprise demands total commitment by the entrepreneur in terms of
time, money and lifestyle. It has to be a major priority in the entrepreneurs life. Committed
people find it easier to gain the support of others for their business projects

References

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Yun (2015)."Entrepreneurship". Lab Chip. 15 (18):
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