Entrepreneurial Skills

A. Here are some stories of some entrepreneurs. Tick the option for the quality
they are showing.
1. Ravi’s customer comes to his store and starts shouting at him. He does not
get angry. He listens to what his customer is saying. He is .
(a) hardworking (b) confident

(c) patient (d) prying new ideas

2.Susheela decides to sell her company tyres in Sri Lanka. It does not sell and
she has a loss. She apologises to the people who work for her. She says she
will plan better next time. She
(a) takes responsibility for the mistakes (b) thinks before making a decision

(c) does not give up (d) is creative

B. Tick the correct option for the function that the entrepreneur is doing.
1. Ali has a diamond factory. He pays his employees on the 1st of every month.
(a) Creates a new product
(b) Manages the business
(c) Takes risk

2. Mary buys bulbs for her business from Noida. She learns that bulbs are
cheaper in Faridabad. So, she decides to start buying bulbs from there.
a) Makes decisions
b) Divides income
c) Takes risk

3. Rehnuma has two people who work for her. Every day, she spends one hour
with them to learn about what they’ve done that day.
(a) Creates a new product
(b) Divides income
(c) Manages the business

C. Write against the option if the business idea is of self-employment or wage employment.
(a) Cooking in a restaurant Ans. Wage Employment
(b) Owning a clothing business Ans. Self Employment
(c) Having a dosa selling stall Ans. Self Employment
 D. State whether the following statements are True or False
1. Entrepreneurs can create jobs in the market. True
2. When many entrepreneurs sell mobile phones in a market, the prices of phones increase. False
3. Entrepreneurs identify a need in the market and build a product or service for it. True

E. Match each story below with the misconception about entrepreneurship.

Story Misconception

Ramu owns a large clothes shop. Shamu has a a) Every business idea needs to be unique
small store selling handmade sarees. Shamu or special.
does not call himself an entrepreneur. Ans. (c)

Anna has a great idea for a website. She has (b) Entrepreneurs are born, not made.
5,000. She is waiting for ` 20,000 more, so that
she can start it. Ans. (b)

In a city of thousands of tailoring shops, Gauri is (c) A person needs to have a big business
a tailor who stitches good quality clothes and has to be called an entrepreneur.
a very successful business. Ans. (a)

F. Match the columns

1. Surabhi opens 5 painting stores across India. Ans. (c) a. Enter

2. There are many coaching classes in Mumbai. Jacob owns one of b. Survive
them. He is starting morning batches to attract more students to his
classes. Ans. (b)

3. Salma has started her clothing line on the Internet. Ans. (a) c. Grow

1. Define the following terms

a. Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is the creation of sustainable solutions for social problems that
leads to social change by employing entrepreneurial mindset, processes, and operations.
Many social problems are tackled by social entrepreneurs such as low reach of quality
education, health and sanitation, unemployment, child labour etc.
b. Agricultural Entrepreneurship
Agricultural Entrepreneurship can be defined as being primarily related to the marketing
and production of inputs and products used in agricultural activities. Farmers have
benefited the most with rise in agricultural entrepreneurship as it has led to low-cost
innovations in farming processes.
c. Women Entrepreneurship
Women entrepreneurship is referred to the entrepreneurial activity led by women,
where women undertake risks, create enterprises, organize factors of production,
innovate with products/services and generate employment opportunities.
d. Small Scale Entrepreneurship
Small scale entrepreneurship refers to starting industries in which manufacturing, trading,
providing services, productions are done on a small scale or micro scale. These businesses
serve as the backbone of many developing countries.

2. Discuss about the qualities you have, or you want to develop to become a successful
entrepreneur.
a) Hard work: Without working hard, no entrepreneur can be successful.
b) Optimism: Positivity and belief in what they do is what takes entrepreneurs far in their
journey.
c) Independence: Entrepreneurs are confident and like the freedom to take decisions.
d) Energetic: Drive and energy is always high in successful entrepreneurs which makes them
extremely proactive
e) Self-confident: Belief in one’s own vision and abilities and passion for the goal makes
successful entrepreneurs confident.
f) Perseverant: A way of thinking that helps to accept failure, learn from mistakes, not give up,
continuously experiment etc. is crucial for an entrepreneur. Hence, entrepreneurs need to
be perseverant in their pursuit

3. Classify the different functions of an entrepreneur?

a) Entrepreneurial functions
i. Organization Building and Management: Organization building is about bringing together
different factors of production and allocating these resources to bring down costs and losses.
ii. Risk taking: Risk taking is about taking responsibility and planning for a loss or mishap that may occur in
the future due to unforeseen contingencies.
iii. Innovation: Entrepreneurs innovate by introducing new concepts, products, services, designs, ideas etc.
b) Promotional functions
i. Idea Discovery: The first step towards entrepreneurship is discovery of a business idea.
ii. Detailed Investigation: While coming up with ideas can seem like an easy process, the challenge is to
understand if the idea has the potential to turn into a viable business venture.
iii. Assembling the Requirements: Some basic business requirements include infrastructure or
office space, human resources, key vendors, or partners, working capital etc.
iv. Financing: Raising capital for a business is one of the core functions that entrepreneurs perform
themselves, not just at the initial stage of the business, but even to grow and scale the business.
c) Managerial functions
i. Planning: An entrepreneur documents a business idea in the form of a business plan, to detail
each element of the business such as product or service description, operations, marketing,
finance, accounting, growth plan etc.
ii. Organizing: Organizing in the managerial context refers to setting specific and attainable goals and
objectives to be achieved by different departments and by each employee.
iii. Directing: Directing is about initiating planned action and ensuring that each employee is
performing effectively.
iv. Staffing: Staffing refers to different sub-processes around human resource management, such as
manpower planning, recruitment, selection, placement, training, transfer, salary, promotion,
payroll, appraisal etc.
v. Leadership: Leadership is more of a skill than a function for an entrepreneur as he or she must lead,
guide, and supervise people who work for the business.
vi. Communication: Communication enables exchange of feelings, ideas, emotions, information, and
knowledge between two or more persons.
vii. Supervision: Supervision is a key skill as even overseeing that things are being executed well is
important.
viii. Motivation: Along with guiding employees, an entrepreneur also plays a role of motivating them and
encouraging positive behavior and culture within the organization.
ix. Co-ordination: Co-ordination between different departments of the business helps to ensure
that work happens in a timely manner.
x. Controlling: Sometimes controlling is necessary for the entrepreneur to set company rules and policies.
xi. Negotiation: An entrepreneur negotiates terms and conditions for many parts of the business such as
payment terms and timelines, salaries of employees, vendor quotations.
d) Commercial Functions
i. Production and Operations: Depending on whether it is a service business or product
business, an entrepreneur must perform the function of managing production or operations
ii. Finance and Accounting: While finance is more focused on raising funds and managing them,
accounting helps to record and analyze the financial position of the business
iii. Marketing: Marketing is about moving the product or service from producer into the hands of the end
customer or user.
iv. Human Resource Management: Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to recruitment,
employment, selection, training, development, and compensation of the employees with an organization.

4. Explain the different roles of entrepreneurs?

i. Innovator’s Role: Entrepreneurs innovate by bringing unique and new products and services into the
market.
ii. Agent’s role: Entrepreneurs act as ‘Agents of Change’ as they identify opportunities, solve
problems, offer effective solutions, establish enterprises, set up industries and bring positive
change for the economy.
iii. Coordinating role: An entrepreneur coordinates many things such as factors of production,
delegated tasks, smooth functioning across different business departments, timely delivery of
inputs and outputs etc.
iv. Risk assumption role: Entrepreneurs are not risk aversive and they realize that taking risks is a part of
business.
v. Capital formation role: Mobilization of idle savings takes place when money is invested in a
Business.
vi. Imitating role: In many developing countries, entrepreneurs either imitate or adapt the
innovations of developed nations.
vii. Employment Generation role: Businesses cannot function without employing people.
viii. Status transformation role: Since more and more people are employed by entrepreneurs,
overall income and standard of living of the society increases.
ix. Balancing role: Entrepreneurship is encouraged with small and micro enterprises and small-scale
industries as well.

5. Write some misconceptions/myths of entrepreneurship?

i. Every business idea needs to be unique or special.
ii. Person needs a lot of money to start a business.
iii. A person having a big business is an entrepreneur.
iv. Entrepreneurs are born, not made.
v. Great ideas are what makes entrepreneurs
vi. Entrepreneurs must take a lot of risk
vii. Businesses either skyrocket or fail
viii. One must know everything before starting a business
 6. Write a note on entrepreneurship as career option?
i. Nurtures development of entrepreneurial skills and capabilities: Entrepreneurship cultivates
unique skills and encourages outside the box thinking. It instils confidence, creates
opportunity, offers solutions and stimulates the economy.
ii. Enables application of an entrepreneurial mindset: Entrepreneurial mindset and skills are
not necessarily only relevant to becoming an entrepreneur, but also in any field. Even the top
employability skills of today are basically entrepreneurial skills.
7. List the ways in which an entrepreneur affects a society.
Ans. The ways in which an entrepreneur affects society are:
Fulfil Customer Needs.
Use Local Materials: Entrepreneurs use the material and people available around them, to make products
at low cost.
Help Society: They make profits through activities that benefit society. Some entrepreneurs work towards
saving the environment, some give money to build schools and hospitals. This way, the people and area
around them becomes better.
Create Jobs
S haring of Wealth: As entrepreneurs grow their business, the people working for them and in
related businesses also grow.
Lower Price of Products: As more entrepreneurs sell the same product, the price of the product goes down.
For example, when more mobile phones were getting sold in India, the cost of the phone became lesser.
8. What do you think are the important functions of an entrepreneur? Write your answer giving
suitable examples.
Ans. The functions of an entrepreneur are:
Making Decisions: An entrepreneur makes decisions everyday. This includes what to produce or sell, how
much and where to sell.
Managing the Business: An entrepreneur plans the future of his or her business. He/she
arranges for raw material, hires people for work and tells everyone what to do. They also check if the plan is
being followed.
Divide Income: The entrepreneur divides the business money into many groups. He/she spends
money to buy material, pays rent of the building and salaries to people.
Taking Risk: Risk is the chance of something going wrong. An entrepreneur takes risks against fires, lost
items and theft.
Create a new Method, Idea or Product: An entrepreneur is always trying new things. He/she
does this to increase their importance and income.
9. What is the difference between a misconception and reality? Give an example.
Ans. The difference between misconception and reality are:
Misconception: A myth, or a misconception, is a false belief or opinion about something. For
example, if we think tall people run faster than short people, we have a misconception. It is not true. The
truth is that short people can also run fast.
Reality: Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or
might be imagined. In other words reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is
observable or comprehensible.