Entrepreneurial Skills

A) Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship :

An individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks to set up a business is
called entrepreneur. The process of setting up a business is known as entrepreneurship.
B) Entrepreneurship and Society :
There is a direct relationship between Entrepreneurship and Society. Due to entrepreneurial
activity, society is provided with goods and services. In turn, society provides market for
products and services provided by the entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship has some positive impact on society such as:
1. Accentuates economic Growth
2. Fosters Creativity
3. Stimulates Innovation and Efficiency
4. Creates Jobs and Employment Opportunities
5. Solves the problems of the society
6. Encourages welfare of the society

Entrepreneurship has some negative impact on society such as:

1. Environmental Degradation
2. Trade imbalance
3. Labour exploitation

Society plays a role in boosting entrepreneurship by:

1. Creates needs and demands
2. Provides raw materials
3. Enables financial support
4. Creates a need for education
5. Catalyzes policy formation and reform
6. Facilitates networking
7. Supports infrastructure development
C) Some common entrepreneurship activities related to society include :
1) Social Entrepreneurship : It can be understood as creation of sustainable solutions for social
problems that leads to social change. Many social problems are tackled by social
entrepreneurs such as low reach of quality education, health and sanitation, unemployment,
child Labour etc.
2) Agricultural Entrepreneurship: It can be defined as being primarily related to the
marketing and production of inputs and products used in agricultural activities.
3) Women Entrepreneurship: It 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.
4) Small Scale Entrepreneurship: It 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.

D) Qualities of an Entrepreneur :
1) Hard work: Without working hard, no entrepreneur can be successful. On an average,
successful
entrepreneurs are found to be working anywhere between 60 to 90 hours per week
2) Optimism: Positivity and belief in what they do is what takes entrepreneurs far in their
journey.
3) Independence: Entrepreneurs are confident and like the independence to drive a business
on their own.
4) Energetic: Energy is always high in successful entrepreneurs which makes them extremely
proactive.
5) Self-confident : Entrepreneurs are confident to take decision.

E) Functions of an Entrepreneur :
1) Organisation Building and Management : An entrepreneur builds the organization by
taking various steps such as hiring employees, organizing the factors of production, sourcing
finance etc.
2) 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.
3) Innovation: Entrepreneurs innovate by introducing new concepts, products, services,
designs, ideas etc
4) Detailed Investigation: An entrepreneur conducts research, investigates and evaluates an
idea considering various factors and estimates the total demand for a new product or service.
5) Financing: Raising capital for a business is one of the core functions that entrepreneurs
perform themselves at all the stages of business.
6) 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 etc.
7) Leadership: Leadership is more of a skill than a function for an entrepreneur. As a leader,
an entrepreneur guides, directs, and influences the work of others to attain specific goals.
8) Communication : An entrepreneur has to communicate every single day, in the form of
writing, responding, drafting emails, verbal instruction, discussion etc.

F) Role of Entrepreneurs :
1) Innovator’s Role : Entrepreneurs innovate by bringing unique and new products and
services into the market.
2) 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.
3) Coordinating role: An entrepreneur coordinates many things such as factors of production,
delegated tasks, smooth functioning across different business departments etc
4) Employment Generation role: Entrepreneurship solves the problem of unemployment,
which is a major problem in economic development.

G) Importance of Entrepreneurs :
1) Free market evolution: In a free market, entrepreneurs bring change in technology, trends
and markets. For example, with increase in digital services, entrepreneurs have created
companies that offer many home delivery services such as groceries, restaurant food, clothes,
accessories etc.
2) New values: Sometimes, entrepreneurs choose ethics over profit and offer a more ethical
product to the world and are transparent about it.
3) New markets: Entrepreneurs can often ‘redefine the rules’ of an established industry. They
do this by creating new markets for existing products and slightly innovating in small ways
to suit the needs of a new target market.

H) Myths of Entrepreneurship :
1) Entrepreneurs are born a certain way.
2) Entrepreneurs have to take a lot of risk.
3) Businesses either skyrocket or fail.
4) A lot of money is required to start any business.
5) One must know everything before starting a business.

I) Entrepreneurship as a Career – Why Entrepreneurship for You?

1) Nurtures development of entrepreneurial skills and capabilities.
2) Develops the ability to handle failure and ambiguity.
3) Enhances critical thinking and problem-solving ability.
4) Leads to creating difference in society.
Session 1: Entrepreneurship and Society
1. What qualities are required for successful entrepreneurs?
Answer – Successful entrepreneurs have the following qualities.
• They are confident, They believe in themselves and their abilities.
• They keep trying new ideas in their business
• They are creative and think differently about business ideas.
• They do not give up when they face difficulty.
• They make decisions after thinking about them.
• They are patient
• They take responsibility for their actions
• They work hard

2. What do entrepreneurs do when they run their business?

Answer –
a. Fulfill Customer Needs – A product or service that people want is referred to as demand.
Entrepreneurs discover what people desire. Then students use their imaginations to come up with a
business plan to address that demand.
b. Use Local Materials – Entrepreneurs produce low-cost items by using the materials and people
available to them.
c. Help Society – Entrepreneurs have a good interaction with the general public. They gain money
by doing things that help society. Some business people donate money to create schools and clinics,
while others work to save the environment.
d. Create Jobs – They buy more material, and from more people. They also hire more people to
work for them. In this way, more people have jobs.
e. Sharing of Wealth – Wealth means having enough money to live a comfortable life. As
entrepreneurs grow their business.
f. Lower Price of Products – The price of a product decreases when more entrepreneurs sell the
same thing. In India, for example, as more mobile phones were sold, the cost of the phone
decreased.

3. Qualities of an Entrepreneur?
Answer – Qualities of entrepreneur are –
• I believe in myself and what I can do. I am confident.
• I think of different ways to solve a problem. I am creative.
• I work hard on every task.
• Problems take time to get solved. I am patient about solving them.
• I take responsibility for my actions and mistakes.
• I do not give up when I face a problem.
• I keep trying new ideas.
• I think before I make a decision.
4. What are the misconceptions of Entrepreneurship?
Answer – Misconceptions of Entrepreneurship are –
• It is a common misconception that every company idea must be unique or exceptional.
• A person needs a lot of money to start a business.
• Entrepreneurs are born, not made.
• A person having a big business is an entrepreneur.

5. What is wage employment?

Answer – Wage management is based on work grades and performance parameters. Wage
management’s goal is to take reward and give high performance standards in the business.
The wage management does not take too much risk but entrepreneurs have to take risks.

6. Difference between Self employment & Wage employment?

Answer – There are two ways a person can earn a living.
a. Self Employment – An entrepreneur is a self-employed individual who runs a business to meet a
need by experimenting with new ideas.
i. Enter – When an entrepreneur first starts business, they are simply getting their feet wet
in the business world.
ii. Survive – There are a lot of entrepreneurs around nowadays. In a competitive market,
the entrepreneur must remain competitive.
iii. Grow – An entrepreneur considers growing his or her business once it has reached a
certain level of stability.
b. Wage Employment – Wage management is based on work grades and performance parameters.
Wage management’s goal is to take reward and give high performance standards in the business.

1. What is Entrepreneurship?
Answer – An entrepreneur is a person who creates a new business, takes risks, brings new ideas to
start a business and is self employed.
2. What are the different ideas entrepreneurs add?
Answer – New ideas with which an entrepreneur adds varieties of product, new services, cost
reduction ideas, or new marketing techniques.
3. Characteristics of Entrepreneurs?
Answer – Adaptable and flexible to achieve the goals of enhancing quality and customer satisfaction
1. Believe in hard work
2. Ability to take up risks
3. Money Management
 4. Knowledge of the product and services and their need or demand in the market
5. Effective planning and execution
6. Financial literacy

4. Write any four Primary Functions of entrepreneurship.

Ans. Planning, organizing, decision making, managing, innovating, risk bearing, etc.
5. How does entrepreneurship help the economy?
Ans. Entrepreneurs boost economic growth by introducing innovative technologies, products, and services.
6. How do entrepreneurs contribute to society?
Ans. Entrepreneurs contribution to the welfare of society is of high order. A business person apart from
making money for him or herself also helps the society in many ways financially and socially. Also they
contribute in form of donations, sponsorship, welfare programs, advisors to respective government, etc.
7. Mention five important qualities of a successful entrepreneur.
Ans. Five qualities are: self-confidence, open minded, leadership, willingness to assume risk and competitive
spirit in nature.
8. What are the main commercial functions that manage an entrepreneur?
Ans. The commercial functions are production, finance, marketing, personnel and accounting.
9. Name the special quality of an entrepreneur which helps to sell the product and motivate
employees.
Ans. Strong people skills.
10. What is the importance of entrepreneurship in our country?
Ans. The entrepreneur who is a business leader looks for ideas and puts them into effect in fostering
economic growth and development. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important inputs in the economic
development of a country.
11. What is the role of an entrepreneur as in export promotion?
Ans. In the field of export promotion, entrepreneurs are responsible for creating innovative, high quality
products at reasonable prices.
12. Mention five important roles of an entrepreneur.
Ans. Five important roles of an entrepreneur are economic growth for the country, create new market,
generate employment, development of new raw materials and products, growth of infrastructural facilities,
export promotion and import substitution and increase in the standard of living.
13. What is the basic of employment generation in a developing economy?
Ans. The basic is when a new venture grows, it generates employment.
14. Why entrepreneurs are called as gamblers?
Ans. It is said about entrepreneurs that they are gamblers and take big risks. The truth is that most
entrepreneurs are moderate risk takers.
15. Is entrepreneurship a career choice?
Ans. Entrepreneurship is becoming the most pursued career choice! The term entrepreneurship is defined by
the willingness to take risks, plan, streamline, organize and manage new business ventures in an ever-
evolving and competitive global marketplace.
16. What jobs can you get with entrepreneurship?
Ans. You can get different jobs like: mid-level management, business consultant, sales, research and
development, teacher/faculty, business reporter, etc.