EDS 111

Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs

And
Role demand of entrepreneurship
Objectives
 At the end of this lecture, the students would
be able to;
 Determine the qualities of an entrepreneur
 Determine the meaning of these qualities
 Identify the role demand of an entrepreneur
INTRODUCTION
 The success of any business is a function of
the qualities possess by the entrepreneur.
 Qualities and personal characteristics are the
same thing but they may differ in terms of the
number depending on the author involved.
 However, these characteristics are peculiar to
all successful entrepreneurs.
Qualities of successful entrepreneurs
 For the purpose of this class, the following qualities
will be considered;
 (i) Initiative: An entrepreneur must be able to initiate
unique business idea(s) suitable to move the
enterprise forward. He must be creative and
innovative.
 (ii) Competitiveness: Competition is an important
variable for business growth and sustenance. An
entrepreneur must be highly competitive so as
to combat the threats of competition in his/her
business environment.
CONT’
 (iii) Decisiveness: This is a very important
attribute to business. An entrepreneur
must be able to take important decision as
regards to his enterprise growth.
 (iv) Responsibility: Responsibility is the
hallmark for greatness. An entrepreneur
must prove that he is responsible to his
stakeholders by ensuring that they
interests are protected.
CONT’
 (v) Goal Setting: Ability to set goal is a virtue.
Goal setting is an important attribute
of an entrepreneur for the success of his
business. Planning and forecasting are
part of goal setting.
 (vi) Organization: An entrepreneur must have
the ability to establish a structure suitable
for the success of the business. He must
learn to assign responsibility to qualify
personnel.
CONT’
 (vii) Energy and drive: Strength is required for
the execution of every business
enterprise. An entrepreneur must have
the strength to match with the available
responsibility of the enterprise.
 (viii) Self Confidence: This is the backbone of
an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur must
be emotional stability and mental sound
for the to succeed.
CONT’
 (ix) Leadership: Every successful
entrepreneur possess some leadership traits
that enable him or her to influence people for
the achievement of organizational goal.
 (x) Risk taking: Risks bearing is part of an
entrepreneurship. Without risk taking, there
is nothing like business. An entrepreneur
must be ready to bear at least moderate risk
for his business to succeed.
CONT’
 (xi) Hard work: Hard work is the alternative to
hard life. Hard work pays in terms of profits,
returns, gains and income.
 (xii) Dealing with failure: Ability to deal with
failure as a learning experience is important.
An entrepreneur must be able to view all
failure as a learning experience and ready to
make necessary adjustment when the
occasion demands for it.
CONT’
 (xiii) Self discipline: Every entrepreneur must
possess some element of self discipline in
terms of financial, material, physical and
other resources usage. Prudence must be an
entrepreneur’s watch word.
 (xiv) Honesty: Honesty and integrity are the
baseline of every successful enterprise. It is
the foundation of all outstanding
breakthrough.
CONT’
 (xv) Feed Back: An entrepreneur must ready
to evaluate his performance from time to time
for corrective action. Looking back at his past
performances to see where he has not
measured well and putting appropriate
measures in place to effect changes where
necessary is a requirement for the success of
the business.
CONT’
 (xvi) Tolerance of ambiguity: An entrepreneur
must possess the ability to tolerant all
ambiguity and situation of uncertainty. He
must never allow himself to be affected by the
instability and uncertainty of his environment.
 (xvii) Achievement: Desire for achievement is
a quality that helps an entrepreneur to make
a mark in his environment. Without
achievement, there is no evidence that an
entrepreneur is working hard.
CONT’
 (xviii) Independence: An entrepreneur must
be independent and ability to work with less
or no supervision. An entrepreneur can
never be an eye ‘servicer’. Desire for freedom
helps him or her to work hard.
 (xix) Internal locus of control: Ability to have
control over someone’s fate is a necessity for
the success of the enterprise. An
entrepreneur must believe that he has some
elements of control over his future through
personal efforts and ability.
Role Demand of entrepreneurship
 Possession of all these characteristics does
not really determine the success of the
enterprise. What actually determines success
is the ability of an entrepreneur to use these
qualities effectively for his business.
 The success of the enterprise is therefore the
function of the roles an entrepreneur play in
his enterprise.
 The lists of these roles depend on the author
involved.
CONT’
 Entrepreneurs should perform the following
roles for the success of the enterprise.
 (i) Acceptance of the venture: Without the
acceptance of the business as part of one’s
system, the business may not grow beyond
its initial stage. An entrepreneur must
understand the importance of his or her
business to the society, and gives it all that it
takes for its success.
CONT’
 (ii) Knowledge of the business: The
acceptance of the business as part one one’s
system will enable the entrepreneur to go
ahead to get more information about the
business. Skills (managerial and technical)
are required for he to do this effectively.
 Knowledge is a function of information one
acquires through training and experience.
CONT’
 (iii) Total commitment to the enterprise:
The success of the enterprise requires that
the entrepreneur get him or herself totally
committed to the business. His commitment is
a function of the results he gets from the
business. Nothing good comes easy.
 The level of your commitment determines the
height of your achievement or the results one
gets in life.
CONT’
 (iv) Creativity and Innovation: Creative
people are leaders all the time. Competitions
and rivalries among firms in the industry
demand that an entrepreneur should be
highly creative and innovative so as to be
different from others and above average in
his business dealings.
CONT’
 (v) People and Team Building: An
entrepreneur must accept the responsibility of
capacity building. He or she must understand
the role of people in the success of his
business. He must learn to carry his people
along towards the accomplishment of the
business objectives. He must understand the
concept of People, people, people
CONT’
 (vi) Economic values: These include private
ownership system, free entry and free
exit, the concept of profit maximization,
the importance of capital to the business
etc. An entrepreneur must place
adequate value to important issues in the
business.
CONT’
 (vii) Ethics: Certain standards have been
placed in the industries that not keeping them
will be regarded as contravening against the
law. An entrepreneur is expected to have
respect for laws and ethics guiding the
industry where he or she operates.
CONT’
(viii) Integrity and reliability: The success of
the business also requires that an
entrepreneur should be transparent and
reliable all the times. Integrity is not a gift, it is
a choice to make. Dead conscience is equal
to dead destiny.
An entrepreneur must be conscious of his
attitude and behavour especially in his
immediate environment.
Conclusion
 They are several other things that the
success of the business requires from an
entrepreneur.
 You are expected to be practically involved in
the business so as to discover these other
roles as demands by your business.
THANK YOU