Entrepreneurship – Some Thoughts On The Meaning
I recently responded to a question about what is meant by the term entrepreneurship, on LinkedIn (a great place to develop and maintain business connections and access to multiple subject matter experts, [www.linkedin.com]) in a Research Triangle interest group.
The gist of my response was that for many people any use of the term that contains entrepreneur or any of its derivatives, conveys the meaning of a person or set of actions who focused their activities on the development and the conduct of business. To the person who posted the query, I replied thusly.
Hi Emily. Great question because there are lots of views on the subject. I write a blog for the Examiner.com in Raleigh covering several views of practicing entrepreneurism, and how entrepreneurs can be more successful. The link is: www.examiner.com/startup-business-in-raleigh/sandy-waters if anyone is interested.
Another often referred to source that explores more the definition of entrepreneurship in greater detail is: http://www.enotes.com/entrepreneurship-reference/entrepreneurship
Add to that source: http://www.quickmba.com/entre/definition/ , and I believe you get a sense of the multiple viewpoint way to approach the many aspects of being entrepreneurial.
For my part, in my experience, it is the practice and skillset of guiding ideas into reality as products, services or solutions to problems faced by some definable audience of potential buyers. Some people have a strong sense of how to do this, while others require and rely upon advice, constructive criticism, coaching and mentoring, and the belief that somewhere there are people who know something related to my chosen idea who can offer guidance, and my skill is to seek them out and leverage their knowledge.
Another great source and recognized information source is the Kauffman Foundation, found at: http://www.kauffman.org/ . They are the originators of the FASTTRAC series of courses for entrepreneurs. I have audited several of them and find them to provide a very workable approach for entrepreneurs.
At the conclusion of my comments on LinkedIn, I offered to group members to answer their questions and encouraged them to contact me if they had any. In the RTP and Raleigh area, as a part of my management consulting practice, I work with companies of all sizes to focus on the most neglected areas of their business ventures, sales, and marketing. These are areas that seem to be among the biggest hurdles for people and their business efforts. It is difficult enough to translate ideas in to product, services, solutions, and actions, but selling any of those requires planning, execution, and responding quickly when required.
Entrepreneurs can and do come up with creative selling methods, and as long as those methods are readily adaptable to changing market needs the selling methods can always be improved. I tell clients to periodically review their selling approach, likewise for their marketing, and determine what works and what does not work, then figure out how to improve the methods to stay on top of their game with current and prospective customers.
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