The World Business

Posts Tagged ‘Entrepreneurship’

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful, than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw

According to Global Entrepreneurial Monitor (GEM) fear of failure is the top reason given in Ireland and worldwide by aspiring entrepreneurs for not starting their own businesses.

NESTA – the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and the UK’s largest early stage investor in innovative and creative businesses – found that almost three quarters of people who said they had what they believed was a good business idea were not acting on it because they were afraid of not succeeding.

Ironically on further examination it is obvious that all would-be entrepreneurs are being paralysed by something that doesn’t exist.
That’s right. Failure is a myth!

You have already shown that in your own life, you certainly don’t need a motivational speaker to prove this!

Entrepreneurial Development – Failure Brings you Closer to Success!

Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb famously said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

It took James Dyson, the engineer who reinvented the vacuum cleaner, four and a half years and 5,127 prototypes to refine his design.

“Each failure taught me so much,” he said. “Success teaches you nothing. Failures teach you everything. Making mistakes is the most important thing you can do.”

In an interview with Time Magazine, Larry Page, inventor of Google, said, “Invariably we try ten things that don’t quite work out in order to do one thing that is successful. And we learn a lot in doing the ten things that didn’t quite work.”

Thus every failure brings you a step closer to success and moves you further down the path of entrepreneurship.

Ironically by embracing this truism you mastered your first two major challenges in life – walking and talking.

Remember: As a child, ‘Never say die’, ‘Have no fear’, ‘Try and try again’, ‘Enjoy the moment’, were your working metaphors.

You fixed your eye on the goal, took your first step – wobbled a bit – steadied yourself. Then another step. Then landed on your backside!

What happens then? Did you give up? Did you say to yourself ‘I tried my best and I can’t do it. It hurts. I’m never doing that again!’? Did your ego kick in and start whispering ‘you’re making a fool of yourself. They’re all laughing at you! Better quit while you are ahead.’?

No indeed, as each one of us is born with an innate desire to reach our full potential, you got up and tried again ultimately succeeding.

Model off past  childlike strategies in the future and master the art of entrepreneurship!

Prosperity and happiness would be easy to achieve if we could make correct decisions all day long. Imagine how efficient we would become if we never succumbed to seductive lies. How far could we go if we never got distracted by irrelevancies? How much would we profit if we never wasted time chasing what cannot be accomplished?

An exalted view of permanence and safety can be a constant source of erroneous choices. Human beings seem to suffer from a persistent cognitive distortion that makes them favour all things that are tall, wide, and long. If you think about it, you will find few exceptions to this misconception.

The groundless preference for tall, wide, and long applies equally to space and time. In cities, residents like tall buildings better than small houses. In the countryside, hotels are built next to wide lakes, not little streams. In literature, readers prefer long novels to short stories.

Our belief in permanence and safety is the culmination of our cultural bias towards everything tall, wide, and long. Children stories such as Three Little Pigs teach infants the desirability of solid homes. Career advisers encourage youths to choose well-established professions. Dietitians recommend patients to keep a constant weight.

Safety is presented as the perfect answer to all questions. It is the one solution that fits all types, the one preference that always satisfies. Temporary approaches are considered unwise. Anything transient is to be revised; anything incomplete, despised. Long live the mirage of permanence and safety.

How wrong and how historically false. The truth is that human beings have been leading predictable lives for less than 10.000 years. During the ten-times larger period that preceded agriculture, men and women had few routines and were, in certain aspects, much better off.

Prehistoric hunter-gatherers moved around frequently, carrying their household items with them. A varied diet and daily exercise kept them healthy. Tribes rarely stayed long in one place; their changing habitations made them difficult targets for parasites.

In those days, man lived on the alert. The world was unsafe; the environment, disorderly; man’s attitude, entrepreneurial. Each season brought him new challenges, each territory fresh scents and herbs. To danger, he reacted with prudence; to opportunities, with self-reliance.

Safety made its entrance in man’s life together with agriculture. Land cultivation and animal domestication brought us a steady supply of wheat, rice, corn, and cheese. On the other hand, they also brought us smallpox, influenza, malaria, measles, lice, and vermin.

As soon as human beings built permanent dwellings, rats became their companions. Insects multiplied fed by our blood. Bacteria found a fertile ground to grow; viruses procreated and mutated. Sickness turned to epidemic, illness to pandemic, and disease to morbidity.

Safety possesses a downside of which many people become aware only when it’s too late. Routine has advantages, but it can blind you to innovation. Predictability has benefits, but it can render you passive. Steadiness has charms that can make you forget to profit from the present day.

Viewing regularity as supreme virtue can lead to the demise of independent thinking. The idea of permanence will keep you down if you let it overrule your perception of reality. If you trust routine too strongly, you will develop tunnel vision. If your entrepreneurial skills wane, change will find you unprepared.

Our world looks orderly because we have trained ourselves to disregard inconsistencies. Familiarity does not necessarily breed contempt, but it often renders individuals overconfident. Immigrants that arrive in a new country make observations that puzzle those whose ancestors have lived there for generations.

Watch out for the entrapments of safety so that you do not fall asleep. Our two most precious assets, our health and our mind, depreciate with excessive comfort. Our two most valuable qualities, ambition and persistence, vanish as soon as we take them for granted.

Once a man is born, he is tested and contested until the day he dies. Permanence is for the greatest part an illusion to which we cling too avidly. Most things we do are meant to be temporary; attempting to make them last too long is unnatural and counter-productive.

Civilization has brought us a million gains beyond what prehistoric hunter-gatherers enjoyed. Those benefits should be preserved and enhanced. Let us savour modern life without relinquishing our entrepreneurial spirit.

Science has reduced the impact of sickness so that we can remain free-ranging adventurers. Technology has enlarged the scope of our activities so that we can explore unknown territories. Do not let your longing for permanence and safety paralyse your initiative.

The price that we pay for the pretence of orderliness is too high. Human beings function best when their mind remains flexible and alert. A wise man attains certainty by overcoming contradictions, not by avoiding action.

Security is a desirable goal because it allows individuals to develop their abilities and achieve a comfortable life, but it should not become an excuse for immobility. The purpose of a home is to have place to rest, not a prison to restrain our action. Independent thinking and entrepreneurship lead to personal effectiveness, from which safety is just a side effect.

JOHN VESPASIAN writes about rational living and is the author of the books “When everything fails, try this” and “Rationality is the way to happiness.” He has resided in New York, Madrid, Paris and Munich. His stories reflect the values of entrepreneurship, tolerance and self-reliance. See http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com a blog about rational living.

Everything does not depend upon the whim of an entrepreneur. There are some economic and non-economic factors that influences the size of a business entrepreneurship. They are as follows :-

1. Demand for the product : There are some products whoes demand is more and it keeps on increasing. Such products need wide market. Therefore, the size of the business should be large. E.g. iron and steel industries. On the other hand, if demand for a product is less, they can only be sold in the local markets, the size of the business should be small. E.g. Handloom and crafts industries.

2. Nature of the product : Size of a business is greatly influenced by the nature of the product. If the products are perishable in nature, they cannot be marketed in distant places. They need local markets. Hence, small scale businesses are suitable for such products. Moreover, if the customer’s choice and preference gets changed with the fashion, such products cannot keep pace in the markets for a long time. Therefore, they are not produced on large scale. Such items need small scale business entrepreneurship. E.g. food and drinks. On the other hand, the products which are non perishable, standardised, complex in nature and extensively large in size, requires large scale business. E.g. machinery and electronic gadgets.

3. Availability of capital : Large scale business needs adequate funds. As India is a developing country, it is difficult to raise adequate capital for setting up new ventures. However, it is easy to raise fund for small scale businesses as it requires less capital for establishment. Thus the sole-proprietorship and partnership form of business is famous in India.

4. Nature of industry : There are two types of industries; capital-intensive industries and labour-intensive industries. In case of capital intensive industries, large amount of fixed capital is required for establishment and growth. E.g. railway and transport industries. However, in case of labour intensive industries, there is no mechanisation and specialisation degrees. Hence the capital required is less. E.g. cottage industries.

5. Availability of electricity : If the supply of electricity is adequate then large scale industries can develop and run successfully. On the other hand, small scale industries requires less power supply.

6. Cost of transport : Cost of transportation determines the size of the business unit. If the raw materials are transported from distant places to the plant and again the finished goods are transported from plant to the distant markets, the transportation cost will be more. On the other hand, if a new business transports raw material from the local markets and sale the finished products to the nearby markets, the cost of transportation will be less.

7. Laws of returns : In case of the law of diminshing returns, the cost of production will increase with the increase in the output produced by a firm. Such kinds of product cannot grow up, after a certain interval. On the other hand, if the law of increasing returns is applied, the scope of expansion, keeps on increasing.

8. Risk : Large scale businesses are financially sound and it can easily bear any kind of risk. On the other hand, liability is more and it becomes risky to setup small scale businesses.

9. Entrepreneurial ability and efficiency : The ability and efficiency of an entrepreneur greatly affects the buiness. It may happen that the scope of expansion and development of a business is good but the entrepreneur lacks the ability and skill to utilise the opportunity. This may keep the size of the business small. On the other hand, entrepreneurs with the help of his skill and ability has expanded his business to a great extent.

10. Market : If a product can capture both the national and world wide markets, the size of the business will increase. On the other hand, if the product is limited to the local markets, the size of the business will be small.

11. Government regulation : Government has certain rules and policies relating to the size of the business e.g. obtaining licences and taxation policies. Small business undertakings can take the advantage of low taxes. However, before starting any business, entrepreneurs should obtain licence after confirming the standard size of the firm.

12. Influence of environment : Geographical inertia effects the size of the business of a particular country. In case of developed countries like USA, all the businesses whether new or old are in large size. On the other hand, the scope of setting up large buinesses is limited underdeveloped economic countries like in India.

13. Concentration and early start : If a business is started for the first time in a particular area, the scope of expansion is great. Later if the same business is setup, the scope of the business gets decreased.

14. Other factors : There are some other factors that effect the size of the business considerably. The willingness of the entrepreneurs to set up a business is one of the great factor affecting the size of the business. If a business requires skilled labours, it cannot grow up to a large size. If a business is setup to fulfill the requirements of the local people, it will always be in small size, like grocery, saloon, stationery, etc.

The growing trend in America is to create a business. Cottage industries are popping up everywhere. From franchise retailers to launching a new business Americans are center stage. Startups include service business, home business, coaching business, and craft business. It is part of the American way but it is also a constant reminder that across the country this is the only way to maximize your potential.

The corporate market place has lost some of its luster. For many years it was considered an attribute to work for a conventional business. It was a way to learn a skill and perhaps find some sort of economic security.  The evolution of big business has changed the idea of being a part of a company to one of just being an employee that is expendable.

Inflation with rising interest rates could put a damper on job availability. One of the things that it will impact is wages. With the reluctance of employers to foot the whole health care costs of their employee, job benefits are not that enticing. The payoff of owning your own business is that the entrepreneur takes the starring role. The limits in opportunity in the business world are due to many factors that the employees have no control over.

Many people are opting to work from home. Home based businesses are on the rise. Small Mom and Pop business are expanding thanks to the World Wide Web. This current trend is good for everyone. Entrepreneurs contribute to the success of this country. Out of ambition or need, more than a million boomers every year are starting there own business. In the United States people 55 to 64 years old are the most likely to start here own business.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, a research and education center for entrepreneurs found in a single month in 2005 nearly 110,000 folks in the age range of 55 to 64 started a business. Older entrepreneurs have a huge advantage in wisdom and experience. The entrepreneur wants job freedom more than job security. They thrive on the adventure of relying on their ingenuity.

Another group of aspiring entrepreneurs are the millennial generation or the Generation Y. Many do it because they desire a better work-life balance. They are the leading edge of a trend toward entrepreneurship that is due in a large part to technology. The new view is work is a part of life but you do not live to work. When they start their own business they work long hours and harder than they planed. The operating forces for these entrepreneurs are the purposeful work, flexible hours and a chance for financial freedom.   

A Pew Research Center poll of 2,003 Americans ages 18 and over pointed to the fact they were more satisfied with their flexible hours, proximity of work and home, job security, level of on-the-job stress and salary than other workers. Entrepreneurship is one of the most exciting ways to reach for the gold ring. This generation has seen the corporate culture loyalty to their employees. They realize that the corporate world is not going to look out for them.  The entrepreneur spirit is alive and well in America and is expected to grow in the coming years.