Characteristics of Entrepreneurs Doc

Entrepreneurship in
Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Characteristics of entrepreneurs..................................................................................................4
Roles of entrepreneurs.................................................................................................................4
Critical evaluation of the contribution of entrepreneurs in USA................................................5
Critical evaluation of USA in contributing towards the entrepreneurship..................................7
Two real world relevant examples from well-known entrepreneurs..........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is the process of setting up a business by taking risks in order
to earn money and profit. The people who sets up these businesses are called
entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is the one who designs, launch and runs a business
initially as a small business firm. The entrepreneurs should have skills such as
leadership, management, problem solving etc. for running the business in an effective
manner. This assignment report will discuss the characteristics and the role of
successful entrepreneurs along with the critical evaluation of the contribution of
entrepreneurs in USA. Also this report will also critically evaluate the USA in
contributing towards the entrepreneurship. Also this report will includes the two real
world examples of well-known entrepreneurs which are Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of
Facebook and Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin group. Mark Zuckerberg started the
Facebook in a single room at Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 2004. The
company is employing around 30,275 employees in 2018. Google is a America based
firm who is providing Internet-related services and products to their consumers such as
online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, hardware
etc. The firm was founded by the entrepreneurs Larry Page and Sergey Brin in February
1998 at Menlo Park, California. The company is employing approximately 98,771
employees in present.
MAIN BODY
Entrepreneurs plays a essential role in the development of a business. These
controls and runs the business with the help of several characteristics which are
necessary for performing their role in an proper and effective manner. They needs to
have these characteristics for smoothly running the business operations. Without these
characteristics, entrepreneurs can face problems in properly executing their
responsibilities and work due to which the organisational goals could not be achieved in
the predetermined time period. These characteristics in entrepreneurs are necessary for
the success and growth of the business. These characteristics along with the roles of
entrepreneurs are discussed below:

Characteristics of entrepreneurs
Ability to take Risks is the first and very essential trait of entrepreneurs. The
entrepreneurs needs to consider the risks which can leads to failure of business before
starting any business. Thy needs to have courage and capability to take the risks in
order to become successful. Innovation is also important for entrepreneurs for
generating new and unique ideas which can strengthen the market positions and share
of the firm as well as to earn a substantial amount of profits. Innovation can be applied
to strategies, products, marketing or production etc. through which the sales and profit
of firm can improve. The entrepreneurs also needs to be a visionary. It is necessary for
determining the future aims and objectives as without a vision for future, they work
without any aims or goals which can leads to delay in success. Leadership is also
necessary for utilising the resources in an effective manner as well as to lead the
employees of the firm (Felício, Caldeirinha and Rodrigues, 2012). There are various
functions in a business which are carried by the performed by the employees. These
employees needs leaders for effectively performing their work which is done with the
help of entrepreneurs. They provides the directions and support to employees for
executing their work in a proper manner. Entrepreneurs needs to stay confident in their
decisions and ideas for inspiring the people of organisation. Through the confidence,
the entrepreneurs can motivate the people in their working because of the experience
and confidence which comes from the working in industry and environment.
Through these characteristics, the entrepreneurs can provide their support and
guidance to their employees for improving the business sales, profit and performance.
These characteristics are necessary for obtaining improved and anticipated outcomes
for getting the success in the ventures (Lin and Tao, 2012).
Roles of entrepreneurs
Major role of the entrepreneur is to convert the situations into business
opportunities for improving the growth and success rate. They needs to determine the
situations which can help them in enhancing their market share and position in the
industry for the benefit of the organization. The entrepreneurs are basically the
innovators who tries to build new technology, products or services etc. for developing
the existing things in different and unique ways. An entrepreneur also needs to

determine the risk which can impact the business operations of firm and needs to be
prepared for the losses and risk which can arise in the new ideas and project
undertaken by them. It is helpful in enhancing the success rate and for eliminating the
risk so that business functions can run smoothly. An entrepreneur does a lot of ground
work or research before taking any step for their business venture. The entrepreneur
finalizes the ideas by considering several options for choosing the suitable options. Also
entrepreneurs uses the management skills for planning, staffing, controlling and
coordinating the activities and operations of business and its employees (Bosma and et.
al., 2012). The entrepreneurs also overcomes the resistance to change for enabling
the employees to adapt to the changes which can improve their performance and
productivity. As new innovations can leads to ineffective working of the employees
because the workers needs to change their present behaviour patterns. The
entrepreneurs convey their ideas to other people after implementing them
successfully. Due to the successful implementation, other people or employees can
accept these ideas in their working for generating predicted results (González-
Rodríguez, Díaz-Fernández and Simonetti, 2015).
Critical evaluation of the contribution of entrepreneurs in USA
According to the Brian Tracy, (2005) A society or nation can become prosperous
if they rewards and encourages the entrepreneurial activity as the entrepreneurs and
their activities determines the level of success, prosperity, growth and opportunity in that
society or country. The societies in which the entrepreneurs are motivated or
encouraged to perform greater activities is the most dynamic societies. The energy,
creativity and motivation of entrepreneurs helps in developing new products or services
which triggers the production and sale of new products and services (The Role of the
Entrepreneur, 2015). The entrepreneurs takes the risk involved in the business for
earning the profit and seeks for the opportunities through which they can earn more
profit. Entrepreneurs are responsible for forming new perceptions of customers by
developing unique and innovative products in order to sell them against the competition.
They determines the needs of their customers which is not satisfied by the competitors
and provides the products accordingly so that new customers can be attracted towards
the products of their business organisation.

Entrepreneurs in USA are responsible for development and growth of the country
as they are considered as the backbone of US economy. Entrepreneurs invest in the
products and services which are needed by the people or which are unmet by any
other existing firm. The entrepreneurs forms the business firms for meeting the needs
and demands of the customers in the market. They seeks the opportunity for providing
these products and services which are not presently available in the market or provided
by any other firm.
These entrepreneurs also provides the employment opportunities to the
individuals in US as new business needs to recruit employees which creates jobs and
economic opportunities. These opportunities support the local people or employees of
US to improve their living standard and quality of the life. The ability of entrepreneurs to
turn ideas into new products and services which are needed by the people is the face
of prosperity for any country. The economic growth is driven with the help of new
technology and applications of new technology. Educated people and collaborative work
environment is necessary for creating and providing innovative products and solutions.
The education is also necessary for increasing the creativity in US workforce and in
personal life (Kirby and Ibrahim, 2013). With the help of Innovative thinking, the
entrepreneurs are addressing the environmental challenges faced by the US such
as combating climate change, lowering global greenhouse gas emissions, protecting
biodiversity etc. The entrepreneurs seeks new ideas for protecting the environment
while conducting their business operations which will assist the US government in
increasing the productivity and improving the economic development of the USA.
The innovative thinking of entrepreneurs is also helpful for the improving the
efficiency and conserving the resources through the business practices. These
innovation are necessary for addressing the socio-economic challenges. In the
USA, huge amount of money is wasted due to the inefficiencies and uncompetitive
practices in the system. The new ideas and innovations from the entrepreneurs are
addressing these problems which leads to further reforms. Due to these reforms, the
health and quality of life of the people of US can improve as well as the wastage is
decreasing (Ozaralli and Rivenburgh, 2016). The innovators entrepreneurs thinks out of

the box which provides the opportunities to local people of US to improve their thinking
skills.
Critical evaluation of USA in contributing towards the entrepreneurship
USA is the home to many of the entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Walt Disney,
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Henry Ford etc. Whereas the business likes Facebook,
Google, Tesla, Paypal etc. are started in the America as a small business firms. The
major technological companies or Big four technology companies such as Google,
Amazon, Facebook, and Apple are started also in USA due to the support from the US
government.
According to the Bedros Keuilian, (2018) The old American dream was to attend
the college, get a degree, work at a place where the pay is good, take the retirement
after 30 years, and get the pension and Rolex after the retirement. Whereas the new
American dream is a version of the entrepreneurial journey which never existed in the
past. The barriers for becoming an entrepreneur is very low in this present century. With
this new American dream, individuals can start their business whenever they want
(America Is Still the Land of Opportunity, 2018). The business may take less than a
decade for becoming successful in the market. This can be done by developing a
product and start selling it. By overcoming the rejection and objections of selling these
products, entrepreneurs can spot new opportunities for solving big and complex
problems in order to receive greater income in return.
According to the Mike Maddock, (2013) America is successfully entrepreneurial
because this country is merging the money, empathy and culture together due to which
the entrepreneurs seeks for opportunities in the country. Many new business starts with
a new or innovative idea. Americans are generally sympathetic in nature due to which
they give donations to the organisations, individuals or new businesses. Through these
donations and financial support, individuals can start their businesses without worrying
about any financial problems (Why Americans Make The Best Entrepreneurs, 2018).
America is Uber connected i.e. it means that a generation who is willing to share the
cars or cabs often share the ideas and business strategies due to which there is not
traditional business competition exist in the country, there are just willing and unwilling
partners.

America is known for its culture to enable the entrepreneurship. American
government states the entrepreneurship as a critical tool for increasing the growth of the
economy and for creating more jobs within the country. The US government also
promotes several policies and programs for supporting the development of talent,
entrepreneurial culture, and funds for the small business firms (Maclean, Harvey and
Gordon, 2013). The government of the US is promoting the entrepreneurship by using
several methods such as partnership with U.S. companies, NGO's, investor groups etc.
for creating new opportunities and connections with the successful entrepreneurs. The
United States Government provides a wide range of entrepreneurship programs for the
entrepreneurs of US and other countries. Among these programs, some are given
below:
The Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) is a program by the Department
of State which works for building direct partnerships that can improve the
entrepreneurial eco-system in the nations around the globe. This program was launched
for ensuring that the entrepreneurs who are looking for the opportunities to grow or
scale the business can be provided with the equal opportunities to do so. This program
uses a bottom-up approach by using the help of innovators and successful
entrepreneurs for providing the opportunities to the local entrepreneurs to develop new
strategies and ideas which can improve the business and job growth. This program was
recently held in Hyderabad, India jointly with the Indian government.
The Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is held each year in the month of
November jointly with the Kaufmann Foundation. In this week, more than 250 U.S.
embassies and consulates from all over the world celebrate with the innovators and job
creators who launches their own start-ups for bringing the ideas live for driving the
economic growth and for the welfare of society. This program was started in 2008 in
which 77 countries participated. Since then the number of companies expanded to 150
countries in which more than 25 million participants participate in over 115,000 activities
(U.S. Government Support for Entrepreneurship, 2017).
SelectUSA is also a program of US government for providing the investment to
entrepreneurs in the US. It provides the information to global companies of all sizes for

making the decisions, connecting at the local level and navigating the federal regulatory
system.
People-to-People Exchanges is also a program from the Department of State’s
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) which connects the entrepreneurs
from all over the world to the entrepreneurs and business of USA for sharing the best
practices and to expand their business networks and connections. Academic programs
such as Fulbright Program provides the opportunities to the faculty and students of
U.S. and foreign for studying, researching and conducting the research regarding the
entrepreneurship and business. Professional exchanges such as TechWomen and J-1
Internship Program which assist the individuals to mentor with the innovative companies
of Silicon Valley.
Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) is a private sector
partnership which aims to turn the private-sector investment from U.S. venture
capitalists and U.S. social investment funds into small businesses who are growing
around the world. Due to the working in the partnerships with the incubators,
accelerators, etc. these partnerships are expected to provide approx. $150 million from
the combined public and private investments (Wang and Shapira, 2012).
In emerging markets, some firms didn't have access to the loans in order to grow.
USAID’s Development Credit Authority (DCA) is developed for providing these funds
to the small firms and entrepreneurs in order to accelerate the efforts of USA all across
the world. For this, the DCA provides the loan guarantee to the entrepreneurs in order
to take the loans from the local financial institutions which assist the US development
priorities. After the formation of DCA in 1999, they had provided a loan of around $4.8
billion across the 76 countries.
Two real world relevant examples from well-known entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are the who shows their creativity by doing innovation with the
help of various activities. It is one of those methods through which success can be
achieved if idea of creativity shows positive result in the market. For having a better
entrepreneur individual must have extra knowledge in specific field. There are many
examples who have shown creativity in the market and result was found that they have

achieved a lot in current scenario. For understanding the file in depth lets talk from Mark
Zuckerberg and Larry Page points of view.
Mark Zuckerberg
Background: He is one of those entrepreneur who have earned lots of success
from his creative mind. Mark Zuckerberg was born on 14th May, 1984 in White Plains of
New York. His father dentist where as mother was psychiatrist. He was one of those
person who is interest in computers so his parents hired one of the computer tutor who
use to visit his house once a week to provide extra knowledge about computer
technology to Zuckerberg. He enrolled himself in Harvard University for higher
education where he invented some of the new technology such as Face-mash which
was used for casting vote in the premisses of university. In 2004, Zuckerberg and his
fried created a new social media site where personal profiles can be created with
additional features like uploading photos and even communication was also possible
through this networking site. The name of the social site was given as Facebook (Wang
and et. al., 2012). For the purpose of increasing users of Facebook he dropped the
college and by the end of 2004 company was able to grab 1 million users.
Experience: Zuckerberg was one of those entrepreneur who faced various
problem and the main problem was of funding. At the time of creating social networking
site he didn't have lots of money for the purpose of investment but 2005, Facebook
received money from the source of venture capital from Accel Partners firm. The
knowledge of computer software was received from David Newman which was one of
the major source of raising personal experience.
Larry Page
Background: Larry page is an American Scientist who was an internet
entrepreneur where he co-founded Google with his colleague Sergey Brin in 1998. He
was born in 1973 on 26th March in East Lansing. His father had done PhD in the field of
Computer Science where as his mother was as computer instructor. He was one of
those person who wants to start the business from the age of 12 years. He had his
higher studies from University of Michigan as a Computer Engineering where as
masters was pursued from Stanford University. In the year 1995, Larry and Sergei
created the idea to develop a search engine as a part of their project and they gave the

name as Back Rub. In the year 1998 both of them decided to setup as a company. On
7th September, 1998 they gave their company a name as Google. At present, it is one
the biggest search engine tool which is being used by everyone (Clifton, 2012). Now, its
major subsidiaries are YouTube, Dialogflow, Google Ad Mob etc. and many more.
Experience: Larry Page faced various issues at the time of setting up of
business where they do not have fund which was required. Both Larry and Sergei was
unable to tick all the boxes through which their website can be successful launched.
Once their organisation was starting to provide solution to their customer then they were
able to receive the rewards which they were willing.
It can be said that background and experience helped them to achieve their
goals at the rights time which they want. Also, the response which was given from the
side of customer influenced them to do lots of update in their social networking sites. As
they both faced the various difficulties at the time of stating new venture so to overcome
from those problem they came up with new innovative ideas to sustain in the market. In
current scenario both the companies are able to perform well at global level. Even it can
be said them while setting up of new entrepreneurship team work is necessary as it is
beneficial for long term.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that entrepreneurs needs to have
several characteristics such as ability to take risk, innovative thinking, leadership skills,
managerial skills etc. for smoothly running the business operations. These
characteristics of entrepreneurs are necessary for performing their work and role in an
effective and proper manner. The entrepreneurs role is to provide innovative ideas and
business products which can satisfy the needs of consumers that has been not met
from the products provided by the existing firms. The entrepreneurs are supporting the
economies such as US economy in development and growth by addressing the
environmental and socio-economic challenges and by providing more employment
opportunities to the local people of USA. Also the newly established business firms are
investing in new products for meeting the needs of local people which are unfulfilled by
the products of other business firms present in UK. The government of US is also
supporting the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship as small business firms are the

backbone of the US economy. The US government has established several programs
for supporting the entrepreneurs such as Global Entrepreneurship Program, Global
Entrepreneurship Week, SelectUSA, People-to-People Exchanges etc. for connecting
the entrepreneurs of other countries to the successful business and entrepreneurs of
USA. The government of the USA has also formed strategies such as Partnering to
Accelerate Entrepreneurship and departments such as USAID’s Development Credit
Authority for providing the funds and investment to the entrepreneurs for the
development and growth of their business. These funds are collected from the local
financial institutions and entrepreneurs of US which are provided to small firms on the
guarantee of Development Credit Authority. The entrepreneurs such as Mark
Zuckerberg and Larry Page has faced various problems such as lack of funds,
technology, resources etc. in successfully building their business in initial stage. But due
to the continuous efforts and best work practices, these both entrepreneurs are owners
of the two major firms of technological services. The Google and Facebook are the
among of Big 4 technological companies which becomes successful in the decade they
were formed. This success is because of the combined efforts of employees and
entrepreneurs which helped in building these two small firms in global or Big 4
companies.

REFERENCES
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Online
The Role of the Entrepreneur. 2015. Available through :
<https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/78478>
America Is Still the Land of Opportunity. 2018. Available through :
<https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310208>
Why Americans Make The Best Entrepreneurs. 2018. Available through :
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemaddock/2013/09/25/why-americans-make-
the-best-entrepreneurs-for-now/#7fc0bd6fbf5f>
U.S. Government Support for Entrepreneurship. 2017. Available through :
<https://www.ges2017.org/entrepreneurship-resources-1>