Entrepreneurship and Small Business

This report explores the concept of entrepreneurship and small business ventures, discussing the characteristics, traits, and skills of successful entrepreneurs. It also examines the impact of background and experience on fostering entrepreneurship and the role of small businesses in contributing to economic growth. The report provides insights into the entrepreneurial mindset and motivation, using the OCEAN model to analyze different personality traits. Case studies of successful entrepreneurs, including Elizabeth Gooch, Muhammad Yunus, and Bill Gates, are included to illustrate these concepts.

Entrepreneurship and
Small Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1 AND LO 2..............................................................................................................................1
Covered in brochure ..............................................................................................................1
LO 3 ................................................................................................................................................1
P5) Characteristics, traits and skills of entrepreneur .............................................................1
P6) Entrepreneurial motivation and mind-set .......................................................................4
LO 4 ................................................................................................................................................5
P7) Background and experience of entrepreneurs..................................................................5
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is basically a process of creating a new enterprise which includes
bearing of all related risk with the aim of making the profit. An entrepreneur is an individual who
takes initiative to start and run a business with limited resources and effective planning and is
responsible for all risks and rewards of business venture (Brush and et. al., 2019). Mainly
entrepreneur are having a mindset to start with a small business to eliminate the higher risk
associated with large business venture which require more assets and finance. Mckinsey &
company is a consultancy firm which provides advice and market intelligence to UK and global;
private, public and social organisation. This assignment include various types of entrepreneurial
ventures and also provide information about typology. Similarities and differences between
entrepreneurship is also discussed. In this assignment impact of small business on growth of
economy is also included. At last different characteristic and traits of entrepreneur and effect of
background and experience on fostering of entrepreneurship is also included.
LO 1 AND LO 2
Covered in brochure
LO 3
P5) Characteristics, traits and skills of entrepreneur
The Mindset of the Entrepreneur
The scope of entrepreneurs is quite wide which ranges from local entrepreneurs to global and
societal entrepreneurs (Stirzaker, Galloway and Potter, 2019). To develop an understanding
about entrepreneur skills, traits and characteristics of three entrepreneurs is explained below:
Elizabeth Gooch
Elizabeth Gooch is currently a CEO and founder of EG solution which provides
software operation management to its customers. She has started its business as a local or small
scale business operation.
Characteristics
 Smart Worker- Elizabeth Gooch belies in doing smart work and always try to
find better and more creative way of doing a work which is necessary to achieve
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the desired goals. Mangers are not so good in doing a work smartly and make
use of traditional process for doing any task which reduces their efficiency.
 Passionate- Elizabeth Gooch is very passionate towards her work thus, does not
feel tired or boredom from her work which increases her efficiency. On the other
hand mangers take their work as an official duty and does not have much passion
and love for their work.
Skills Innovative Thinker- Elizabeth Gooch is having a very innovative mind which is
helpful in bringing new ideas in business which is necessary for any successful
entrepreneur. Managers are not so good at innovation and creativity thus, are not much
successful in their work. Leadership Skills- Elizabeth Gooch is very good at providing guidance and motivation
to its employees which makes achievement of targets easy through creating a
coordination in efforts of all employees. This skill of leadership is not founded in
mangers as they believe in giving orders to their employees instead of guiding them.
Traits Confidence- For success of any entrepreneurship it is necessary to have confidence and
faith in one decisions. Elizabeth Goochn is always confident about her ideas and beliefs
which makes her decisions and ides more effective. Mangers are mainly doubtful about
their ideas and always a have a fear of failure which hamper their performance.
 Disciplined- Elizabeth Gooch is very disciplined and always perform all her work on
time with great efficiency and self-control. Managers are not having much self-control
and also lacks in maintaining proper discipline.
Muhammad Yunus
He is a well-known Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society
leader also awarded with Nobel peace prize.
Characteristics Energetic – Muhammad Yunus is very enthusiastic and energetic about his work thus,
he always feel motivated and cheerful towards his work. On the other hand, mangers are
little lethargic thus, started feeling sophisticated and dull for its work. Open minded- Muhammad Yunus is quite open minded and always try to get better
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ideas and approaches for welfare of all stakeholders. Mangers are not so open minded
and freak with any kind of change.
Traits
 Decisiveness - This trait of Muhammad Yunus provides him ability to properly
understand a problem thus, makes him capable to take better and more successful
decisions. On the others hand mangers mainly remain confused thus, not able to take
firm decisions. Versatility- Because of this trait Muhammad Yunus is having a capability to perform
various activities and functions which increase his efficiency and productivity. Mangers
are not having much versatility thus they are not able to perform multi task.
Skills
 Time management - This skill of Muhammad Yunus makes him able to timely
complete his work which reduces chances of last minute chaos. Mangers are not good at
time management thus their targets are not achieved on time.
 Resilience – This skill of Muhammad Yunus provides him ability to handle the stress
and adverse situation. With the quality of eagerness and determination he conquers all
difficulties and keeps on moving. Mangers lack this skill of stress management thus feel
stressful which hamper his performance.
Bill gates
He is an American business magnate and a global entrepreneur.
Characteristics
 Risk taker – Bill gates likes taking risk thus he is able to garb all possible opportunity
while mangers are little conservative. High Perseverance – Bill gates makes continuous and efficient efforts to achieve the
desired goals despite of all failure and difficulties. On the other hand, managers lack
perseverance thus, they give up their targets very soon in case of adverse situation.
Traits Creativity – Bill gates is a highly creative person thus, he keeps on making innovative
changes in his activities to meet the demands of consumers. Mangers are not much
creativity and fear from failure thus not make much innovation. Determination- Bill gate is determinant and passionate for his work thus, instead of
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having fear from failure he tries to learn from failure. On other hand mangers are afraid
from failures and tries to eliminate that.
Skills Communication skills– This skill has made Bill gate most successful as effective
communication is key to success. With this skill Bill gates become capable to attract
more customers and partners for its business. Manger are not having much effective
communication skill thus chances of conflicts and confusion are more at workplace.
 Strategic Thinking- Bill gates is having skill to think strategically which improves his
planning and decision making which is necessary for success of an organisation.
Mangers believes in thinking simply without making any smart or strategic effort.
P6) Entrepreneurial motivation and mind-set
Entrepreneurial personality is a sum total of behaviour and attitude of an entrepreneur
which reflects the level of entrepreneurial motivation and mind-set (Thomas and Thomas,
2019). For the analysis of aspects of entrepreneurial personality use of OCEAN model is made
which is described below:
 Openness – Individuals having this type of personality traits are very bold and creative
and have very wide range of interest.
 Conscientiousness –People having this personality are mainly goal oriented and have
effective organisational abilities (Tornikoski and Maalaoui, 2019).
 Extraversion– Individuals having this trait are energetic, emotionally expressive and
more talkative. These kind of people are also more focused and responsible towards
society.
 Agreeableness – These kind of persons are helpful, trustable and generous. This
personality trait is characterised by feeling of kindness and empathy.
 Neuroticism – People having this type of personality are unhappy and emotionally
unstable. They are full of sadness, anxiety and mood swings (Welter, Baker and
Wirsching, 2019).
Bill gate is having openness personality trait as he is bold and creative in his work. He is
risk taker which makes him bold and ability of strategic thinking makes him more creative and
innovative.
Muhammad Yunus comes under Extraversion personality trait as he is a social
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entrepreneurs who is more concerned towards society. He is also quite energetic thus, remain
enthusiastic and cheerful towards his work.
Elizabeth Gooch is belonging to Conscientiousness personality trait as she is goal
oriented and very disciplined in her work which provides her better organisational capabilities.
LO 4
P7) Background and experience of entrepreneurs
Basis Background Experience Impact on fostering
entrepreneurship
Elizabeth Gooch The financial
conditions of family of
Elizabeth Gooch was
not so good and his
father was having a
small businesses thus,
not capable to earn
much money.
She had completed her
study in
entrepreneurship at 18
and soon started
working for HSBC
bank.
Father of Elizabeth
was an entrepreneurs
thus, provide proper
guidance to her
daughter in selecting
her way as an
entrepreneur. Her
experience of working
in a bank is also
helpful for her as it
provide better
understanding of
financial market.
Muhammad Yunus He was born in a
Bengali Muslim
family and his father
was a Jeweller. His
entire childhood was
spent in a small village
of Bangladesh.
He obtained his PhD
in economics from
Vanderbilt University.
His work experience
started from 1976
when he came up with
an idea of microcredit
to help poor villagers.
His is basically from a
village of Bangladesh
thus, from childhood
he was aware about
the challenges faced
by poor villagers. This
experiences of his life
motivated him to
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provide better welfare
services to these
villagers.
Bill gates He was born in
Washington and his
father was a prominent
lawyer. He belongs to
a upper middle class
family.
Gate was a voracious
reader in childhood
which has provided
him a lot knowledge.
He was enrolled at
Harvard university but
in 1975 he drooped
college to pursue his
business.
From childhood he
was actively involved
in student affairs and
leadership and
atmosphere of his
family encouraged him
to become competitive
and strive for
excellence. This has
provided him
leadership quality and
his habit of reading
book has also provided
him many knowledge.
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be concluded that many types of entrepreneurial ventures are
there in a business environment which includes, larger, local, small, etc. various typology of
entrepreneur is also there like male and female entrepreneur. Small business plays an important
role in growth of economy at different level like at national level it create more job opportunity.
There are various skills and traits of entrepreneur which makes them successful and different
from mangers. At last it can be summarised that background and experience of entrepreneur have
significant effect on its fostering entrepreneurship.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brush, C. and et. al., 2019. A gendered look at entrepreneurship ecosystems. Small Business
Economics. 53(2). pp.393-408.
Dominik, M. T. and Banerji, D., 2019. US community college entrepreneurship educator
practices. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 26(2). pp.228-242.
Ferreira, J. J., Fernandes, C. I. and Kraus, S., 2019. Entrepreneurship research: mapping
intellectual structures and research trends. Review of Managerial Science. 13(1).
pp.181-205.
Gartner, W. B., 2019. A good man is hard to find: project management, entrepreneurship and
serendipity. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. 12(1). pp.114-119.
McMullen, J. S., 2019. A wakeup call for the field of entrepreneurship and its
evaluators. Journal of Business Venturing. 34(3). pp.413-417.
Pages, P. W. P. E., 2019. Professor Dr. Rüdiger KabstHuman Resource Management, Small and
Medium-Sized Businesses and Entrepreneurship.
Pelz, M., 2019. Can Management Accounting Be Helpful for Young and Small Companies?
Systematic Review of a Paradox. International Journal of Management Reviews. 21(2).
pp.256-274.
Randolph, R. V. D. G., Li, Z. and Daspit, J. J., 2019. Toward a Typology of Family Firm
Corporate Entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business Management.
Ratten, V., Costa, C. and Bogers, M., 2019. Artisan, cultural and tourism
entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. 25(4).
pp.582-591.
Runyan, R. C. and Covin, J. G., 2019. Small Business Orientation: A Construct
Proposal. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 43(3). pp.529-552.
Satar, M. S. and John, S., 2019. The critical success factors of social entrepreneurship in India:
an empirical study. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small
Business. 37(3). pp.309-341.
Stirzaker, R., Galloway, L. and Potter, L., 2019. Business, Aging, and Socioemotional
Selectivity: A Qualitative Study of Gray Entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business
Management.
Thomas, B. C. and Thomas, A. M., 2019. The Business of New Process Diffusion: Management
of the Early Float Glass Start-ups. Routledge.
Tornikoski, E. and Maalaoui, A., 2019. Critical reflections–The Theory of Planned Behaviour:
An interview with Icek Ajzen with implications for entrepreneurship
research. International Small Business Journal, p.0266242619829681.
Welter, F., Baker, T. and Wirsching, K., 2019. Three waves and counting: the rising tide of
contextualization in entrepreneurship research. Small Business Economics. 52(2).
pp.319-330.
Online:
UK SME Data, Stats & Charts. 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/uk-sme-data-stats-charts/>
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