Exploring Entrepreneurial Personality Traits in UK's Small Businesses

The assignment delves into the significance of entrepreneurial personality traits, such as innovation, risk-taking, and proactiveness, for small business owners in the UK. It evaluates how these characteristics contribute to business growth, competitiveness, and resilience in a rapidly changing economic landscape. By examining various case studies and applying theoretical frameworks, this analysis highlights the essential role that personal attributes play in shaping business outcomes and driving economic development at the local level. Furthermore, it discusses strategic implications for aspiring entrepreneurs aiming to make an impact within their communities and industries.

Entrepreneurship and Small
Business Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Types of entrepreneurial ventures and their relationship ...........................................................3
P2 Similarities and Difference between entrepreneurial ventures...................................................5
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Micro and small businesses impact on the economy..................................................................6
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................8
P5 Characteristics, traits and skills of successful entrepreneurs......................................................8
P6 Aspects of Entrepreneurial Personality.....................................................................................10
TASK 4...............................................................................................................................................11
P7 Factors that foster or hinder entrepreneurship..........................................................................11
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is defined as dynamic process of creating wealth by individuals who takes
huge risks in their business in terms of investment, time , equity or any other. They create much
wealth by introducing new products in the market or reintroducing the old products in a new form
by including new features in them (Blackburn, Hart and Wainwright, 2013). When the operations of
the business is done in efficient and effective manner , then it is termed as management. Small
business management means managing the operations of small business in an effective way in order
to gain profits of the company. In this report, the different type of entrepreneurial ventures and their
relationship with the typology of entrepreneurship will be discussed along with the impact of small
business in the economy and the key aspects of entrepreneurial mind-set is also discussed. Different
kinds of environment that hinder entrepreneurship is also analysed in this report.
TASK 1
P1 Types of entrepreneurial ventures and their relationship
Entrepreneurship can be defined as an activity which is performed by entrepreneur in which
he innovates, finances, and put efforts to convert his ideas into productive products. It is a process
of creating something new by putting lots of time and energy. The person who carries out all these
functions in the company is called an Entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is called by different names in
a company like Boss, Owner of the business, risk taker, the resourceful guy and many more. In
order to become an entrepreneur, person should have a mindset which thinks in the direction like:-
 Opportunity seizer
 Opportunity screener
 Opportunity seeking
In the world, 90% jobs are being created by the entrepreneurs only therefore are a very important
asset of the economy because they contribute a lot in economy growth (Bridge and O'Neill, 2012).
The competencies required to become a successful entrepreneur is:-
 He should be an innovator
 An inspirer,
 Am implementer who knows when to implement things and where

Source:- Competencies of entrepreneur, 2017
Entrepreneurial activities can be defines as those activities which are conducting while
performing the process of entrepreneurship (Carsrud and Brännback, 2011). It is basically
conducted for generating value through invention or creation of new products, expansion of
economic activities and many more. The company or the business which is set up by the
entrepreneurs is called an Enterprise. There are different types of entrepreneurial ventures in the
economy, it is entrepreneur who chooses which type of business they want to enter into. The
different types of entrepreneurship is discussed below:-
11 Small Business Entrepreneurship:- At present, there are huge no. of entrepreneur and
start-ups in UK who are still working as a small business. There are approx 6 million small
business in EUK who are successful in providing employment to people who don't have ant
work. Small business co0vers business like grocery stores, internet cafe owners, travel
agents, consultants , carpenters, electricians etc. They are the ones who runs their own
business and they are only responsible for the profits and losses of the company. For help,
they either hire their own employees or the local people .11 Scalable Start-up entrepreneurship:- The entrepreneurs who start this type of business
knows from day one that their vision could change the world. The people who are equally
crazy about the business are called for investment and they are called the Venture
Capitalists. These entrepreneurs hire the best for their company (Chittithaworn, Islam,
Keawchana and Yusuf, 2011).11 Large company Entrepreneurship:- These types of companies generally have a finite life
cycle. They grow through innovation, offering new products etc. Whenever there is a change
Illustration 1: Competencies of entrepreneur

in customer taste or new technologies or new competitor has entered the market, there is
always a pressure on the company to bring more changes in their products. In such
situations, large companies either acquire who are innovative or build a strong product on
your own (Chrisman and et. al., 2012).11 Social entrepreneurship:- These types of entrepreneurs are the innovators who focus on
producing the product and services which are useful for the society and can solve their
problems. Their goal is to make world a better place to live in and not making profits or
increasing the market share of the company.
Entrepreneurship Typologies are as follows:-
 Lifestyle venture:- They render steady financial gain to the businessman. Here the
entrepreneurs generally work alone and this is the reason they does;nt get success but they
manage some time for their work in order to give competition.
 Survival ventures :- These types of ventures are generally done to earn a livelihood for
their family and for themselves. These businesses are generally not registered and the
employers use Barter and Cash system of accounting instead of bank contracts.
 Managed growth ventures :- They usually provide stabilize growth to the company and the
people who invest money knows that they will manage to earn something. They have a
managed a growth ratio with a limited staff and a launched product.
 Aggressive growth ventures :- These type of business is run with new technologies and
innovations in method of operations. They are also not funded by the equity capital.
 Convincing:- This the quality which every entrepreneur is required to have because if they
want to sell their product they should try to convince the customers to buy the product even
if it is not useful to them.
P2 Similarities and Difference between entrepreneurial ventures
The differences which arise in between these types of entrepreneurial ventures are:-
 Generation of employment:- All the ventures doesn't contribute in employment generation
in the economy. The small business are providing employment to so many pople and that too
who are non government workers and large companies also employ large no. of people in
their company. But, scalable start ups are very choosy bout the staff they work with. They
don't hire people who are less efficient (Dennis Jr, 2011).
 Profit making:- All business wants to earn profit but there are some companies whose main
aim differs from profit making. Companies who are running for society's development doent
think of making profits but if then also the profit are made by the, then these profits are
utilized in development of society only.

 Regional Development:- Not every business s is able to contribute in the overall
development of the regions (Drucker, 2014). For regional development, the companies has
to be set up in backward areas of the state but it is neither possible nor fruitful and good for
every venture. if the vendors of the small business will set up their business in small
backward areas then they the customers will not be able to reach them and their sales will
happen whereas large companies should set up their industries in these backward are only as
it is beneficial for them.
 Identification of Loss:- Every time it is not possible for the company to calculate the exact
loss they have incurred in a particular financial year. The companies who follow proper
accounting procedures may know their exact loss but in case of small business, these types
of vendors believe in cash system of accounting and therefore sometimes they are nor able
to calculate the exact loss caused to them.
TASK 2
P3 Micro and small businesses impact on the economy
Micro enterprises can be defined as those types of small business who employee nine people
or less in their organisation. These types of business is started with a small amount of capital and
generally supply goods and services in their local areas. They serve an important purpose in
improving the quality of life for the people living in the developing countries. Micro enterprise gets
help from the micro finance who give them small amount of capital as loans to set up the company.
Small business means those business which have fewer employees and their annual revenue
is also less as compared to other business corporations. These are like the privately owned
corporations or the sole proprietorships . All small businesses vary in terms of size, revenue,
authorities, laws etc. some small businesses require a licence to be operated and some don't. Some
businesses are highly inspected like day care but some run smoothly.
The impact of Micro and Small business in economy are:-
 Local Impact:- Both micro and small business affects the local business also. They have a
strong impact on the activities that are being conducted in the local markets. Micro
enterprises affects the economy of local market by not employing more amount of
employees and therefore the people are not employed much. Its positive impact s that they
work towards improving the quality of life of the people living in the local areas (Fassin,
Van Rossem and Buelens, 2011).
Small businesses impact the economy by providing them the type of business they want in their
local areas. There are various types of small businesses in a local area like grocery shops,
carpenters, electricians who are create competition in the economy which later on works in the

development of the economy.
 Regional Impact:- A region is also affected by the Micro and small business. Entrepreneurs
who are working in regional areas has the advantage of making the products of their choices
and also implement it in other places as well. Micro enterprises can make such product
which will impact the whole region and fixing the prices of the products can also be done by
them easily and it will be implemented in whole region (George and Bock, 2011).
Small business also impacts the regional market with the revenues earned by them by
providing services which are required for the benefit of the society. For eg. Small businesses that
can affect the regions are like builders, small hospitals, education institutions and many more.
 National and International impact:- The effect of Micro and small business in nation
is very small because there are very large amount of sole proprietorship business set up
in UK which help in creating more no. of jobs in the economy and thus it is beneficial
for the nation. This helps in making the country rich and making the youth so
resourceful that they get opportunities to go and expand the business on international
level.
Micro enterprises helps in adding value to the economy by providing jobs to the people,
enhancing the income of the nation, increasing the purchasing power and lowering the coast of
products as compared to the foreign products. When a country goes in a direction to become a
developing country, then it means that the economy is growing slowly with increase in more job
opportunities in the market.
P4 Contribution of Small business and Business start-ups on social economy
Almost all the small business persons in UK knows that the Micro and small business
enterprises are currently flourishing there. Records have been made for starting up so many start ups
in U K and there is no sign of slowing down. With the increasing no. of start up success in the
economy, the nation should take care of that they need small businesses too in order to have a
healthy economy. UK economy knows that SME's are an integral part of their economy with over
99% Britain's businesses as small ans medium enterprises (Gorgievski, Ascalon and Stephan,
2011).
The importance of small businesses in social economy are:-
 Turnover:- This is one of the feature which is checked when the economic condition of a
country is noticed. Small businesses helps a lot in increasing the turnover of the businesses
in the UK economy by increasing more and more business because of which employment
will be generated and people will earn so income will also be generated and thus it will help
in adding value to the nation.
 Employment:- For development of an economy,it is very much required that the people in

country are employed. If people will be employed then it will be beneficial for the economy
only since humans are also an asset for the country or they can also be termed as a resource
(Goss, 2015). Any country will not want that there resources are wasted, so small business
helps them by creating more and more job opportunities in the market because of which the
people are getting employed and the economy is also growing slowly.
 Growth:- When it comes to growth, micro and small enterprises are the biggest contributors
in this process. Innovation is also part of growth. When the economy wants growth, they
should try to innovate in different sectors and types of businesses and products in the
market. Innovation keeps the market fresh which means that before products in market
becomes stagnant, they should try to bring new features in the products which will help the
company to become stable in the market.
 Industry:- In UK ,the largest industries are Retail,manufacturing and repair of motor
vehicle and small businesses works as a main link in between the three. Approximately 45%
of the income of the small businesses comes from one of these three sectors only and three
out of every small business falls in one these categories. Therefore it can be assumed that
when it is affecting the Britain so much then how far and more it will be affecting the UK
economy (Jones and Rowley, 2011).
The Micro and small business if UK has a symbolic and strong relationship with the
economy of the country. The contribution of small-business is very important for the economic
health and the current financial conditions of the country as it is helping in improving the business
growth w3hich eventually grows the country's economy as well.
TASK 3
P5 Characteristics, traits and skills of successful entrepreneurs
By having an idea or sufficient amount of money will not help entrepreneurs in making the
business successful because there are lots of good ideas in the market who have potential to become
best but due to lack of proper execution it fails. So, it depends on entrepreneur how they take their
idea forward and become successful. A business person has to develop certain skills in them to
make their business flourish in market. Therefore, characteristics which an entrepreneur should
possess are:-
 Self Motivated:- This is one of the most important feature which an entrepreneur should
have in them . He should be motivated because no one will come to push him further for
doing work so he himself should be dedicated towards the work which has to be done.
 Knowing what to offer:- An entrepreneur should know what they are offering to the
customers in the market and whether the market chosen for the product is appropriate or not.

This includes positioning yourself inside the market and then getting adjusted as per the
situation and demands (Karlan and Valdivia, 2011).
 Risk Taking:- Business without risk is not possible. If an entrepreneur is not ready to risk in
their business then they should not think of making much profits. Risks must be taken after
due calculation and assessment.
 Knowledge and money management:- An entrepreneur should have basic knowledge
about the subjects related to the business and also little bit of money management skills is
also required so that no one cheats on them.
Other characteristics are:- He should be flexible and passionate about his work and he
should know to take the advantage of the competition and know how to deal with latest
technologies. There are certain traits and kills also that a entrepreneur should have. They are:-
 Determination:- Becoming a businessman isn't an easy task, a person should have lots of
determination in them to run a business. There will be various situations when the business
will face failure but only determined individuals will stand up and start all over again.
 Passion:- Successful entrepreneurship is driven not just by money but also with lots of
passion and hard work of the people working in company. If an entrepreneur is passionate
then he will not have any fear of taking risks for their business. They will do whatever is
good for their business.
 Vision:- If there is no vision, there is no tomorrow for the company. For the success of the
business, the entrepreneur must have a vision. Vision means where the company wants to
reach i.e. its final destination and to reach here, lots of self confidence is required because
you have to show an imaginary place to the investors and make them invest their money
which isn't an easy task (Neck and Greene, 2011).
The other traits are like tolerance, self belief, rule breaker and many more.
P6 Aspects of Entrepreneurial Personality

Source:- Entrepreneurial personality, 2017
There are various traits that an entrepreneur must posses in them which make them a
successful person. Some common traits are like Optimism, dynamic, confident, reliable,
courageous, risk taker , good communication skills, interpersonal skills are good, innovator and
many more (Schaper and et. al., 2014). Those factors that define entrepreneurial personality can be
their personal strength, weakness,economic condition, some family problem or anything else. The
personality of the entrepreneur can be considered as an actor because they have an ability to carry
out innovations and introduce new products, methods of production, new market and to carry out
such innovation the entrepreneur needs to be dynamic.
The business is started with an idea and to implement these, entrepreneur needs workers
which will help in them in executing the work. Therefore, an entrepreneur needs an organisation for
this. An organisation will consist of all the necessities which the entrepreneur require to conduct the
business. It can be said that sometimes there are certain personality traits of an individual which are
shown in their work also. So, the personality of an entrepreneur affects the motivation and the
mindset of the individuals working with them. In order to examine traits of an individual, Big five
model was evolved which depicts :-
 Extraversion:- It says that entrepreneur is energetic at work and is social in his work and
also has ability to become a leader . This trait motivates other employees working with him
to follow the entrepreneur and find the way to achieve success (Storey, 2016).
 Agreeableness:- It defines that entrepreneur should be of good nature, cooperative and
trustworthy personality so that his followers believe in him and his ideas and implement
them with full sincerity.
 Conscientiousness:- It describes that entrepreneur is efficient and dutiful and also
Illustration 2: Entrepreneurial personality

achievement driven. These are the qualities that makes an individual person worth success.
 Emotional stability:- It means that entrepreneur should be calm and focussed in his work ,
positive minded , high tolerance level and should not get upset very easily (Unger and et.
al., 2011).
 Openness to experience:- Entrepreneur should be open minded , independent minded,
imaginative which means that the should always e ready to learn something new and gain
new experience, become creative and innovative in their work.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of entrepreneurs to behave well in organisation i.e. in a
way which motivates individuals to perform well in the organisation and improves their thinking
skill and abilities to perform work. All the aspects of personality of the entrepreneur will leave an
impact on the persons working with them. They will try to learn some thing from their leader so it is
the duty of the leader to make a good impression on the workers.
TASK 4
P7 Factors that foster or hinder entrepreneurship
Starting a business is nothing less than doing an experiment. The entrepreneur starts the
business with an idea and a vision to make the idea successful with lots of risk involved in it. It is
not necessary that if a person is from business family or strong background then only he will be
successful in the market. Coming from a business family doesn't give mean that the person have all
the traits that are required to become successful business person. To become an entrepreneur, person
should prove that he can manage all the activities and possess all the qualities required to become
an one.
If a person is highly experienced in his work and later on enters the business world, its not
necessary that he will achieve success very easily. It all depends on hard work of the people.
Experience can be used while performing the activities but knowledge is also necessary about the
business. There are various factors that promote entrepreneurship are:-
 Opportunity:- Experience of a person can be used to create an opportunity in the market
and once an opportunity is created then it depends on the entrepreneur how they use thiese
opportunities (Welter, 2011).
 Funding:- This is one of the important feature which describes that if a business is started, it
should have sufficient amount of capital with them to execute the planning and to save
yourself in case of emergencies. If sufficient funds are not available with the companies then
they have to take help from banks and have loan amount which is to be repaid with interest.
 Knowledge:- It motivates a person to achieve huge success in business. If a person's
background is from business family but the person himself doesn't have any knowledge

about the business so there is no advantage of it. But if the person s from simple background
but possess good amount of knowledge and skills then no one can stop him from becoming a
successful businessman (Wheelen and Hunger, 2011). For eg. Richard Branson, owner of
Virgin Atlantic group is a UK based successful business. He was from a poor background
but his determination to do something in life made him achieve this success and now he is a
well known personality all over the world.
 Persistence:- A never quitting attitude is only required in a business man because there will
be many situations where the person will have to start everything from level one. A winner
becomes a winner after he lost earlier. High motivation and a supportive team is only
required for a business to grow everyday and face every situation therefore the entrepreneur
must choose his team very wisely and effectively.
So, background and experience is not sufficient to foster or hinder any business. If the
business is successful then it will be because of the continuous effort and never give attitude of the
working team and the good motivation of the entrepreneur.
CONCLUSION
This report includes details about entrepreneurship, its definition, types of entrepreneurial
ventures in a business world, its relationship with the typologies of entrepreneurship. It also
includes the similarities and difference between entrepreneurial ventures and also how small-
businesses and start-ups contribute in the growth of UK economy. The characteristics, traits and
skills of an entrepreneur which makes them different from other entrepreneurs are also included in
this report. It includes how entrepreneurial personality aspects influences motivation and mindset of
other employees of the organisation as well and the factors that are responsible to foster or hinder
the entrepreneurship in also discussed (Zott, Amit and Massa, 2011). It is concluded from this report
that becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy task, a person has to work very hard to bring in the
skills that are required to run a business and become successful as well. It is not necessary for the
person to come from a business background in order to be successful, lots of dedication and hard
work is required along with good amount of knowledge of market they want to enter into.
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Impact of small-business in UK economy.2017.[Online].Available
through:<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/important-small-businesses-local-economies-
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Aspects of Entrepreneurial personality.2017.[Online].Available
through:<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/important-small-businesses-local-economies-
5251.html>.[Accessed on 21 September 2017]