Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Skills for Success

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What makes an entrepreneur?
Task 3- Essay

Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................2
Explanation of the differences between an entrepreneur and a manager.............................................3
Description of entrepreneurial characteristics and skills an entrepreneur needs to have in order to
achieve success.....................................................................................................................................4
Utilization of the Big-5 Model and analysis of Croft-Simon’s entrepreneurial
personality............................................................................................................................................5
Utilization of Maslow’s Pyramid and analysis about the possibility of the existence of a correlation
between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial success..................................................5
Analysis of various other factors that can foster or hinder entrepreneurial success............................7
Evaluation on the influence of background and experience on entrepreneurs both positively and
negatively.............................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................9
References..........................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
In the present day scenario, there are multiple numbers of businesses which encourage the setting
up of an innovative business activity with taking up a lot of risk and managing its portfolios. The
study attempts to provide a clear understanding about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial spirit of
a specified and recently opened business activity based in the United Kingdom. The innovative
business named Nom Foods is the producer of the first ever organic popcorn brand in the United
Kingdom (Nom Foods, 2019). Based on the organization of Nom Foods, the study evaluates the
prospects of the activities and performance of such entrepreneurship and explains the features and
skills that is necessary on the part of the business developer to achieve the desired outcome. Apart
from this, the study aids to provide a clear concept of factors that hinder the objectives and growth
of entrepreneurial success and also portray the relationship between the features of entrepreneurship
and the success related to it.
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Explanation of the differences between an entrepreneur and a manager
It is very important to know that in any organization, the role of both entrepreneur and manager is
significantly different. In the context of Nom Foods also, the entrepreneur and the manager are two
different people allotted to handle different tasks and they are not the same. In this organization, the
role of the Manager is to manage the available resources while as against this, Steph Croft-Simon
who is the founder and entrepreneur of this organization is focused on detecting and capitalizing the
profits.
The key differences between an entrepreneur and a manager are that the former is a risk taker and
the later is risk adverse (Burns et al., 2016). Steph Croft-Simon got hold of risk in the market and
has launched an organic brand of popcorn in United Kingdom. Entrepreneurs of the organization
are equipped with starting up a business whereas the managers look after the ongoing operations of
such businesses created by entrepreneurs. In this aspect, the entrepreneur is the owner of the
business institution and the manager is an employee. The entrepreneur take the responsibility and
risk of creating the business in order to profit from it and the manager is just another employee in
that business who takes up the authority of controlling and administering the business and directing
other staff in the organization as well. Decision making is always intuitive for the entrepreneurs as
whatever decisions taken are based on courage, determination and inductive logic which is featured
by the influence of general and predictable laws from natural instances. On the other hand, decision
making for the manager of the concerned organization which in this case is Nom Foods is based on
secondary sources which can be advice from the entrepreneur or collective information and is
deductive. The reward from the business that the entrepreneur earns is in the form of profit but for
the manager it is the salary.
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Description of entrepreneurial characteristics and skills an entrepreneur needs to have in
order to achieve success
Entrepreneurs are the most risk taker while creating a new business in the competitive environment
(Bujor and Avasilcai, 2016). In this study, Nom Foods in UK is its first ever kind of organic
popcorn company and it is quite difficult on their part to survive in an already performing and fully
functional popcorn market with Met cafe’s Food Company’s Skinny Popcorn and Tyrell’s Popcorn.
In this regard, the two most important components required to achieve the outcome of the
organization are the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the related skills. The entrepreneurial
features describe the ideas and creative thinking developed to bring success to the organisation.
Risk taking or calculated risk in business is such feature where the entrepreneur balances the
portfolio between risk and profit. Self motivation is another characteristic where the business
developer pushes oneself beyond its own capabilities. An entrepreneurial feature also caters to
knowing the market and the network area on the part of the entrepreneur where it has started the
business ensure the very basic management of money and adapt to flexibility (Volery and Mazzarol,
2015).
United Kingdom’s potato crisp market is as huge as the popcorn market but has not in any way
affected the popcorn market. This is because United Kingdom consumes more popcorn than any
other European nation and the market is able to adapt to various functions and activities. The skill
of an entrepreneur is significant for running this business. These skills as such the curiosity of
learning and adapting to things, strategic and creative thinking along with the effective management
of time, and the networking, communication and finance skills reflect the mindset and motivation of
the entrepreneurs.
4

Utilization of the Big-5 Model and analysis of Croft-Simon’s entrepreneurial
personality
There is a deep controversy regarding the statement whether entrepreneurs are born or made. There
are individuals who argue that entrepreneurs come right from the DNA and it is possible to make
such huge changes if one is born with such capabilities. This idea reflects to supporting the criteria if
ones heredity is based on such skills then one is likely to become an entrepreneur in future due to the
genetic make-up. There are statements as against these where it has been said that practice,
understanding and passion which is acquired by the time helps in bringing down the aspect of
becoming an influential business creator by the time and this makes an entrepreneur. This gives the
possibility that one can learn to become entrepreneurs. Croft-Simon has also acquired all the
understanding of UK’s market and adapted to become an entrepreneur in a market economy as large
as any other region in Europe.
The Big 5 model represents the basic 5 personality traits namely Extroversion, Openness to
experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism which are beneficial in the
utilization of entrepreneurial characteristics (Yan and Yan, 2016). These traits help to develop
more focus oriented tasks and provide self motivation in the crisis of any situation. Croft-Simon’s
entrepreneurial personality provides an insight on the creative motive and abilities which helped in
forming of different popcorn brand in UK. Simon’s personality reflects the experiences, which were
studied to take up the entrepreneurial actions in order to introduce the United Kingdom’s market to
a new popcorn industry.
Utilization of Maslow’s Pyramid and analysis about the possibility of the existence of a
correlation between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial success
In context of Nom Foods, it is important to consider that the background and experiences can add to
foster the success of the business and also hinder its growth at the same time. The background of
the performing market gives an insight to the business developer as to what is in demand in the
market. Experiences are in the form of creating the organic popcorn by Croft-Simon and preparing
for trial runs and seeking advice which has added to its advantage of forming the new market.
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These things have helped to foster the growth of the company but at the same time any leakage in
the information or improper advice could result in being a hurdle in the growth process.
Maslow's pyramid is typically a hierarchy, which is made up of two kinds of needs namely basic
and complex needs (Staniewski, 2016).The lowest level of the pyramid reflects the basic needs
where else the highest levels in the pyramid reflects the complex needs. The basic needs represents
the need of an individual for food, water and sleep with comfort in all the pyramid holds a
proposition that one can move to the higher levels only if these needs are met. The fulfillment of
basic needs creates possibility of meeting the needs of safety and security. The pyramid casts an
idea that moving ahead side of the hierarchy structure shows that the needs of the individual
becomes more social and psychological. This depicts that characteristics of entrepreneurs and
success of entrepreneurs are interdependent on each other. There is a mutual relationship between
the two. The traits and characteristics of an entrepreneur, which helps to give a clearer vision of the
product and what kind of industry to be set and at what location is a factor that greatly influences
the success of the organization. If the entrepreneur lacks in proper planning and the features are
lame, it is possible that the goal of setting up a business and taking bigger risk will face loss at the
market. There are important characteristics of an entrepreneur that makes up for a successful
venture (He et al., 2017).
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Analysis of various other factors that can foster or hinder entrepreneurial success
There are certain components other than the lack of entrepreneurial qualities and characteristics that
foster or hinder the success rate (Haidukevych et al., 2019).
Education
The formal learning skill starts with education. Education helps with knowing, visualizing and
understanding the world outside (Lomberg et al., 2017).In implanting the different entrepreneurial
values, the role of education is very significant. The base of the education system is to provide an
insight of the knowledge what is happening around the world which helps individuals to develop
entrepreneurial qualities and make them capable enough to foster their decisions planning towards
success. The right kind of education can promote the qualities of a business leader whereas no
education or little knowledge can harm the personality and account of hindrance in success.
Financial status
Financial status is an economic factor which has the most direct and immediate impact on the
success of the entrepreneurs with the organization (Przepiorka, 2016). For creating Nom Foods,
there was indeed a requirement of capital which accounts for an important contribution as a part on
the various factors of production. Increase in finances help in valuable investment which resulted in
generation of revenue or profit for Nom Foods and the decrease or non-availability of the same
finances could result no acceleration of any kinds of capital formation for the organic popcorn
industry.
Demographic factors
The demographic factors accounts for gender, age, experience and income which impacts the
performance of successful business (Ayandibu and Houghton, 2017). The age of individuals often
reflects the capability to be an input in the organization, which means that lower population
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indicates that there considerably, lowers numbers of working population. This creates an
inefficiency bringing down the criteria of decreased inputs of labor in the industry. Studies reflect
that by the passage of time, individuals transform from borrowers to savers and their income is
mostly invested which gives the entrepreneurs a good opportunity to earn profit from such kind on
investment and balanced portfolio and help in fostering the growth rate of entrepreneurship.
Evaluation on the influence of background and experience on entrepreneurs both positively
and negatively
The background and experience impacts the entrepreneurs both in a positive and negative manner
(Landstrom et al., 2016). The opportunity in developing and knowing a business comes from the
knowledge of the individual concerned which basically heads way from the personal background.
Such background accounts for the kind of education the entrepreneur has imparted, the working
experience and the proper and appropriate knowledge in the field of business activity whichever
interested. These factors are positive when it generates success on the part of the organization
whereas negatively influenced when they affect the industry’s profit or revenue margin.
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Conclusion
The study provides clear knowledge and concept of entrepreneurship. This study has helped to
understand the skills and attributes of entrepreneurship and the factors that foster and hinder the
success of the same. With the help of Nom Foods, it portrays the innovative thinking and capability
of building business in United Kingdom and successfully clarifying its story at the same time. The
learners of this study will be able to draw a conclusion on the depth of entrepreneurship and its
characteristics. The study has also helped in knowing the interdependence of personal
characteristics on interpreting the success of the business.
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References
Ayandibu, A.O. and Houghton, J., 2017. The role of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise in local
economic development (LED). Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 11(2).
Bujor, A. and Avasilcai, S., 2016. The creative entrepreneur: A framework of analysis. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 221, pp.21-28.
Burns, P. and Dewhurst, J. eds., 2016. Small business and entrepreneurship. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Haidukevych, K., Petrova, I. and Sabadash, J., 2019. EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT QUALITIES OF FUTURE
MANAGERS. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 22(3).
He, L., Standen, P. and Coetzer, A., 2017. The perceived personal characteristics of entrepreneurial
leaders. Small Enterprise Research, 24(2), pp.97-119.
Landstrom, H., Parhankangas, A., Fayolle, A. and Riot, P. eds., 2016. Challenging
entrepreneurship research. Routledge.
Lomberg, C., Urbig, D., Stöckmann, C., Marino, L.D. and Dickson, P.H., 2017. Entrepreneurial
orientation: The dimensions’ shared effects in explaining firm performance. Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice, 41(6), pp.973-998.
Nom Foods. (2019). nom - naturally, organic matters. Available at: http://www.nomfoods.co.uk/
[Accessed 9 Jul. 2019].
Przepiorka, A., 2016. What makes successful entrepreneurs different in temporal and goal-
commitment dimensions?. Time & Society, 25(1), pp.40-60.
Staniewski, M.W., 2016. The contribution of business experience and knowledge to successful
entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), pp.5147-5152.
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Volery, T. and Mazzarol, T., 2015. The evolution of the small business and entrepreneurship field:
A bibliometric investigation of articles published in the International Small Business
Journal. International Small Business Journal, 33(4), pp.374-396.
Yan, J. and Yan, L., 2016. Individual entrepreneurship, collective entrepreneurship and innovation
in small business: an empirical study. International Entrepreneurship and Management
Journal, 12(4), pp.1053-1077.
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