What is an entrepreneur? April 9, 2019

What is an entrepreneur?

The recent World Economic Forum for the Middle East and North Africa 2019, held on April 6-7^th in the Dead Sea region of Jordan, discussed as one of many topics, the growing number of young entrepreneurs in the Middle East. Furthermore, it was highlighted that with such a huge, young population under 25, it is no surprise there is a generation of entrepreneurs creating start ups and new types of businesses in this region.

So, what is an entrepreneur exactly? While there is no exact definition of an entrepreneur there are many ways to describe what an entrepreneur is and what they do.

An entrepreneur can be described as someone who has foresight, someone who is innovative and someone who has ambitions to reach out and take risks when it comes to new a product or service development. Entrepreneurs normally develop start-up businesses with the intention of developing them into businesses that grow in profits and size.

Are all entrepreneurs young? Entrepreneurs are often young individuals wanting to develop a career of their own. A lot of entrepreneurs develop ideas while studying at university surrounded by other young minds with the support of their university providing mentors and facilities for research. Another factor is that in general, young people tend to adopt new trends earlier than other age groups in the population making it easier to spot new opportunities. Also, in general younger people are more flexible when taking risks in terms of finance and stability as they may not own property or have children that depend on them. Being an entrepreneur is not limited to young people in any way at all however it appears the environment of a young person is more favourable in supporting entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs are important in society as they can been responsible for developing new products and services that make huge impacts on the quality of people’s lifestyles by making things easier, solving problems, anticipating needs and improving processes. Some existing structures are revolutionised in work as well as in our social lives.

While there is no set path to success for an entrepreneur, normally after developing an idea, the individual will develop a business plan, source funding, hire labour or purchase assets and then progress to leading the start-up business they have created to success. One of the most impressive characteristics of an entrepreneur in their development stage is their ability to source or acquire funding. As entrepreneurs face extremely high risks it is extremely hard to secure loans, funding or investment from third parties. Alternatively, it is also a major risk to self-fund ventures from savings with no guarantee of a return on investment.

Although it is not exactly possible to train someone to become an entrepreneur, it is possible to build a diverse skill set through business training. Having a diverse skill set is essential to becoming an entrepreneur as skills in different business disciples will allow an individual to think creatively and outside of the box, not only when developing an idea but when it comes to problem solving in a business. Furthermore, with training or a basic understanding in a range of business areas an entrepreneur is more likely to be competent in setting up a start-up business and leading it. With experience in different areas an entrepreneur will be able to understand the bigger picture and will be able to form a more solid foundation for a business.

London Training for Excellence offers over 300 courses across a range of business fields. If you are a budding entrepreneur why not consider taking some training to boost your path to success? For an entrepreneur, some essential course categories London TFE would recommend taking training in are leadership, planning and strategy management and finance.