|
|
| What is an entreprenuer? |
| Thursday, November 02, 2006 |
An entrepreneur is a person who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. This is a dictionary definition of the word entrepreneur and, to understand this definition, it is essential to understand the meanings of each of the word included in the definition. Each of the definitions provided below will be limited to definitions that are relevant in discussions about business and entreprenuerialism.
What is a person?
You are a person.
What does it mean to organize?
To organize is to arrange components into a configuration that creates a systematic whole. This can be done in art, in a kitchen drawer, in a file cabinet, or with a group of people. Each of these instances represents a real situation where the principles of organization can be described. The very nature of organization is part art and possibly more science. Organizing creates patterns and makes experiences more predictable.
What does it mean to manage?
To manage is to direct, control, or influence the behavior of some unit. The unit can be an office, an election, a group of independent contractors, or a complex machine. The act of managing is the process of management and it is important to understand that management is a process.
What does it mean to assume risk?
To assume risk is to take upon oneself the responsibility for the possibility or probability of loss, damage or injury. When one assumes risk they become accountable for outcomes. The act of assuming risk is a conscious or unconscious choice and exposes an individual to liability for the outcomes of an endeavor.
What is a business?
A business is a commercial, industrial, professional, or trade activity engaged in for the purpose of generating revenue. The possible exception to this is the not-for-profit business, however, it is important to note that many not-for-profit business generate substantial revenue. Businesses are ubiquitous, they are very few place in the world that one can go without seeing the processes of exchange that are represent the rudimentary elements of business activity.
What is an enterprise?
An enterprise is an industrious, systematic activity, especially one of some scope, directed toward profit. Enterprise is often used as a synonym for business; however, the term enterprise implies a type of journey or venture. Private enterprise is one of the staples of capitalism and the Western business philosophy.
What is an expanded definition of entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is a person who practices the arts and sciences arranging and distributing resources, including people and machinery, for the purpose of generating revenue or creating profit in a commercial, trade, or professional system and, in doing, accepts accountability for all outcomes of endeavors engaged in. By virtue of the definition, it is easy to see that being an entrepreneur implies involvement in a wide range of disciplines.
What makes an entrepreneur different from any manager?
One of the main differences is that entrepreneurs are self-employed, and if they are full-time, they have no security provided to them by an employer. Managers in the context of a business owned by another investor are must answer to the authority of the ownership or face termination. Managers are, generally, speaking, limited in the scope of the decision that they can make by the owners, whereas, entrepreneurs are the owners and have less insulation from risk.
It is interesting to note that being an entrepreneur does not imply that one is an expert in any of the areas of activities an entrepreneur will need to be engaged in. An entrepreneur is a generalist as opposed specialist that shoulders the responsibility for the performance of a any number of different components of the system they operate in even, if those elements are not directly under their control. |
posted by Domesticated Dog @ 9:27 PM  |
|
|
|
|
|
