Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management
Entrepreneurship is the way to turn ideas into practical reality. Carrying the flag of individual potential as the agent of change, entrepreneurship has become the new norm. Time and again, it has been said that entrepreneurship is the reason for globalization. Ideas are developing every single day, leading towards the paths that were previously hidden from the common intellect.
Impact of Entrepreneurship on Traditional Business
Conventional ideas of business that centered on garnering most of the profit have no longer remained intact after the arrival of this new player in the commercial market. Now, the businesses are evolving on this pattern. The creativity and uniqueness are the two factors which are new to the conventional business society but are eventually making their place one way or the other for the sake of sustenance in the competitive environment.
Small Businesses
In the race of becoming successful, there are various players involved on the practical grounds. Some of them are large scale companies with enough capital to modify themselves totally according to the changing trends. But, there are some businesses who have earned their name at local level and have not yet flourished enough to become revolutionized according to the modern mechanics of businesses. These are called the small scale businesses which have limited clientele with simple modules of operation.
Linking Entrepreneurship to Small Scale Businesses
As the wheel of the time is moving forward, certain new analogies are put forth about the operation of small scale businesses in the market. One such analogy is the mutual relationship of small scale businesses with the grand concept of entrepreneurship.
For some, it is an affronting act for the magnificence of entrepreneurship where the grandeur of skills combine with the supreme ideals leading to no less than a grand venture. So, it appears out of ordinary to them when someone considers small scale businesses as another handiwork of entrepreneurship.
The fact
However for others, it is not the grandeur related to the concept that determines the value but the overall effort is the only contributing cause when we relate the owners of small businesses as the true entrepreneurs. It is because of their individual skills that certain extraordinary businesses have made their way in the mainstream market solely on the basis of entrepreneurship.
Is There a True Similarity Existing Between Both?
The answer is yes. This is because every grand thing was once a little idea that was burning in the mind of a doer. That entrepreneur actually turned the little idea into a supreme reality without which our life seems incomplete today. In fact, there are instances where the small businesses eventually became large corporations on the basis of constant evolution of ideas. This indicates that even in the management of a small level business, some tenets of entrepreneurship are employed to carry out the functioning smoothly.
Ways to Manage Small Scale Businesses Through Entrepreneurship
There are some actual ways with which entrepreneurship can be turned into a useful force for the efficient performance of small businesses. There are some skills common to both which can be applied in running businesses and making profit influenced by the entrepreneurial model.
So, without making you curious any further, let us dive into the properties that assign small scale businesses an entrepreneurial identity
- Working with a vision
- Promoting ideas
- Active performance
- Becoming an adept manager
- Eyes at the prize
- Communicating effectively
Working with a Vision
Entrepreneurship values vision and has special focus upon realizing the significance it carries. However, if your business venture has just started functioning on a smaller level, you must remember that it is the very vision or intention of your company that is going to help you. You are not just functioning in the market but are presenting a reflection of your mind to the customers. Therefore, it is very necessary for you to have a certain vision regarding the business itself.
Significance of a Well-Defined Vision
A well-defined vision works like a magic potion for your business’s growth. When you have already made it clear that your business works for the achievement of the affixed aims, then your customers can also find a certain kind of reliability with respect to the business and it can result positively for the business growth.
Example
If you are running a plant nursery with the vision of “promoting organic life for the preservation and expansion of ecology”, you have eventually outdone yourself because of the specific ideology related to your business. It clarifies that you are not only providing them a product but providing them that certain product in the light of a certain ideology which explains the overall purpose of the entire business.
Promoting Ideas
Just the way entrepreneurship is always welcoming new ideas and embracing new opinions with wide arms, small businesses need to have the very same attitude. You need to remember that even as a part of a small startup, you can never expect to last longer in the market based on the original idea which is running into the veins of the business from time to time.
This is because the professional market changes every other day and you have to bring various new ideas into action or you can simply modify the originally formulated idea so that the overall creativity from your side never tends to make you a long forgotten tale.
Example
If you run an art dealing workshop, then you need to bring innovation and versatility to your ideas by allowing more people to take benefit from the business. Furthermore, introducing different categories would become a good source to bring people having interests in different art forms promoting the sales.
Active Performance
A good businessman is the one who is an active performer and can respond to the situation rightly based on the circumstances that are ahead. This is the golden principle of success in the business world that here as a boss your burden does not seem to lessen but it increases since you have to monitor a number of things under your control.
When it comes to the small scale businesses, you need to be extra careful because the competition over here is more sensitive and the results are long lasting. Hence, it becomes necessary for you to become hyperactive in terms of decision and management so that the rivals do not find it easy to beat you.
Becoming an Adept Manager
As an entrepreneur, you learn that management is the only key to success. If you have managed to work through risky situations at the same pace as that of the times of comfort, you are going to get the reward of it as your success at the end. A number of small scale business owners face difficulties when they tend to become managers.
This is because of the limited resources and capacities that they find it very hard to give their maximum and manage everything at the same pace. But the real trick over here is not related to the amount of resources you might be using but the way you manage the circumstances. If you are an active planner and an accomplished decision maker then you can even stand the times of tribulation by letting your guard high.
Eyes at the Prize
Whenever you are working in any area of life, the overall aim is to get through it successfully. Similarly, in the business world, you are more concerned towards the overall profit you make. Even if your company is not large and still is trying to prove its worth at the market, still all your efforts would naturally be directed towards it making the most of the profit.
This is because the profit itself is a representation of the success of the business. Hence, you direct all your strengths towards the fulfillment of this ultimate goal. When all of your efforts are brought in action for the accomplishment of one single goal, then every little decision or every large change speaks of just one thing and that is nothing but the end profit. This attitude in entrepreneurship is highly supported because it promotes individual growth alongside speaking of the monetary and the long term benefits attached with the venture. So, all you need to learn is to always keep your eyes on the prize because only then you will be able to realize your true worth..
Communicating Effectively
Being a part of a smaller organization never means that now you are deprived of the duty of communication just the way large scale entrepreneurs do. Your own duties ask for the effective communication coming from your side so that you do not mess up the moment the call from the consumer’s side comes.
One way to get ready for responding to the consumer is always learning ways through which you can preach your ambitions to the consumer and in return can get the queries to answer. In your mind, always prepare yourself to be questioned by the client and think of logical answers through which you can prove your own point. Once the essence of two-way communication is achieved, things ultimately sit at one place waiting for you to shape your profit out of them.
Immediate Consequences of Running Small Scale Businesses at the Pattern of Entrepreneurship
Once you have realized that you cannot simply prosper without paying heed to the creative nature of your business, you become goal oriented more than ever. This is because of the growing competition in the market. When you start nurturing your business with the sprinkles of ideas wrapped in the entrepreneurial blanket, positive chances of the evolution of your small scale business into large scale corporation emerge at the financial horizon.
The author is an M.Phil scholar conducting her thesis in Literature. As a sucker for literature, she swoons over Greek and South Asian fiction while reviewing books in her spare time. Her love for writing has made her expand her subject matter and now she pens her opinions frequently on business, finance, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, history, and literature. For a special connection with entrepreneurship, she opens up the details occasionally about it.