Brief History of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is defined as the process of
starting a business. Today, entrepreneurs are
romanticized as being the cornerstones of a successful
capitalist economy.
The Beginnings of Entrepreneurship and Trade
Believe it or not, the first entrepreneurs can be
traced back to nearly 20,000 years ago. The first known
trading between humans took place in New Guinea,
where locals would exchange obsidian (a volcanic glass
prized for its use in hunting tools) for other needed goods
– like tools, food, etc.
This early type of entrepreneurship continued for
millennia. Hunter-gatherer tribes would trade goods from
different parts of their respective regions to provide an
overall benefit for their tribe.
Entrepreneurship and the Agricultural
Revolution
The first big shift in entrepreneurship took place
during the Agricultural Revolution, which occurred
about 12,000 years ago.
In agricultural revolution, humans started to
domesticate plants and animals. Instead of having to
roam, forage, and hunt for their food in different regions
throughout the year, human populations could remain
stationary in one location and farm the land .
This was a fundamental shift in human history.
Villages and towns started developing close to fertile
lands. There was no longer a need for everyone in the
community to be directly involved with food production.
People didn’t need to spend all day hunting and
gathering for their own sustenance – it was more
efficient to let a smaller number of farmers handle food
production while the rest of the population focused on
other tasks.
As time went on, new areas of specialization began to
emerge. Early entrepreneurs would work in areas like:
 Pottery
 Carpentry
 Wool-Making
 Masonry
Entrepreneurship and the Invention of Money
One of the key developments in the history of
entrepreneurship (and in human history) was the
invention of money.
Prior to the invention of money, all
entrepreneurship and trade took place through the
barter system. If John wanted 5 bars of iron, then he
might have to sell 1 horse to get those bars. Of course,
he would also need to find an iron merchant who
needed a horse.
The limits of the barter system were known as a
“coincidence of wants.” Understandably, this vastly
limited trade and entrepreneurship in early history.
Over time, paper money and coinage would be
developed. Currency gave entrepreneurs several
important things:
 It facilitated long-distance trade
 It acted as a medium of exchange
 It provided a way for entrepreneurs to store
value
 Obviously, currency changed the fate of
entrepreneurship forever.
Modern Entrepreneurship
Today, entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of
economies all over the world. Even in command
economies like China, entrepreneurs are valued for
their contributions to the economy and encouraged to
innovate to compete with companies around the
world.
The global economy – combined with modern
infrastructure and communications – has introduced a
new age of competition to the world of
entrepreneurship. No longer are you competing with
entrepreneurs in your tribe, town, village, or city: you’re
competing with entrepreneurs all over the world.
Conclusion: Where Does Entrepreneurship Go from
Here?
Since the beginnings of history,
entrepreneurship has always been ruled by the market
forces known as supply and demand. Early
entrepreneurs in the Agricultural Revolution met the
needs of farmers by providing them with tools and
shelter. In exchange, they received food that could
feed their families.
What is Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship?
An entrepreneur is someone who locates the need
of society and tries to meet the same, with his/her
innovative idea.
On the other hand, entrepreneurship refers to the
process of establishing a business entity, intending to get
profit, as a return in the future.
You might have heard the names like Bill Gates,
Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Jack
Ma and many more, for their innov ative and unique
products given by them to the society. They are not
businessmen, rather they are entrepreneurs as they have
established a business, to offer an innovative product and
took the risk in the hope of getting profit, as a return in
future.
BASIS FOR
ENTREPRENEUR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
COMPARISON
Represents An innovator, who chased the A procedure through which an
dream, till it becomes true. innovation is done.
Business He/She is the one who sets up It is the activity, which an
Venture the business venture, to turn a entrepreneur undertakes to set up
concept into reality. the business venture.
Definition of Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur refers to a person w ho conceives
a creativ e idea and takes all the necessary steps
required to conv ert the idea into reality, such as
taking initiativ e to sets up a new business enterprise
by supplying sufficient capital, land, labor and all the
essential resources to produce the product, he/she
has in his/her mind and bearing all risks so as to gain
profits in future .
Self confidence - is concerned w ith how a person
feels about his ability. A successful entrepreneur
believ es in his abilities. He is not scared to explore un-
chartered territories, take risk and take difficult
decisions.
Passionate and focused - Some entrepreneurs are
passionate for inv enting: They focus on identifying
new opportunities or creating new products or
serv ices. Some entrepreneurs are passionate for
founding: They focus on setting up and nurturing the
initial v enture.
Risk Taking Ability – Risk taking enables and
encourages innov ation, w hich can be an
important product/service differentiator. Failed
risks aren't alw ays negativ e. Sometimes, they
prov ide the most v aluable business lessons an
entrepreneur can learn. Failure helps shape
future business strategies and can ev entually
lead to business grow th.
Leadership ability - Leadership is an important
function of management w hich helps to
maximize efficiency and to achieve
organizational goals. I nitiates action- Leader is a
person w ho starts the w ork by communicating
the policies and plans to the subordinates from
w here the w ork actually starts.
Future oriented - People w ho believ e they
control the future and learn to think like
entrepreneurs make better employees. They
change lifestyles, technology, communities,
businesses and policy. The future-oriented
become innov ators and achiev ers w herever
they are and at w hatev er they attempt.
The company formed by an entrepreneur
is usually a startup enterprise, w hich can be
understood as the liv e manifestation of his/her
idea.
So, an entrepreneur is:
 A beginner in the market, w ho has
something new to offer to society and
starts right from scratch to establish and
run the enterprise.
 An innovator, w ho has a thought-
prov oking idea or concept in his/her
mind, that has the capability to lead the
marketplace.
 A developer, w ho dev elops a business
model, to giv e shape to the idea.
 A leader, w ho prov ides guidance and
support to his/her men, to w ork in a
specific direction or change the same (if
required) so as to achiev e the target.
  A promoter, w ho takes all the relevant
steps to turn the dream into reality.
 A forecaster, w ho foresees, future
opportunities and threats w hich can affect
the v enture, positiv ely or negativ ely.
 A risk taker, w ho has the ability to
anticipate the risk in the future mov es, and
take the risk, if they are beneficial to the
enterprise
Definition of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the process or activ ity,
of initiating, dev eloping, managing and
operating a startup company, w hile taking all the
risks inv olved, so as to make profits. I t is one of the
four factors of production, the other being land,
labor, capital.
Now , we hav e discussed the
entrepreneurial process as under:
1.Discovery
An entrepreneurial process begins with the
idea generation, w herein the entrepreneur
identifies and ev aluates the business
opportunities. The identification and the
ev aluation of opportunities is a difficult task; an
entrepreneur seeks inputs from all the persons
including employees, consumers, channel
partners, technical people, etc. to reach to an
optimum business opportunity. Once the
opportunity has been decided upon, the next
step is to ev aluate it.
2.Developing a Business Plan
Once the opportunity is identified, an
entrepreneur needs to create a comprehensive
business plan. A business plan is critical to the
success of any new v enture since it acts as a
benchmark and the ev aluation criteria to see if
the organization is mov ing tow ards its set goals.
An entrepreneur must dedicate his sufficient time
tow ards its creation, the major components of a
business plan are mission and v ision statement,
goals and objectiv es, capital requirement, a
description of products and serv ices, etc.
3. Resourcing
The third step in the entrepreneurial
process is resourcing, w herein the entrepreneur
identifies the sources from w here the finance
and the human resource can be arranged. Here,
the entrepreneur finds the inv estors for its new
v enture and the personnel to carry out the
business activ ities.
4. Managing the company
Once the funds are raised and the
employees are hired, the next step is to initiate
the business operations to achieve the set goals.
First of all, an entrepreneur must decide the
management structure or the hierarchy that is
required to solv e the operational problems when
they arise.
5. Harvesting
The final step in the entrepreneurial
process is harv esting w herein, an entrepreneur
decides on the future prospects of the business,
i.e. its grow th and dev elopment. Here, the actual
grow th is compared against the planned growth
and then the decision regarding the stability or
the expansion of business operations is
undertaken accordingly, by an entrepreneur.
The entrepreneurial process is to be
follow ed, again and again, w henever any new
v enture is taken up by an entrepreneur,
therefore, its an ev er ending process.
An entrepreneur uses sev eral factors to turn his
idea into a profitable product. I t w ould really be
obv ious that an entrepreneur’s first investment in
his business enterprise is an idea.
An idea is simply something an
entrepreneur has already conceptualized or
imagined, painting a more or less clear picture in
his mind, giv ing him a clear plan of action. In
other w ords, an idea is a clear blueprint in the
entrepreneur’s mind.
Raw materials are the basic inputs that
the entrepreneur uses to come up w ith his
products. These inputs comes from his
env ironment, and are usually found to be in their
unprocessed or natural states. Thus, the term
‘’raw ’’.
Capital, on the other hand, refers to the
building, machinery, equipment and tools
used in the course of production. More often
than not, an entrepreneur hires laborers –
people directly responsible in the production
process. The place w here all these physical
factors are found is generally called a
production plant. Hav ing all these things allows
the entrepreneur to hav e w hat he calls a
business enterprise.
When these inputs are transformed into
outputs or w hat w e call as finished products,
the entrepreneur now brings these finished
products to his market. A market is simply the
buyers and users of the entrepreneur’s
product. Technically, people w ho buy the
product are called consumers or end users.
Contributions of Entrepreneurship to the
Economy
First, entrepreneurship employs the
v arious resources present in the economy.
Many of these resources tend to be unutilized
and unmaximized. Entrepreneurs, therefore,
make productiv e use of otherw ise non-
productiv e resources.
Second, entrepreneurs need
manpow er for their business operations. They
prov ide employment opportunities to v arious
indiv iduals. Note that w hen these
entrepreneurs hire people, they also bear the
burden of prov iding training for these
indiv iduals. Professional grow th and skills
enhancement, are also important
contributions of entrepreneurs.
Third, it is said that entrepreneurship is
the backbone of the economy. Contrary to
popular belief, it is the small and medium
enterprises that make up the great bulk of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country.
A fourth contribution of entrepreneurs is
in their ability to innov ate goods and services.
The root of the w ord ‘’entrepreneur’’ means to
innov ate and this is precisely w hat
entrepreneurs bring to society. They make life
more comfortable and conv enient for us. They
make products more accessible and easier to
use.
A fifth contribution of entrepreneurs is their ability
to gain international popularity and prestige for
their country. This is true especially w hen these
entrepreneurs are already able to export their
products or ev en bring their businesses abroad.
The entrepreneurs country of origin becomes
know n w hile allow ing the country to earn
income v ia stronger currencies.
A sixth important contribution of
entrepreneurs is their w illingness to take risks, risks
that society w ill otherwise be hesitant to take.
These people accumulate great learning
experiences, w hich may be passed on to other
business people through seminars, w orkshops,
speaking engagements and others.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Being an
Entrepreneur
1.Freedom
I t is one of the key adv antages of being
an entrepreneur.
Being your boss is the best feeling hence it comes
at the top of the adv antages of the
entrepreneurship list. You don’t hav e to w ake up,
commute to the w orkplace, and listen to
someone saying, Hey! You are late again.
There is no one to report to except for
yourself. Another benefit of being an
entrepreneur is you don’t need to follow
instructions from your superiors as you steer your
business in the right direction putting in your
effort. I n simple w ords, you do w hat makes you
happy and w hat feels right.
2. Time Efficiency
Startups are usually know n for making the
most out of their time. Their w orkplace is their
lounge, bedroom, or ev en their café. There is
only one thing common among them, and that’s
w ork.
With no limitation or probing superv isors
abov e you, you can discuss w ork anytime, as you
enjoy your meals. The biggest of the adv antages
of being an entrepreneur is you alw ays hav e to
use your time as efficiently as possible.
3. Control
You get to control the hiring process, work
deadline, and ev en the financial ins and outs.
Without relying on your superior’s decisions on what
to do and how to do it, you get to choose how to
deal w ith emanating issues.
Being an entrepreneur means that you get
to choose the w ork you’re going to be doing using
your strengths in the w ay you believ e are the best.
Your skills contribute to your earning potential
because you are in many w ays in control of your
destiny, including your team’s.
4. Business Profits
As you sow , so you reap; as you are the one
w ho inv ests into the v enture, you are the one to
ultimately enjoy its profits. The profits earned for as
long as the business lasts w ill be yours to take. I t’s
something that changes the w hole picture as you
are not obligated to make your employers richer.
This success of your business means it’s your
success, and as your business grow s, so does your
potential income. Financial stability can be
incredibly motiv ating for many new entrepreneur
5. It’s the time to Polish your skills
There's no better w ay to learn and earn as
per your potential and know ledge. New
challenges help you deriv e new solutions every
day. The focus is only on the business and sorting
out how to build it from scratch w ith limited
resources.
This ability can help you make tomorrow's
millionaire, as big things start from small ideas and
places. I n addition to that, you get to learn to
multitask and deal w ith pressure altogether and an
indiv idual. Your determination and abilities get to
solv e problems that others nev er get a chance to
solv e.
1.Business Risk
I t is one of major disadv antages of being an
Entrepreneur
No matter w hat sort of business v enture you have,
it’s alw ays circled by different types of risks. From
market competition to income sources, anything
could lead to business failure if you don’t hav e a
contingency in place.
Usually, entrepreneurs put their sav ings into
their business thus, instead of your employer, it’s
you w ho suffers the loss in case things unexpected.
2. Toiling Workload
There’s too much to get done in too little
time; w orkload and extra w orking hours are the
most feared disadv antages of being an
entrepreneur these days. Since you hav e to play
multiple roles simultaneously, expect more than
just 8 hours a day of w ork.
The early stages of setting up a business can
be cumbersome enough to turn you baffled. The
mounting w orkload of management, hiring,
inv estment, and finding space can be exhausting.
3. Financial pressure
There’s a gamble in play w hen you put your
entire sav ings into the v enture. Unlike a Joint Stock
Company or LLC, there are more financial risks
inv olv ed in Startup Companies.
Since there are no inv estors inv olved, you’ll
hav e to take the financial risks and be liable to
such on your terms in case of economic
dow nturns. Many entrepreneurs struggle to save
enough money in good times that they could use
in bad times and get into serious financial
difficulties once crisis times hit.
4. Accountability for your employees
You’ll nev er want to go into the battle w ith
blunt w eapons, w ould you? Employees play a
piv otal role in taking your dream v enture to
heights. Entrepreneurship demands discipline and
dedication. I t w ould be hard to find the perfect
candidates to acclimate to the v enture.
Their mistakes can cost you in the business
and v ice-versa. There is not much time to
experiment on hiring and letting go; it’s your
foremost priority to take full responsibility for all
things that might happen in your business.
5. Irregular Income
I t's a no-brainer that the initial days of
your startup business w on't get you profit. The
initial period is the most difficult as w ell as a
crucial time to surv ive. You need to hav e a
backup for rentals, bills, w ages, etc., to keep the
engines running.
Also, many first-time entrepreneurs make
the mistake of planning their income on the
good times instead of the bad times w ithout
planning for the rainy day. Let's not forget that
income is the only thing that you can take home
that w on't be stable initially. Unstable income
can be among leading disadv antages of
entrepreneurship especially w hen you don’t
hav e enough sav ed.
Conclusion on Advantages and Disadvantages
of Being an Entrepreneur:
There’s the good, and there’s the bad
about being an entrepreneur. How ever, if
you’v e got a business plan, a team of like-
minded ones and plenty of sav ings, the
adv antages of being an Entrepreneur w ill
certainly outw eigh the limitations.
I t’s also important to fully understand the
Adv antages and Disadv antages of Being an
Entrepreneur before making a substantial
financial and emotional inv estment.
How to improve entrepreneurial skills?
There can be many different methods
that you can use to dev elop your
entrepreneurial skills. You might take a class,
attend a seminar or participate in a netw orking
w orkshop. You might also consider the following
steps to help you improv e your skill set.
2. Attend events and workshops
You might also attend entrepreneurial
w orkshops and netw orking ev ents. Many of these
types of ev ents may hav e experienced business
ow ners and entrepreneurs speaking about business
and netw orking topics. Aside from the direct benefit
of learning, you can also gain v aluable contacts,
talk w ith experienced brand ow ners and speakers
and get insight into your business.
3. Seek out experienced mentors
Much like asking questions in a class, seeking
out mentors can also be highly beneficial to
dev eloping your entrepreneurial skills. You might
shadow a brand ow ner for a day to observe how
they manage their business, or you might meet w ith
a professional group once a w eek to discuss how
you are implementing v arious skills and resources to
build your brand. Oftentimes, experienced and
successful entrepreneurs are more than happy to
help mentor you and offer their professional advice.
4. Build your leadership skills
You might seek out opportunities to be the
team leader or manager to help you practice these
skills. As you perform in leadership roles, you might
ask for feedback from teammates and other
colleagues to help you further dev elop your
management and leadership skills.
5. Learn how to manage finances
Another key aspect of ow ning your own
business is that you w ill most likely be managing your
business's finances. You can usually employ a
financial planner for assistance, how ever, it can be
to your adv antage to learn about the financial
processes that take place w ithin a business

1. Take a course
One highly effective method to
improv ing your skill set as an entrepreneur is to
take a course on business, marketing, financial
planning or another management aspect of
dev eloping your ow n brand. Taking a business
course, for example, can help you dev elop the
business management skills necessary to
achiev e success as an entrepreneur.