Who is An Entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. The process of setting up a business is known as entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures.
Entrepreneurs commonly face many obstacles when building their companies. The three that many of them cite as the most challenging are as follows:
  • Overcoming bureaucracy
  • Hiring talent
  • Obtaining financing

Steps to Become an Entrepreneur 

Those interested should create a plan and include the following steps on becoming an entrepreneur:

  1. Identify a problem.
  2. Expand your formal and informal education.
  3. Build your network.
  4. Reach financial stability.
  5. Solve the problem with a business idea.
  6. Test the idea.
  7. Raise money.

1. Identify a problem

After you’ve come up with your great idea—like a restaurant concept, delivery service, coaching specialty or new app—you can then start creating the business plan. Often, you’ve found a concept or process that will make consumers’ lives easier. For example, after watching the news, an entrepreneur finds that their city lacks sufficient daycare centers for the working population. Through further research, the entrepreneur discovers that surrounding counties share the same problem.

2. Expand your formal and informal education

Education is essential in an entrepreneurial career. This may be a college degree program, apprenticeship or a variety of work experience. You will want to learn the basics of business and build your vocabulary, as well as have solid business acumen. Problems occur frequently when starting a business and knowing how to overcome them is vital for the entity to thrive. 

Before getting started, you may want to explore a variety of success stories—and even failures—of certain business entrepreneurs. Doing so, will likely both help you comprehend the tenacity that’s required, and inspire you to make the seemingly impossible, possible. Start by following entrepreneurs from your university or alma mater or even find influencers on social networking sites. Famous entrepreneurs who have made a demonstrative impact with their projects include Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Marc Cuban, Anne Wojcicki, Reshma Saujani, Sara Blakely, Kendra Scott, Bill Gates and Michael Dell.

3. Build your network

It can be challenging to get a business venture going, but you can make it easier by enlisting help from other professionals or mentors. Those who take the time to network and make new connections can gain valuable benefits. Contacts may provide helpful starting loans, relevant advice or present new and greater opportunities. 

Look for entrepreneurs among family, friends, neighbors or university alumni networks and reach out to them for informational interviews. Consider yourself an investigative reporter and make it your goal to learn two to three things from each of them about entrepreneurship. Take copious notes.

Also, take the time to learn about angel investors and funding for entrepreneurs and small business grants. You can find grant information on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website. 

4. Reach financial stability

Although it's possible to obtain additional capital, experts advise that new entrepreneurs have a decent amount of savings, since they may lose money on their first business. Do not hesitate to work with a financial expert on what your P&L (Profits & Losses) worksheet may look like one, two and three years out. Many entrepreneurs find that they really start to turn a profit in three to five years and a lot can change in the market during that time. If you have a back-up stream of income, support or an additional pool of money, this can make the transition to a new business idea easier to manage and help educate your expectations.

5. Solve the problem with a business idea

Continuing with the previous example, the entrepreneur's solution is to open a childcare facility with multiple corporate partners who support the tri-county area. With so many businesses employing parents with small children and no business already providing dependable childcare, there's plenty of customers and revenue to be made. The entrepreneur can now formulate their business plan.

6. Test the idea

The entrepreneur’s idea is solid, but they need to test it. Local business owners are the best place to start. So, the entrepreneur surveys multiple business owners in the area, assessing their need—and the need of others they might know—for childcare. Results show that the vast majority are unsatisfied with their current childcare, citing long commutes and/or work interruption as their chief complaints. 

The entrepreneur learns two valuable pieces of information:

  • Most community members need the service.
  • There are three large employers with a sufficient amount of employees and potential onsite daycare space. 

A competitor analysis can provide areas of improvement in the business plan.

7. Raise money

It's good to have savings to fall back on, but the entrepreneur may need a lot more to start the business. There are three primary ways to obtain capital:

  • Bootstrap. This term refers to the act of starting a business without help. It can be done by cutting costs or using an individual's own money.
  • Apply for a loan. A common method for raising capital is applying for a bank loan. It may not be possible to apply for a small business loan this early on. However, individuals can apply for generic loans to cover start-up costs. The U.S. Small Business Administrationprovides more details on small business loans.
  • Find an investor. Networking helps in finding those who can provide financial aid. Pitching a business plan to an angel investor is a great option. Otherwise, the individual may need to contact a venture capitalist firm. These firms require entrepreneurs and their businesses to meet specific requirements to apply.

Conclusion 

Most  governments of the world does not have the capacity to maintain the welfare of their citizens and that increases the poverty, mortality and criminality rates in the society. This gives a brilliant reason for individuals to spot problems and try to solve them thereby making a living.
The world’s wealthiest men are not government employees, they are entrepreneurs who started small, took risks and bettered their ideas. Take this life changing step of becoming an entrepreneur today.