What is the definition of Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is capacity and willingness to develop, organise and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses. In economics, entrepreneurship combined with land, labor, natural resources and capital can produce profit.

The entrepreneurial spirit is characterised by innovation and risk-taking and is an essential part of a nation’s ability to succeed in an ever-changing and increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Entrepreneurship is a journey and is a very tough one. Ask anyone who is already a successful business person or struggling to survive or somebody who has failed or has just started.

Business or entrepreneurship is for people who can take up many pressures, difficulties and challenges. It looks very rosy when someone is successful and making lots of money and assets. In contrast, it is easy to criticise when someone fails in business or is struggling.

A business person may be in any situation -success or struggle- he must have gone through a very tough time, has to do lots of hard work, stress his mental energy and face the biggest fear of any individual which is uncertainty.

Here are a few indicators, while recruiting, that may help you make an informed decision.

1. Check Skills: For any job position you are offering, it is necessary to find out the skills required to perform that particular job. In the interview find out whether the candidate has the skill and whether he had been a success earlier. For example if you are hiring a sales representative, it is better to hire a person who understand and knows sales technique and someone who is outgoing, communicative and with lots of knowledge. Do not hire someone just because he says he can learn fast or he has no job or he is available at a low cost. It is better to pay more to people who know what they have to do than to settle for someone who is not determined and skilled.
2. Assess Achievements: It is important to find out what are the past achievements in one’s earlier jobs rather than just see how many years of experience one has. It is not necessary that someone with five years work experience necessarily meets your operating needs. The key to any experience can be anything from ability to work in small team, low budget activities and qualities of handling people. For example someone from a very rich environment such as big company with deep pockets may not be able to cope up with constraints of small business. A suitable candidate can be someone who was able to work without managerial supervision and team assistance, able to create a system, evolve in it and someone who can handle people, communication and business development.
3. Assertive, Ambitious, Alert, Active and Aggressive: Small businesses need customer and tell me which business does not? That means the small business needs to compete more aggressively to make a mark in the business and face stiff competition from bigger players and brands. There can be people within your region with bigger resources who can start up your model and become an immediate competitor.

To have a dream team, we need people who can be assertive in their communication and persuasion so that they do not lose customer, can handle customer dissatisfaction and provide a high level of customer satisfaction. A team member who does not have clear ambitions will have a challenge taking up your ambitions or take up organisational goals successfully. A realistic and ambitious person remains motivated, active and energetic.

The business scenario is a dynamic world and people who remain alert towards their environment, customer opportunities, the competition will take your company to an advantageous position.

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”—Confucius

Action speaks more than words. Small action makes a big difference. Take people who are ready to take action and not just sit, waiting for the next instructions. Hire someone who is hungry for work and understand why he needs to work and someone who sacrifices his comfort zone.

Overall, an aggressive person who knows that he is working to make the company grow in order to ascertain his own growth should be employed.

• Flexibility, Friendly, Freshness: Small businesses are many a time, not a structured unit and take many years to evolve. An entrepreneur may start with one basic idea and after testing waters he may change his idea. Every day can be a new day for small business specifically in inception days.

A team member who can adapt to changing and evolving models; can adjust his priorities; sometimes accept disappointments in career roles, handle frustrations of uncertainties and unstructured environments shall be ideally successful in a small business setting.

A person who is friendly not only when he is in a good environment or mood but can keep his tempo high towards his company, customer, colleague, and management even with typical small business constraints. He who brings in fresh ideas generate a radiance of trust and integrity can do lots for your company.

Look for people who can solve problems. Be careful of those who give you excuses, those chronic types who are laid back, negative, nonproductive. Avoid people with reasons and get associated or allow people with results to work for your organisation.

• Proficiency, Productivity & Performance: Every new employee is new hope and equally a risk. It is good to give an employee time to deliver. Equally, for a small business owner, the challenge lies with grooming and waiting for a person to deliver. The finances of the Entrepreneur just do not permits. Develop an objective or set goals for the first few months. Better to give assignment initially, that one can independently complete. If one employee is not able to cope up with organisational goals, expectations, and needs, it is better to make an open communication about your dissatisfaction at the earliest.

A simple way to develop a strategy is to have 7-10 days of induction, training and short term assignments. Then give weekly targets, monitor results and give constructive feedback. Keep an eye on what action is taken on your feedback.

A proficient person will develop your organisation, a productive person will bring in results and a performer will be hungry for work and not shy away from responsibility and higher challenges.   

• Criteria, Cost, Career Growth: Hiring is attracting a person to work for you. It is best to project a professional environment of your organisation even if you are working from a garage right now. You are a start-up anyway and small, so let it be known from the beginning. Have a list of criteria you are looking for in your employee and if someone does not match your top 3 criteria, go to the next resume.

Once you get the correct match, do take care of the salary you are offering. It is always a good strategy to give a better package to the right candidate who can bring results to your organisation.

You can attract better talent by sharing your idea, where you stand and where you want to go, and what career growth in terms of financials, designation, experience and expertise one can acquire when they work for you.

Recruiting is an art, activity and sometimes luck to really get the right person to work for you. It is a continuous process and a necessary one. Just be careful to find out the type of people whom you want to be in your team and not the people whom you found.

It is always good to network, spread the message, get a good recruitment agency to supply you with correct match, go to the campuses. It is okay to get people through references but do not lose the focus to take interview in a systematic and structured manner. Be alert while you are recruiting. Recruitment is a specialised science, many a time we overlook. Hire a HR consultant to develop your process.

“I have been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have.” – Russell Simmons