Employability Skills III: Qualities and functions of an entrepreneur

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. Are entrepreneurs born with special talent, or can anyone build these qualities? Today we will learn the qualities that make an entrepreneur successful, and the functions, or jobs, an entrepreneur must do every day.

Let us first separate two words. A quality is something about a person's nature or habits, like patience. A function is a job or duty the person performs, like hiring staff. Qualities help an entrepreneur perform the functions well.

Here are the first four qualities. Self-confidence means believing you can succeed, even when others doubt you. Hard work means putting in long hours, especially in the early days. Risk-taking means being ready to invest money and time without a guarantee of profit. Patience means waiting for results and not giving up early.

Here are four more. Creativity means finding new ideas or new ways to solve a problem. Decision-making means choosing quickly and wisely with the information you have. Open-mindedness means listening to feedback and changing plans when needed. Positive attitude means seeing a failure as a lesson, not an end.

Three more qualities complete the list. Leadership means guiding and motivating a team towards a goal. Communication means explaining ideas clearly to customers, workers and investors. Persistence means continuing to try after many failures.

Let us see these qualities in real Indian examples. Dhirubhai Ambani started with a small trading business and built Reliance, showing risk-taking. Falguni Nayar left a secure banking job at nearly fifty to start Nykaa, showing self-confidence. Ritesh Agarwal started OYO as a teenager, showing creativity with budget hotels.

Pause and predict. A juice stall owner sees that sales drop in winter. He starts selling hot soup from November. Which quality is he showing? He shows creativity and open-mindedness, because he changed his plan to match customer needs.

Now, the functions. Idea generation means finding a business idea that meets a need. Planning means deciding goals and how to reach them. Organising means bringing together money, people, machines and materials. Decision-making means choosing what to make, how much, and at what price. Risk-bearing means accepting a possible loss if the business fails.

There are four more functions. Managing means running daily work and guiding staff. Innovation means improving products or processes, like adding online ordering. Marketing means telling customers about the product and selling it. And financing means arranging money, from savings, loans or investors.

Here is how the functions usually follow one another. First comes the idea. Then the entrepreneur plans and arranges finance. Next, they organise resources and start. Then they manage and market the business every day. Finally, they innovate to stay ahead of competitors.

So, are entrepreneurs born or built? Most of these qualities can be learned with practice. You can build confidence by taking small responsibilities, like running a school event. You can build decision-making by solving real problems step by step.

Let us revise what we learned today. A quality is a trait, and a function is a job. Key qualities are confidence, hard work, risk-taking, creativity and persistence. Key functions are idea generation, planning, organising, decision-making and risk-bearing. Entrepreneurs also manage, market, finance and innovate. Most of these qualities can be learned.