How
the would-be entrepreneur can become a successful entrepreneur – a series
The success
pentagon
There are five dimensions which act as driving force to
become a successful Entrepreneur. They are Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Habit
& Strategy; first three dimensions are familiar to us, it is also known to us
as ASK model or the three H model i.e. Heart, Hand & Head.
Attitude:
Attitude is related to the state of mind. It is internal and associated with
once thinking pattern, the way of interpretations, and the use of language, In
short it comprises of self concept i.e. Belief, Feelings & Behavior,
Beliefs are thought about self, Feelings are self worth, dare & Behavior is
tendency to act towards one’s self in a self-enhancing manner etc. Therefore it
is related to mind & heart.
Skills:
Skills are of two kinds, one management skills & two technical skills, it’s
a combination of head & hand.
Knowledge:
Entrepreneurs requires general knowledge of product opportunities, how to set
up MSM Enterprises, sales & marketing etc. This is a domain of Head.
Two
more dimensions in addition to earlier modules are also equally important.
Habit:
One may have a unhealthy habits or healthy habits. Un entrepreneurial habits or
entrepreneurial habits, It is very difficult to remove habit. If you remove h-abit
remains, if you remove a-bit remains, if you remove b-it remains. So a
transformation from an ordinary person to an extraordinary person is a very
interesting process.
Strategy:
It is specific path of action chosen by the person to achieve his objective.
Considering the path of
becoming a successful entrepreneur we would address the issues as follows.
General
knowledge –
·
Self
Employment & Entrepreneurship
Nowadays
the terminologies like livelihood, self employment has become very popular. Dr.
Mohmad Unus’s contribution to the innovative idea of Self Help Group (SHG) and
the problems in India of educated Unemployed Youth has given rise to livelihood
activities for below poverty line people & self employment activities for
educated unemployed youth. These are very micro, cottage or that way small
activity. But to begin with these initiatives are good as stepping stone
towards becoming an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship
is a broad term. It is being used for those who have potential to become an entrepreneur.
And starts sizable activities as small scale industries; they can generate
employment for others.
·
The
terms micro, small or medium enterprises.
Nowadays
the term ‘Industries’ has been changed to ‘Enterprises’
Broadly
the Enterprises have been classified in to two areas.
1)
Enterprises engaged in providing or
rendering of services. Service enterprises have been defined in terms of their
investment in equipment (excluding land & building) and further classified
into:
·
Micro Enterprises – investment upto Rs.
10 lakh.
·
Small Enterprises – investment above Rs.
10 lakh upto Rs. 2 crore.
·
Medium Enterprises – investment above
Rs. 2 crore upto Rs. 5 crore.
2)
Enterprises engaged in the manufacture
or production of goods. Manufacturing enterprises have been defined in terms of
investment in plant and machinery (excluding land and building) and further
classified into:
·
Micro Enterprise - investment upto Rs.
25 lakh.
·
Small Enterprises – investment above Rs.
25 lakh upto Rs. 5 crore.
·
Medium Enterprises – investment above
Rs. 5 crore upto Rs. 10 crore.
One
has to compare service enterprises with manufacturing enterprises.
Service
Enterprises requires no or less investment, No land or building can be operated
from home or rental place, good communication, networking, innovative ideas
will do to start it, it involved less risk, easy to start, etc these may be the
plus point of service enterprise.
Comparatively
one has to take moderate or calculative risk to start manufacturing
Enterprises. For livelihood or self employment activities one may use service
enterprise as a stepping stone. Whether it is service or manufacturing
Enterprise one has to create a structure or set up which will give a sustainable
growth to the enterprises.
·
Business
opportunities search and scanning (BOSS)
How to select an
activity for MSM Enterprise? How to identify the MSM Enterprise activity? These
are very fundamental and important issues. Entrepreneurs are opportunity
seekers; for them it becomes easy to select or identify the business
opportunities. But for general public like educated unemployed youth it may be
a tedious, difficult, confusing issue. Many such people drop their idea of
becoming an entrepreneur by exploring many good ideas for others.
In fact this environment is full with business
opportunities provided you see it;
Environment scanning, creativity, project profile
scanning etc are the tools for divergent thinking. This divergent thinking is
useful to generate as many ideas. During this phase you have to think out of
the box, do not consider whether this idea is practical or impractical. Just go
on generating ideas.
Conducting market survey, preparation of preliminary
project profile are the tools for convergent thinking. Where practically you
have to consider location, place, available resources, customer needs, your
network & market, infrastructural advantages, own investment, availability
of required manpower, raw material, technology and think convergent & narrow
down your choice for selection of enterprise or activity.
Preliminary market survey would give you the gap between
demand and supply. But this terminology has become out dated nowadays. You must
have to come up with creative service or product ideas; customer or consumer is
always behind what is new. So this new creates a need or demand for the
product.
·
Support
mechanism for enterprise identification
Development
Commissioner, MSM Enterprises has published many books on project profiles they
are as follows:
·
Mechanical products
·
Metallurgical products
·
Hosiery products
·
Electrical products
·
Plastic products
·
Chemical products
·
Food/agriculture products
·
Glass & Ceramics products
·
Leather & Sports products
All
these books are available on their website, libraries of Centre for
Entrepreneurship Development (CEDs) in the State, Technical Consultancy
Organization (TCOs) in the State, specific Main/Lead Bank in the State, Chamber
of Commerce & Industries in the State, Offices of the Industries
Associations, are some of the sources for getting the right kind of data.
District
Industrial Centers (DIC) have their offices almost in the every district of all
the States. This is also one of the good sources.
·
Market
potential for MSM Enterprises
Again
all above mentioned institutions may be supportive in this regard.
Basically
entrepreneur has to design a specific questionnaire for conducting a market
survey. S/he should identify their market area and carry out the market survey;
this would give them an insight of the product/services to be set up. He
himself should visit to wholesale and retail markets, bulk consumers etc.
There
are few marketing schemes by MSME, MSSIDC, NSIC etc. in case of specific
products. Entrepreneurs may take advantage by visiting these organizations.
There
is nothing like readymade in this area. Finally it is the efforts of an
entrepreneur which will make them survive in the market.
·
Where
to set up the enterprise
Rental
premises or place own land & building, co-operative industrial estates,
different theme based industrial parks, State Industries Development
Corporations etc. These are some of the options where one can start his/her
enterprise.
·
Different target
who are coming and joining the industrial fields
Following
are the different sections of the society who are joining industrial fields nowadays.
-
Below poverty line men & women
-
Uneducated or little educated but
experienced workers/skilled class
-
Educated unemployed youth
-
Schedule Class/schedule Tribes
-
Ex-service men
-
Women
-
VRS/CRS/NRI people
-
Science & Technology class
-
Physically challenged class etc
It
does not matter whether you have technical background or experience or not. It
just requires the fire in belly or the will to start something on own or the
spirit of entrepreneurship. Rest of the things can be managed through other
sources which are available with others or in the market.
·
Facing the
competition
Creative
& innovative services or products, latest technology & production
process, mass production, reduction in production costs, good-better-best
quality of the products, niche marketing-it is the subset of the market on
which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the
specific product/service features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as
well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is
intended to impact; service of product costing, are some of the tools to face
the competition and win the game.