1. Entrepreneurship
―The role of the entrepreneur is to
stand up to all…to stand up to ridicule.‖
Tom Peters

2. The Entrepreneurial Task
• Capacity to perceive and act upon
opportunities in the environment
• Ability to create and build something from
practically nothing
• Successful pursuit of opportunity without
regard to resources currently controlled

4. Opportunity
• Favorable set of circumstances creating a
need or opening for a new business
concept
• A situation where something can be
improved at a profit
• The existence of ―pain‖ that can be
removed—something is unsatisfactory
• But you can have opportunity without
something being wrong

5. Opportunity versus Concept/Idea
• Opportunity:
– Labor shortage in fast food industry
– High employee turnover in fast food restaurants
– Bad/inconsistent service
Business Concept:
Hire and train high school students; act as outsourced
labor supply to local fast food franchisees

6. Finding Opportunity
• Look for pattern of trends (in markets,
demographics, social behaviors, customer
buying behavior, competitive practices,
etc.
• Monitor changes in rules, laws, regulations
• Conduct ‗needs‘ research, focus on
problems
• Look for under-utilized resources

7. Social Entrepreneurship
• A social entrepreneur:
– Identifies and solves social problems on a
large scale
– They act as change agents for society,
seizing opportunities others miss in order to:
• Improve systems
• Invent and disseminate new approaches
• Advance sustainable solutions that create social
value

8. Some vexing questions
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Are entrepreneurs born?
Is there a prototype of the entrepreneur?
Are all small business owners entrepreneurs?
Are entrepreneurs different from managers?
Can people be taught to be entrepreneurs?
Is there a right time to be an entrepreneur?
What makes for a successful entrepreneur?

9. Entrepreneurship as a Process
Identifying an Opportunity
Develop the Concept
Determine the Required Resources
Acquire the Necessary Resources
Implement and Manage
Harvest the Venture

10. So what is an entrepreneurial
mindset?
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Healthy dissatisfaction
Passionate pursuit of new opportunities
Enormous discipline and tenacity
Prioritizing opportunities and not exhausting
oneself or resources by pursuing every one
• Focus
• Building a team of zealots

11. Small Business-10 Factors to
Success
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Prepare a business plan
Gain experience
Know the competition
Master marketing
Location
Family support
Tenacity
Be entertaining
Have an internet presence
Use the SBDC

12. Entrepreneurship
• The reasonable man (or woman) adapts
himself (herself) to the world. The
unreasonable man (or woman) persists in
adapting the world to himself (herself).
Therefore, all progress depends on
unreasonable men (and women).
• George Bernard Shaw

13. Resources
• Youngentrepreneurfoundation.wordpress.com
• www.sba.gov
• www.nyssbdc.org