OL320 Term Paper

Present 5 entrepreneurial concept that you have thought about over the course of this semester
An entrepreneur is someone who has the control of an enterprise, venture new ideas and accountable for inherent risk and outcome of the product. The five entrepreneurial concept that I have thought over are 1) Franchising * Franchising is using another firm's successful business model. A franchise is an alternative 'chain stores' to distribute goods and avoid investment and liability over a chain. The franchisor's success is the success of the franchisees. The franchisee is said to have a greater incentive than a direct employee because he or she has a direct stake in the business. Franchisors need to pay a sum of royalty fees in order to have the license to operate the chain store. 2) Acquisition * In business field, acquisition is taking over by purchasing the company. If one company is making good profits and etc, the opponents will offer a price to buy and taking over their opponents. This will then reduce the competitors of the companies. 3) Family business * Family business is a business where it is inherited from someone older in your family. A family business is often operated more than 20 years before it is passed down to the younger generation. A family business is where everything is build up by the older generation and the younger generation is to maintain it or even expand it further. 4) Manufacturing * A manufacturing company is where a company manufactured products and supplies it to the wholesaler before passing down to retailers. A manufacturing company is operated by using machines and man power to operate machines. 5) Multilevel Marketing(MLM) * A multilevel marketing is a marketing strategy which the sales force is compensated based on their sales and also sales of the recruits. For example, creating a downline of distributors and hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation. Another term of MLM is direct selling, pyramid selling and network marketing. This MLM is mostly used in insurance company. This strategy is very fast to increase the sales of the company.

Why would you or would you not pursue this idea? 1) Franchising * I would pursue this idea because franchising is a good investment. A franchising business is everything is aready set up by the headquarters and it requires someone to runs the business. The franchisor is paying the royalty fees to the headquarters for them to runs the research and development, new product ventures, advertising and etc. 2) Acquistion * I would pursue acquisition of company because, this will then expand your company. Buying over the competitors, or the supplier will eventually increase the profit of your company. Buying of a supplier will eventually reduce the cost of the products and eventually makes more profits 3) Family Business * I would pursue a family business because this is a passed down from the older generation. Everything is build up and network is already stable to continue the business. The family business is to maintain or even expand the business bigger when there is everything set up. The foundation of the company is ready and it is to expand the business. 4) Manufacturing * I would also pursue a manufacturing business because manufacturing mostly requires machines and low skills man power. The only skills of human capital requires is only to operate and making sure the machines operate in the correct order. This does not requires high skill labors. Therefore, manufacturing can operate 24 hours per day and this is more profitable when doing only 8 hours per day. 5) Multilevel Marketing ( MLM) * I would not pursue this idea of Multilevel Marketing because MLM is introducing members to join the downline. People nowadays are aware of the MLM scam and they are more aware to become a downline in the member. Therefore, I would not pursue the idea of MLM
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What are the mental models that held or hold you back?
The main mental models that hold me back are financially and network. A large number of money needed to start a new enterprise for an entrepreneur. Besides that, the return of investment is an equal either we earn it back or we lose it all. Borrowing money from bank to get a business loan requires a high interest. This will definitely more difficult for the startup if they enterprise is making at a break even profit or loss. The second factors that holds me back is network. Network is important and it makes us easier to contact supplier or potential customer. When our network is large, eventually we will be easier to find potential customer. Besides that, it will speed up some of the process if the supplier knows us well.

What is needed to make these viable ideas?
In order to make this idea viable, firstly I have to possess a strong financial backup. Financial is important in making all the ideas successful. Besides that, knowledge is important too. Knowledge makes us understand the ideas and the markets better. We do not wants to enter the market too early neither too slow.

Why are you or are you not an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur possessed the entire entrepreneur traits and behavior such as discipline, frugality, self confidence, good communication skills, humility, honesty and integrity, superb record keeping skills, motivation, flexibility, ability to set boundaries, good health, create balance, and optimistic. From my point of view, I possessed mostly of the traits and I have an entrepreneur mindset.

Discipline is very important to be a successful entrepreneur. In order to have a good discipline, one must be able to set their working hours, completing project, and meet clients on time. We should not be distracted away and ignore jobs by temptations such as TV, video games, and etc.

The second traits in an entrepreneur will be frugality. The synonym for frugality is penny-pinching. If a business is running at a loss we should not put our priority in buying new clothes or cars. We should pinch our penny in order to cut our spending to help in the business because the business is running at a loss or break-even.

The third traits an entrepreneur has is self confidence. In order to successfully convince others on a products or services, we must be confidence. If we do not believe and have confidence in ourselves then we would not be able to sell the products or services successfully. This is because we are still holding back of our confidence and we do not thoroughly understand the product or services.

The fourth traits an entrepreneur has is a good communication skills. A good communication skills provide customer clear information and also we could receive a clear information from the customer. This will then makes us provide feedback to the customers and vice versa in order to meet each other expectations as requested.

The fifth traits that and entrepreneur have is humility. In certain situation, we must be humble and modest towards customer. For example, if a customer is not satisfied with the services of product, give them a clear explanation and apologize. This is because customers are always right. If they are not happy, we might lose the customers and as well as losing our profits. (Fontinelle) The sixth trait is honesty and integrity. Reputation is crucial when we are self employed. What we did in the company, will reflects well on our business and reputation. If we are honest, others will eventually trust us and create a good reputation among customers.

The seventh trait that an entrepreneur has is a superb record keeping skills. An entrepreneur must be able to calculate amount of invoice sent out, when we are paid, who are still owing us, backup money that the business have, how much we need to make in order to break even and how much more we need to make in order to gain profit. Detailed recording will help out in financially and plan the budget throughout the month.

The eight traits that an entrepreneur has is motivation. We should not hand in or complete projects in the very last minute. This is because we would not know what is coming to us in the next day. Always complete the job as fast as possible and this will definitely bring us more time to handle the new coming project. More project is more profit. Beating a deadline that is promised with the customer will lose their trust and confidence on you. They will also not relied on you for the next project.

The ninth trait is flexibility. We will need to be able to handle our job and projects equally if there is an unexpected project arises. We have to be willing to allocate the time for the project and also the unexpected project in order to complete both project before the deadlines due.

The tenth trait is ability to set boundaries. We must be able to set boundaries and realistic expectations with clients. For example, do not answer a call or email after a business hour, do not accept unreasonable deadlines for project set by customer, do not let customer bargain on the invoices and also receive a nice payment from customer after the project is done. Do not let customer owe a debt more than the deadline set in the invoice.

The eleventh trait is good health. An entrepreneur does not offered for medical sick leave. Entrepreneur needs to work even though they are sick. Entrepreneurs must be able to take care of their health and make sure they are in a fit condition. Always buy a health insurance in order to have money claimed when the company is not operating.

The twelfth traits are ability to create balance. Entrepreneurs must be able to balance their workaholic lifestyle and take some times to relax in lounge or home. Besides that, they should not relax or enjoy too much too. Balance lifestyle is very important in order not to stress up ourselves in the workaholic conditions.

The thirteenth trait are optimism. Entrepreneurs should not be giving up easily when they are faced with obstacles. They should be optimistic enough to convince employee and also a positive mindset. Entrepreneurs should not take rejections too easily.

In conclusion, I would like to say that, I always wanted to be a successful entrepreneur. I am trying to adopt all of the following traits and apply it in my working force in order to be a successful entrepreneur. I have most of the following traits and this has shaped me to think like an entrepreneur and I am positively motivated to be a successful entrepreneur.