Hello world, WOW!! I need to thank everyone who is being visiting my blog. It's been an exciting experience for me to share what I have been learning with you guys and I believe it might have a positive impact in people's lives. The blog is a project in partial fulfillment of an Entrepreneurship course that I am taking  this year. At the beginning I found it rather boring not sharing Entertainment news like most people do but later i found a good reason to do this aside from been an obligation to grades. We keep asking ourselves why there are so many poor people in our world today and the answer is either a question of unemployment or illiteracy  It became very imperative to continue and dedicate more to the blog because the solution to what as become a major problem in the world can be found in the field of Entrepreneurship  The field on the other hand does not require any special skills or a certificate to become a successful entrepreneur. 

Although we have come to the end of the course and I must say, my work here as been done. But for self fulfillment  I will continue to learn about how to develop businesses and share with the world. Thank you all for your time.

DEFINITION OF FRANCHISE

It is a business arrangement where the owner (Franchisor) of an already established trade mark, trade name or copyright has given others (a buyer , Franchisee) the license to operate under their organization.

DEFINITION OF FRANCHISE CONTD.

Franchise is a process that occurs when the franchisor licenses its trade name (the brand, such as Merry Maids or Burger King) and its operating methods (its system of doing business) to a person or group (the franchisee), who in turn agrees to operate according to the terms of the contract (the franchise agreement).

cite:  McCrea, Bridget. "Affordable Franchises." Black Enterprise 32.2 (2001): 88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.

FRANCHISEE AND FRANCHISOR

Franchisee is a  individual or a group of people who acquire  a license to run the Franchise  as a small business but at the same time a dependent on the Franchisor.

Franchisor is the owner and seller of a franchise who give other people license to operate with his trade name to promote his company and make more profit.

CHARACTERISTICS OF FRANCHISE

v  Franchises have similar logos, designs and facilities.

v  The same company name.

v  Different owners but each operate their own outlet as a small business and remain connected to the original business owner (Franchisor).

ADVANTAGES OF FRANCHISING

v  Training and guidance: The franchisor usually provides the franchisee with training and guidance on how to run the business. They stand a better a chance as to other small business owners who might experience failure due to inexperience.

v   Brand name Appeal: People tend to patronize well known brands than newer ones. The franchisee therefore enjoys patronage of an already established brand name.

v   Financial Assistance: The franchisee gets financial assistance from the franchisor if needed. As it important for small business owners to raise funds for there business, the franchisor helps them financially especially when the business is new.

Hello world, in our continuous quest to legitimate wealth, have we ever taught of how creative or innovative everybody could be? It is very important to be creative and innovative in all our endeavors in our different works of life. For identification of opportunities is the central domain of entrepreneurs. The question of how, when, why keeps popping up in their mind. That is an avenue for perfection or moderation in whatever arises; creativity and innovation. As I am sure most people will define the term creativity and innovation as synonyms just like I used to. They are two different terms aiming at the same output.

Creativity is defined as the generation of ideas that results in improved efficiency and effectiveness of a system. Creativity in other words, is having the mental prowess to cook up solutions to problems that arise within a system.

Innovation on the other hand can be defined as the process by which Entrepreneurs convert opportunities into marketable solutions. Creativity must have happened for innovation to happen by converting ideas and opportunities into marketable solutions and business venture.

Sources of Innovation

Trends: Entrepreneurs are known for thinking outside the box. Most entrepreneurs get creative with what most of the population see as a problem. They identify the problem and find away to turn it into a marketable good. It takes a lot of thinking outside the box and moving in the opposite direction to be creative sometimes.” Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." --Albert Einstein

Unexpected Occurrences: These are ideas or opportunities that arise from unanticipated or unplanned event. A lot of tactical solutions are needed when some unexpected occurrence happens and those solutions could be very marketable.

Incongruities: There are so many innovations that can come from what people think it’s impossible or not realistic. The ability to differentiate between expectations and reality. In the United States, FedEx is a good example. When Fred Smith proposed to run an overnight postal service, people taught if it was a good and profitable idea, the U.S. post office would be doing it. He started FedEx which turned out to be a success and he was right by the way.

Process Needs: The need for certain ventures call for innovative ideas and they are often refered to as pains that occur in Market places.

INDUSTRY AND MARKET CHANGES

Continual shifts in the marketplace are caused by developments such as consumer attitudes, advancements in technology, and industry growth. Industries and markets always undergo changes in structure, design, or definition. An example can be found in the health care industry—hospital care has undergone radical changes, and home health care and preventive medicine have replaced hospitalization and surgery as primary focus areas. The entrepreneur needs to be aware of and seize these emerging opportunities.

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES

These arise from trend changes in population, age, education, occupations, geographic loca- tions, and similar factors. Demographic shifts are important and often provide new entre- preneurial opportunities. For example, as the average population age in Florida and Arizona has increased (due largely to the influx of retirees), land development, recreational, and health care industries all have profited.

PERCEPTUAL CHANGES

These are changes that occur in people’s interpretation of facts and concepts. Perceptual changes are intangible but meaningful. Perception can cause major shifts in ideas to take place. The current fitness craze, caused by the perceived need to be healthy and physically fit, has created a demand for both health foods and health facilities throughout the country. Another example is people’s desire to better use their personal time. As a result, the travel industry has capitalized on consumers’ current need to “see the world” while they are young and healthy, and time-share condominiums and travel clubs have increased.

KNOWLEDGE-BASED CONCEPTS

These are the basis for the creation or development of something brand new. Inventions are knowledge based; they are the product of new thinking, new methods, and new knowledge. Such innovations often require the longest time period between initiation and market implementation because of the need for testing and modification. For example, today’s cell phone technology has advanced to include not just phone service but cameras, Internet access, and music. This has revolutionized the way we use different technologies today.

Types of Innovation

Four basic types of innovation exist. These extend from the totally new to modifications of existing products or services. Following are the four types, in order of originality:

• Invention: the creation of a new product, service, or process often one that is novel or untried. Such concepts tend to be “revolutionary.”

• Extension: the expansion of a product, service, or process already in existence. Such concepts make a different application of a current idea.

• Duplication: the replication of an already existing product, service, or process. The duplication effort, however, is not simply copying but adding the entrepreneur’s own creative touch to enhance or improve the concept and beat the competition.

• Synthesis: the combination of existing concepts and factors into a new formulation. This involves taking a number of ideas or items already invented and finding a way that they can form a new application.

                                            Social Entrepreneurs                                   

We should take time to discuss the different type of entrepreneurs. They range from serial entrepreneurs who are innovators and get themselves into several different businesses. The social entrepreneurs who I will be talking about in this writing .

Social entrepreneurship is a new form of entrepreneurship that exhibits characteristics of nonprofits, governments, and businesses. It applies traditional (private-sector) entrepreneurship’s focus on innovation, risk taking, and large-scale transformation to social problem solving. The social entrepreneurship process begins with a perceived social opportunity that is translated into an enterprise concept; resources are then ascertained and acquired to exe- cute the enterprise’s goals. This new movement has garnered attention in a number of ways in recent years.

The term social entrepreneur has come to mean a person (or small group of individuals) who founds and/or leads an organization or initiative engaged in social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs sometimes are referred to as “public entrepreneurs,” “civic entrepreneurs,” or “social innovators.”

•             Adoption of a mission to create and sustain social value (beyond personal value)

 •            Recognition and relentless pursuit of opportunities for social value

 •            Engagement in continuous innovation and learning

•             Action beyond the limited resources at hand

•             Heightened sense of accountability

Social entrepreneurs are change agents; they create large-scale change using pattern- breaking ideas, they address the root causes of social problems, and they possess the ambition to create systemic change by introducing a new idea and persuading others to adopt it. These types of transformative changes can be national or global. They also can be highly localized but no less powerful in their impact. Most often, social entrepreneurs who create transformative changes combine innovative practices, a deep knowledge of their social issue area, and cutting-edge research to achieve their goals. For entrepreneurs working in the social realm, innovation is not a one-time event rather, it is a lifetime pursuit.

                                                     CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Definition of Entrepreneurship:

Corporate entrepreneurship is the process of profitably creating innovation within an organizational setting. Corporate entrepreneurship is the involvement of the employees of a firm in inventions and Innovations of new ideas towards the development of the organization. The term corporate entrepreneurship can also be described as intrapreneuship.

Reasons Why A Company Should Encourage Intrapreneuship:

Corporate entreprenship is very important in every organization and every organization should encourage this concept for the following reasons;

1. To enable the company or organisation compete with new sophisticated competitors. The presence of intrapreneurs who consistently innovate, create and develop new ideas for the company allows the company to engage in healthy competition with similar companies in the industry.

2. People have a sense of distrust in the traditional corporate management. It is therefore important for a company to encourage intrapreneurship so that interpreneurs can build a new working model that will be comfortable and suitable for all staffs of the firm and all those in charge of decision making can take the responsibility for their actions solely.

3. Some of the best and brightest people leave their organisations to become small business entrepreneurs. When a company does not encourage intrapreneurship, their staffs become tired of the routine and inability to be creative and make decisions on their own. They tend to opt out of the job and create or start their own small business. It is therefore important for a company to encourage intrapreneurship in order to retain the best and capable hands that are working for them.

How An Organization Can Encourage Intrapreneuship:

MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

This is the extent to which the management structure itself encourages employees to believe that innovation is, in fact, part of the role set for all organization members. Some of the specific conditions that reflect management support include quick adoption of employee ideas, recognition of people who bring ideas forward, support for small experimental projects, and seed money to get projects off the ground.

AUTONOMY/WORK DISCRETION

Workers have discretion to the extent that they are able to make decisions about performing their own work in the way they believe is most effective. Organizations should allow employees to make decisions about their work process and should avoid criticizing them for making mistakes when innovating.

REWARDS/REINFORCEMENT

Rewards and reinforcement enhance the motivation of individuals to engage in innovative behavior. Organizations must be characterized by providing rewards contingent on performance, providing challenges, increasing responsibilities, and making the ideas of innovative people known to others in the organizational hierarchy.

TIME AVAILABILITY

The fostering of new and innovative ideas requires that individuals have time to incubate these ideas. Organizations must moderate the workload of people, avoid putting time constraints on all aspects of a person’s job, and allow people to work with others on long-term problem solving.

ORGANIZATIONAL BOUNDARIES

These boundaries, real and imagined, prevent people from looking at problems outside their own jobs. People must be encouraged to look at the organization from a broad perspective. Organizations should avoid having standard operating procedures for all major parts of jobs, and should reduce dependence on narrow job descriptions and rigid performance standards.

                                                    LIFE OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

I will make this interesting by picking one of the world’s most famous, richest and successful entrepreneurs as a case study. I must mention that the man is a personal role model to me and a lot of us who have read about him.  With over 200 companies to his name, he is a serial entrepreneur, we will look in depth into how this man manages his large estate, family and society. He is the manager’s manager. We will be looking closely into the live of Sir Richard Branson as an entrepreneur. He stated his career as an entrepreneur at a very young age and has built himself an empire.

Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950. Branson was born in Black heath, London, the son and eldest child of barrister Edward James Branson and Eve Huntley Branson (née Flindt). Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School (now Bishops gate) until the age of thirteen, he then attended Stowe School until the age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student but later discovered his ability to connect with others. He set up Student magazine at age sixteen

In 1970, Branson started his record business from the crypt of a church where he ran The Student. Branson advertised popular records in The Student Magazine. He founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and shortly afterwards he opened a record shop on Oxford Street, London. In 1972 he built a recording studio in Oxford shire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded 'Tubular Bells'.

In 1977 he signed the Sex Pistols and he went on to sign many household names from Culture Club to the Rolling Stones, helping to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world.

With over 200 companies in over 30 countries, the Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund he his investing in renewable energy and resource efficiency.

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”

“Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.”

“What's the quickest way to become a millionaire? Borrow fivers off everyone you meet.”

                                                                                Sir Richard Branson.

ARE YOU A HIGH ACHIEVER?

My entrepreneurship professor made me take a personality test to determine if I am a high achiever, moderate achiever or low achiever. The aim of the test is to evaluate yourself as to how well you think you can handle risk and crisis. It is important for every entrepreneur to be a good risk and crisis manager.

I took the test and scored 77 percent which means I am a high achiever. I felt I could do better and thought the test did not describe my personality in terms taking risk. The result of the test challenged me to build my entrepreneurial skills to the best. I will post the test and hope that many readers take this test and evaluate you.

One of the most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur is the desire to be a high achiever. The following ten questions are designed to help identify your achievement drive. Write the letter preceding your answer in the blank to the left of each question. Scoring information is provided at the end of the exercise.

1.            An instructor in one of your college classes has asked you to vote on three grading options: (a) Study the course material, take the exams, and receive the grade you earn; (b) roll a die and get an A if you roll an odd number and a D if you roll an even number; (c) show up for all class lectures, turn in a short term paper, and get a C. Which of these options would you choose?

2.            How would you describe yourself as a risk taker? (a) high, (b) moderate, (c) low.

3.            You have just been asked by your boss to take on a new project in addition to the many tasks you are already doing. What would you tell your boss? (a) Since I’m already snowed under, I can’t handle any more. (b) Sure, I’m happy to help out; give it to me. (c) Let me look over my current workload and get back to you tomorrow about whether I can take on any more work.

4.            Which one of these people would you most like to be? (a) Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers, (b) Lee Iacocca of Chrysler fame, (c) Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.

5.            Which one of these games would you most like to play? (a) Monopoly, (b) bingo, (c) roulette.

6.            You have decided to become more physically active. Which one of these approaches has the greatest attraction for you? (a) join a neighborhood team, (b) work out on your own, (c) join a local health club.

7.            With which one of these groups would you most enjoy playing poker? (a) Friends, (b) high-stake players, (c) individuals who can challenge you.

8.            Which one of these persons would you most like to be? (a) a detective solving a crime, (b) a politician giving a victory statement, (c) a millionaire sailing on his or her yacht.

9.            Which one of these activities would you prefer to do on an evening off? (a) visit a friend, (b) work on a hobby, (c) watch television.

10.          Which one of these occupations has the greatest career appeal for you? (a) computer salesperson, (b) corporate accountant, (c) criminal lawyer.

Scoring: Transfer each of your answers to the following scoring key by circling the appropriate number (for example, if your answer to question 1 is c, you will circle the number 2 in row 1). Then total all three columns to arrive at your final score.

                             a                                         b                                                    c

  

1.                       10                                          0                                                    2

2.                          2                                        10                                                   2

3.                          6                                          2                                                   10

4.                          7                                         10                                                  5

5.                       10                                          0                                                    0

6.                         2                                          10                                                   6

7.                         4                                           2                                                    10

8.                       10                                           7                                                    4

9.                        4                                           10                                                   4

10.                     10                                           5                                                    10

                      ----------            +                  -----------               +                         -------------                  = -----------------           

High achievers   76-100

 Moderate achievers 50-75

 Low achievers   less than 50

Interpretation:

1. High achievers take personal responsibility for their actions. They do not like to rely on luck. The third option (c) assumes that the class time saved by not having to study for exams will be used to study for other classes; otherwise, the answer would be a zero.

2. High achievers are moderate risk takers in important situations. 3. High achievers like to study a situation before committing themselves to a course of action.

3. High achievers like to study a situation before committing themselves to a course of action.

4. Jobs is a high-achieving individual but is more interested in design and engineering than in goal accomplishment; Iacocca is an extremely high-achieving salesperson/executive; Jack Welch is more driven by the need for power than the need to achieve.

5. Monopoly allows the high achiever to use his or her skills; bingo and roulette depend on luck.

6. The high achiever would work out on his or her own. The second-best choice is to join a health club, which allows less individual freedom but provides the chance to get feedback and guidance from individuals who understand how to work out effectively.

7. High achievers like challenges but not high risks. If you are a very good poker player and you chose (b), you can raise your score on this question from 2 to 10.

8. Because high achievers like to accomplish goals, the detective would have the greatest appeal for them. The politician is more interested in power, and the millionaire is simply enjoying him- or herself.

9. High achievers like to do constructive things that help them improve themselves, so working on a hobby would be their first choice.

10. The computer salesperson and the criminal lawyer have a much higher need to achieve than does the corporate accountant.

I expect comments from your results after taking the test. Do you think the test did justice in evaluating you? Did you score too high in the test or you think you should do better than score? We will appreciate your comments .

                                HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR.

What is the difference between small business owners and entrepreneurs?

There is truly a great difference between entrepreneurs and small business owners but I must mention that your ability to succeed and expand far beyond your tentacles is what makes you an entrepreneur. I will say starting and running a small scale business successful is sometimes the first stage of entrepreneurship. Small businesses owners prefer to run own their firms independently. They are satisfied with their steady profit and do not do much innovations. They most times do not expand or spread their tentacles. They usually are aggressive with profit making because they have a steady expectation as to profit making unlike entrepreneurs whose objectives are innovation, profitability and growth. They crave for development of their firms at every point in time, recognising opportunities and ready to manage, take moderate and calculated risk towards the development of their organisations. They are aggressive in profit making, rapid development and managerial skills.

So many people keep some false ideas or thoughts about entrepreneurs and because of this they do not try or want be an entrepreneur. I will share ten of such myths and how it applies to entrepreneurs.

Myth 1:           Entrepreneurs Are Doers, Not Thinkers

Entrepreneurs are both 'thinkers' and 'doers'. They engage in a lot of creative and careful thinking about the long and short run of a business. They also explore every brilliant idea and necessary precaution that comes to mind to ensure a solid and flawless business plan. They however do not just think and sweep their creative ideas under the carpet like regular people do; they take action by initiating their plans and starting their business.

Myth 2:     Entrepreneurs Are Born, Not Made

Entrepreneurship is not a birth gift and nobody is born an entrepreneur. It only takes the     extraordinary people who have developed themselves that way to identify what other people see          as problems or bad business as something they can turn into a money making venture. The misconception of entrepreneurship being a birth gift has long been in existence. This is not necessarily so as every individual can acquire skills to become an entrepreneur.

Myth 3:           Entrepreneurs Are Always Inventors

We will call entrepreneurs innovators rather inventors. They are people who see the business and profitable part of either natural resources or early innovations. Many inventors are entrepreneurs but not all entrepreneurs are inventors. Entrepreneurs mostly formulate creative ideas for turning around an already invented one. Many entrepreneurs become successful in businesses that have been in existence long before now. Entrepreneurs are innovators rather than inventors.

Myth 4:           Entrepreneurs Are Academic and Social Misfits

Entrepreneurs are not academic or social misfits because they are people who either learnt something useful in schools or their social environment. I will say the study of entrepreneurship is one of the most important courses in every tertiary institution in the world. It is considered a profession to learn the skills to be innovative and creative in every market condition as the case may be.

Myth 5:          Entrepreneurs Must Fit the “Profile”

As human beings, we might sometimes share the same characteristics but we cannot all share the same ideology. We all have our different ways of doing things which cannot make us fit into the same profile regardless of the common characteristics we share together. The same instance applies to entrepreneurs, they are all innovators and successful in what they are doing but they have different ways and reasons for doing what they are doing. Some entrepreneurs do what they do because they want more money, while some others do what they do to make the world a better place for everybody while the others are just motivated to succeed.

Myth 6:           All Entrepreneurs Need Is Money

I must mention that so many people are millionaires through lottery or public embezzlement but are not entrepreneurs and cannot manage or sustain a business regardless of their wealth. In as much as the financial aspect is important ,it is not the only resource required to succeed. Most entrepreneurs started with little or no money and survived all their financial hurdles because they see money as a mere resource out of so many factors responsible to succeed in starting and sustaining a business venture. Most times little or no money is required to be creative and create an avenue where people will have to pay for your innovations.

Myth 7:           All Entrepreneurs Need Is Luck

As much as everybody needs luck to be better successful in what they are doing, there must have being a lot of self effort to qualify you for that opportunity. For example; if there is a job vacancy in a company to be applied for by first class graduates, if you are going to be the lucky one to get the job, you must have put a lot of effort into been an excellent student to be able to apply for the job at all. Just as the adage says luck only happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Myth 8:       Ignorance Is Bliss For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are selling or have a target market of the elites and as such we cannot say ignorance is bliss for them. They sell their product to people who know the value of what they are buying and are interested in buying because they have a use for it. It must be mentioned that most times high cost is paid for advertisement of a new product to create awareness and enlighten people of the usage of that product.

Myth 9:           Entrepreneurs Seek Success But Experience High Failure Rates

From research, some entrepreneurial ventures survive while some don’t. Theory is usually different from practice and this explains why a business with a well laid out plan might fail when ventured into. An entrepreneur however continues to learn from different experience in a business and lessons learnt are used to improve the business until success is achieved.

 Myth 10:   Entrepreneurs Are Extreme Risk Takers (Gamblers)                                                     

 We most times see entrepreneurs as extreme risk takers because we think they buy uncertainty    with certainty. Entrepreneurs are sometimes perceived as gamblers due to the high level of risk associated with their career. We should however not forget that entrepreneurs also do their homework and conduct proper research on every project or business before venturing into it. They therefore usually take cautious and calculated risk necessary for individual project as the case may be.

DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

                                                 DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

I will be starting our discussion with the definition of entrepreneurship. It is important we know the meaning of the subject and get the key words in the different definitions we will be stating.

Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of vision, change, and creation that requires an application of energy and passion toward the creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solutions. This process of innovation and new-venture creation is accomplished through four major dimensions—individual, organizational, environmental, and process— and is aided by collaborative networks in government, education, and institutions. All of the macro and micro positions of entrepreneurial thought must be considered while recognizing and seizing opportunities that can be converted into marketable ideas capable of competing for implementation in today’s economy.

(Kuratko, Donald.  Introduction to Entrepreneurship is the 8th Edition. Cengage Learning UK, 3/14/09. p. 21). <vbk:9781133455189# page(21)>

I will give five other definitions of entrepreneurship by world's most successful entrepreneurs over time. We will say their definition to entrepreneurship is sharing their experiences to the world in different terms. There is truly a great difference between entrepreneurship and small business owners but I must mention that your ability to succeed and expand far beyond your tentacles is what makes you an entrepreneur. 

1725: Richard Cantillon: An entrepreneur is a person who pays a certain price for a product to resell it at an uncertain price, thereby making decisions about obtaining and using the resources while consequently admitting the risk of enterprise.

. 1934: Schumpeter: According to him entrepreneurs are innovators who use a process of shattering the status quo of the existing products and services, to set up new products, new services

1961: David McClleland: An entrepreneur is a person with a high need for achievement [N-Ach]. He is energetic and a moderate risk taker.

1964: Peter Drucker: An entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits opportunities. Innovation is a specific tool of an entrepreneur hence an effective entrepreneur converts a source into a resource.

1975: Albert Shapero: Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of failure and have an internal locus of control

Source; Wikipedia...

From the definitions of entrepreneurship stated, we will observe that innovation and productivity are key factors to being an entrepreneur.

INTRODUCTION

My name is Abdussamad Olarinde. This is my blog and it is dedicated to how to start small scale businesses with little or no money. I will be talking to the world on how to start and sustain  small scale businesses and how to expand this businesses within the shortest possible time.