1.4: Personal Shortcomings of Entrepreneurs

Here are a few such shortcomings or weaknesses:

• Setting up unrealistic time frames

Entrepreneurs are usually in a hurry. They want to achieve their goals very quickly. Unfortunately, in their excitement, they often underestimate the time and resources required to reach their goals.

• Keeping things to themselves

Entrepreneurs often do not know how to get the help of others. They want to do everything themselves and don’t want to ask for help from anybody.

• Too many interruptions

Because Entrepreneurs are so keen to do everything themselves, they normally allow too many interruptions to interfere with their business. For example, they feel they have to handle all phone calls, see every person who arrives without an appointment, and so forth.

• Working without a plan

Many Entrepreneurs prepare a very fancy business plan to start a business, but then they never look at their plan again. They tend to think that they are clever enough to manage the business “by the seat of their pants”.

• Not doing homework

Entrepreneurs are normally so excited to start a business or to branch out into a new area that they tend to rush into something without doing enough market research, checking their resources, or finding out what the competition is like.

There are many ways to set about starting and growing a profitable business. There are many do’s and don’ts. This feature cannot give you the whole story. It is not an infallible manual by which to start and run a business. There is no such thing. But it does borrow heavily upon the lives, values, and thinking of some of the world’s great entrepreneurs. At the very least, it will get you thinking.

The most common way to personal wealth is through business. When you start to get on top of a bad habit, more useful habits start to appear.

The role of entrepreneurship in social development

Small businesses have been the major driving force behind job generation but as a result, they are playing a more important role in the economy. Unemployment is a reality for many people in South Africa. One of the reasons why so many of us have difficulty finding a job is because there are too many people for too few jobs. Societies that encourage independent thinking tend to be wealthier than strict and stratified (status-conscious) societies.

One of the significant challenges facing organizations is getting all employees, from the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) to the hourly workers, to realize that to become the best, they must embrace diversity (mixture).