Lesson – Being an entrepreneur, what does it mean?

EPISODE 2: Being an entrepreneur, what does it mean?

What to expect in episode 2
In the first episode, we introduce the concept of social entrepreneurship and help you to differentiate social enterprise from non profit organisation and enterprise with social responsibility. You understood the 4 pillars of a social enterprise : the economically viable project, the social or environmental purpose, its limited profitability and its participatory governance. In this episode, we will focus on the social entrepreneurs to understand more about their role and break the myth around these people and seem impossible to be part of.
What is an entrepreneur ?
An entrepreneur is a person who creates something, who works independently. It is the agreement between a personality, a project and life constraints.
Thus, many activities and types of businesses are covered by entrepreneurship, and each entrepreneur can adopt a model that suits him or her according to his or her skills and personal goal. An entrepreneur is not necessarily someone who has had the “idea of the century” and managed to raise millions of euros.
There are many myths surrounding the entrepreneur and making it difficult to access.

The Myth of the entrepreneur.se

Entrepreneurs need money to get started
The first is very common: You need money to get started. The question of money is one of the first obstacles in the collective idea of entrepreneurs.
Even before they have studied their idea or even have an idea, you often hear people refusing to give themselves the choice to start a business because of the fear of money. While it is difficult to launch a social enterprise without investment, there are many steps to consider before launching an idea that do not require money. Doing market research for example, there are online resources to help you but you can also do it yourself by meeting stakeholders in the sector. Define a persona, this allows you to obtain information about your target (age, socio-professional category, interests, etc.). This is done by conducting a survey and interviews with potential customers or beneficiaries.

Entrepreneurs like to take risks
Take a moment and think about the question: what characterises an entrepreneur? What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of entrepreneurship? Well, most of the time it is the word risk. So in a way it’s understandable because the image we have of the entrepreneur, who leaves his career, his well-paid job to embark on a project, or on an adventure, that’s the word we often use, in an entrepreneurial adventure, well obviously takes a certain risk. And so this conception develops, this idea that the entrepreneur is necessarily someone who is somehow attracted by this risk-taking, who likes to take risks. But this is not true, On the contrary, they limit the risks. Not all risks are predictable, but the entrepreneur will try to identify them in order to assess their level of difficulty. This enables him to decide whether or not to take action.

To be an entrepreneur, you need a big idea
We often confuse entrepreneurship with invention, and it is not really advisable to look for a stroke of genius at all costs.
By putting enormous pressure on yourself from the start, you run the risk of never taking the plunge or of being disappointed with the result. We often hear thoughts such as “Great, there’s no one else on my market, I’m the first! To this kind of reflection, it is better to ask: “Why is there no one? If there’s no one there, then maybe there’s no market!
Another method is to write down all the ideas that come up from discussions, readings or simple observations on a list. Then select one or two according to your own criteria. Of course, you have to be interested in the subject, have the skills to carry out the project and finally assess the feasibility, particularly in terms of your financial resources or your network. It is wise to challenge one’s list and preference with those around one.
If you do not have any ideas, there are various ways of finding them. Start by taking inspiration from a success story abroad. Don’t be afraid of having ideas stolen from you. The most important thing is not the idea itself, but the way in which it is to be implemented, with whom and how.

The entrepreneur works alone on his project
Starting an entrepreneurial venture is quite a challenge. In the early stages of the venture, the entrepreneur is often alone with his or her idea, motivation and courage to get started. However, the belief that the entrepreneur can succeed alone in this adventure is a myth that is far from reality.
Being a solo entrepreneur has many advantages as you are the only one in charge. However, teaming up with someone else allows you to rely on someone else, to have a second opinion on decisions, to exchange freely on your strategy, your objectives and your new ideas.
Collaborating with others can be a good way to break the solitude and when well organised, everything is in place to make it work.
Doing business with two or more people
It means reduces risk: isolation can, for example, lead you to make bad decisions.
It means sharing responsibilities, in both successes and failures you can rely on each other to take the project forward
It means taking advantage of synergies, you can find a complementary profile to yours, to benefit from particular skills and/or knowledge.

The entrepreneur can do it all
As with the importance of not creating a sound alone, the entrepreneur must have external partners. Creating a social enterprise (or not) requires a wide range of skills. Each person has strengths and weaknesses, one can be extremely good at project management but bad at communication. So the entrepreneur needs to list these skills and the ones he/she will have to delegate either to his/her partner or to an external actor.
The entrepreneur is far from being a superhero. It is therefore necessary from the outset to surround oneself with professionals who have skills and expertise that are complementary to one’s own and that will enable one to be more effective.

Advantage and Disadvantages

As in every profession, there are advantages and disadvantages to be considered before starting. Becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy task and as our three social entrepreneurs can testify, it is above all a job that you do out of passion.
Benefits:
Use your skills ans qualifications
Discover and master new subjects
Working on a project we like
To be independent and autonomous
Meet other people and build a professional network
Disadvantages
Having to devote 100% of your time to your project
Knowing how to adapt all the times
No guaranteed income and the risk of not being successful as expected

Conclusion

To sum up this episode, before launching, it is important that the entrepreneur has a project idea that he or she is passionate about and that is in fact aligned with his or her values. They must ensure a favourable environment by associating with partners who share a similar vision, external partners who bring their expertise.
They can also be supported by an incubator to get personalised support, access to a community of other entrepreneurs and connections to investors and/or partners. To find out about support programmes, you will find a list of the different support structures in the Western Balkans in the document section.
The entrepreneur therefore has an idea for which he is motivated, a favourable framework and an entourage that supports him. Finally, he must also be curious, i.e. he must constantly question his idea by questioning himself but also by questioning his target group so that his idea progresses and takes the form of a real solution on the market.