The Roles and Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

This report explains the roles and characteristics of entrepreneurs, a critical evaluation of their contribution to the UK economy and how the UK has contributed to the concept of entrepreneurship. The report also describes the work of J. K. Rowling and James Dyson in context of entrepreneurship and an author's viewpoint on the concept of entrepreneurship. All of this is supported by facts and figures.

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Characteristics and role of Entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur is a person who is focussed on continuously searching for opportunities and creating a business by using the available resources and whose primary motive is to generate profits and solve the existing problems of the society. The entrepreneur is usually the sole proprietor of a business, a person who own a number of shares of the business or a partner in a business. The characteristics and roles of entrepreneurs are described below -

Characteristics

• Creativity – Employees are the people who want to think and work out of the boxes. Thus, they are always thinking of new ideas and ways in order to improve their company's profits and overall productivity. Creativity helps in coming up with new and innovative solutions that are out of the box.
• Risk taker – Since the entrepreneur is the sole owner of the business, therefore he is the biggest risk taker (Burnett and Danson, 2017). He is accountable for any mistake of failure of a particular idea. Entrepreneurs are always ready to take risk but have a backup plan with them at all times. He is aware of the consequences that taking a particular risk can possibly have.
• Networking – Networking is among the most important parts of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs have the ability to recognize opportunities of partnering up and connecting with others which can help take them a long way.
• Passion – Passionate entrepreneurs are successful as they are deeply connected with their product, service or aim. Passion is what helps them find motivation and drive themselves forward in order to achieve goals and objectives.
• Vision – All successful entrepreneurs have their eye on the larger picture of achieving the goals and objectives. They have a vision which is all about strategic planning and helps them identify any challenges that may be posed to them during the process.
• Understanding of their products – Entrepreneurs know what they have to offer to the customers with a complete understanding of what the customers need and expect to get their problems resolved (Bouncken and Reuschl, 2018).
• Customer is everything – Besides having the main aim of earning profits, the entrepreneurs also know their customers to the highest level possible. They are aware that the first step involved in the process is to lure and attract as many customers as possible and that the product which they are offering should cater to their needs and wants.

Roles

• Leader Role – An entrepreneur acts as a leader for their team in order to motivate and encourage them to achieve the organisation's goals and objectives collectively (Burns, 2016). This requires him to have excellent people management and leadership skills as he has to lead the team by hiring, firing, training employees as and when needed.
• Figure Head Role – The entrepreneur heads the organization by participating in various ceremonial activities and representing the company during various formal as well as informal events etc.
• Entrepreneurial Role – This is the most basic role of an entrepreneur as he shares new ideas within the organization, asks for suggestions and feedbacks from friends and subordinates and also bears the risk if the implementation proves out to be unsuccessful.
• Resource Allocator – The entrepreneur discovers ways of allocating resources among various departments of the organisation which in turn helps them achieve goals and objectives (Bylund and McCaffrey, 2017).
• Technological roles – The entrepreneur is responsible for replacing the traditional technology with the latest one in the organization and help employees to adapt to the environment in order to develop efficiency and competence among the employees.
• Spokesman Role – Being the whole and sole of the company, the entrepreneur acts as a spokesman for transmitting information internally as well as externally. Thus, he/she should have complete knowledge of his company in order to communicate the same to potential investors as well as customers.

The above graph shows that entrepreneurs form an increasingly important component of the UK economy and are the major drivers of innovation and help in brining in new business models for the customers.

Contribution of Entrepreneurs to the UK ECONOMY

There are various social as well as economic benefits of Entrepreneurship and it has been identified that entrepreneurs are one of the main reasons of growth the UK economy (Colpan and Jones, 2016). They have contributed a lot in generating new jobs and supporting the local communities by developing new and innovative products and thereby executing more efficient methods of production. The UK economy has always supported the idea of entrepreneurship and London especially is considered a golden pathway for budding entrepreneurs because it has good transport links and a powerful local economy. London, is considered to be filled with interesting people, innovative ideas with a high demand of innovative products and services. This has led to be a benchmark and has set high standards for the entrepreneurs to keep up with. In today's business scenario, there is a high pressure on the entrepreneurs to pay their attention to primarily on the revenue and profit generated by the business (Heinonen and Hytti, 2016). This has limited the sources of funding due to which the UK government has come up with a loan scheme for start ups which is aimed at providing businesses with loans and mentoring during their initial stages. Start ups in general provide a significant amount of contribution to the UK economy and forming approximately 98% of the private sector. The profits and losses made by the entrepreneurial businesses will directly influence the economy of the United Kingdom.

The above graph shows that the survival rate of entrepreneurial businesses in UK has also improved over the years. It can be seen that approximately 87% of the businesses that were founded in 2010 in the UK were still in operation. The data also shows an overall improvement in the survival rates of he businesses over the years.

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As per the views of Natalie Clarkson, 2016, UK start ups are responsible for providing employment to approximately 3.24 million people across the nation which accounts for nearly 12% of the overall employment of the country. The year 2009 saw a decrease in the number of new businesses appear across the United Kingdom but there was a significant increase in the number of start ups appearing in the country thereafter (Mieszajkina, 2016). It was observed that entrepreneurs mainly in the health and education sector have been the most successful. Besides London being the most famous location for business start ups, cities like Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham were counted among the places with the most female start ups in the country. The UK is considered to have become the most entrepreneurial economy of Europe. And the entrepreneurs' ability to offer innovative and unique products and services are regarded as the greatest strength for this (O'Neill and Gibbs, 2016 ).

As per the above table, it can be seen that both Leeds and Manchester have benefits of a young and dynamic workforce as universities in these cities attract a lot of students from UK as well as other countries whereas Stockton-on-Tees and Belfast rank last in the table.

However, the performance of the UK in entrepreneurship is improving as more people are recognizing the opportunities to set up businesses. But there is still a need for the UK to focus on and improve its entrepreneurial aspirations. The entrepreneurs in UK have been successful by integrating innovation with a powerful awareness. Although the performance of UK in entrepreneurial context is high class, the country still needs to balance various elements like- ability, attitudes etc.

Contribution of UK to Entrepreneurship

The role of entrepreneurial businesses has become increasingly important for the UK economy as there are several factors like Brexit that have impacted the functioning of the country's economy. The UK government has been a support in promoting entrepreneurial enterprises with universities in the country also helping and making efforts to promote the idea of starting up a business (Ratten and Ferreira, 2017. The UK government has made several efforts in order to contribute towards promoting and expanding the idea of Entrepreneurship within the nation. According to Anne Morris, 2018, the UK remains to be among the attractive destinations for entrepreneurs as there are several advantages like language advantage, the stability of the political environment and other confined facilities like a robust economy. The country is also positioned well among for the global markets to access. The UK government has come with a new start up visa which has proved out to be beneficial for the country in inviting a large number of foreign entrepreneurs.

The Department of International Trades (DIT) assists the entrepreneurs in other countries and start-ups that are interested in relocating their business set ups to the United Kingdom. Entrepreneurs who have a business that is expected to grow higher are eligible for applying for an entrepreneurial visa (Entrepreneurship in UK, 2019). The UK government runs a programme named Global Entrepreneur Program (GEP) that helps international companies to relocate to the United Kingdom. Other top entrepreneurial programs run by the company include Entrepreneur First, Wayra, The Marketing academy, On Purpose, New Entrepreneurs Foundation etc. The New Entrepreneurs Foundation program focuses on creating a new generation of outstanding entrepreneurs who will in turn help build businesses that will lead the market and will also help in driving the future growth of Britain. Whereas the Entrepreneur First program that helps young people either find or create an idea and form a team. The program saw 32 of their participants teaming up to build a total of 11 start-ups, which are said to have achieved a valuation of over approximately 22 million pounds.

According to the article given on Entrepreneur UK, 2019, The East London Small Business Centre (ELSBC) has started a program named “Gateway to Finance” in order to help small business entrepreneurs in the UK to raise funds for their businesses. They also help the existing start ups to grow, strengthen and expand themselves. The UK government has set two councils, namely- The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) and Designing Demand that offer knowledge on manufacturing and how can the businesses enhance their performance for a particular project (Siemieniuk, Ł., 2016).

Also, the UK government supports the concept of entrepreneurship that does not cause harm to the environment as well as is socially beneficial. Non-profit making companies such as Enterprise Enfield that helps new as well as established entrepreneurs by providing them advice regarding business, organizing seminars and offering them access to all of this at very low and affordable costs. The government also runs a program to support rural entrepreneurs by providing them with the latest technologies, and innovation to develop and grow themselves. Therefore, there are a lot of efforts that the country makes in various ways in order to contribute towards entrepreneurship.

Real world relevant examples from well-known entrepreneurs

J. K. Rowling has become a household name for the fans of Harry Potter today. Before coming up with “Harry Potter” and becoming a huge success, the author was struggling in her life besides being a single mother (J.K. Rowling, 2016). She is famous for her immensely popular series of books “Harry Potter” which later went on to become a massive success globally. Rowling is considered to be the first ever author in the history to achieve a net worth of $1 billion and presently is one of the richest private citizens of the UK. The author was born on 31^st July, 1965 near Bristol. Rowling grew up surrounded with books and wanted to become a writer from an early age. She came up with the idea of Harry Potter while waiting for a delayed train. She began to map out all the seven books in the series over the next few years. On the completion of the manuscript, she sent the initial three chapters to a number of agents, one from whom chose to see the rest of them. The book came out in 1998 under the name J. K. Rowling followed by the further six titles each of which achieved a record breaking success. At present, the author is said to be more richer than the Queen. Even after 13 years since the first Harry Potter title was published, the series was the second highest grossing film of all times.

James Dyson is the chairman of Dyson, who employees more than 5,800 employees across the world (James Dyson. 2019). James Dyson has a passion for creating a bag less vacuum cleaner which made him earn fortunes through his innovative creations such as the Dual Cyclone and Dyson Ball vacuum cleaners. It was in the year 1978, when Dyson got frustrated with his vacuum cleaner's poor performance. On taking it apart, he found that its bag was clogged with dust. This is what gave him the idea of building a bag less vacuum cleaner. Five years and 5,127 prototypes later to that, he invented the world's first bag less vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner was first sold in Japan with the name G-Force and was successful in impressing the Japanese with its performance and thus became a hit there. James Dyson set up his own company from the royalties he received from G- Force sales and named it Dyson Ltd. The company plans to move its headquarters to Singapore. As of 2017, the company reached to 1.1 billion pounds from 801 million pounds due to an increased demand of its new hair products. The 71 year old owner of the company, today has a worth of 10.53 billion pound.

Concise and well researched argument utilising current literature

According to the view of Isabel Isidro, 2012, there are various benefits a person can gain by being an entrepreneur such as they able to be free for pursuing their own vision because they are self employed and they can do want they want to do. Another advantage which encourage a person for becoming a entrepreneur is that, they have control as well as flexibility over their time due to which, when they want to work they will do and when they didn't want to do they can stop. Along with this, when a person become an entrepreneur he/ she gets numbers of opportunities to learn as well as gain knowledge by interacting with different different peoples such as customers, marketer, strategic planners, customers and so on (Why Be Self-Employed? 10 Benefits of Entrepreneurship, 2019). This will also help an individual in gaining sense of pride as well as fulfilment of things according to them because in an entrepreneurial unit all the decision are taken by entrepreneur itself.

Moreover it will also lead to number of benefits such as enhancement in self confidence, knowledge, capabilities, goodwill at market, professional connection and many more. Along with this, an entrepreneur also able to get opportunities to learn new things on daily basis by facing new challenges regular as well as this will also polish skills as well as knowledge of a person in effective manner (Skoggard, 2016). This will also provide them an opportunity according to which they can share their learning to others so that they can also make their career bright as well as successful. These are the main benefits which are gain by an entrepreneur when establish a their own entrepreneurial unit for providing service to their targeted customers.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantage of becoming an entrepreneur such as Entrepreneurship world is going to dominate its life: Entrepreneurs productivity means that it will direct them towards success or failure. There are not any off days so they feel embrace from this journey. Moreover, they do not get any paid lunches, weekend off and any another benefits. They have to be involved 24/7 into entrepreneurship world but they will be performing much. So, all these aspects dominate the life of entrepreneurs (18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Entrepreneurship, 2019). Another limitation of being on entrepreneur is Stress levels are high into entrepreneurship world: Meditation is very much common habit which person has to opt when they pursue an idea of entrepreneurs. They have to give time for this as in this world the stress level is too much higher when they are scratching as well as clawing for effective opportunity with all the thing which they obtain. Also, in this the loneliness is considered as an issues for same individuals within this particular world. At last this shows that when a person become an entrepreneur he/ she go through both ups and downs which impact on their mental as well as physical health. But it is a huge opportunity for a person that they become an entrepreneur.

CONCLUSION

From the above report, it can be concluded that entrepreneurs are people who are constantly searching for ideas to develop a product or service that is unique and innovative and at the same time helps solve a problem and provide innovative solutions for it. An entrepreneur, being the owner of the organisation is responsible for carrying out several roles like leadership role, spokesman role, figure head entrepreneurial roles etc. in order to maintain the goodwill of the organization and help in motivating the employees or the team members to work towards and achieve the set goals and objectives of the company. Entrepreneurs create businesses through unique and innovative ideas which in turn help in creating jobs and strengthening competition in the market and thus increasing the overall productivity.

In context to the UK, entrepreneurs have proved out to be contributing to the nation's economy by providing a large amount of jobs to the unemployed people and to the ones who are searching for jobs. London, among all other cities in the UK accounts for the most attractive and potential destinations to attract entrepreneurs as it has innovative and creative people who tend to have unique ideas also interest in setting up businesses. With the idea of entrepreneurship rising all over the world, the UK government in general has taken a lot of initiatives in order to help budding as well as existing entrepreneurs to grow and expand their business by giving them access to various facilities. This has helped in improving the existing conditions of entrepreneurship within the nation and also in welcoming entrepreneurs from various countries throughout the world. If the UK government is convinced with a particular business plan of an entrepreneur, they are eligible for making use of the “Finance for Business” scheme. The UK government has various programs that support rural entrepreneurs with the latest technologies to help them develop and grow their businesses.

The United Kingdom has seen some of the most successful entrepreneurs worldwide, J. K. Rowling and James Dyson being two of them. Both the entrepreneurs came up with two unique ideas that impacted the world in a powerful way. J. K. Rowling is among the world's best selling authors and among the richest private people of the UK who became a hit after her novel series “Harry Potter”. Rowling is the first ever author to achieve a net worth of $1 billion in the history. Whereas James Dyson , the chairman of Dyson is a UK based entrepreneur who invented the world's first bag less vacuum cleaner after numerous efforts and today has a worth of 5 billion pounds across the globe. Dyson is considered as the wealthiest engineer in the United Kingdom.

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