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Functions of an entrepreneur: In this article, we talk about the various functions of entrepreneur in setting up and running a business. As you can imagine, the list of functions is innumerable, however, we can classify them under broad segments explored in this article.

Functions of Entrepreneur

Recently, we talked about the characteristics of an entrepreneur which help them succeed. You might see some parallels between characteristics and functions. These functions however broadly cover the areas of focus for an entrepreneur’s business strategy.

Key breakdowns of functions of entrepreneur are:

• Identifying opportunities – both for product development and market, sales
• Team building and resource management with minimal opportunities
• Innovation – both in service and product delivery
• Decision making to stay agile and quick
• Managing risks and uncertainty as a part of your business plan and strategy
• Unlearning from previous experiences and maintain your business curiosity

Identifying Opportunities for your startup

Once you identify the area of business and market, your first job is to create a business plan. The best way to start thinking about your business plan is through a business model canvas. The canvas helps you to map your business idea/proposals into a single page. It encourages you to think about suppliers, competition and USP that separates you from the rest.

Ultimately, any investor is interested in understanding why yours is a unique opportunity and a great bet to invest in.

Key opportunities to highlight in a business plan:

• Suppliers – including people who help you develop a product. They can be outsourced partners to help you get to the market quickly. If you are using outsourced partners, make sure you’re aware of some key traps while using outsourcing for business.
• Marketing and sales – check within your local network to identify people who can connect you to key companies. If not direct, you will be able to find indirect connections.
• Mentors – Although not a direct tangible benefit, mentors can help you shape your business plan. They can also guide your business in the right direction and introduce you to key resources and be a champion for your services. (More: Types of mentors for your startup)
• Accelerators and Incubators: These groups usually help you to get in touch with key people through organised events. Sometimes, they even connect you to investors who can help develop your business plan further.

Team Building and Resource Management

You cannot do everything at once. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur and build a startup, a team is the most basic requirement. Most investors look down upon individual founders since they want to qualify your ability to build a team and succeed. While building a team, it is important to remember that talent is not easy to find.

If you want to find good talent, you need to enable them into a partnership model – at least in the early days by making them a part of your business. This doesn’t mean a 50-50 partnership, it only means that you offer them a stake in the business.

As a startup, one of the biggest challenges I initially faced was to attract good talent while bootstrapping. The only resources we have at these stages are equity and stock options in the business. If you use them wisely, you will be able to attract good talent who will stay till you make a success out of this business idea. More about successful hiring in a startup can be found here.

Innovation and Quick response to customer demands

As an entrepreneur, innovation is the lifeblood of your business. Innovation need not be technical alone. It can be in the way you perform business and how you interact with people. The biggest challenge in the functions of entrepreneur is to ensure quality with limited resources. If you look at successful businesses around, they all found a different way to provide results to a customer.

To identify areas for innovation, look into the problems your ideal customers face. How are they solving these problems at the moment? What can you do to make it easy for them? Most innovative solutions are market-focused and on fixing problems customers face. If you can find that gap, introduce innovation into your operations, you are in a strong position to deliver solutions to the customer.

Quick Decision Making – Functions of an entrepreneur

As a key function of entrepreneur, you’ll be making decisions at every point. Whether it is about hiring or deciding investment, development partners, suppliers etc. The list never ends. One of the strongest resources you have as an entrepreneur is your agility and speed at which you can take decisions. Most large organisations struggle because of the bureaucracy involved in decision making.

Ability to act quick and decisively marks key functions of entrepreneur. I’m not saying that these decisions are easy. But time is the best resource you have at any point. Make sure that you use it wisely. There will never be a perfect decision, but you will have opportunities to work towards them.

Managing Risks and Uncertainty

Uncertainty is a part of any business. For an entrepreneur, uncertainty is even more common. Uncertainty starts from the point of knowing whether your customers will like your idea. You also don’t know how investors will react to business proposals, price points, value addition etc.

There are plenty of things that can go right or wrong. While measuring the functions of entrepreneur, make sure that you have enough room for uncertainty. If you are unable to cede control or are extremely focused only on planning, you will be in for some surprises. Find ways to be comfortable around uncertainty to be able to manage your stability as an entrepreneur.

Unlearning previous habits

The final point I’d like to talk about in functions of entrepreneur is the ability to unlearn. Learning is a fantastic aspect of any professional journey we undertake. However, as an entrepreneur, life is fairly different. You will be exposed to challenges at various parts of your business. It works differently compared to previous experiences under the backing of a company brand etc. The market will treat you very differently and sometimes even question your abilities.

Although slightly unfortunate, there are a lot of skills which you’d need to learn from scratch. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your skills are a waste, it is about unlearning some of these so that you can put yourself in the best place for success.

Summary: Functions of Entrepreneur

The 6 functions above provide a snapshot of various functions you’ll need to undertake as an entrepreneur. However, this is not a comprehensive list. It only gives you an idea of the various tasks you might need to undertake. You will however have lots of support in the process through some networks, incubators and accelerators etc.

Make sure that you choose them accordingly. Entrepreneurship no wonder is hard but can be extremely rewarding if you brave through some odds and build yourself the characteristics that will drive you to success.

Hope you found this article useful, please do share your thoughts in the comments below.