ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The availability of natural resources, labour and capital is not sufficient to ensure economic success. These factors of production have to be combined and organised by people who see opportunities for making a profit and who are willing to take risks by producing goods and services in the expectation that they will be sold. These people are called entrepreneurs. The word entrepreneur comes from the French word entreprendre which means “to undertake”.

The entrepreneur is the driving force behind production. Entrepreneurs are the initiators, the people who take the initiative. They are also the innovators, the people who introduce new products and new techniques on a commercial basis. And they are the risk-bearers, the people who take chances. They do this because they anticipate that they will make profits. But they may also suffer losses and perhaps bankruptcy.

The entrepreneur is more than a manager. The entrepreneur is dynamic, a restless spirit, an ideas person, a person of action who has the ability to inspire others. It is often claimed that entrepreneurs are born, they cannot be made.

In countries where the necessary entrepreneurship is lacking, the government is sometimes forced to act as entrepreneur in an attempt to stimulate economic development.