Entrepreneurship: What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship is not just starting a company, but a solution to many of our pains.
A good part of contemporary anxieties are related to work or money. Undertaking, you have the possibility to make your dream come true : earn a living doing what you like.
Whatever your hobby, believe me, it is possible to turn it into a business. Or, you can be more pragmatic and continue to separate leisure and your personal preferences from the professional universe and still undertake.
But everything is easier when there is a passion behind it, although it is not enough.
It is very important to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and personal characteristics that drive the enterprise. And, of course, knowledge.
Empiricism and trial and error have their value, but formal learning is a great shortcut and saves the entrepreneur a lot of headaches.
According to Sebrae , Brazil today has 12.4 million individual micro-entrepreneurs (MEI), micro and small companies opting for Simples Nacional (later, we will talk more about this tax regime).
Despite the expressive number, certainly many demands from consumers in your neighborhood, city, state and country are poorly met or are not met at all.
How about taking this opportunity and entering the world of entrepreneurship?
Throughout this article, we'll explain everything you need to know to qualify and succeed as an entrepreneur.
These are the topics we’ll cover today:
• What is entrepreneurship?
• How to be an entrepreneur?
• What do you need to know before you undertake?
• The link between entrepreneurship and innovation
• Is it worth taking an entrepreneurship course?
• 7 essential tips for you to undertake
• Entrepreneurship in Brazil: why were you born to undertake?
• 12 successful entrepreneurs you need to know and who will inspire you
What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is the ability and willingness to conceive, develop and manage a business in order to make a profit.
Of course, we can open up the concept and bring other definitions.
Instead of profit, we can say that the entrepreneur's goal is to create value , generate a positive impact - which may or may not result in profit.
Whoever creates a nonprofit institution, for example, is not doing it too?
In this article, however, we will restrict ourselves to talk about entrepreneurship related to business start-ups with commercial purposes . Creation and management, because entrepreneurship can also manifest itself in an organization that is already created.
When a consolidated company ventures to explore a new area or develops an innovative product, it is undertaking.
Whatever the case, we are talking about seeing opportunities and investing time and resources (material, financial and human) to exploit them. These opportunities usually correspond to a problem or a need that the population - or a part of it - has.
How to be an entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship begins with the idea of a product or service that offers the solution to the problems and needs we mentioned above.
The first step in being an entrepreneur , therefore, is to have the acumen to perceive these opportunities.
But this is not a mere intuition .
It has an important role, of course, but it is possible to start from rationality, analyzing facts. There is more and more diverse data and information to support the creation of new businesses.
Several paths can be chosen, for example:
Meet a pent-up demand in a given location
Develop a new product or service, creating a new audience
Differentiate and draw attention by improving a product or service that already exists and is known.
Either way, watching an opportunity and thinking about the solution is just the beginning. Nobody undertakes unless they leave the field of ideas. Entrepreneurship implies taking risks , putting planning into practice and developing a company.
The most appropriate way to do this is to obtain a National Register of Legal Entities (CNPJ) , which is the company's CPF, the formalization of the business within the legal rules.
What are the characteristics of an entrepreneur
People are different and, therefore, we find successful entrepreneurs of the most diverse profiles (in the next topic, we will talk more about them).
But it is desirable that the future entrepreneur has certain personal qualities that can make the whole process much easier.
It all starts with discipline and dedication, undeniably fundamental characteristics.
Here is the warning: if you want to undertake because you think that today you work too much, think better.
It is clear that, in the future, after the company is successful and organized, it is possible to significantly reduce the workload of work hours.
At the beginning of the contract, however, it will take a lot of gas to launch the business , obtain a return on investment, profit and grow. The difference is that you will have a chance to spend all those hours working on something you really love.
Continuing to talk about the characteristics of a good entrepreneur, the aforementioned insight is desirable. That is, being connected, attentive, being perceptive and having the sensitivity to perceive meanings hidden in nuances and details, whether in numbers or in people's behavior.
The desire to learn is another very important quality.
In fact, before that, the conscience and humility of knowing that there is always something to learn - not only in courses, but in everyday experiences and with people of any position and age.
Knowing how to deal with people is essential for anyone who wants to have partners, employees, partners and customers.
This is quite a challenge, as it requires a lot of emotional intelligence , professionalism (not to confuse the staff with the professional), empathy and non-violent communication. Last, but not least, is the desire to serve .
Having selfish and arrogant behavior is a very common failure among entrepreneurs. Always remember that in order to make money, you need to offer something that meets the needs of consumers.
The cool thing about entrepreneurship is that anyone can start a business and prosper with it .
And this is true even if it does not have the characteristics mentioned above, since all of them can be developed.
In this way, the business world brings together the most diverse profiles, because there are endless possibilities for areas to be explored. But we can define some aspects to classify the entrepreneur in a generic profile, as we will show below.
It is normal for the person to lean more to one side than to the other, but keep in mind that the ideal is always to find a balance between the two possibilities.
The daring entrepreneur is one who is more willing to face risks , unlike the conservative, who does not like to take chances.
While the first can, just like Icarus , fly very close to the sun and burn its wings, the second sins precisely because he never tried anything new.
There are people who prefer to work alone, and others who like to mobilize large numbers of people.
The need for socialization depends a lot on the work area, but it is good not to isolate yourself , as well as not to force interactions.
A manager who shows his collaborators that he is capable of executing and not just ordering gets many points.
But he cannot immerse himself in practical work and forget to coordinate projects and think about the company's strategy .
Kindness is positive, but it cannot become a tendency to take things personally - or contribute to employees having this understanding.
The boss, who is tougher in his personal treatment, runs the serious risk of going over the line and discouraging his employees.
What do you need to know before you undertake?
It is possible to undertake by offering a service, developing a product, providing consultancy, aggregating people and companies (collaborative economy) or making investments.
Whichever way you choose, try to answer the following questions before starting the endeavor:
What is your entrepreneur profile? Following the types we talked about above, how would you define yourself?
What is your purpose? What motivates you to undertake, besides money?
What is the value offered? What exactly are you going to offer your future customers?
How will you produce that value? What resources (raw materials, capital, people and partners) will be mobilized?
Who are the future customers? What do they look for, what is their age, gender, social class, etc.?
What is the differential of your product or service? What are you going to offer that the competition doesn't have?
What will be your dedication? Will you quit your job to open the business or develop it gradually, in your spare time?
What structure is needed? Can work be done at home or do you need an office or point of sale?
Where to settle? If it is necessary to search for a commercial point , what is the ideal location for it?
What is the bureaucracy that involves the business? What are the legal formalities that need to be fulfilled for the opening and operation of the company? Is it feasible to fulfill them?
Of course, some answers can change with the pace of things, but it is important to have them very clear in your mind before opening the business.
What is the importance of entrepreneurship in professional life, for companies and for society?
If you go back to the beginning of the text you will see that, in our definition of entrepreneurship, we speak of profit, but also of “creating value, generating a positive impact”.
Disseminating the entrepreneurial mindset based on this second idea is an action that will only benefit society.
After all, that way, we will have more people willing to create solutions to problems of our day to day .
And entrepreneurship can be stimulated even within companies, by managers when communicating with their employees.
It is called intra-entrepreneurship .
Instead of fearing that an employee leaves the company and becomes a competitor, see it as an efficient way to promote innovation and improve employee satisfaction .
In this way, intra-entrepreneurship is beneficial for both sides, as it favors new projects within the company and the growth of workers.
The link between entrepreneurship and innovation
The concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation are similar. To innovate is to create something new , while to undertake is to create a new business.
What happens is that, if this business does not bring anything different from what the existing companies offer, your chances of success decrease.
That is, it is recommended to always seek innovation when starting a contract, because starting from scratch and fighting with companies that have been in the market for decades is very difficult.
It is worth mentioning that, to innovate, it is not necessary to be an inventor and create a completely new product. Sometimes the opportunity is to create a niche in a very traditional area, to seek a differentiation that no one has thought of before.
Take the coffee trade as an example, one of the most traditional segments of the Brazilian economy, as the grain was once the main export product in Brazil.
Coming from a family with a tradition in coffee cultivation since 1886, entrepreneur Liana Baggio Ometto innovated by launching the line of flavored coffees, previously unheard of in the country.
Great example to be inspired, isn't it?
Digital entrepreneurship: an endless field
Those over 30 are able to perfectly remember the time when the internet existed in very rare homes. Today, the reality is different and most Brazilian families have unlimited connection to the world network. And computers are almost becoming a thing of the past, to the detriment of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices .
The popularization of these devices and internet access has had an immense effect in all areas of the economy.
With each passing day, a new online service appears that reinvents the way a certain activity is done. The Uber , for example, has revolutionized the transportation of people in cities.
The Airbnb forever changed the real estate rental market and rooms per season. Spotify and Netflix are companies that have changed the logic of the music and television industry.
These are just a few examples, and there is still a lot to come.
Want to enjoy and surf the wave of digital entrepreneurship? So, start studying the business model of these companies and think in which market the logic has not yet been applied.
Perhaps you will find a great opportunity there.
A tip: many successful online applications and services today operate by connecting two stakeholders (a customer and a service provider) and charging commission for it - a highly scalable and profitable business.
Is it worth taking an entrepreneurship course?
You probably have heard someone say that "the market is the best school", or that "it is in practice that you learn".
Really, you will never really understand what the challenges and difficulties, joys and satisfactions of an entrepreneur are, if you don't feel it in your skin.
But that does not mean that formal learning is expendable.
On the contrary, it guarantees valuable lessons that are sometimes only learned in practice when a failed project and a huge loss occur.
Qualification is essential, and you can start with a bachelor 's degree in Business from Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA) , the only graduate in the field in the country to achieve top marks in all assessments.
If you already have a college degree, don't stop there.
The Postgraduate Business Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a great option.
For those who already own a business, but do not want to stop growing , our recommendation is the MBA Business Management: Market Intelligence .
The importance of theory for best practice
It is necessary to understand that, in administration, theory only exists because it has already been tested in practice.
The lessons learned in the courses have to do with experiences, techniques and methodologies used in real companies.
Think that entrepreneurship didn't come yesterday .
Private profit-seeking institutions have been around for centuries, and in that time, a multitude of practices have been tested and perfected.
And it is a known fact that entrepreneurs who have no prior management knowledge have more difficulties to manage their companies. If your owner does not know what it is and how to make a cash flow , for example, how will the organization have the minimum financial security to meet its commitments on time ?
Processes to increase productivity , pricing methods and people management skills are other examples of knowledge that can be acquired in a course.
7 essential tips for you to undertake
Assuming that you have a good, viable and promising idea , to put it into practice, follow the advice below:
Without hard work, it is practically impossible to get a business off the ground and make it prosper.
If you intend to start developing it in your spare time, while keeping your job as an employee in a company, you need to be consistent .
In other words, do not be discouraged by the fact that things go slowly and continue doing a little bit each day, until you see that it is time to dedicate yourself to the project full time.
This is what we talked about in the previous items.
If you have the opportunity, take an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of Administration.
Are you unable to commit to a long course?
Check out the options for FIA extension courses , which are also very interesting , including distance learning courses .
It is also worth watching the lectures of the TED Talks event - in this link , you can check the content in Portuguese.
After completing the course, continue studying on your own .
Cultivate the habit of reading, even if it is reading fiction or other areas of knowledge.
Nothing is more beneficial to the intellect.
For inspiration, think of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett , voracious readers who are among the richest men in the world - just take a look at Buffett's reading recommendations .
This is not a possibility, it is a certainty.
The big question is how you will react to these mistakes. Crying?
No, instead it is necessary to accept them and, before turning the page, reflect on what they have taught you in order not to make the same mistake again.
If you want to grow your business, you need to trust others to delegate important activities to them.
Improve your talent selection and development processes and you'll find that delegating tasks will be much simpler.
Are you a leader or just a manager?
Always keep in mind the difference between the two: the leader inspires, the manager commands.
If you have a real concern for your employees, that they will improve their skills and grow within the company, you will be seen as a real leader.
It is important to have a 360 degree look at the company and to know at least the basics about each activity it develops.
And, more than that, to know how the various internal processes are related to each other, which characterizes the true systemic view.
Small entrepreneurs: understand why it is the fastest growing segment
Historically, entrepreneurship grows in Brazil in times of crisis. After all, unemployment increases and the population finds a way to make ends meet.
Many enterprises created are informal, that is, without the creation of a CNPJ.
With the creation of Simples Nacional and, mainly, the modality of Individual Microentrepreneurs (MEI) , in 2008, history began to change.
Because of these tax regimes that make life easier for the taxpayer, the number of small entrepreneurs has skyrocketed in the country. But there are also those who choose this type of enterprise even though they have the opportunity to expand their business.
After all, a small company is easier to manage , as there is much greater proximity to employees (who are few), great familiarity with all processes and the possibility to personalize the relationship with customers.
The possibility of being a young entrepreneur
It is clear that the older a person is, the more maturity, knowledge and skill to deal with difficult situations he will have.
But there are qualities common to young people that are also very interesting for the entrepreneur. He has, for example, a greater willingness to risk .
Here, it is worth remembering what we talked about earlier, that the ideal is a balance between boldness and conservatism.
Compared to the average person, however, the entrepreneur needs to be a little more daring. Just imagine how many businesses with good potential never got off the ground because their creators were afraid to take risks and preferred to continue with their jobs.
In addition, the young person has a much faster learning.
And even if you fail , you will reach maturity with a lot of practical experience and great lessons in your luggage so you don't go wrong again.
Entrepreneurship in Brazil: why were you born to undertake?
According to a survey by the Endeavor Institute , 61% of the country's population , that is, six out of ten Brazilians, dream of opening a company .
And many end up fulfilling that dream, despite the bureaucratic and financial difficulties that are imposed here.
Because the other option, to continue working as an employee for a company, is often worse - due to low pay, poor structure, lack of a career plan, etc.
In addition, the Brazilian people are known for being very creative , an interesting quality for the entrepreneur. In addition, in our country there are many low quality products or services, or niches that have not yet been explored.
This means that there is no lack of opportunity to enter a company in the market.
But when you put the dream into practice, remember the time when you were an employee and offer your employees a good work environment and remuneration compatible with the skills and responsibilities of each one.
How to undertake in Brazil?
Start looking for opportunities .
Ask this type of question:
Is there any demand in my neighborhood that is not well attended?
Is the experience of buying a certain product or service, whether physically or over the internet, positive?
And the quality of the product or service? What can improve?
In addition to these issues, it is very important to think about what you know and what you like to do.
Maybe you can start your company on the couch in your living room, with your notebook, providing a consulting service, digital marketing, programming, translation ...
To formalize the company, there are several tax regime options to fit the CNPJ. To fall into the categories of Simples Nacional, there are annual revenue limits.
Our tip is to consult an accountant to guide you, even if, in the end, you choose to become a MEI, the most uncomplicated modality.
Be financially disciplined from the start and try to separate personal accounts from those of the company. If possible, take courses to qualify (go back to the topic “Is it worth taking an entrepreneurship course?” And check out our tips).
Finally, if you have started a small business and have doubts about the best management practices, seek the help of the Brazilian Service of Support to Micro and Small Enterprises (Sebrae) .
12 successful entrepreneurs you need to know and who will inspire you
Each has its own trajectory, and it is recommended to let it happen naturally, without copying anyone. With planning, of course, but adaptable to the flow of events.
However, meeting, admiring and being inspired by people who took risks, innovated and achieved success is very healthy.
They can act in areas completely different from yours, but sometimes just knowing your story is enough to receive a high load of motivation.
Below, we highlight 12 entrepreneurs from Brazil and the world who can inspire you.
Costa sold Easter eggs from door to door and, at the age of 17, accepted an order for 2,000 eggs of a size that his supplier did not produce.
It was the opportunity to produce on my own, an inspiring initiative that gave rise to the Cacau Show .
Seabra had the idea of creating a Brazilian brand with the same business model as the American Avon.
With the death of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk became the fashion entrepreneur, especially among technology lovers.
Musk was once CEO of PayPal and created bold companies like Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity .
Seixas had a very simple idea, which was not well explored in Brazil: the online sale of t-shirts with different prints.
Thus, the Camiseteria appeared .
Geraldo Rufino has one of the most beautiful stories of entrepreneurship you can find.
A former picker , he now invoices R $ 50 million with a legal truck cutting company.
The richest man in China founded the Alibaba Group , a multinational technology conglomerate.
In addition to financial success, Jack Ma has an inspiring story of persistence.
American Jeff Bezos is an example of a visionary: he founded Amazon and bet on the idea of selling books online at a time when nobody thought that would be a good idea.
Son of Swiss, Lemann is the richest man in Brazil.
Among its various businesses, Ambev stands out , a global giant in the beer trade and an example of efficient and profitable management.
Guatemalan Luis von Ahn is another great inspiration for technology lovers.
Created Captcha, reCAPTCHA and Duolingo .
Luiza Helena Trajano transformed Magazine Luiza , a chain store in Franca, in the interior of São Paulo, into a brand that started to fight with giants in the segment in Brazil.
Brazil also has its successful digital entrepreneurs.
The young Romero Rodrigues is an example.
He founded Buscapé , an online service that compares prices from different online stores.
At the head of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate , Buffett has held the position of richest man in the world.
What calls your attention are your social projects and the cheerful and simple way you lead your life.
After reading all this, do you still think entrepreneurship is for you?
Remember that all the skills important to a successful entrepreneur can be developed.
Practical experience, of course, is an incredible source of learning, but so are undergraduate, graduate, MBA and extension courses.
Take a look at the FIA Business School course options and build a shortcut, learning fundamental content for the good management of an organization.
Not to mention that the curriculum of many qualifications includes projects based on real companies.
That is, you will have a good taste of the practice.
