2016 showed a surge of growth in the entrepreneurial space in India. Even before that, the steady increase made India the country with the third highest in the number of entrepreneurs.
We are now in the middle of that exponential growth and expecting to see more. Government initiatives, younger workforce, the passion to do something different – all these factors are helping India to surge ahead.
So, the first few questions that come to mind, on seeing these trends are – What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? And why are people choosing to be entrepreneurs?
If we look beyond the theoretical definitions, one of the simplest ways to explain an entrepreneur’s role is that it is an individual who sets up his or her own venture or business. So being an entrepreneur means someone who has seen an opportunity that existed in the market and created a product or service on that, in order to make money.
It is this person who accepts the risks and manages the returns that the business brings. It means that the person has the ability to absorb unpredictability and absence of stable financial income, in the short run, in order to be able to create a profitable enterprise in the long run.
That is what it means to be an entrepreneur.
Many times, friends and family ask you about benefits of being an entrepreneur. They look to you for inspiration and gather some good points on how to be an entrepreneur. I am sharing these benefits from my personal experience. In no way, does it mean that it is an easy road to travel but, it is a definitely a journey worth going through.
So here are some benefits which are the positive aspects of being an entrepreneur:
1. Your time and schedule is yours – Almost everything about the venture is within your control, whether it is your time investment and how you schedule your days or the kind of people you want to work with. This is a big advantage in today’s world where work and life are overlapping constantly, for a person.
2. Self-learning is a constant phenomenon – As an entrepreneur there is always something new to learn – because typically you are a one-person company when you start out and the teams that get created are also usually small, and performing hybrid roles. So the learning opportunities for you an entrepreneur are immense especially from a practical perspective.
3. You own the results of your efforts – The results that you achieve from the effort you put in are entirely yours. The investment of your time results in creating something big for yourself. As an entrepreneur this means that you get the satisfaction of knowing that the result of what you have created belongs to you.
4. You could be the first one of a future generation business family – For all established businesses where the new generation is spearheading further growth, someone in their older generation would have made first move to start as an entrepreneur. Someone has to start that journey and it gives a lot of satisfaction to realize that it was you who started that journey. So being the pioneering business person in your own family can be very fulfilling
5. You can create an everlasting brand from your passion – Your venture becomes an extension of yourself and you create a brand that arises from what you believe in or are passionate about. This passion leads to developing your business’s products or services and at a personal as well as professional level, this can be extremely fulfilling.
What are the benefits of you being an entrepreneur, to the economy –
1. Employment creation – It is a known fact that entrepreneurs help the economy by creating jobs for the local workforce. This is a significant benefit for the economy since with the growing population of young workforce, there is a constant need to create new jobs.
2. Fostering Innovation – Entrepreneurs bring in innovation and path-breaking ideas into the economy. That is what fuels its growth and takes it to the next level.
The above list of benefits is indicative of the important ones that come from being an entrepreneur. In addition to this, there are many other positive elements to the role that make it an enriching one – both in terms of the final achievement and the journey itself.
Guest Post by Amit Dua – CoFounder and CEO at Signity Solutions and ValueAppz.
