Overcoming Barriers & Setting Goals: Personal Drive & Motivation in Entrepreneurship, Lecture notes of Entrepreneurship

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MODULE 1

SESSION 4:

THE ENTREPRENEUR AND HIS PERSONAL INITIATIVE

Source: https://onlineprofitsroute.com/taking-action-in-your-entrepreneurship/ https://www.opeduca.eu/Entrepreneurial_Learning.html#:~:text=From%20Entrepreneurship%20courses%20to%20Learning%20to%20be%20Ent repreneurial Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

What Is This Session About? Congratulations! You are now on the last session of Module 1. Now that we have learned about the characteristics that set entrepreneurs apart, we will now learn how they actually do so. We have learned that opportunity identification is a skill that is really important for entrepreneurs to have as it is used not only in the beginning of an entrepreneurial venture but also throughout the entrepreneurial process. Another aspect that an entrepreneur needs to develop is personal initiative and that is what our discussion will be focused on for this session. We will learn that being self-starting, proactive and persistent are behaviors that must be developed in order to succeed in any entrepreneurial venture. What Will You Learn? At the end of this session, we will have learned about what personal initiative and its relevance to our entrepreneurial journey. We will also learn about action principles which is the framework from which entrepreneurial actions are made. What Do You Already Know? For this session, we will start our discussion in a different manner. Try to remember what you did throughout the day yesterday, from the moment you woke up to the time you went to bed. List them down, and be as detailed as possible. The first one has been done for you as an example. MY DAY: Time Activity 6:00 AM Woke up to my alarm clock. Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

Let’s Reflect: Take a look at your day and ask yourself the following questions:

1. What was not good? Where have you been passive and reactive? Where have you not acted in a self-starting way?
2. Write down alternative good and self-starting behavior you could have shown. Let’s Study: Entrepreneurship requires action. In all phases of the entrepreneurial process (opportunity identification, preparing the start-up, running the business), the entrepreneur has to act to successfully accomplish each phase. For example, in the first phase of opportunity identification , the entrepreneur has to actively search for information to get ideas. In the second phase, the entrepreneur has to organize equipment, funding, and establish the production process. In the third phase , the entrepreneur has to manage customers, employees and plan the development of the business. Yet, being active and initiating action is not always easy. Internal barriers like perseveration and procrastination inhibits action. Similarly, external barriers like unfavorable circumstances and lack of resources also impede action. This Session deals with Planning and Implementing Plans vis-à-vis Personal Initiative and Self-Motivation. Personal Initiative and Self-Motivation help the entrepreneur to initiate action and to achieve goals. Personal Initiative is a behavior by an individual that is characterized by: 1. Being self-starting;
3. Being proactive; and Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

3. Being persistent in the pursuit of a goal. The contrary behavior is being passive and doing only what one is told, giving up in the face of difficulties and reacting to environmental demands rather than actively shaping one’s environment. Self-regulatory techniques help the entrepreneur achieving his or her goals by guiding his or her thoughts, affect, and behavior over time and across changing circumstances. To demonstrate the importance of action the module starts with the following statement: “There are three types of people in the world : those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.”

• Mary Kay Ash Entrepreneurship is making things happen. Therefore, it is important that the students adopt a mindset of taking initiative and of making things happen. PERSONAL INITIATIVE In the past, Personal Initiative has been consistently linked to performance in various work domains and particularly in the domain of entrepreneurship in Africa. In future, Personal Initiative will become even more important. To succeed in the face of global competition, faster rates of ‘/innovation, and new product/service concepts, entrepreneurs must take the initiative to develop their knowledge and skills, to come up with creative ideas for new products/services and to bring these new product/services faster to the market. Additionally, an entrepreneur has to deal with all the daily issues of a business owner. The entrepreneur has to raise capital, develop short- and long-term plans, operate and market the business, and lead the employees. All these tasks require that the entrepreneur becomes active and remains active until the goal is achieved. Finally, the entrepreneur is the only person in a business without a supervisor and therefore the entrepreneur has to set goals and define tasks without being told. For the entrepreneur, there are no explicit instructions, assigned tasks or specified role requirements. Therefore, the entrepreneur has to show Personal Initiative to initiate all the essential actions and steps to successfully start and run a business. Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

Showing Personal Initiative per se is not an entrepreneur’s task but it promotes successful accomplishment of all the necessary tasks like opportunity identification, preparing the start-up, and running the business. Therefore, the action principles of this module will also be integrated into the other modules that relate to specific entrepreneurial tasks. The Aspects of Personal Initiative Being Self-Starting Being self-starting implies that an entrepeneurs starts doing something without being told. The entrepreneur sets goals he or she would like to achieve and starts the action necessary to achieve the goal. That is, entrepreneurs who show Personal Initiative initiate action on their own accord. Another important in this context is the level of the goal set by the entrepreneur. Selfstarting goals are not the obvious paths that everybody is taking but they are qualitatively different. Self-set goals imply that an entrepreneur does something different, unusual or something that goes “beyond”. This means that an entrepreneur does not copy from competitors but goes the extra mile and pursues a goal that leads to something new or innovative. Being Pro-Active Proactivity is to have a long-term focus. A long-term focus allows anticipating future problems or opportunities. With a long-term focus, and individual can prepare for those problems or opportunities and do something proactively about them. An entrepreneur who is proactive anticipates the future and does not wait until he or she can only react environmental challenges. In that way, a proactive entrepreneur can deal with threats immediately or exploit opportunities when they arise. Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

Being Persistent Being persistent implies that an entrepreneur does not give up when facing obstacles or problems but finds other ways to achieve the goal. These problems or obstacles can have many reasons : technical problems, resistance, other people’s inertia, lack of resources, or regulations. The important thing is that an entrepreneur accepts that things usually do not work out perfectly from the very beginning and that the entrepreneur overcomes the setbacks. Overcoming setbacks and barriers can take different forms : either trying again the same approach when dealing with a problem, trying out a new approach, or finding a completely different way to solve the problem. For example, if an entrepreneur is turned down by a venture capitalist, he or she can either call again (probably with a better strategy) or find a different way of acquiring capital for the business. Personal Initiative When Accomplishing Tasks Every entrepreneur has to accomplish manifold tasks from various areas. However, all the tasks from the different areas are alike in terms of the general action steps the entrepreneur has to take. The four general actions steps to accomplish a task are to:

1. Set a goal to define what the entrepreneur wants to achieve;
2. Collect information to orient and to carry out informed actions;
3. Plan which actions to take, to define sub-goals that are essential to achieve the actual goal, and to eventually execute the planned actions; and
4. Get feedback and to monitor whether the actions led to goal achievement. The entrepreneur can show Personal Initiative in each of the general action steps. Table 1 illustrates the facets of Personal Initiative along the general steps of action. Table 1. The facets of Personal Initiative along the steps of action Step in action sequence Self-Starting Pro-Active Persistent Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

Goals

• Self-set goals
• Active goals
  • Anticipate future problems / opportunities and convert into goal - Protect goals when frustrated or taxed by complexity Information collection
• Active search / scanning
• Consider potential problem areas before they occur
• Maintain search in spite of setbacks Plan and Execution
• Active plan • Back-up plans
• Have plans for opportunities ready
• Overcome barriers
• Return to plan when disturbed Monitoring and Feedback
• Self-developed feedback
• Active search for feedback
• Develop pre-signals for potential problems and opportunities
• Protect feedback search Being Self-Starting Being self-starting implies that the entrepreneur sets goals on his own and that these goals go beyond the usual goals. In the next steps, the entrepreneur seeks actively information that are relevant to accomplish the task. The entrepreneur contacts various sources to get to know the environment and does not wait until relevant information just “hit” him or her. Self- starting information seeking is related to an active exploration of the environment. The more the entrepreneur explores, the more whites spots from his or her business map disappear which might otherwise be potential pitfalls for the entrepreneur. Being self-starting regarding planning and execution implies that the entrepreneur develops a plan that is elaborate and detailed. A detailed and elaborate plan provides the steps necessary to achieve the goal. However, this does not mean that an entrepreneur should stick to the plan at all events. If opportunities arise, the entrepreneur should flexibly adapt the plan to exploit them. A combination of detailed planning and an opportunistic approach should be best for the Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

entrepreneurs. However, this refers only to the entrepreneur’s planning. Regarding the goals, the entrepreneur should keep them even when problems occur. The simple formula is: Be stable on goals but flexible on the plans to reach the goal! Being self-starting regarding feedback is straightforward. The entrepreneur should actively seek feedback from different sources to monitor whether he or she achieved the goal. This also includes that the entrepreneur develops ways of getting feedback automatically , like regular customer surveys or a performance measurement system of various business success indicators. The opposite of self-starting behavior is reactive behavior. The following table provides an overview of the difference between self-starting and reactive behavior. Table 2. Self-Starting vs. Reactive Behavior Self-Starting Behaviour Reactive Behaviour start an action yourself wait until people tell you; doing nothing change your environment and unfavorable circumstances react to environmental changes; complain, wait, and hope that things get better act first – be ahead of your competitors react and only copy what competitors are doing be new – actively look for new ideas, implement new ideas wait until you have to react only sticking to old routines, wait until ideas come from alone, ideas only remain thoughts and dreams be different – be different from your competitors offer the same as your competitors look for information and possibilities to learn wait until people give you information and not actively extending knowledge Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

Being Self-Starting also means extra effort. In the context of this entrepreneurship training it means that the students have to accomplish tasks in addition to their normal duties (e.g., studies). For example, developing a product, assembling resources, getting partners, and finding customers requires spending extra energy, facing uncertainties, and taking risks. However, only those students who are willing to spend this extra effort will be successful eventually. From the research on Personal Initiative and its facet of self-starting behavior the following action principle is derived: Be Self-Starting!

1. Strive for the non-obvious! Do something that is new, different, unusual, something that adds a new quality and that goes beyond!
2. Be willing to spend extra energy and to go the extra mile!
3. Seek information that helps you carrying out your plan!
4. Develop a detailed and elaborate plan how you will achieve your goal!
5. Seek feedback to monitor the progress in your goal attainment! Let’s Think About This: We now know the behaviors important to entrepreneurial success. Now, let’s ask ourselves this:
6. How can we become self-starting with our daily activities?
7. How is being pro-active different from being reactive?
8. Why is persistence important in the entrepreneurial process? Let’s Try This: Case 1 – The Case of Eden: Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

Eden is in the carpentry business and produces wardrobes and chairs. Eden was formerly employed in a big furniture manufacturing company. For getting business knowledge she had joined a bookkeeping course. Eden’s business has grown a lot within the past two years. She has recently set herself the goal: “double the size of the business within another two years”. To reach her goal, she went to a larger furniture sales company in her neighborhood and offered her products. After being rejected first, she made another try and offered chairs of a special design she had seen on Pinterest. Finally, she got a contract. In addition, Eden sends out an employee once a month to distribute flyers announcing special offers. She also rents a van every second Saturday for delivery service. Moreover, she regularly meets people in carpentry business to exchange on problems and new designs. Instruction: Identify self-starting behavior and its consequences. What self-starting behavior did Eden show? What are the consequences? Case 2 –The Case of Martha: Martha started her carpentry business 10 years ago. She had acquired her business knowledge during her time as delivery driver for one of the furniture manufacturers in town. So far, she has not taken part in training. Since she has no ideas for new designs, she sticks to the Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University

same designs for many years now. Her workshop is located in a suburb of the city so that access is one of her biggest problems. She has no own vehicle what forces her to sell her products at the roadside. She thinks that gaining access to her customers would be necessary but until now she has not tried anything new. Instruction: Identify reactive behavior and its consequences. What reactive behavior did Martha show? What are the consequences? Ma. Crestia Banares (2020). Module 1, The Entrepreneur and His Mind. Department of Entrepreneurship, Bicol University