Entrepreneurship is as vital as blood to the sustainability of any body of people that make up a nation. The trends in this nation go from alarmingly large gaps between the rich and the poor (57.8% highest in the world) to the highest unemployment rates in sub-Saharan Africa which translate into a need for about 5 to 6 million jobs. Defined as “the act of initiating, creating, building an entrepreneurial team, and gathering the necessary resources to exploit an opportunity in the marketplace for long-term wealth and capital gain” (Van Aardt, 2011), entrepreneurship, amongst other things, is the only way that the before mentioned gap can be eradicated increasing the competitiveness of our nation amongst the best.
OUR HISTORY: BLACK GOLD AND DIAMONDS
South Africa wasn’t always in this place. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we once fostered a flourishing group of black entrepreneurs who provided a majority of the consumed food to miners working in the Kimberly diamond mines. They saw the need and capitalized. Independent black carters carted the mine equipment and supplies to the diggings overland from either Cape Town or Durban by ox wagon before the rail was established and once gold mining expanded in different areas of South Africa, black-communities ran large-scale industrial style laundry trade - amongst other things - within the mining community only for the economic position of successful black farmers contained by the so-called “black spots” to be broken by racial segregation, the 1913 Land Act and Apartheid. This destroyed the same early class of black entrepreneurs that South Africa is now fighting to regain, and it has not been easy.
“IT’S MY CULTURE”: CREATING INNOVATERS, NOT IMITATORS
It was Malcolm...
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Entrepreneurship is a valuable skill that every person should acquire and use in their lifetime,
In a comparative light there seems to be significant problems, or obstacles, for African-American entrepreneurs. These problems are categorized by environmental factors, opportunity factors, and issues related to capital. The purpose of this paper is to provide sociological, and economical insight to the plight of African-American entrepreneurs. There is an effort to trace the development of African-American entrepreneurship throughout American history, in the post-reconstruction era to the present, in relationship to social conditions of discrimination. Uniquely, African-American entrepreneurs are involved in the affirmation of a paradox of American ideology. African-American entrepreneurs, in pursuit of the American dream, have been taught to stress individual success where what is needed is communal solidarity to foster access to the things that they have been categorically denied.
South Africa has come a long way since the days of apartheid, from being a country living within sanctions to evolving to a mixed economy. It has become too diverse that citizens are liberated into certain economic activities of their choice. Everyone is entitled to their own private freedom, combined with centralized with economic planning and government regulation.
The economic conditions of levels of income in Cape Town are seen as mostly lower upper class. Cape Town is known to be South Africa’s second-richest city preceding Johannesburg. Most of Cape Town’s economic activity is steered by small, medium and micro enterprises (City of Cape Town, 2014). Other economic drivers include; finance, insurance, real estate and business services and business services; manufacturing; wholesale and retail trade, catering and accommodation.
The annual spend of the South Africa’s black middle class has since risen to over R400-billion per annum compared to their white middle class counterparts whose spending power is estimated at R380 billion. Disposable household income has increased by 35% for the black middle class, since 2004, and will continue to grow in years to come. UCT Unilever Institute. (2007).
John says that white men think “South Africa is built on mines” but in reality “it is built on [the natives’] backs, on [the natives’] sweat, on [the natives’] labor”(Paton 68). They leave their wives, children and family to come to work in Johannesburg which in of itself literally pulls families
There has been a large amount of attention paid to the subject of entrepreneurship in the last few years; mainly because most people have chosen to go from working for somebody else, to be their own bosses and work for their dreams. Nevertheless, many still wonder what is entrepreneurship and what is that sets entrepreneurs apart from other regular business owners. At first, it seems both concepts do not differ much from each other since they both start up and run businesses and assume risks to pursue opportunities; however, there are certain traits that difference them.
"Entrepreneurs who start and build new businesses are more celebrated than studied. They embody, in the popular imagination and in the eyes of some scholars, the virtues of "boldness, ingenuity, leadership, persistence and determination." Policymakers see them as a crucial source of employment and productivity growth. Yet our systematic knowledge of how entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses is limited. The activity does not occupy a prominent place in the study of business and economics.
Corporate Entrepreneurship can be seen as the process whereby an individual or a group creates a new venture within an existing organization, revitalizes and renews an organization ,or innovates. Zahra’s(1986) definition of corporate entrepreneurship suggests a formal or informal activity aimed at creating new businesses in established firms through product and process innovations and market developments,whereas sathe(1985) defines corporate entrepreneurship as a process of organizational renewal. Corporate Entrepreneurship has emerged as a much needed ingredient contributing towards the growth of any organization under a changing business environment.
Entrepreneurship incorporates unconstrained imagination and a readiness to settle on choices without strong information. The entrepreneur may be driven by a need to make something new or assemble something unmistakable. As new ventures have low achievement rates, the business person should have impressive tirelessness. Because of this, the entrepreneur may have the best risk of achievement by concentrating on a business sector corner either too little or too new to have been commanded by built up organizations.
Nowadays, entrepreneurship becomes most popular career, where our government encourages our graduated student to involve in business so that unemployment will not happen in our country. Policymakers, academics, and researcher agree that entrepreneurship is a vital route to economic advancement for both developed and developing economics (Zelealem et al., 2004). Entrepreneurship has many types for example small business and others. Today small business, particularly the new ones, is the main vehicle for entrepreneurship, contributing not just to employment, social and political stability, but also to innovation and competitive power (Thurik & Wennekers, 2004).
The success of a business is greatly dependent on its entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is someone who takes the financial risk of starting and managing a new business venture. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, one must be ready to take a risk and invest one’s own savings into a business. The job requires that the individual be ambitious and committed to working hard in order to achieve the set targets. A successful entrepreneur is able to multi-task and communicates effectively with people, possessing leadership qualities such as confidence and motivation. The individual must play the role of constant motivator and inspire employees to improve their work performance, whilst ensuring a comfortable environment for the employees to work in. According to Schumpeter (1982), an entrepreneur is more of a ‘heroic’ than an ‘economic’ figure; his motivation should not solely be monetary, rather stemming more from inspiration and ambition.
Many people dream of becoming entrepreneurs someday. But it made me realize that there other factors that needs to be taken into consideration. We need to ask ourselves are we ready to take the challenge to the outside world. Not everyone have the vision, innovation and creativity to become an entrepreneur. The individual must have a positive attitude and accept the responsibility, have discipline to meet their goals, and take action when the opportunity presents itself. Many prefer a job security and rely on a weekly paycheck, while entrepreneurs will take risks and doesn 't have that luxury to know the amount of their income.
Entrepreneurship is an important aspect of social, economic and community life. It can be viewed as a critical factor to economic growth as well as a way of addressing unemployment (Nolan, 2003).Entrepreneurs are people who are persistently focused on identifying opportunities, they seek to create something worthwhile while taking into account foreseeable risk and rewards associated with the efforts (Nolan, 2003). Furthermore, entrepreneurs are frequently understood to be individuals who discover market needs and establish new business to meet those identified opportunities. The following assignment will firstly discuss the types of entrepreneurship, secondly it will discuss the reasons people become entrepreneurs, and thirdly it will discuss the importance of entrepreneurship.