 The role of the entrepreneur is to combine human, natural and man- made resources in order to produce goods or services.

 Without enterprise the provision of goods and services will not happen.  The entrepreneur sets things in motion by: › having and then developing a business idea › ensuring that all the resources necessary are available to put the idea into practice › using his/her own, or borrowed money to finance the cost of acquiring the resources. › being willing to take the risk of losing what has been invested.

 The entrepreneur will identify an opportunity to provide new goods or services, or to provide existing goods or services cheaper or in a better way.  This could involve identifying a new market for existing products, such as sports clothing for casual wear, as was the case with John Boyle and Sports Division.  Stagecoach, started out by offering very cheap bus journeys from Glasgow to London which proved very popular and profitable.  James Dyson successfully developed an effective solution to the loss of suction in bagged vacuum cleaners and now produces the most popular cleaners in western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

 Starting a new business involves a high level of risk.  In order to minimise the chances of failure, many budding entrepreneurs use franchising as a means of starting up their own business.  There is a greater chance of success as support and guidance is provided to the franchisee by the franchiser.  For eg Richard Branson, who, despite amassing great wealth through successful business ventures over recent decades, was eager to obtain a franchise to run Virgin Trains on the former British Rail network. It entails the risk of losing £millions should Virgin fail to meet the targets agreed when they took on the franchise.