Visions and Ventures

You can:  be your own boss.  do the kind of work you enjoy.  set your own working hours.  set up your office or workshop the way you want it.  choose the people who work with you.  create jobs by hiring employees.  meet other people who share your interests.  increase your income if the business does well.  pride in what you have achieved.  help people in your community.

 What do you think you would enjoy the most about owning and running your own business? Why do you think this?  What benefits of being an enterprising person would you like?

 If you make a bad decision, your employees could suffer.  You need to pay your bills and your employees before you pay yourself. There might be times when you earn less income than you would as an employee. You might not earn any income.  If business is slow, you may need to let some employees go.  A competing business may take customers away from your business.  Your business might not succeed.

 An entrepreneur who hires employees provides jobs for people in a community.  When people in a community have jobs, many people benefit.  People who have money to spend may be customers for other businesses.

What Entrepreneurs Contribute turn demand into supply provide venture capital provide jobs promote changes in society create more wants

 Those who make things happen.  Those who watch things happen.  Those who wonder what happened. What kind of student are you going to be in this course?

 Write down one word that is a measurement of success.  Happiness  Enjoyment of life  Friends  Family  Security  Love

 Explain the following sentence in your own words;  ‘Attitude, not aptitude means altitude.’

 Is a state of mind that you choose to see your life through.  You could have a positive attitude and see all the positive things in life, or you could have a negative attitude and see all the negative things in life.

 Successful entrepreneurs share common characteristics and skills.  These can be encouraged and developed.

 Successful entrepreneurs have certain personal characteristics.  Read the Management Team Plan.

 From this list, write down four characteristics that you would use to describe yourself:  1.  2.  3.  4.  Now list four characteristics that you think you could develop:  1.  2.  3.  4.

 Attitude  Character  Energy

 Write down in 1-2 sentences why you think entrepreneurs need a lot of energy to help them be successful?  Do entrepreneurs require luck to be successful?  Can you create your own luck?  Is your success dependent on destiny?  Or something else?  Write down in a paragraph how ACE will affect your upcoming business ventures in this class. Hand in when finished.

 Enterprising person: ◦ a person who shows creativity, courage, and energy in starting and carrying out tasks.  Persevere: ◦ keep trying to reach a goal, even when it is difficult.  Attitude: ◦ how a person thinks, sees life, and reacts to situations.  Employee: ◦ a person who works for a business.  Initiative: ◦ the ability to set one’s own goals and work to achieve the goals

 You might prefer to work for somebody that provides you with a good job, income, opportunity for advancement.  This however, does not mean that you need to stop being an enterprising person.  An enterprising person sets goals and works hard to achieve them.  Enterprising people persevere even when things are difficult.  Enterprising people usually have a positive attitude.  Initiative is a quality that helps enterprising people get things done.  They are often able to think of unusual or imaginative ideas.

 Who is the most enterprising person you know? Explain your choice.  Describe a time when you used initiative.  Describe a time when you had to persevere.  How will attitude affect your upcoming business ventures?

 Income: ◦ money received by a person or business  Salary: ◦ a regular payment for work  Hourly wage: ◦ an amount of money paid for each hour of work  Motivation: ◦ a reason to do something  Internal motivator: ◦ a feeling or characteristic that motivates people from within themselves  External motivator: ◦ a person or thing that motivates people from outside

 An entrepreneur must decide whether to pay herself or himself a salary.  An entrepreneur may decide to keep the money earned by the business.  It may be necessary to spend the money on the business to help ensure its success.  Why might it be necessary to spend money on the business itself?  Most entrepreneurs work long hours every day in order to make their businesses successful.

 Young entrepreneurs may take more risks than adult entrepreneurs.  Why?  Many young people are happy to earn a small income from a business. They may have fewer personal bills to pay.  Youth have more time to earn money later.  They may have fewer personal responsibilities.

 What do you think are some challenges for young entrepreneurs?  Young entrepreneurs may have less work experience.  Young entrepreneurs may have more difficulty getting financing. Fortunately, there are programs to help them get started in business.

 Many successful entrepreneurs have failed at some point.  Many entrepreneurs say they learned more from their failures than their successes.  Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure.