##The role of an entrepreneur
Segal, Borgia and Schoenfeld (2005), define an entrepreneur as someone “who is self- employed, who starts, organizes, manages and assumes responsibility for a business [...]”. According to Segal, Borgia and Schoenfeld (2005), an entrepreneur is someone who is willing to accept personal financial risks in order to succeed. Wickam (2006) is of the same opinion when it comes to the risk taking part of being an entrepreneur. According to Wickam (2006) “ The notion of risk is one that is often associated with the entrepreneur”.
##Entrepreneur's tasks
According to Wickam (2006), an entrepreneur is someone who undertakes a particular project and engages himself in achieving an objective. Entrepreneurial is an adjective to describe how the entrepreneur undertakes what he does. An entrepreneur has to perform many tasks:
- Owning the organization: The entrepreneur usually owns the venture, which means he is the investor and the manager of the venture. But many entrepreneurs nowadays are only managers of their venture and they will choose a share option scheme.
- Founding new organizations: Entrepreneurs are not only founding their own organizations they could also buy into already founded organizations to extend, develop or absorb them into existing organizations.
- Bringing innovations to market: The entrepreneur’s task is to search for a short- term monopoly by inventing new products or services and bringing those products and services to the marketplace.
- Identification of market opportunity: According to Wickham (2006), an opportunity is “ [...] a gap in a market where the potential exists to do something better and thereby to create value”. Another task of an entrepreneur is to scan for those gaps left by their competitors to release an innovative product or service that meets the demands of the consumers.
- Application of expertise: As an entrepreneur it is important to have technical knowledge about the field he is working in, but what differentiates an entrepreneur from a normal worker is their ability in making decisions about resource allocation.
- Provision of leadership: Leadership is an important factor in entrepreneurial success. An entrepreneur could rarely drive their innovation to market on their own, for this he needs the support from people outside and inside of the organizations.
These are the tasks that an entrepreneur has to perform according to Wickham. Being an entrepreneur is not only about having innovative ideas. It is also about bringing that idea to the market at the right moment and managing the people who would help them in their project. He is the one who is responsible for his venture and most of the time he has to accept personal financial risks because the success of their venture is not without risks.
##When and why are they ready to take risks?
What makes these entrepreneurs ready to take the risks rather than working for someone else? Gillade and Levine (1986, cited in Segal, Borgia and Schoenfeld 2005) explained that individuals are pushed in entrepreneurship by two forces called the Push theory and the Pull theory.
The push theory
The Push theory is when an individual is pushed into entrepreneurship by negative external forces such as job dissatisfaction, difficulty finding a job, insufficient salary or inflexible schedule.
The pull theory
The Pull theory is when an individual is seeking to be independent, for self-fulfillment and wealth. Peter (2012) added that one reason why people want to start a company is to “capture what they perceive as an irresistible opportunity or to solve a vexing problem.”
Two forces can push an individual into creating his own company. These two forces could be classified as internal and external forces. The individual could be pushed by the external environment into entrepreneurship in order to make changes. He could also be a self-motivated person who wants to solve a problem or share an innovative idea. This force is coming internally to the individual. Before making the decision to step into the world of entrepreneurship, please make sure you are ready to take the risk. But people often say the higher the risk , the greater the return, so why not take that risk?