Classroom Tools Series: Livelihood Education
Entrepreneurship Class Part 1: How Entrepreneurial Are You?
The Chambers Encyclopedic English Dictionary defines entrepreneur as “a person who engages in business enterprises, usually with some personal financial risk”. Indeed, for potential entrepreneurs to succeed in a business, they should possess leadership and creative qualities that will enable them to take risks and respond to the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
How entrepreneurial are you and what are the personal entrepreneurial characteristics (PECs) that you must develop? Ask yourself the following questions and determine your potential on becoming a successful entrepreneur!1
- Am I self-confident? Do I have a strong belief in myself to do a difficult task?
Do I like to seek new challenges or activities to engage in?
- Am I an opportunity seeker? Do I seek for new business opportunities? Do I find ways of obtaining financing, equipment, land, and materials?
- Am I committed to work? Would I be able to make personal sacrifices and extra efforts to complete a task? Do I accept full responsibility in completing work on time?
- Am I a risk taker? Am I willing to accept challenges that involve some risks? Do I consider taking moderate risks as part of doing business?
- How do I set my goals? Do I have clear and specific short-term objectives? Have I set clear long-term personal/business goals?
- Am I an information seeker? Do I seek information on clients, suppliers, or technical advice? Do I ask experts for business or technical advice?
- Am I persistent? Do I take different actions to overcome a problem? Do I stick to my own judgment even if others oppose it or there are early signs of possible failures?
- Am I a problem solver? Do I welcome problems and seek solutions to them? Do I find new ways to solve problems and reach my goals?
- Am I persuasive? Am I generally successful in persuading or influencing others? Do I use my personal/business contacts to accomplish an objective?
- Am I pro-efficiency? Do I always try to do things better, faster, and cheaper? Do I always try to improve on past performance?
- Do I put attention to quality? Do I always desire to produce a better product or service? Do I try to improve things all the time?
- Am I assertive? Do I take on a leadership role within my peers/community? Do I feel comfortable telling others what they have to do?
- Do I initiate and practice resourcefulness? Do I do things before being asked or forced to do? Am I always among the first to find solutions to problems?
- Am I influential? Do I try to develop business and personal contacts? Do I use people as agents in accomplishing my objectives?
- Am I a systematic planner? Do I use reasonable, step-by-step plans to reach my goals? Do I consider several alternatives and monitor the progress of my activities?
To learn more about your entrepreneurial skills and characteristics, you can also take EconEdLink’s self-evaluation test. Other classroom activities can also be found at EconEdLink online lessons page.
For more activities, online resources, lesson plans on the evaluation of PECs, check out the links below:
Source:
1Small Enterprise Development Center. “Being An Entrepreneur”. Retrieved on July 4, 2007 from http://www.tcibusinesscentre.com/PECs.html
