Module 1: Overview of Entrepreneurship

What is Entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is a proactive process of developing a business venture to make a profit. It involves
seeking opportunities for a market, establishing and operating a business out of the opportunity, and
assessing its risks and rewards through close monitoring of the operations.

Societal and Economic benefits of entrepreneurship:

1. Entrepreneurship produces more jobs that equate to an increase in national income.
2. Entrepreneurship amplifies economic activities of different sectors of society.
3. Entrepreneurship introduces new and innovative products and services.
4. Entrepreneurship improves people’s living standards.
5. Entrepreneurship disperses the economic power and creates equality.
6. Entrepreneurship controls the local wealth and balances regional development.
7. Entrepreneurship reduces social conflicts and political unrest.
8. Entrepreneurship elicits economic independence and capital formation.

Who Is an Entrepreneur?
The word “entrepreneur” has a French origin and was coined from the words entre, which means
“between,” and prendre, which means “to take.”
An entrepreneur is a unique individual who has the innate ability and extraordinary dedication to establish
and manage a business, acknowledging all the risks and reaping its rewards.

According to Action Coach, there are five levels of entrepreneurial development:

1. The self-employed. Self-employed persons are, simply put, not comfortable with the routines of a
desk job. They do not want to conform to a fixed working schedule.
2. The manager. In this level, entrepreneurs feel the need to step up and ask some help form the
people around them. They delegate and hire potential employees to do the work.
3. The leader. Entrepreneurs in this level already enjoy seeing their people flourish, stepping up and
producing great results with minimal supervision.
4. The investor. Investors look for more opportunities for their business to grow. They may either
purchase one or two businesses that can potentially add value to the company, or sell their
established business (as a franchise) to potential entrepreneurs.
5. The true entrepreneur. True entrepreneur, based on their experience, now aim for quality and
excellence in their work. They have fully learned, and continue to practice, a four-step process of
thinking – starting with idealization, visualization, verbalization, and materialization.
Idealization, entrepreneurs dream enormously and desire to build an ideal environment.
Visualization, entrepreneurs start to create plans to make a dream a reality.
Verbalization, involves sharing their ideas with other people, knowing that their vision is already
occurring.
Materialization, happens when the vision becomes a reality.

The world of entrepreneurship these days has already evolved, and new terms are coined to suit an
entrepreneur’s field or expertise. Here are some of them.
1. A technopreneur is an entrepreneur who puts technology at the core of his or her business
model.
2. A social entrepreneur is one who takes advantage of the country’s social problems and turn them
to profitable institutions with the intention of helping the disadvantaged community rather than
making a profit.
3. An intrapreneur is an entrepreneur in a large company or corporation who is tasked to think,
establish, and run a new big idea or project.
 4. An extrapreneur is an entrepreneur who hops from one company to another to act as the
innovation champion, providing creative and efficient solutions.

Common and Core Competencies in Entrepreneurship

Common traits that entrepreneurs should always have:
1. Proactive. Entrepreneurs are reactive rather than passive. They address issues, problems, and
challenges before they come rather than when they already happened.
2. Agents of Change. Entrepreneurs are innovation champions. They see opportunities in hopeless
and complex situations.
3. Risk takers. Entrepreneurs will not be successful if they do not take risks. By taking risks,
entrepreneurs do not just grab opportunities left and right; they have to take into consideration the
potential various threats they may encounter.
4. Have a sharp eye for opportunities. Entrepreneurs have a talent for recognizing an opportunity
even by using the macrolevel data only.
5. Sociable. Soft skills are one of the most important competencies of entrepreneurs as these
establish the relationship with the most important assets of the company – its people and its
customers.
6. Networkers. A networker knows the key people to connect with. Networking can be very
intimidating task, for it takes a lot of guts to pull it off.
7. Decisive. Entrepreneurs always have a decision about their business.
8. Balanced. The minds of entrepreneurs should have a balance between the analytical and the
creative side.
9. Innovative. The minds of entrepreneurs are rich with the big ideas that can add value to their
existing business or could become a game changer in the industry or business where they
belong.

Here are the core traits that entrepreneurs should develop in managing and running the business.
1. Leaders. Successful entrepreneurs always have the heart of a leader. To be successful leaders,
they must be a source of inspiration for their employees.
2. Communicators. Entrepreneurs know how to use all forms of communication to effectively share
ideas and address certain concern with their customers or employee.
3. Specialists. Entrepreneurs are experts in their chosen business. They are tactical and are very
keen with details.
4. Problems solvers. Entrepreneurs possess critical thinking skills and look at problems as
challenges or puzzle that they need to solve.

Here is a list of the most common small businesses in the Philippines.

1. Sari-sari store. A sari-sari store is one of the easiest businesses to set up due to the minimal
capital required and because it can be managed at home, where the business owner lives.
2. Rice retailing. Because rice is the staple food of Filipinos and other Asian countries, rice retailing
business is very common in the country.
3. Food cart business. The number of food cart businesses is not as big as the number of sari-sari
stores, but food carts are present in almost every populous location. They are usually located
inside or outside the malls, schools, parks, train stations, and offices.
4. Printing business. This business is also lucrative in the Philippines because the demand is very
high. Printing businesses also cater to the printing demands of occasions such as weddings,
anniversaries, birthdays, funerals, and graduations.
5. Buy-and-sell business. This business is one of the emerging businesses in the Philippines, and it
is not just done traditionally in brick-and-mortar stores but also over the Internet.
6. Street food business. Literally located in streets, selling almost the same food products being sold
by the food cart business.
7. Flea market business or tiangge. In this type of business, entrepreneurs set up a small space and
sell any type of goods in a palengke setup that is normally in an open space.
8. Online selling business. This business deals with adding the Internet as a marketing and
transaction channel for selling.
9. Cellphone loading business. Some entrepreneurs link the cellphone loading business to their
existing businesses such as the sari-sari store, food cart, or online business.
10. Laundry and dry cleaning business. This type of business is often located at central business
districts and areas with several condominiums and townhouses.
11. Hair styling and makeup business. One of the successful businesses in the Philippines is the
hairstyling business, which includes parlors and barber shops. Filipinos are generally conscious
about proper grooming and hygiene, so that’s why this business is profitable.
12. Spa, gym, and nail care business. One of the ways Filipinos cope with stress is by going to a spa.
13. Video and photography business. This business requires talent in capturing precious moments of
celebrators in weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and other important events.
14. Tutorial business. This business caters to students who are not able to catch up with their
lessons, or those who just want to be ahead in class.
15. Baking business. A lot of bakeries are present in almost all neighborhoods in the Philippines
because bread is the second staple food of Filipinos. Pan de sal is the most common bread being
offered by this business.
16. Web site development and design/blogging. In this business, the Web site developer
conceptualizes and implements a Web site for another business whose objective is to inform,
persuade, and remind its customers.
17. Direct selling business. It is a face-to-face selling of products by a sales agent.
18. Car wash and car care business. You often see his business in large cities because of the
proliferation of cars.
19. Bar,café, and restaurant. The number of foodies (food enthusiasts) has increased because the
Filipino palate became globalized.
20. Water station and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) station. The products that they sell are used for
daily consumption, which is why a lot of these are found in almost every corner in the Philippines,
especially in the urban areas.
MODULE 2: RECOGNIZING THE POTENTIAL MARKET

The Entrepreneurial Process

1. Opportunity spotting and assessment. This is the beginning of the process and is considered the
most difficult. Entrepreneurs at this point take note of interesting trends in their environment.
2. Developing a business plan. Entrepreneurs should formulate a business