The New Paradigm for Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurship is a great magnet to deliver new ideas, unique approaches and innovative technologies. When conducted in a proper way, turning people into entrepreneurs improves a country's economic situation and aids sustainable progress. However, transition to become an entrepreneur is not that aspiring to all. Risks and uncertainties involved in starting a new business coupled with stagnant economy discourage people to step up the plate and take a swing.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on its January issue supported this fact and said that entrepreneurial activity in the U.S. declined slightly (on the order of 5%) over a year to 11.3% in 2004. Americans used to be at 16.6% level in 2000.

Surprisingly, teenagers who would be the next-generation entrepreneurs in the U.S. are in favor of running their own businesses. In a survey conducted by Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, it was found that 67% of the youths (aged 14-19) were interested in giving a shot to entrepreneurship. Numbers would be likely to improve in the U.S. over time.

Although, new generation is ready to drive the numbers up, there are two basic problems to address before encouraging them to lean forward.

First is the saturation of U.S. and West European markets where both give innovations less chance to survive. David E. Gumpert, in his article, 'For Entrepreneurs, a Harder World' talks about this issue. China factor and large organizations inclination to enter even into very small, immature markets kill the chance for entrepreneurs to find niche plays. He concludes by saying questioning about saturated markets are no longer unreasonable to ask and there are obvious disquieting signs on the horizon. His points need to be taken seriously.

Second can be called as the absence of means, need and/ or motive. A great business plan without financial support would never achieve to aim high. Or, flushing millions of dollars to a solution that the market is not ready for would be a failure. Worst would be to supply all but not encouraging people to run their own business what U.S. is facing today.

Even though, both problems may be accepted as realities of a global economy, they should not hinder the need for a new paradigm to take the entrepreneurship onto the next level.

The aim of the new paradigm should be all about redefining entrepreneurship. Oddly enough, the concept of entrepreneurship covers a lot of topics ranging from running the business to timing the market where system hopes couple of individuals to collaborate to bring out a new approach to the market. They are expected to surpass all difficulties and be a success story.

However, the need is very different. Entrepreneur, as a term, applies to someone who establishes a new entity to offer a new or existing product or service into a new or existing market. Responsibility begins and ends at forming and running the entity. The idea of a product or service, the strategy and the search for investment need to be taken care of separately. However today's system forces entrepreneurs to do them all. Undoubtedly, this forces them to cut themselves thin and disallows them to assume their real roles.

First; innovator, entrepreneur and strategist are different people so they need to be separated. Second, a new model that prepares a ground for innovators, entrepreneurs, industry analysts and investors need to be set that lets them discuss and work with each other. With a clear-cut definition of everybody's role; innovators can be free from taking the risks of being entrepreneurs, while entrepreneurs, by relying to research and strategy specialists' knowledge, can be bolder on their journey. On top of all, investors' assumed risks would dramatically diminish.

Today, investors trust due diligence process before making a decision. The problem is, in such a short period of time, say one month, grasping all the data about the market is not possible. Other thing is, there may be better deals out there where investors might have better probability to make more money.

Hence, the new ground, addressed above, will be a strong knowledge base for everybody who is willing to transform an idea into a profitable company. The new ground will ask people to focus on wherever they are strong at, rather than asking them to take responsibility of all. So, the success rate of newly formed companies will boost and more individuals will be willing to be a part of this process.

As soon as being an entrepreneur will not be considered as the end but the means of delivering ideas, the moving forward on entrepreneurship would be easier. That's why; a 'focus at what you are good at' approach needs to be taken immediately to situate the entrepreneurship condition better for the upcoming entrepreneurs.

Burak Fenercioglu is a freelance writer and working for a computer network security company for over 4 years. His articles are about new ideas, innovation and strategy and can be found at http://burakfenerci.blogspot.com