Are entreprenurs born or taught? Both.

I was reading through BizInSavannah newspaper and ran across this article by Erwin Williams.  This article raised a good question and I wanted to share it with you and get your opinion.  Tell me what you think.

A few years ago, I mentioned to a top executive that I was an entrepreneurship professor. He looked at me somewhat strangely and said, “You have the audacity to believe entrepreneurship can be taught. Entrepreneurs are born – you either have it or you don't.”

This executive was a smart guy and successful in the corporate world, so I pondered over his comment.

It boils down to this – is entrepreneurship nature or nurture?

His answer was obvious. Entrepreneurship is nature; it is in your genes. He is right in that a high percentage of entrepreneurs are children of parents who operated their own businesses. This fact has led to a rigorous study of the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs typically have high energy levels; they are driven, restless and hard workers. They take more risk than the average person, but they are not gamblers. They tend to be creative and come up with lots of ideas. Many are bad, but some are real winners resulting in successful products and businesses.

The problem with these person characteristics is they vary in kind and intensity with each person, and we cannot use them to predict who will be a successful entrepreneur.

So academics dug a bit deeper in the study of the entrepreneurship phenomenon in search of commonalities that could be used to explain just what an entrepreneur does.

Six steps of entrepreneurship

Now we know that entrepreneurship can be viewed from tow perspectives – as a person and a process. Is it important to distinguish between the two? Sure, but how? Think of the process as a “dance” and the person, or persons, involved as the “dancers.”

The entrepreneurship process is a series of creative activities that brings about the birth, development and formation of a new business venture.

These are six basic steps in this process:

1. Discovery of a business opportunity
2. Defining the business concept
3. Acquisition of resources
4. Marketing the product/service
5. Ensuring business growth.
6. The real daunting task for solo entrepreneurs is to make the product, sell it and collect the revenue all at the same time. This is why more than 50 percent of start-ups fail during the first three years.

So, our understanding of entrepreneurship has certainly expanded since Harvard University's Miles Mace taught the first academic course in the subject in 1947.

Now, more than 2,200 entrepreneurship courses are being offered in more than 1,600 U. S. colleges and universities, with some offering bachelor's, master's and Ph. D degrees in the subject. Yes, entrepreneurship is an accepted academic discipline that can be taught, nurtured,m supported and enhanced through mentoring and teaching.

We can answer the nature versus nurture question regarding entrepreneurs. It is not an either/or situation. It's both. The executive was right in part. We cannot teach a person how to be an entrepreneur, but we can surely teach them a definitive process that is common to all entrepreneurs when starting a new venture. So, both the person and the process are important.

What are your thoughts on the subject, and which do you think is more important?

Ervin Williams is Entrepreneur in Residence at Savannah State University and the author of “The Global Entrepreneur.” Contact him at 912-634-8225 or at cheers@ervinwilliams.com.

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"Customer Service That Keeps the Cashing Coming In" | AliBrown.com

"Customer Service That Keeps the Cashing Coming In" AliBrown.com

Even if you have a sound business plan, smart, dedicated employees, and an awardwinning product, all those positive points can be nebated by bad custome service. Compnaies work hard to bring in customers, but once they have them, not all businesses do everything they can to keep their customers. Sometimes customers leave because they feel ignored or assume that the company doesn't really care about their issue.

Customer service isn't just about making people happy. It's also about dealing with complaints, which are almost inevitable. In order to build (and keep) your customer base: it's critical that companies follow the three C's: communication, courtesy, and criticism.

Communication

In order to keep your existing customers, you need to offer extra value and communicate that value clearly so your customers understand why they should choose you over the competition. You might write a blog post or newspaper article about how you're adding value or include a promotion in an email newsletter to your customers. (You do have customer's emails, right?) Maintaining an up-to-date and accurate database of customer's contact information is invaluable. Make sure that their names are spelled correctly, because there's nothing more insulting (and impersonal) than getting an email or postcard addressed to the wrong name. Lastly, be sure to follow through on any promises and thank your customers on a regular basis.

Courtesy

Courtesy costs you nothing, but it pays off far more than an expensive marketing or advertising campaign. When a customer calls, they want to feel that their questions or concerns are being addressed and that you value them as much as (and hopefully more than) their credit cards. Make sure that whoever is answering the phone is polite and friendly. Remind them to smile, because that will naturally make their voice sound more cheerful. Also, be sure your customer service reps call customers by their names (no one likes being treated like a number). If they don't know how to pronounce someone's name, make sure they ask.


Next time I will talk about Criticism and how it can improve your customer service.