Functions of an Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is expected to perform a distinct set of functions in bringing an enterprise into existence and keeping it running. The AP Inter II year Commerce syllabus lists these functions as follows:

1. Idea generation / innovation -- conceiving a new product, a new process, a new source of raw material, or a new market, or finding a new and more efficient way of doing something that already exists.
2. Determination of business objectives -- deciding, in clear and specific terms, what the enterprise is meant to achieve -- the products or services it will offer, the market it will serve, and the scale at which it will operate.
3. Raising and arranging resources -- mobilising the finance, land, machinery, and manpower the enterprise needs, whether from personal savings, borrowed funds, or other sources of business finance.
4. Assembling resources into a working organisation -- combining land, labour, capital, and enterprise into a coordinated unit capable of actually producing or trading in the goods or services planned.
5. Risk-bearing -- committing capital and effort to a venture whose success is never guaranteed, and personally absorbing the loss if the venture does not succeed as planned.
6. Decision-making -- taking the day-to-day and long-term decisions the enterprise requires, from pricing and sourcing to expansion and diversification.
7. Managerial and supervisory functions -- in a small enterprise especially, the entrepreneur often personally plans, organises, staffs, directs, and controls the day-to-day working of the business, at least in its early stages before professional managers are brought in. …