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Concept of entrepreneurship. Basically, entrepreneurship is the process that a person identify a new opportunities for setting up an enterprise to make their dream come true. The figure 1 shows the concept of entrepreneurship. While an entrepreneur is the one willing to take the risk to start up a business in order to make profit. There are many people misunderstand that successful entrepreneur are born. In fact, is opposite, entrepreneur can be trained to learn entrepreneurial knowledge and skills such as managerial skills, marketing skill and entrepreneurial attitude. Courage, tenacity, innovative, risk taker are some of the characteristics for a successful entrepreneur. They are very important as they create more employment, introducing new technologies and increase efficiency by innovative and creative in generating their products and services as well as contribute to economic growth. There are many real life successful entrepreneurs example such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Li Ka Shing and so on. Therefore, with all those necessary skills, knowledge and characteristics everyone could be one of them in future!
Part I: Profile of the Past
Examine Your Personal Preferences.
Source of energy
The first thing that would give me energy is have a good result in doing things. Getting a favourable result can give me the sense of achievement and thus motivate me and give me the energy to work harder. It is a proof of how much of effort I had put on my study to motivate myself to go further. Secondly, taking a nap about 15 minute to 30 minute in the afternoon would give me the power of the day. As many people said "to rest is to prepare for a longer journey". This is because having enough rest would help me in concentration and refreshing my mind. Thirdly, I would have some travel during holiday for relaxing and sense of enjoyment. This would help me to release tension or de-stress myself.
Source of energy (Leakage)
The first thing that would take away my energy is excessive stress. Too much of stress will makes me anxiety and cannot fall into sleep at night. This will cause me do not have enough rest and energy as well as affect my daily works. Besides, treated unfairly by others will also demotivate me and take away of my energy to work harder or take up new challenges. This is because it makes me depress and think about what am I do and the effort put in are not worth it. Furthermore, hunger will cause me lack of energy as well. This is because it de-energizes me and makes me cannot focus on doing something.
1 - Gives/Takes Energy the most
3 - Gives/Takes Energy the least
1- Have a good result in exam
2- Taking a nap
1- Treated unfairly by others
2- Excessive stress
Idea Generation Guide
Business intend to start
The business that I intend to start is an online bakery which will be selling breads, toasts, cakes, moon cakes and etc through a website. As people nowadays are not only emphasize on the products but also the services that can provided by the business. With online website, customers can place order more easily and convenient without step into the shop. Moreover, I would also like to start an Internet Technologies (IT) business which providing service of web design or system and application development. The reason I choose to start this kind of business is more and more people or business are seek for an easier and efficient way to operate their company by using information system and application.
Business not intend to start
The business that I do not intend to start is mobile phone retail business as there are a lot of shops available in the market and it is too competitive. Low sale is always the big problem of this kind of business as customer has too many choices and strong bargaining power. In addition, financial business is also out of my consideration as I have no idea about figure and money although it can get rich very quickly. However, buying and selling stock can be very risky.
Attribute to give energy
The attributes which would energize me to start the business that I mention in above are be my own boss, freedom, friend and family support, area of interest and large profit. To be my own boss allows me to have more freedom in working as I can make my own decision and do not need to follow the normal working hour as well as I will have employees to work for me. Besides, having friend and family support can make me more confident to start the business and I can also seek for help and idea from them. The most important is that I can earn a lot of money with my area of interest and make use of the knowledge and skills that I have. This will make me more passionate in doing the business.
Attribute to take energy
The attributes which would de-energize me to start the business that I mention in above are lack of money and experience. To start a business definitely will require the start-up cost, therefore it could be an attribute that turn me off if I could not find somebody as my partner or invest on my business. Besides, I do not have any experience to work on the related business field and thus do not know how likely the business flow and operate. In real case, there are many businesses close down and bankrupt just because of lack of experience, poor management and financial control. All these attribute would be my consideration and they stop me to start up a business.
I would like to start my own business someday because I can be my own boss, have freedom in doing thing, earn more money and have better quality of life.
Rank of entrepreneurial journey
I would like to rank the location is the highest as customers want the product and service to be deliver in a short time frame and close to where they live. Therefore, I would invest more on the location that I chosen. This is because it is very important for me to develop the strategies to target the customer that I want. The second highest will be capital required. This is because to start a business definitely we need capital to buy all the machines, ingredients and so on in order to run the business. Lastly, I will invest on my personal development as it is important for me to grow so that I will not be obsolete by the market. Since the environment change so rapidly and therefore I have to keep myself up to date.
Share of $1,000
Lifestyle and Work Style
Standard of Living
Status and Prestige
Impact on Ecology and Environment
Other Considerations (Please state)
(The details of ranking can refer to Attachment 1)
Examine Your Personal History
Since I am still studying and therefore I have no opportunity and experience to work for a full time job. I have no any part time job or full time job that provided me financial support in the past. However, I help my parent for home business during holiday to reduce their burden. During that time, I learned how to deal with customers, communication skill and billing as I was helping my parent to selling things in market. For self enhancement, I joined the workshop such as C# and Window 8 workshop which organise by the college to learn new techniques and improve my skills. Furthermore, I will go for travelling with my parent during leisure time to increase my knowledge and widen my perspective to see how other's culture and life style.
The activity that I had done on my own is to create a product for the "Koperasi of SMK Bagan Jaya" and help it upgrade to "Empat Mutiara Koperasi". In this activity, I reuse the empty contact lens bottle by filled in colour chalk powder to make different pattern such as love shape and wave. After that, cover the bottle with decoration paper and dry petal to make it scented as well as tied up with a ribbon. The bottle will then tie up with a key ring to make it as a key chain. This key chain will only sell in the "Koperasi of SMK Bagan Jaya". Therefore, the element that would influence my decision is the cost of creating the product. I have to keep the cost of the product low so that even sell it to students in a cheap price but I still can be profitable. Throughout this activity I had learned how to be creative and brainstorming in designing a product and how to distribute the jobs to the right people during the production. Moreover, I had learned in setting the acceptable price for a product but making money and strengthen 3R awareness to the public.
In addition to that, I will carry out some outdoor sports such as hiking and cycling with friends to increase the size of my social network and have a healthier life style. All these activities make me aware of the important of cooperative, communication, relationship and helping each other. I also joined the Penang Bridge Marathon which organized by the government every year. Running individual until the terminal point make me know that never giving up on doing something so that I can achieve my own goal and target. Besides, I learned to be more courageous to take the new challenge. All these activities that I mentioned above help me in preparing myself to be an entrepreneur and start my own business.
If I ever started a business, the most I like is the freedom and flexibility. To be my own boss, I can work or suspend the business at anytime that I do not have to follow a long list of rules and regulations. Furthermore, I have the complete decision-making power and control of the business. However, the least I like is to bear the debt and losses. It is not easy to keep the sale of the business increase and making profits all the time and therefore there is a possibility of loss.
If I ever worked for a large company, the most I like is to get a well pay and benefits from the company. Working in big company, I can get my salary every month no matter the company is loss or make profit. Big company can often afford to give much better benefits such as health insurance, pension, incentive and etc. Besides, I can have much more training and development opportunities to learn about new skills such as leadership skill, management skill and hiring skill as big company are more willing to invest and concerned on staff development. However, the least I like is the conflict between departments or colleagues as more people work in a big company will likely to have more conflict compare to small businesses.
Your "Business Hero"
There is one entrepreneur or business hero I have admire him for a very long time named Kuok He Nian, Robert Kuok while some people called him "Sugar King". He was born on 6 October 1923 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. He began as an office boy. After he graduated from Raffles College he worked at Mitsubishi for 3 year and later he started a business named Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd with his two brothers in 1949. In 1961, he bought large amount of sugar with very low price from India before the price shot up and later he invests heavily in sugar refineries. Because of the business grow very well, he manages to control 80% of the sugar market in Malaysia and 10% of world production as well as he won the name of "Sugar King of Asia". After that, he build Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore and continually expand his business to the neighbour country such as China, Thailand, Indonesia, Fiji and Australia and his business scope is range from sugar refineries, finance, hotels, mining, trading, oil and so on. Now, he was the richest man in Malaysia. (The ranking of richest man in Malaysia can refer to Attachment 2.)
The positive trait and characteristic of Rebert Kuok is morality as he was strongly influence by his mother and Confusion. His mother told him to treat people with sincerely and be ethical in doing business. Besides, He is an honest, fairly, brave, intelligent, act fast, hard working and a caring person. "Take care of the interest of others" is his pet phrase to remind himself always take care the benefits of his shareholders and employees. He was ever commented in an interview that he prefers his business to make money so that he can pay big bonus and special incentives to his employees at the end of every year.
I admire Robert Kuok the most is his determination to be ethical and moral in doing business as there are more and more business people nowadays uses the illegal way or unethical method to reach their purpose. However, he still can stick to his morality and try to compete with those competitors who reach their success through unethical manner. I admire him not only his determination but also his intelligent and brave enough in doing business. For instance, he was able to see and spot the potential of the sugar business and brave enough to take the risk to put all his money into it which no one was in sugar business at that time in Malaysia.
From Robert Kuok, I learned to repay back to community, help the poor and not to be greedy about money after I am success. Robert Kuok had donated 50,000,000 CNY to China Youth Fund and donates 900 CNY per each person to help the children who has difficulties to complete their studies. He is a role model to remind me to be a good person and do not turn to the evil even after success. Besides, He influences me to be brave enough to grab opportunity, hard working, caring and treated people honestly.
Part II: Profile of the Present:
Examine Your "Entrepreneurial Mind"
The entrepreneurial strengths that I posses are decisiveness, tenacity, discipline and total immersion. After I decide to do something, I will put in my effort and take action on it. Besides, I will not give up easily in half way even I face difficulties as I believe that commitment and determination is the key of make things success. I also try to be independent to solve the problem by myself first before seeking help from my family or friends and I always manage my timely wisely in completing my works on time. Furthermore, I having a high internal locus of control as I believe that all the consequences or outcomes are derive from our own action. Therefore, anything I do I will bear the consequences no matter bad or good. For example, getting a poor result in exam I would not blame others but would blame myself for lack of preparedness and take it as an experience to motivate myself to work harder.
However, I am lack of creativity and innovation to exploit or develop new ideas or new things. These will limit me to stay ahead of competitor as I may not continuously to come out new products or services to satisfy my customer need and create new income streams. Other than that, I have a poor sense of humour and cannot communicate with other using English proficiently. This weakness more or less affects me in building relationship and increasing the size of my social network as I do not get the jokes of others and they may feel boring when they make joke with me.
(The detail ranking can refer to Attachment 3.)
Examine Entrepreneurial Role Requirements
Among all the entrepreneurial role requirements, I would rate myself the strongest are ethics and integrity. This is because I always treated people honestly and hold moral principles in all the way as my role model Robert Kuok. I am clear on what am I doing, what should I do and what should not do. However, I would rate myself the lowest is stress. A little bit of stress is acceptable but excessive stress would make me insomnia at night and affect my sleep quality. To manage my stress, I always have some sweet desserts or carry out some outdoor activities or go for a travel.
(The detail ranking can refer to Attachment 4.)
Examine Your Management Competencies.
I would rate myself the strongest is administration. I am major on Information System (IS) and Internet Technology (IT). Therefore, I may use the latest technology and my skills to develop an information system which help in administration. Besides, one of the areas of my study is project management. Thus, I may use my knowledge for planning, decision making and organize the resources in order to achieve a specific goal. Furthermore, I would also rate myself moderate in operation or production as I had worked in Koperasi of SMK Bagan Jaya for 4 years. During that time, I need to replenish the stock and set the price for all the stationeries and snacks. I also involved in the production process of the key chain and thus I had the experience on the production scheduling and flow.
However, I would rate myself the weakest in finance and law. This is because I have no idea in calculating Return on Investment (ROI), payback period, cash flow and etc. Simple calculation of balance and money collected would not be a problem for me, but I have no knowledge about accounting and financing. Since my study field is related about information system and therefore I only know some patents and proprietary rights to protect my idea and code not to be stolen by others but other than these such as contract, tax and bankruptcy I have no idea at all. Therefore, I can almost say that I have no knowledge about law.
(The detail ranking can refer to Attachment 5.)
Part III: Putting It All Together
At this point, I would conclude that I still cannot be qualified as an entrepreneur yet as I have not started a business and taking risk of achieving profit. Besides, I still do not have the necessary characteristics and fulfil the requirements of entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur must able to sacrifice something such as time and money to put total immersion and have long term commitment in order to make his/her business success. Besides, he/she must energetic and have strong mental power to handle the workload and work for long hour. Although some of the requirements are do fit with my own aims, value and motivation, however I need to focus on my study in this moment and therefore I cannot sacrifice any time to run and operate a business. Moreover, I do not have any start up cost to start a business as I do not work for any part time of full time job to get any extra income.
I still have a very long journey to go compare to those entrepreneurs who has achieved success in their business. They are all those people who have accumulated a lot of experience, solving a lot of problems in their business, having strong management competencies and meet most of the entrepreneur role requirements. There are still many things that I have to learn from them in term of skills, techniques, strategies, good attitudes and etc.
If I would to launch or acquire a higher potential venture in future 5 to 10 years, first of all I will try to apply job on big company to see the way of how other in operating their business and gain as much experience as I can to prepare me better for my own business. At the same time, I will do analysis on the type of the business venture that I am going to run to analyse all the potential risk, do research on the market, estimate the cost and benefit to see whether it is feasible for me to take the risk and start the business. If it is feasible for me to start the business, then I will to find reliable partners to join me.
This assessment of my entrepreneurial strategy helps me to know myself better in term of source of energy, strengths, weaknesses, skills possess and etc. In addition, it let me knows that where should I improve myself in order to prepare me to become a successful entrepreneur in future.
Part V: Thinking Ahead
The goal which I wish to accomplish by the time I am 70 is debt free. I hope I can own my own businesses and a villa by the seaside with no mortgages and debt. This is because I do not hope to be an idler by the time I am 70. Besides, I wish to wrote and publish a book to tell my life stories and share my own experiences with others so that at least I leave something to the next generation in the almost end of my life no matter I am successful or fail. I also hope that I had travelled and visited the wonders of the world as I love travelling very much.
The goal which I wish to accomplish over the next four years is to get my degree in Information System Engineering and graduated with a distinction result. Although it is a difficult task but I will try my best in achieving it by putting all my effort and time. Furthermore, I wish I can find a good job with a good boss and friendly colleagues. I also hope that I am able to make use of my knowledge and skills to help the company in making profit as well as able to get recognition from my employers. Moreover, I wish to reach the top of Mount Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu is the tallest mountains in South-East Asia which located in Sabah. I hope that I had accomplished this challenge by the time of 25 year old.
If I only have exactly one year from today to live, I hope that I can help the people who are suffering and in need as much as possible. I would like to be a volunteer to bring happiness and help the orphans and the senior citizens in nursing house. This is the only thing that I can do to give back to society before end of my life. Besides, I will spend my time with my family members. This is because I am away from home due to further my study and therefore there is only little time or only semester break I can stay with them. Furthermore, I would like to try the things that I never try before and dare not to try it so that I will not feel regret in the end of my life.
The goal that I would like accomplish over my life time is keep a healthy body including mental and physical health so that I can live longer and have enough time and energy to achieve all my goals. Besides, I would like to start my business and earn a million dollar in my life time. Only aiming but not shooting the target will not make me success. Therefore, I would like to take the challenge of being my own boss at least once. Other than that, I would like to help the people in needs to improve and enhance their lives. As this is not only the social responsibility of a business but also the responsibilities of all of us. I would rate the highest priority of the goal is to keep a healthy body followed by earn a million dollars and improve other lives. With a healthy body, I only can have enough energy to go ahead toward my target and help as more people as I can.
To keep my body health and well function, I must well enough to control myself in eating junk foods although they are so attractive to me and delicious. First of all, I must have a balanced diet to make sure I am eating the right food in the correct proportions. Next, I must exercise and have body check regularly in case any sickness I can notice and cure it earlier. Besides, I must also manage my stress to keep both mental and physical health. In order to start up a business, I might face insufficient of money, experience and knowledge. Therefore, first of all I would need to complete my degree and advance diploma in TAR College to learn the theoretically knowledge and practical skills. Secondly, I will try to work for different companies to expand my job scope and gain experiences as well as observe how other in doing their business. Lastly, I would like to find a few reliable and responsible partners to join me and invest on the business so that I can have enough resources to start up the business. In order to help other in improving their lives, I will involve myself in some charity institution, to be a volunteer and do some donation based on my ability.
There are a few of measurements to make sure I am attaining toward the goals. Level of cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose, body weight and all the body check results will be the measurements of whether I am exercise regularly and well balance diet. Besides, examination result and CGPA will be the measurements of how much of knowledge and skills I learned in college. Next, recognition of employers, promotion and salary will be the measurement of the how much experience I gain. All these of measurements will help me to check whether I am on the right track or on the way to achieve my own goals.
Throughout this assessment, I would like to conclude that I would need to improve myself in stress management as a successful entrepreneur must be able to handle their stress and turn it as a force of motivation. Besides, I am lack of experience and therefore I need to gain more experience through working or reading the biography of those successful business man in order to learn how they being successful in their life, operating their business and even how they solve their obstacles intelligently. Furthermore, I would need to increase the knowledge about financing and law so that I can manage my business capitals more wisely, be legal and ethical in doing business as well as know how to protect myself and my assets.