Definition of Terms 

An entrepreneur 

• An entrepreneur is a person who identifies a business opportunity, harnesses and obtains the resources necessary to initiate a successful business activity. Or
• An entrepreneur is a person who has the ability to spot and evaluate business opportunities, gathers the necessary resources, starts a business and takes appropriate activities to ensure its success.

Entrepreneurship

• In the broader sense entrepreneurship refers to the means of stimulating innovative and creative undertakings for a better business community or world. 
• The act or process of identifying business opport unities and gathering the necessary resources to initiate a
• successful business activity.

Entrepreneurship education

• This is the study that is concerned with providing students / people with knowledge and skills for creating an opportunity for their own business to be successful using their available resources.
• Entrepreneurship education trains, motivates and allows learners to use their creativity to take their initiatives and risks in order to encourage them succeed in a variety of setting.
• It enables individuals to organize commercial opportunities and give the self-esteem, knowledge skills. 

Reasons / importance of studying entrepreneurship education

There are a number of reasons why people (students) study Entrepreneurship education, at the same time they are importance of studying entrepreneurship education, these may include.

• It provides one with knowledge and skills of setting up, i.e. it provides learners with transferable skills needed to succeed in an increasingly divergent business environment.
• It enables students to integrate programmes that teach practical skills for starting and expanding business enterprises.
• Through Entrepreneurship education, one is equipped with skills of how to mobilize the various resources needed in production like human resource, financial resources (like capital)
• It provides one with knowledge on how to properly relate and communicate with clients /customers. This is because in business a customer is the boss.
• It provides one with skills of how to scan the environment so as to identify existing and new business opportunities in order to come up with an opportunity that can be managed, run well so as to make profits.
• Through entrepreneurship, one develops the skills of taking self-employment as a career and this helps one to get rid of job seeking which could cause unemployment due to limited jobs.
• It provides one with the necessary skills to have a successful business, like marketing skills, financial management skills, personal skills etc.
• Through acquisition of the entrepreneurial skills, many people would come up with numerous businesses and this leads to economic development, social development through increased employment opportunities, infrastructural development etc.
• Entrepreneurship education is now recognized as an important education innovation that provides the impetus for learning.

The Roles of Entrepreneurship in Economic Development

The need for entrepreneurship development for the economy is quite obvious

• Promotion of small enterprises in a society which form an essential part of economic prosperity on a society.
• Generation of employment opportunities from the numerous ventures being established in the country through innovation, production of goods and provision of services.
• Promoting creativity and innovation within small enterprises
• Encouraging the use of the locally available resources and rely mainly on the skills which may be found within the members of the community, this foster economic development.
• Correcting regional imbalances in such backwards regions e.g. regions with slums, this will reduce the concentration of economic power in few centres, which in long run breeds tension and hostility between social classes and between one region to another.

Factors / measures of promoting / facilitating entrepreneurship 

• Presence of market ie availability of customers and consumers to buy the products.
• Favorable government policies of rewarding entrepreneurial effort e.g tax holidays by the government that promotes the enterprising spirit.
• Availability of financial institutions that provide the capital required in form of borrowed funds to form and run businesses.
• Favorable political climate and presence of security in the country
• Existence of good transport networks that ease movement of both resources and goods to the market.
• Government support e.g through the Entandikwa and Bonnabagagaware schemes that provide initial capital to begin businesses.
• Possession of entrepreneurship skills like creativity, risk taking, endurance, flexibility etc.
• Mobility and exposure which offers the entrepreneurs the chance to develop new ideas which shape creativity that saves entrepreneurship.
• Presence of role models in the community
• Presence of resources like raw materials, labour and capital

Rewards / benefits for Entrepreneurship

• It leads to feeling of freedom and independence e.g. in terms of decision making.
• It leads to increased income. People in the business society earn income which in turn improves their standards of living.
• It encourages the development of self-confidence due to the high levels of independence that exists i.e. the owner is the leader of him/herself.
• It enables one to invest his/her resources and skills fully and productivity. This leads to self-employment.
• It allows one to become creative and innovative as he/she can come up with the new ideas and implement them for the success for his/her business.
• It leads to respect and recognition by the society.
• It ensures maximum job security.
• Provide job opportunities to the unemployed or those seeking better jobs.
• Facilitates competition encouraging high quality products or services
• Facilitates production of more goods and services
• Leads to the development of newer markets
• Promotes use of modern technology in especially small- scale manufacturing to enhance higher productivity

Challenges/costs/disadvantages of being an entrepreneur

• It makes an entrepreneur work for long and irregular hours with a lot of hard work so as to succeed. This leads to fatigue and exhaustion.
• It leads to uncertainty of the income i.e. business is associated with both profits and losses.
• It is associated with low life style as a result of working for long and irregular hours especially at the beginning.
• It is associated with a lot of risks. The entrepreneurs face all the risks of his business alone.
• It ensures personal responsibility for the business failures i.e. in case of failure of the business. The entrepreneur stands personally liable for such failure.

Barriers to entrepreneurship

Barriers to entrepreneurship are factors that hinder the development of the entrepreneurship; they hinder people from acquiring and practicing entrepreneurial skills, but also prevent practicing entrepreneurs from achieving the full benefits that entrepreneurship has to offer.

• Poor entrepreneurial skills. Most entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs are short on entrepreneurial skills. They are risk adverse, lack creativity, innovation, endurance, flexibility and other entrepreneurial characteristics.
• Lack of role models in entrepreneurship. Uganda is seriously short of role models in the field of entrepreneurship, which limits the number of people who willingly aspire for a career in entrepreneurship
• Lack of business ethics. Unpaid loans, unpaid or highly exploited employees, unpaid suppliers, substandard goods, tax evasion, corruption, smuggling etc. characterize many business ventures in Uganda today.
• Low mobility and exposure. Mobility and exposure normally offers the biggest revelation for new ideas that shape creativity and innovations to entrepreneurship.
• Lack of business and technical skills. Business skills in marketing, accounting, management, planning are required by all practicing entrepreneurs to effectively manage their entrepreneurial ventures.
• Career dependency. Ugandans especially the educated have long been dependent on their careers to provide for their livelihoods. Entrepreneurship has for long been regarded as a last resort effort mainly reserved for the under educated.
• Lack of continuity. Very few firms in Uganda are known to survive the death of their founders. Very few entrepreneurs have the opportunity to pass on their enterprises to new generations and watch from a side as the enterprise continues to prosper.
• Lack of motivation. Because of lack of role models and limited exposure, entrepreneurs in Uganda tend to be satisfied with relatively small and modest achievements.
• Political instability. This state of affairs has robbed Uganda of many entrepreneurs and many more entrepreneurs have lost life time savings and business assets, while others have been forced by instability to close.
• Business administrative procedures. In many cases, the business environment is dominated by complex and burdensome regulations, favouritism, corruption and weak enforcement mechanism.
• Insensitive government institutions and departments. Entrepreneurs blame government institutions for having little qualification and a poor understanding of the importance of business and entrepreneurial processes.
• Excessive, complex and arbitrary taxation. The tax administration is arbitrary and many times misunderstood, resulting in adoc tax administrative solution which foster rampant corruption, very many taxes also serve to discourage potential entrepreneurs.
• Lack of access to finance. Banking system and practices in Uganda impose impossible demands on entrepreneurs’ banks have little incentives to extend credits.
• Low purchasing power. Low incomes and high rate of unemployment limit the purchasing power of relatively small Ugandan population
• Under developed infrastructure. Uganda is still played with very poor physical and social infrastructures in terms of roads, electricity, water, bridges, schools and hospitals. These hinder business development in many parts of the country, and acts as barriers to entrepreneurs.
• Economic instability. Due to over reliance on donor assistance borrowing, the import bill that far outweighs the export earnings, and over reliance on imports, the Ugandan economy is very fragile and easily destabilized by any small shocks in the international environment.

Causes of early failure of entrepreneurial ventures

• Death of an entrepreneur
• Poor timing
• Poor management or poor managerial skills Ø Heavy taxes that are charged by the government.
• Some people start business without a business plan or total lack of business planning Ø Lack of sufficient capital
• Competition from existing companies especially with globalization
• Uncertainties like weather, wars which at times destroy the entrepreneurs’ businesses. Ø Inadequate market
• Poor financial management, planning e.g some business don’t keep financial records, over investment in fixed assets, poor inventory control, poor financial control
• Government policies many have negative impact on economy e.g increased taxes on second hand clothes
• Poor location of business
• Arrogance of entrepreneurs with their new products and don’t accept new bright ideas

Measures that have been under taken to boost entrepreneurship in uganda

• Carrying out adequate market research
• setting up credit societies, reducing interest rate and increasing loan repayment periods
• training Capable local advisers or making them available to handle issues like project viability
• providing Technical education and support
• Referring to successful role models constantly to solved social stigma
• using Market contacts and updates
• setting up local companies for research and come up with viable ventures
• ensuring that the nation is politically stable to encourage investment
• improving on the infrastructures to ease flexibility of flow of goods and services

Types of entrepreneurs

Craft entrepreneurs: They own the business in which they operate, but tend to restrict their business to their individual skills and experiences usually accumulated from limited education and exposure.

Opportunistic entrepreneurs: They constantly look for and exploit many opportunities because of their wide skills and knowledge accumulated from a wider educational back ground, experience or exposure.

Social entrepreneur : Recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change. 

Political entrepreneur: Is a business person who utilizes political systems or seeks support from political bodies in order to promote, expand and profit from their own commercial ventures. Apolitical player who seeks to gain certain political and social benefits in return for providing the common goods that can be shared by an organized general public. 

Pull entrepreneurs: Are those who are lured by their new venture idea and initiate venture activity because of the attractiveness of the business idea and its personal implication.

Push entrepreneurs: Are those whose dissatisfaction with their current position unrelated to their entrepreneurial characteristics, pushes them to start a venture.

Innovative entrepreneurs: Assemble a large variety of information and of a range of factors experimentally to produce new possibilities in terms of market, techniques or products. Countries with a very under developed industrial base hardly produce this type of entrepreneur, because of lack of the necessary infrastructure

Imitative entrepreneurs:They imitate and adopt the technology and techniques innovated by others. They are particularly important in underdeveloped countries although not highly regarded in more developed economies. However imitative entrepreneurs also need to be creative in order to modify innovations to suit their special conditions

Visionary entrepreneurs:They have almost similar characteristics to the opportunistic entrepreneurs however, while opportunistic entrepreneurs pursue many business opportunities, the visionary entrepreneurs concentrate on the unwavering pursuit of a single powerful opportunity.

Functions of an Entrepreneur 

• The bearing of uncertainty is the primary function of the entrepreneur i.e losses or profits.   
• The management of the business enterprise ie can delegate  
• Provision of risk capital and invention. 
• Identifying gaps in the market and turning such gap s to business opportunities i.e to initiate a business.
• Financing the businesses, through raising and mobilizing the necessary resources to exploit opportunity.
• Searching for business opportunities through environmental scans.
• Mobilization of resources needed to start and run a business
• Evaluation of business opportunities to access viability and any other benefits that might accrue to the business.
• Provide the necessary leadership for the business and those working in it.

Intra – preneurship

Is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organisation

An Intrapreneur is a person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture by operating within the organizational environment

Or is a person who does not own a business but uses the entrepreneurial skills in an existing business where he/she works to identify opportunities and create profits for the business from the opportunity The features of an Intrapreneur

• Works in an existing business
• Is hired to manage the business
• Creative and uses ability / insight to market / produce / finance a service / product
• Identifies new products / services for an existing business
• Organizes and controls resources to ensure profit for the existing business
• Prefers benefits of an existing business such as salary and available resources.

An enterprising person is someone who takes on imaginative and risky projects.

He is a person who is ambitious; they take initiative in order to be successful.

Characteristics of an enterprising person

• Always hardworking
• Always see the future in the present.
• Always find the way to take advantage of situation. They are not burdened by it
• They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them, they go after opportunities  Always keep his mind open and active

Enterprise

Enterprise means always finding a way to keep yourself actively working towards your ambition. Enterprise means two things ie creativity and the courage to be creative

Creativity. This is the ability to generate new and unique ideas. Creativity is needed to.

• see what is out there and to shape it to your advantage ü look at the world a little differently ü Take a different approach to be different.

Courage to be creative. This is needed to ü see things differently

• go against the crowd
• take a different approach
• stand-alone if you have to
• Choose an activity over inactivity.

Entrepreneurial competences

There are three major competences for successful entrepreneurship. These include

• A body of knowledge
• A set of skills
• Cluster of traits

Knowledge, this is a set / body of information stored by a person which may be recalled at an appropriate time to enable a person do what is needed to achieve a purpose. Examples of knowledge include:

• Information about the market for goods and services.
• Information about customers like who they are, where they are, their age bracket, their tastes and preferences etc
• Information relating to business opportunity identified after doing market research.
• Information about production process like knowing which materials to use, Knowing how to transform the materials into finished goods.
• Information on business management like how to manage workers successfully.
• Information about technical matters like how to operate the machines.
• Information about competitors like knowing their strength, weaknesses, opportunities and weaknesses.
• Information about the sources of capital.
• Information about sources of various inputs like machinery, labour, raw materials etc ü Information about government policies that affect business activities.

Skills, this is the ability to apply knowledge and can be acquired through practice.

In business context it is possible to distinguish between skills of technical and managerial in nature, some example are listed below Technical skills

• Engineering ,Computing, Sewing, Carpentry, Painting, Mechanics

Managerial skills

• Marketing (including selling). An ability to see past the firm’s offerings and their features, to be able to see how they satisfy the customer’s needs and why the customers find them attractive.
• Time management. An ability to use time productive, to be able to prioritize important jobs and to get things done to schedule.
• Financial management. An ability to manage money, to be able not only to keep expenditure and to monitor cash flow, but also to assess investments in terms of potential and their skills.
• Organization skills. An ability to mobilize and direct different resources to a right direct for the success of a venture
• Planning skill, an ability to consider what the future might offer, how it will impact the business and what needs to be done to prepare for it now.
• An ability to inspire people to work in a specific way and to understand the tasks that are necessary for the success of the venture.
• Delegation skills. An ability to allocate tasks to different people. It demands a understanding of the skills that people possess, how they use them and how they might develop to fulfill future needs.
• Communication skills. Ability to use spoken and written language to express ideas and inform others.
• Negotiation skills. An ability to understand what is wanted from a situation, what is motivating others in that situation and recognizes the possibilities of maximizing outcomes for all parties.

Traits, these are the aggregate/total of peculiar qualities that constitute personal individuality. Traits take time to develop and are not easily changed or acquired. E.g

• Passionate, highly successful entrepreneurs choose to do what they love to do or what they are passionate about.
• They are disciplined, highly successful entrepreneur have the quality of high self-control and have the habits of obedience to effectively manage their time and other resources to achieve success.
• They are effective planners; highly successful entrepreneurs do proper planning.
• They know what their businesses will be in the next 5 years because they are always planning and they are ready to give it their best.
• They are persistent, successful entrepreneurs are highly consistent in their endeavours.
• They are professional, successful entrepreneurs highly believe in the power of being professional or the importance of proper packaging of the business. They know how to present their business or idea in a way that will attract the right people who need them.
• They are aggressive; this is the ability to have confidence to move forward without fearing any resistance.
• They are ambitious; this is the ability to have strong desire towards something.

Traits of an Entrepreneur

Self-confidence: This is having a strong belief in one self and his/ her ability to achieve the set goals regardless of the challenges.

Hard working: This is putting in extra effort, commitment, resources and times in order to achieve the set goals in the set period of time.

Goal oriented: This is the ability to set goals that are SMART ie specific measurable, achievable given the available resources, realistic and time bound and also to work with determination towards achieving them. Persistent: This is the strong desire to do something consistently and continuously until the set goals are achieved despite the various problems and disappointments in business.

Profit oriented; this means having a strong interest and direction towards operating profits in business. This can be achieved through maximizing sales and minimizing costs of operation.

Builds for the future: Most successful entrepreneurs aim at creating long term enterprises that can even outline them and hence provide a secure job and income for themselves and improved welfare and wealth for their families.

Commitment ; Success in business demand total commitment by the entrepreneur in terms of time , money and lifestyle and the business has to be the major priority in the entrepreneur’s life.

Reliability and integrity; Success in business requires honesty, fairness and reliability in terms of doing what the entrepreneur has promised, fulfilling contracts with customers.

Risk taking; Successful entrepreneurs are those who assess risks before committing their resources to identified business ventures and then take calculated risks which can be foreseen by shifting them to insurance companies. Copes with failure; Successful entrepreneurs are those who recognize their failures, learn from them and seek new opportunities.

Willingness to listen; Success in business requires one to be willing to seek and listen to advise and information from others e.g. customers, bankers, business advisors etc.

Demonstrate initiative; Successful entrepreneurs take initiative and put themselves in positions of being responsible for success or failure. 

Setting own standards; success in business requires setting standards i.e. about sale, quality, income and output and working to achieve them.

Responding to feed back; Successful entrepreneurs constantly monitor how well they are doing and keeping track of their performance and then constructively use the feedback obtained to improve performance.

Coping with uncertainty; Entrepreneurship and self-employment involve more uncertainty than wage employment e.g. about sales, profit, prices, support services etc.

Coping with changes; Success in business requires ability to understand, appreciate and adopt or cope with change because change is inevitable in every organization.