Research has shown that many people all over the world on an increasing basis choose entrepreneurship as a career rather than limit their thoughts and life ambitions working in an office and reporting to work 9-5

Entrepreneurship refers to the development of a business idea from the bottom up that is coming up with some idea and turning it into a profitable venture. Although, the definition of entrepreneurship might sound simple, its execution is much more difficult. It entails the ability to recognize the right opportunity, mobilizing the necessary resources eg funding, manpower, technology, etc to make the idea a profitable one.

Entrepreneurship goes beyond having a great idea or concept which is just one part of the equation. The other component necessary for success include the ability to identify and reach interested customers in the most effective and affordable manner.

An entrepreneur is therefore someone who can take an idea, whether it is a product or service, and has the skill set, and the courage to take risks to do the needful to turn that idea or concept into reality while ensuring that the product not only gets to the market, but becomes a viable product and or service that people want or need.

Certain characteristics that most successful entrepreneurs have include:

The Ability to plan: Entrepreneurs develop business plans to meet their business goals in a variety of areas including finance, production, marketing, sales and personnel.
Effective Communication skills: Entrepreneurs have the ability to effectively communicate and market their goods or services.
Interpersonal skills: They have the ability to establish and maintain positive connections with their customers, employees, banks, investors, accountants, and lawyers among others.
Marketing skills-Entrepreneurs have the natural ability to market their products and or services to their clients and non-clients.
Basic management skills: Entrepreneurs hire others to manage some of their day-to-day tasks, they however, always know whether their company has the correct resources and can effectively pull the necessary resources to ensure success.
Leadership skills: Entrepreneurs have the ability to develop a vision for their business venture and to inspire others to buy into the vision and achieve success
Examples of successful entrepreneurship, include:

1-Bill Gates- IT

Henry Ford-Automobiles
Walt Disney- Media
Coco Chanel-Fashion
Richard Branson-Airline
Oprah Winfrey-Entretainment
Donald Trump-Real Estate etc
Mark Zuckerberg-Internet
Despite Nigeria poor infrastructure and high cost of doing business (due to lack of electricity, water supply etc), a new trend of young entrepreneurs, namely, The Millennial generation, (i.e. those born between 1982 to 2002, are fast taking the center-stage in entrepreneurship. These young entrepreneurs have developed business ideas that have now become a success even before they hit their thirties. Here are some cases in Nigeria that explain this trend. Examples are Oluwaseun Osewa, Founder and Ceo, Nairaland; Africa’s topmost online forum with over one million registered users; Ola Orekunrin 29 year old Founder and Ceo of Flying Doctors, West Africa first Air Ambulance Carriage Company; and Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude, Ayodeji Adewumi, Founders of Jobberman, Nigerian largest online job search engine. Others include Audu Maikori, Hassan Rilwan, Tara Fela Durotoye (House of Tara), Khalim Sule Halilu, Ali Nuhu (Nollywood), Haowa Bello, founder, of Fula Farms, a commercial goat farm in Lekki, Lagos. And also the Founder of Madame Coquette (MC), a company into the designs and manufacture of a line of luxury leather bags.

Worthy of mention include Folorunsho Alakija, one of the richest black females in the world; Yasmin Belo-Osagie, and Afua osei, Founders of SheLeads Africa, an initiative for empowering women in the field of business; Adenike Ogunnlesi, CEO, Ruff and Tumble, Mosunmola Abdu, a media professional with a business venture worth over N2bn aimed at assisting youths.

Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur? Do you think you have the skills required to take you to the top like some of the names mentioned above? Do you have a new business idea that you can turn into a profitable venture? Or simply connect with the above story through knowing someone who has the passion, the commitment and the humility to get to the top. We will be happy to hear from you.

I want to go into farming;fish, snails, grass cutter and birds. Just need a good guide to follow up