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Entrepreneurship for career
Published on: Monday, September 02, 2024
By: K Krishnan
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Lee is the founder of 99 Speedmarket
It is not wrong to dream big. If you want to reach your dream, you need to choose a career that will help you become an “entrepreneur.”
There are many students who want to start their own business after completing their higher studies. They prefer not to work for anyone.
They want to be entrepreneurs. Is this your interest too? Well, before you go any further, first learn about entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship refers to a person who wants to create a new business.
An aspiring entrepreneur actively seeks a particular business venture and it is the entrepreneur who assumes the greatest amount of risk associated with the project.
As such, this person also stands to benefit most if the project is a success. Entrepreneurial pursuits often involve innovation.
What industries do small business
entrepreneurs work in?
A recent small business owner survey from Guidant Financial found that the top three industries for small business startups are:
- Food and restaurant operations
- Retail
- Business services
Other leading industries included health and fitness, finance, insurance, and law. No matter what type of venture a small business entrepreneur is involved in, it’s vital that they prioritise innovation and perseverance.
Characteristics of an entrepreneur
The entrepreneurial mindset combines several different skills that require careful development for the successful achievement of a business idea.
For example, an entrepreneur must be able to balance an understanding of how business works – including from a financial and operational perspective – with a drive for innovation.
Entrepreneurship means understanding when you have an opening in the marketplace that no other provider is meeting and having the business sense to know how to go after this new opportunity at the right time.
A successful entrepreneur will possess many abilities and characteristics, including the ability to:
- Curious
- Flexible and adaptable
- Persistent
- Passionate
- Willing to learn
- A visionary
- Motivated
Entrepreneurial drive stems from qualities like these, just as an entrepreneur’s ability to succeed will depend on developing these abilities.
What types of entrepreneurs
are there?
From social entrepreneurship to scalable startup entrepreneurship to intrapreneurs, there is no limit to the kinds of entrepreneurs currently operating within businesses.
An intrapreneur may be considered a type of entrepreneur, though this individual will likely have a bit less freedom and much lower financial risk than an entrepreneur who is truly embarking on a new, independent journey.
While intrapreneurs may need to manage expectations and budgets provided by their sponsoring organisation, they don’t have the same concerns as independent entrepreneurs when it comes to investor relations, venture capital, and overall business management.
Entrepreneurs may also be motivated primarily by their desire to make a positive impact on the world by creating a new business.
This type of leader is known as a social entrepreneur.
They see a problem facing their communities or the world at large, and they strive to create and implement new solutions that drive change.
Another important distinction among the different entrepreneurial categories is the scale of the entrepreneur’s ambition: Are they trying to launch a small business or to create a growth-orientated startup?
What is the difference between
a startup and a small business?
The term startup refers to a company in the first stages of operations. Startups are founded by one or more entrepreneurs who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is demand and expect to grow the business.
The vision for the business is usually different from a small business owner’s.
For example, a food service worker who’s interested in entrepreneurship might choose to go into business for themselves, opening up a new restaurant.
Eventually, this venture may succeed and grow to the point where opening up a second location or franchising the brand could be viable options.
However, this does not necessarily mean that the restaurant is a startup, especially if the founder’s initial goal wasn’t to significantly expand the business.
A better example of a startup entrepreneur might be a food service worker who has an original idea about how to transform restaurant operations on a larger scale.
This person might be interested in creating a new technological solution, reimagining distribution and logistics, or something else.
The key difference here is that the startup is small in the beginning, but its success relies on using an innovative idea to respond to a large-scale opportunity. Right away, many startups, companies that are just beginning operations, have big ambitions.
From idea to startup
To visualise the journey of a startup entrepreneur, consider the story of Lee Thiam Wah. Lee is the founder of 99 Speedmarket. There are more than 1500 stores in Malaysia.
It is well known in neighbourhoods because of its affordable prices and a wide range of grocery needs.
Lee was born with poliomyelitis –a disease to his central nervous system –and at 8 months old, he was already bound to a wheelchair for life.
With 10 siblings in a low-income household, his construction worker father and hawker mother worked round the clock to feed them, leaving them with no time to care for Lee.
Due to his disability, he had to leave school after his primary education, as secondary schools were located too far from home for him to travel.
Lee grew close to his grandmother, who would nurture him and encourage the then-teenager to find his own way. She told Lee that he was only disabled physically, not mentally; he was smart, and she said he could still use his hands to do much more.
Her words struck Lee, who realised that no one in his family had pursued anything in the business world before. This inspired him to earn some money by selling snacks on his front porch.
Saving up what he earned from those sales, he opened his first sundry shop called Pasar Raya Hiap Hoe in 1987 at 23 years old, with a capital of RM17,000.
This was the start of his retail training, where he learnt about what customers would buy and connected with suppliers to learn about their prices.
Five years later, Lee sold his sundry shop and opened up a mini-mart called Pasar Mini 99 in Klang Utama. He wanted the challenge of running a bigger business and so chose to build a chain of mini-marts.
The name “99 Speedmarket” is symbolic for Lee. According to him, he chose the number 99 “because it implies that even though we are not perfect, we still aim to offer our customers the best services and products we have at a competitive price.”
Career Tips
If you want to be an entrepreneur, enhance your knowledge and learn about successful entrepreneurs. Learn the steps taken by others and the obstacles they faced. If you believe you have the interest and qualities of an entrepreneur, explore further.
Note: If you have a question on careers, write to: [email protected]
