Entrepreneurship activities
Introduction
Entrepreneurship can be defined as the ability to discover a trade opening and working towards maximizing it. It entails taking a considerable amount of risk in order to counter the obstacles that prevent effective and efficient implementation of the same. Entrepreneurs are aggressive people and can be referred to as risk takers since they assume risks in implementing the opportunity. Protagonists of entrepreneurship argue that it is a state of mind rather than just physical aspect. An entrepreneur is always alert on the changing needs of people and always scans the business environment to determine what is required in the market. An entrepreneur always makes huge profits before others imitate his business and face competition. This means that an entrepreneur is not just a business person, but also an inventor (Casson & Buckley, 2010).
Learning Skills Unit (LSU) is a Unit or a department that has been set by many learning institutions especially higher education institutions to help students excel in their education. They are set up to guide students on the best practices they need to engage in, so that they can achieve best results. The unit guides students on various issues such as giving guidelines on time management, how to write essays, study methods, research, presentation skills, study skills and other activities that can help a student as far as learning is concerned. Learning Skills Unit not only provides guidelines to students, but also to staff. The staffs are trained through the unit especially the new staff in learning institutions. Therefore, learning Skills unit is essential for both the staff and the students (Carsrud & Brännback, 2007).
Australian Universities are among the pioneers of introducing such units. The unit has had significant importance in these institutions. The unit gives lecturers an easy time since they do not have to consume much time in training students on how to undertake some activities. The units help students to conduct research and provide resources that are required in various activities. There are many higher education learning institutions that have not introduced these institutions. Libyan institutions are among them (García, Ribeiro & Roig, 2007). This paper will describe the strategies to introduce LSU in Libyan higher learning institutions and how the business will be a cash cow.
Introducing LSU in Libya
Libya is a country in Northern Africa. Learning institutions in the country do not have this program. This means that there is an entrepreneurial opportunity in the country’s universities to introduce this essential unit that will enrich services delivery in the institutions. Learning Skills Unit will help students to understand how they would undertake different learning activities in schools. This will create an enabling environment for learning in the institutions. It will also help lecturers and professors in these institutions to have more time to concentrate on offering quality education as more time will be created since they will not consume time trying to teach students on how to perform various activities. This is a viable business since the users of threes services will have to be charged a small fee (Bygrave & Zacharakis, 2010).
Skills Required
There are various characteristics entrepreneurs posses. It has been found that entrepreneurs have some distinguishing features that separate them from other business people and other ordinary individuals. One of these characteristics is risk taking. Entrepreneurs are risk takers. Individuals with entrepreneurial mind are courageous and have a positive point of view towards the business that they want to start or have already started. They observe a particular activity on merit side and try to establish how their invention will succeed. They analyze various obstacles that are found in the business. The analysis is not meant to make decision on whether to put the business idea in motion or not, but it is meant for finding ways to counter these obstacles (Bygrave & Zacharakis, 2010).
Entrepreneurs also possess internal locus of control. Real entrepreneurs do not follow other people’s opinions. They are self-driven and will not follow or listen to people who might not observe the idea on the same perspective. Most of people benchmark an idea with past similar businesses. If the business idea failed, they will have as negative attitude towards such ideas. Entrepreneurs will not argue along lines of failure but will believe in their strategies and will act solely as per the demands of the business opportunity. Opportunity to start Learning Skills Unit in Libya is a viable one as it is meant to improve service delivery in the country’s institutions as well as making money from the venture (Hisrich, Peters & Shephered, 2009).
Entrepreneurs also have high need for achievement. The goal for any entrepreneur is to attain high achievement and realize profits from his business idea. This is not reached easily unless a person has a need for realizing it. Entrepreneurs do not fear failure; instead, they view failure as a source of learning. They view failure in a positive point of view. Failure is a word that is not found in entrepreneurs mind dictionary. They view it as source of additional skills since they would eventually redefine their course and detect where they went wrong (Hisrich, Peters & Shephered, 2009). Therefore, entrepreneurs have a strong desire for achievement and will direct all their focus towards reaching their target goals.
Entrepreneurs are always time conscious. They come up with an idea and lay strategies of implementing them. Implementation of entrepreneurial strategies requires time. Entrepreneurs always work along with time. Entrepreneurs measure achievement in terms of merit and time. Time is also an important component in business. Many business owners measure achievement and viability of a business venture using payback method. This helps to show the time required to recover the original investment. An entrepreneur ventures into a business and plans his business in a manner that the business will make returns within the shortest time (Forbat, 2007).
Tolerance is also another important quality. Entrepreneurs are tolerant. They understand the various stages of a business life-cycle. Therefore, they become tolerant to the various oscillations of the business. An entrepreneur does not lose hope when undertaking his business. Optimism is always the word that leads daily operations. Entrepreneurs have perseverance and do not regret for having started a business. When a business starts having low returns, they normally devise strategies of reviving it. They do not sit and watch the business collapse. Entrepreneurs know the signs of negative business. They react immediately they notice a negative sign in their business (Forbat, 2007).
Creativity is also one of the most important qualities of an entrepreneur. Most of business start-ups of entrepreneurs normally thrive. They do not fear competition and do not view competition as a threat. This is because they have a standby solution to every problem. They approach a problem from all dimensions to come up with informed solutions. When his business is subjected to high competition, he will respond by being creative by scanning the market and coming up with a way that he would counter competition. Both creativity and optimism are important tools for an entrepreneur. These are tools that make the entrepreneur successful (Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2009).
The other important quality is that an entrepreneur has high energy levels. He starts his business and runs it with high energy. This makes him successful in every business that he starts. High energy makes him successful because he will dedicate all his efforts towards his business. This makes it easy to handle changes that occur in the environment of his business. He is able to respond positively to changes in the market and maintains the returns of his business. Entrepreneurs do not believe in failure and this is the reason why they approach all the activities of their business with energy (Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2009).
Strategies for introducing the businesses
In order to introduce the product successfully there are some strategies that are required to be put in place. Introducing a new product or a business is always faced with challenges as individuals do not clearly devise strategies to use in converting ideas into reality. Introducing Learning Skills Unit in higher learning institutions in Libya will require various strategies to be formulated and laid down (Bruin & Dupuis, 2003). This will ensure that all the requirements are put in pace and the information required is gathered. LSU is an important aspect in higher education but needs to be carefully planned to prevent rejection from Libyan institutions.
The first of the strategies is to understand fully the Libyan higher learning demography. Introducing a new service or a product in a new market require a thorough study of the target market. This is done through conducting a short market research which seeks to determine the viability and suitability of the product in that particular market niche. The market study determines whether the target market is suitable for the product or the service. Prior market study is important since it reduces chances of failure of the product (Bruin & Dupuis, 2003). It is fundamentally known that certain products are not fit for all products; therefore market research helps to determine the suitability of market.
Libyan target market is universities and colleges. The service unit is most suitable for higher learning institutions. It could also be useful in high schools but the most appropriate market is higher learning institutions. This is because higher learning students are more self regulated and are expected to know how the system in their institutions works. Higher Learning institutions contain complex operations (Baron & Shane, 2008). Introducing Learning Skills Unit in these institutions will improve service delivery. Therefore, universities and tertiary colleges in Libya will be the best target market as the program also does not exist in Libyan universities.
The other strategy required while introducing new product or service is the determination of distribution channels. In this context, the distribution channels will mean the methods or techniques that will be employed in order to make the project successful. The first of the considerations of the best distribution channels is determination of the primary consumer (Baron & Shane, 2008). The learning Skills unit will primarily be used by students. Students who are always confused on the operations of the business will have the access to all the information they require from the unit. The unit will have both face to face services as well as printed documents. This will ensure that service provided in the unit is of high quality and reliable.
The other strategy is to test the market. Market testing is meant to show whether the product or service is likeable or not. Testing the market of Learning Skills Unit will target one university in Libya where the unit will be established. My target university to test the market is the Al Fateh University in Tripoli, Libya. This is a big university and has large number of students. Since the institution is quite large, its operations are more complex and diverse. This will be an appropriate target test market. Testing market also involves pricing. Before testing the market, an entrepreneur should ensure that the price charged for the product is affordable to the target consumers (Greene, 2008). The pricing for the unit in the university will be affordable such that when the institution conducts the Cost-benefit analysis, benefits will be more than the costs. This will ensure that the project will be allowed in the institution.
The other core strategy is training. Training is an important component in introducing a new. Introducing Learning Skills unit will require thorough training of the staff that will help the students and lecturers. Each learning institution has its own unique way of delivering services to its students and other clients (Greene, 2008). This will be a challenge since the trainer will be required to have thorough information concerning the institution. This will need cooperation with the staff at Al Fateh University. Training will be followed by promotion where students will be asked to access information from the Learning Skills Unit.
Benefits to stakeholders
The program will be beneficial to students in that they will not be stranded on where to get particular information to students. Students will be able to learn several skills such as essay writing and presentation skills, presentation skills and study skills. The staff in the institution will benefit through training, staff intra-net and such programs as workshop requests. Students such as masters and PHD students will be aided in their research and thesis programs in that they will be able to access literary materials through the unit. This will enhance learning environment in the university. Lecturers will also be relieved of the task of training students various academic skills as this will be done by the unit. Therefore, both the students and their tutors will benefit from the project and hence it is worth implementing. My business will also benefit by charging a fee for such services which will be borne by the institution.
Learning skills unit will also be used by other stakeholders who will who are not part of the student bodies in Libyan universities. This means that individuals from local communities in Libya will also have an opportunity to learn from the unit. High school students will also benefit from the program as they prepare to join colleges and universities. This will prepare them for higher learning and will make them know the operations of higher learning institutions. This of course will be charged some amounts which will create a viable entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, the LSU will not only be beneficial to individuals who are already in higher learning institutions, but also to the surrounding communities.
Future of the businesses
Al Fateh University will just be a test market. The future of the business is to introduce learning skills units to all universities in Libya. This will ensure that service delivery in Libyan universities is enhanced and students experience an enhanced learning environment. if Libyan Universities do not include the LSU, they will lag behind in terms of university ranking. They will not be able to recover time wasted in familiarizing students with institutions’ activities and other academic issues.
Conclusion
Starting a new business is a challenging task. Entrepreneurs do not view it as a challenge but as a source of learning. They view challenges in positive dimension. Introducing learning skills unit in Libya is a new business since it does not exist in Libyan universities. This paper has looked at several strategies that can be used to avail the unit in Libyan universities. It has analyzed the market for the services and has shown the benefits that the business will bring in campuses. It can therefore be concluded that the business will turn into a success.
References
Baron, R.A & Shane, S.A (2008) Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective, Ohio: Cengage Learning.
Bruin, A & Dupuis, A (2003) Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives in a Global Age, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Bygrave, W.D & Zacharakis, A (2010) Entrepreneurship, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Carsrud, A.L & Brännback, M.E (2007) Entrepreneurship, Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Casson, M & Buckley, P.T (2010) Entrepreneurship: Theory, Networks, History, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Forbat, J (2007) Entrepreneurship: The Seeds of Success, Hampshire: Harriman House Limited.
García, A.C., Ribeiro, D & Roig, S (2007) Entrepreneurship: Concepts, Theory and Perspective, Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Greene, C.L (2008) Entrepreneurship: Ideas in Action, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Hisrich, R., Peter’s M.P & Shephered, D.A (2009) Entrepreneurship, New York: McGraw-Hill Co.
Kuratko, D.F & Hodgetts, R.M (2009) Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.
