Exploring Different Paths of Business: Entrepreneurship
By Hardik Maheshwari & Nikhil Mandava
When we think of someone who is rich and successful, a few names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerburg come to mind.
All of these people have one thing in common: they are all successful entrepreneurs.
A person who undertakes the risk of starting a new business venture is called an entrepreneur.
Many people hate the idea of working a 9–5 job. It can get very boring, exhausting, and feel just like school. In regular jobs, you can be very limited to what you do and you can’t have a dream and envision a future for a company.
To funnel their ideas and make their dreams true, people become entrepreneurs.
So far being an entrepreneur sounds great since you can avoid the monotony of a 9–5 job and make your dreams a reality, however, entrepreneurs take big risks.
How to be a successful entrepreneur
Becoming a successful entrepreneur isn’t easy.
The wide variety of things you can do as an entrepreneur makes it very difficult. Many times having too many choices can be difficult and it’s hard to decide what to grow your business as. The entrepreneur names we hear on social media are all the successful ones. The failures go unnoticed but there are a lot of unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
Being an entrepreneur requires a different skillset and mindset compared to traditional employees. As an entrepreneur, you are the boss of the company and you must follow the expectations you set. The head(s) of a company must lead the employees to success. An entrepreneur must be passionate, empathize, and be proactive to run a successful business.
Many entrepreneurs are seen as lone wolves, but that is what we see. There is a team working with every successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need to have confidence when speaking on stage.
To get your brand out to your customers, you must be able to pitch your idea(s) to other people which requires confidence if you want other people to buy into your business.
Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t hard, but it requires planning and dedication. Starting a business is very simple. You can just go to the government, pay a couple of hundred dollars, and get an LLC license.
However, this won’t take you very far. Being an entrepreneur requires you to find the right business and right customer group. In many cases, it is important to get an education on business and entrepreneurship to have the knowledge and skill set to operate a business. Your first idea for a business most likely won’t be the best one.
It will take lots of brainstorming and learning from failures to kickstart a successful business. As your business grows, you will meet people and continue to network. Building relationships and networking are important regardless of career. Knowing and meeting new people means more opportunities for you.
In an interview with a rising entrepreneur, she that meeting new people is the number one way for the path to success. She met new and influential people every day and was motivated by them which led her to start her own business with a close group of friends.
Her hair salon suffered during the pandemic, but she is ready to get back on her feet. She is constantly discovering new ways to generate more income no matter what the situation is.
Since we are in the United States, we have lots of opportunities to start a new business and the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do. We operate on a free market system that gives individuals a lot of freedom to pursue their own dreams.
The free market is utilized by the laws of supply and demand. It is a combination of all the exchanges that take place between the buyer and seller. Decisions and choices made by business individuals of production and investment are dependent on how supply and demand affect the prices of the market. No government control exists in a free market system instead the buyer and seller determine what occurs.
An entrepreneur plays an important role in a free market economy. Their goal of starting a business and the price of this service or good in relation to the market sales price. Entrepreneurs have lots of power in a free market economy because their visions can affect everyone that is part of this economic system.
To further indulge in the nature of entrepreneurship and learn more about it, we were able to interview one by the name, Kishore Polakala.
Mr. Polakala noticed that local retailers were having trouble operating because of online powerhouses such as Amazon. This was because of customer’s desire to use online websites and tools for the purpose of buying goods. This is because customers do not have the skills/resources to have an online presence. Also, since retailers are moving to online platforms, the cost has increased to deliver goods.
To combat the aforementioned problems, Mr. Polakala founded an online platform called LemonHat in 2017.
Further, he wants to provide a unified platform where they can share the resources such as groceries for example, and optimize the costs for customers. LemonHat provides retailers with services in an efficient manner. Delivery providers also benefit from this app because of the increased volume that comes from multiple retailers. LemonHat continues to increase its outreach to this day.
Apart from the business side of things, Mr. Polakala has always wanted to start something that can be an essential part of our daily lives and try to go past the comfort zone of his other job. Furthermore, he explains that his father may have also played a role in inspiring him to become an entrepreneur. His father was a small clerk in a government office and always seemed to venture out and take part in different businesses. It makes sense to say he got it from his father.
Like many inexperienced people that are trying to become entrepreneurs or start businesses, Mr. Polakala was one 4 years ago before founding LemonHat. Eventually, he gained lots of knowledge and was able to share it with us. Some skills Mr. Polakala believes people that want to become entrepreneurs need to have calculated risk-taking abilities, common sense over emotions, and the ability to think and plan for what’s coming in the future(5–10 year outlook).
Furthermore, Mr. Polakala also has more advice for up-and-coming entrepreneurs including going for it if you have the opportunity, giving 200% effort, and never losing focus. If you do all those things, Mr. Polakala believes it will all be worth it.
During our conversation with Mr. Polakala, we were able to learn more about the field of entrepreneurship and a certain entrepreneur’s inspiration and advice.
Entrepreneurship is an essential career in business, in fact this country would not be where it is today without risk takers and successful business owners and creators.
The blog team at Inspirante hope this blog inspires you to learn more about entrepreneurship and even maybe inspire you to be one!
