Entrepreneurship or professional management is the process by which an entrepreneur identifies a business opportunity, assembles all the required factors of production and starts a viable business. A professional manager should be able to identify a business opportunity and conduct a feasibility study of the intended business. If the study confirms viability of the business, the entrepreneur should develop the business plan, Seek ways and means to finance the business, that means to get the starting and running capital until the business becomes self sustaining and lastly identifying the appropriate form of legal organization appropriate to the business. Entrepreneurship is usually a challenging task as most of the new businesses fails within the first year of operation. An entrepreneur becomes the first manager of any business organization. Entrepreneurs have a great desire to achieve and to grow (Zoltan, 2003).
Training and course requirements
The training course for professional management or entrepreneurship is a broad based course. A student is supposed to be trained on various fields of study which relates to social, cultural, economic and professional studies. A manager will have to interact with people of all classes. He or she therefore should have knowledge on how to deal with each of these classes of people, how to relate with people of different cultural background and how to handle them professionally and with respect. For these reasons, the course of study should include business management, economics, marketing, accounting, human resource management, statistics, Psychology and information technology (Casson, 2003).
Any professional manager or entrepreneur must have a basic knowledge of entrepreneurship and what it entails. This involves thorough study of courses that equips the entrepreneurs with knowledge and skills that can enable him or her to develop a business venture from scratch to international business organization levels. These courses include how to:
- Identify a business opportunity.
- conduct a business feasibility study
- Write and develop a business plan
- Find ways and sources of business finance
- Identify the best form of legal organization
However training requirements for a professional management and entrepreneurship course differ with the level of entry position in the business organization. For a company manager, a bachelor’s degree coupled with specialized expertise is required. A master’s degree can be an added advantage. Training requirements vary between private businesses and government businesses. For government businesses they may require just graduate education with little or no experience. For large private business ventures they seek to employ managers with master’s degree in the relevant business field and substantial years of experience in such a position in that field (Busenitz, 1997).
A professional manager is a senior officer in any organization. Their duties range from making high level decisions to supervision of junior employees. They need to posses high standards of business ethics to enable them operate efficiently. They have to be disciplined and self motivated so as to be able to motivate the junior staff. They should have ability to interact with a wide range of people and posses good communication skills. He or she should be able to make good judgment on issues affecting the business and be able to manage time properly (Cole, 1959).
Drawbacks of this particular career choice
Top management jobs such as professional managers attract a lot of competition due to the various advantages and privileges associated with such jobs. Managers facilitate implementation of business goals and objectives. They are so dedicated to the organization’s prosperity that almost all their time is spent in the business. They have little or no time for their families or for leisure. This career calls for maximum dedication. Sometimes managers work for unpaid overtime especially where strict deadlines have to be met. They often get stressed where a target has to be met within a short period of time.
Managers being overall supervisors encounter a lot of difficulties especially where junior employees adamantly refuse to support them wholly in their initiative to meeting the business objectives. This may necessitate hard decisions such as firing of the non-cooperating junior staff. This may also regenerate into a series of problems leading to strikes. If this happens the manager may opt to resign or be fired by the stakeholders (Collins, 1970).
An examination of the career
Professional management is a top executive career. It offers numerous benefits to those who successfully advance in it. The managers are among the well paid employees in the world. Their salary however depends on the managerial level of the employee and the financial strength of the business. This type of job is best suited to those students who have specialized in business related courses and especially in entrepreneurship. It is worst suited for those students who have never done any business related course for they lack skills behind business growth (Cole, 1959).
Works cited
Zoltan, A. Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: An Interdisciplinary Survey and Introduction, Springer.2003.
Busenitz, Barney “Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations”, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 12, 1997.
Casson, M. The Entrepreneur: An Economic Theory, second edition”, Edward Elgar Publishing 2003.
Cole, A. Business Enterprise in its Social Setting, Harvard University Press, Boston, 1959.
Collins, M. The Organization Makers, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1970.