Please read the article and answer for questions. Starting an Entrepreneurial Small Business: Four Key Ideas Paul’s story makes a simple point—you can start a small business, and there are ways to help you be a success at it. Consider the four key things that Paul did right: 1. Believe that you can do this: Paul’s belief in himself and what needed to be done to make a better sheath powered his efforts. That belief in yourself is called self-efficacy, and learning how to start a business in this class and from this book will help you build it for yourself. Those who have belief in themselves and in the passion of their beliefs are more likely to keep at it until they succeed. 2. Planning + Action = Success: A plan without action is futile. Actions without plans are usu- ally wasted. Success comes from having the right sort of plan to get you to the right actions as quickly as possible. Like Paul, those who plan and act are the ones who most often succeed. 3. Help Helps: Successful entrepreneurs learn—from other entrepreneurs, from experts in their chosen field, from potential customers, or even from their professors! Skill Module will help you find some of the best sources of help on the Web. Remember, those who get help suc- ceed bigger and more often. 4. Do well. Do Good: In the long run, you will depend on partners, investors, employees, cus- tomers, and neighbors. If you always remember, as Paul has, to do good for others as you try to do well in your business, you’ll feel better about your business and life, and those around you will too. Entrepreneurial Small Business believes in the power of those four ideas, and we’ll help you un- derstand each of them and how to use them to make your entrepreneurial dreams come true. There are literally millions of those entrepreneurial dreams out there because there are so many ways to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs Are Everywhere LO1 In addition to Paul, the United States had 14.7 million other entrepreneurs in 2010 according to the last count made by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).6 What were they doing? Just about everything! Entrepreneurs could be found in just about every type of work there is, literally in hundreds of occupations. In fact, there are occupations composed mostly of entrepreneurs. Table 1.1 shows the 10 occupations with the largest numbers of entrepreneurs as well as the 10 occupations with the highest percentages of entrepreneurs. Notice that while there are entrepreneur-rich occupations that require college and even graduate school, there are also occupations popular with entrepreneurs with very basic entry requirements. What is most important here is finding something you want to do. When you decide on what your business is going to be, you are choosing your occupation. As the entrepreneur, you may be the owner of the business, but your occupation will depend on what type of goods or services you and your firm are producing. So the owner of an online store is a retailer, while the owner of a construction firm will be a construction manager. Paul is a leather manufacturer because Hedgehog Leatherworks makes the leather sheaths he sells online. Whatever you want to do, there is probably a way to do it as an entrepreneur. Truly entrepreneurial businesses are characterized by novelty, in their products, services, or business models. Small businesses, on the other hand, are imitative in nature, with most small firms doing what other firms do, with only slight variations. But when we think about the people who start firms for the first time, the situations they face are situations of novelty. So whether they start the successor to Amazon.com or the pizzeria on the corner, the person who starts a business is living the life of the entrepreneur. We recognize this distinction and address the challenges facing entrepreneurs, while focusing on the small businesses they plan to create or enter. In Entrepreneurial Small Business we use the popular broad definition of entrepreneur8—anyone who owns a business is an entrepreneur. This, of course, means anyone who is a small business owner is an entrepreneur.9 It also means that the self-employed, anyone who works for himself or herself instead of for others, is also an entrepreneur. According to the Census Bureau, there were about 14.7 million self-employed people in 2010. Within the population of entrepreneurs, it is sometimes useful to split out certain groups. One of these is founders, the people who start a business, whether it is one of their own devising, or a franchise, which is a prepackaged business you buy or lease from a franchisor. Other groups consist of buyers, those who purchase an existing business, or of heirs, those who inherit or are given a stake in the family business. These roles deal with the entry stage of the business from the perspective of the entrepreneur. After entry, another role emerges, that of the owner-manager, the role in which most entrepreneurs spend their working lives. Throughout this text the terms small business owner, entrepreneur, and self-employed are used interchangeably. When founders or buyers or postentry owner-managers are discussed, we specify which one is the focus. 1.According to this chapter, if the natural state for most people is inaction what must a successful entrepreneur do? 2.According to this chapter, what on-line resources give information on: What are the profit margins for businesses say in the restaurant industry? 3.What definition does the author of this book use to define an “Entrepreneur”?