Entrepreneurial Competencies refer to the important characteristics that should be possessed by an individual in order to perform

entrepreneurial functions effectively. In this module, you will learn some of the most important characteristics, attributes, lifestyle, skills
and traits of a successful entrepreneur or an employee to be successful in a chosen career.

Below are few important characteristics / traits / attributes of a good entrepreneur:

 Hardworking: One of the important characteristics of a good entrepreneur is hardworking. This means working diligently and
being consistent about it. Hardworking people keep improving their performance to produce good products and/or provide
good services.
 Confident: Entrepreneurs have self-reliance in one’s ability and judgment. They exhibit self-confidence to cope with the risks of
operating their own business.
 Disciplined: Successful entrepreneurs always stick to the plan and fight the temptation to do what is unimportant.
 Committed: Good entrepreneurs assume full responsibility over their business. They give full commitment and solid dedication
to make the business successful.
 Ability to accept change: Nothing is permanent but change. Change occurs frequently. When you own a business, you should
cope with and thrive on changes. Capitalize on positive changes to make your business grow.
 Creative: An entrepreneur should be creative and innovative to stay in the business and in order to have an edge over the
other competitors.
 Has the initiative: An entrepreneur takes the initiative. You must put yourself in a position where you are responsible for the
failure or success of your business.
 Profit-oriented: An entrepreneur enters the world of business to generate profit or additional income. The business shall
become your bread and butter. Therefore, you must see to it that the business can generate income.
 Excellent planner: Planning involves strategic thinking and goal setting to achieve objectives by carefully maximizing all the
available resources. A good entrepreneur develops and follows the steps in the plans diligently to realize goals. A good
entrepreneur knows that planning is an effective skill only when combined with action.
 Possesses people skills: This is a very important skill needed to be successful in any kind of business. People skills refer to
effective and efficient communication and establishing good relationship to the people working in and out of your business. In
day-to-day business transactions, you need to deal with people. A well-developed interpersonal skill can make a huge
difference between success and failure of the business.
 Sound decision maker: Successful entrepreneurs have the ability to think quickly and to make wise decisions towards a pre-
determined set of objectives. No one can deny that the ability to make wise decisions is an important skill that an entrepreneur
should possess. Sound decisions should be based on given facts and information and lead towards the pre-determined
objectives.

Opportunities in the business environment are factors that provide possibilities for a business to expand and make more profit.
Constraints, on the other hand, are factors that limit business growth, hence reduce the chance of generating profit.
SWOT Analysis is a managerial tool used to assess the environment. It is used to gather important information which is then used in
strategic planning.
Strengths and Weaknesses are internal in an organization. They relate to resources owned by an organization that you have control over
and also the extent of its marketing.
Opportunities and Threats exist in the external environment. Opportunities relate to the market, new technologies, and the external
factors such as government policies, climate, and trends. Threats replace what the competitors are doing. It also includes legal and other
constraints.

Product Development
When we talk of Product Development, we are referring to a process of making a new product to be sold by a business or
enterprise to its customers. Product development may involve modification of an existing product or its presentation, or formulation of an
entirely new product that satisfies a newly-defined customer’s needs, wants and/or a market place.
The term development refers collectively to the entire process of identifying a market opportunity, creating a product to appeal
to the identified market, and testing, modifying, and refining the product until it becomes ready for production.
There are basic, yet vital questions that you can ask yourself about product development. When you find acceptable answers
to them, you may now say that you are ready to develop a product and/or render services.
These questions include the following:
1. For whom are the product/services aimed at?
2. What benefit will the customers expect from product/service?
3. How will the product/service differ from the existing brand? From its competitor?
 In addition, needs and wants of the people within an area should also be taken into big consideration. Everyone has his/her
own needs and wants. However, each person has different concepts of needs and wants. Needs in business are the important things
that an individual cannot live without in a society. These include:
1. basic commodities for consumption,
2. clothing and other personal belongings,
3. shelter, sanitation and health, and
4. education.

Basic needs are essential to an individual to live with dignity and pride in a community. These needs can obviously help you generate
business ideas and subsequently to product development.
Wants are desires, luxury and extravagance that signify wealth and expensive way of living. Wants or desires are considered above all
the basic necessities of life. Some examples of wants or desires are: fashion accessories, expensive shoes and clothes, travels, eating
in an expensive restaurant, watching movies, concerts, having luxurious cars, wearing expensive jewelry and perfume, living in
impressive homes, among others.

Concepts of Developing a Product

Concept development is a critical phase in the development of a product. In this stage, the needs of the target market are identified, and
competitive products are reviewed before the product specifications are defined. The product concept is selected along with an economic
analysis to come up with an outline of how a product is being developed. Figure 3 shows the stages of concept development of a
product.

The process of product development follows the following stages:

1. Identify customer needs: Using survey forms, interviews, researches, focus group discussions, and observations, an
entrepreneur can easily identify customers’ needs and wants. In this stage, the information that can be possibly gathered are
product specifications (performance, taste, size, color, shape, life span of the product, etc.). This stage is very important
because it would determine the product to be produced or provided.
2. Establish target specifications: Based on customers' needs and reviews of competitive products, you can now establish target
specifications of the prospective new product and/or services. A target specification is essentially a wish-list.
3. Analyze competitive products: It is imperative to analyze existing competitive products to provide important information in
establishing product or service specifications. Other products may exhibit successful design attributes that should be emulated
or improved upon in the new product or service.
4. Generate product concepts: After having gone through with the previous processes, you may now develop a number of
product concepts to illustrate the types of products or services that are technically feasible and will best meet the requirements
of the target specifications.
5. Select a product concept: Through the process of evaluation between attributes, a final concept is selected. After the final
selection, additional market research can be applied to obtain feedback from certain key customers.
 6. Refine product specifications: In this stage, product or services specifications are refined on the basis of input from the
foregoing activities. Final specifications are the result of extensive study, expected service life, projected selling price among
others are being considered in this stage.
7. Perform economic analysis: Throughout the process of product development, it is very important to always review and estimate
the economic implications regarding development expenses, manufacturing costs, and selling price of the product or services
to be offered or provided.
8. Plan the remaining development project: In this final stage of concept development, you can prepare a detailed development
plan which includes list of activities, necessary resources and expenses, and development schedule with milestones for
tracking progress.

Finding Value
People buy for a reason. There should be something in your product or service that would give consumers a good reason to go back and
buy more. There must be something that will make you the best option for target customers; otherwise, they have no reason to buy what
you are selling. This implies further, that you offer something to your customers that will make them value your product or service.
The value you incorporate in your product is called value proposition. Value proposition is a believable collection of the most persuasive
reasons why people should notice you and take the action you’re asking for. It is what gets people moving, what makes people spend for
your product or service.

Innovation
Innovation is the introduction of something new in your product or service. This may be a new idea, a new method, or a new device. If
you want to increase your sales and profit, you must innovate. Some of the possible innovations for your products are change of
packaging, improvement of taste, color, size, shape, and perhaps price. Some of the possible innovations in providing services are
application of new and improved methods, additional featured services, and possibly freebies.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Unique Selling Proposition is the factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from
and better than that of the competition. Before you can begin to sell your product or service to your target customers, you have to sell
yourself in it. This is especially important when your product or service is similar to your competitors.
USP requires careful analysis of other businesses' ads and marketing messages. If you analyze what they say or what they sell, not just
their product or service characteristics, you can learn a great deal about how companies distinguish themselves from competitors.
Here's how to discover your USP and how to use it to increase your sales and profit:
 Use empathy: Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Always focus on the needs of the target customers and forget
falling in love with your own product or service. Always remember, you are making/providing this product not for yourself but for
the target customers to eventually increase sales and earn profit. Essential question such as what could make them come
back and ignore competition, should be asked to oneself. Most possible answers may be focused on quality, availability,
convenience, cleanliness, and reliability of the product or service.
 Identify customer’s desires. It is very important for you to understand and find out what drives and motivates your customers to
buy your product or service. Make some effort to find out, analyze and utilize the information that motivates the customers in
their decision to purchase the product or service.
 Discover customer’s genuine reasons for buying the product. Information is very important in decision making. A competitive
entrepreneur always improve their products or services to provide satisfaction and of course retention of customers. As your
business grows, you should always consider the process of asking your customers important information and questions that
you can use to improve your product or service.

Business idea is a starting point for any entrepreneur. It’s important because it present the beginning of a new life – a life of a business
and a life of an entrepreneur. A business idea is a concept which can be used for commercial purposes. It typically centers on
a commodity or service that can be sold for money, according to a unique model.

Generating Ideas for Business

The process of developing and generating a business idea is not a simple process. Some people come up with a bunch of business
ideas that are not really feasible. There are two problems that arise; first is the excessive generation of ideas that can forever remain as
a dreaming stage and the second is when they don’t have ideas and don’t want to become entrepreneurs.
The most optimal way is to have a systematic approach in generating and selecting a business idea that can be transformed into a real
business. Here are some basic yet very important considerations that can be used to generate possible ideas for business:
1. Examine existing goods and services.
2. Examine the present and future needs.
3. Examine how the needs are being satisfied.
4. Examine the available resources.
5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on new products and techniques or advances in technology.
Key Concepts of Selecting a Business Idea
Once you have identified business opportunities, you will eventually see that there are many possibilities available for you. It is very
unlikely that you will have enough resources to pursue all of them at once.
You have to select the most promising one among hundreds of ideas. It will be good to do this in stages. In the first stage, you screen
your ideas to narrow them down to about few choices. In the next stage, trim down the choices to two options. In the final stage, choose
between the two and decide which business idea is worth pursuing.
In screening your ideas, examine each one in terms of the following guide questions:
1. How much capital is needed to put up the business?
2. Where should the business be located?
3. How big is the demand for the product? Do many people need this product and will continue to need it for a long time?
4. How is the demand met? Who are processing the products to meet the needs (competition or demand)? How much of the
need is now being met (supply)?
5. Do you have the background and experiences needed to run this particular business?
6. Will the business be legal and not against any existing or foreseeable government regulation?
7. Is the business in line with your interest and expertise?

Branding
Branding is a marketing practice of creating a name, a symbol or design that identifies and differentiates product or services from the
rest. It is also a promise to your customers. It tells them what they can expect from your product or service and it differentiates your
offerings from other competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and what people perceive you to be.
Branding is one of the most important aspects in any business. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly
competitive markets.
A good product can:
- (1) deliver message clearly, (2) confirm credibility, (3) connect to target prospect, (4) motivate buyers, and (5) concretize user loyalty.

Here are simple tips to publicize your brand:

 Develop a tagline. Write a statement that is meaningful, impressive, and easy to remember to capture the essence of your
brand.
 Design a logo. Create a logo symbolic of your business and consistent with your tagline and displace it strategically.
 Write a brand message. Select a key message to communicate about your brand.
 Sustain a brand quality. Deliver a promise of quality through your brand.
 Practice consistency. Be reliable and consistent to what your brand means in your business.

Strategies:
 SW - Maximize on the Strengths to overcome the internal Weakness.
 OW - Capitalize on the Opportunities to eliminate the internal Weakness.
 ST - Maximize on your Strengths to eliminate the external Threats.
 OT - Take advantage of the available Opportunities to eliminate the external Threats.