Word Bank

1. Creative
2. Profit-oriented
3. Disciplined
4. Sound decision maker
5. Possess people skills
6. Excellent Planner
7. Confident
8. Hardworking
9. Ability to accept change
10. Committed
PERSONAL
ENTREPRENEURIAL
COMPETENCIES
Entrepreneurship plays a vital aspect modern economics as it facilitates not
only innovation but job creation and national prosperity as well.

Entrepreneurship is defined as identifying new business opportunities and

mobilizing economic resources to initiate a new business or redevelop an
existing business while facing conditions of risks and uncertainties for the
purpose of making profits under private ownership.
Entrepreneurship is the ability of individuals to know what kind of products
and services are needed and shall be delivered to the right people and place, at
the right time and price. It is a process of changing ideas into a business, a
commercial activity engaged in as a means of
livelihood.
An Entrepreneur is the one who organizes, manages, and shoulders the
uncertainties of a business enterprise.

Entrepreneurs are bosses on their own. Decision-making lies in their hands.

They choose whom to deal business with and what business to do. They
decide about almost everything including working hours, salary and leisure.
Being an entrepreneur can be more financially rewarding than working for
someone else. It also comes with the ability of total business operation
involvement—from ideas to design and creation, from sales to operations and
customer feedback.
Personal Entrepreneurial Competency
Competency among entrepreneurs plays a critical role in achieving excellent
performance to ensure a continuous growth and success of a business amongst
competitive enterprise environment.

10 behavioral patterns grouped into three general clusters: the achievement, planning, and
power clusters.
The entrepreneurial qualities, more known as the Personal Entrepreneurial
Competencies (PECs) are as follows:
(1) Opportunity Seeking
(2) Persistence
(3) Commitment to Work Contract
(4) Risk-taking
(5) Demand for Efficiency and Quality
(6) Goal Setting
(7) Information Seeking
(8) Systematic Planning and Monitoring
(9) Persuasion and Networking
(10) Self-Confidence.
Opportunity Seeking is being active in finding openings in the environment which can be used
in different ways to start a business, to create a new market or to improve business operations.

Persistence is doing something continuously even though other people say that you will not
succeed or that you are just wasting your time and effort. It is doing something over and over
again until you get what you think you deserve. It means standing up straight and not giving up
even during the hardest times when you are trying to do something new or something difficult.

Commitment is the state of giving much time and attention to something because you believe it
is right and important. Commitment comes with a personal value, it is what a person truly
believes in and is often considered as very important. For a personal value, someone will be
willing to make sacrifices just to be able to uphold or keep it.
Risk-taking means taking the chances to do something which is out of your comfort
zone. It may also imply doing something that can result in anything unpleasant or
dangerous.

There are three kinds of risk-taking behaviors and these are the following:

(a) High risk-taking – doing something risky without even checking what are the
possible results of such action and without calculating the probable losses
that maybe incurred after the action has been taken
(b) Low risk-taking – almost not taking any risk or avoiding anything difficult or anything
which may have unpleasant or dangerous results,
(c) Moderate risk-taking – carefully calculating all the chances before doing something
difficult or something which may have unpleasant or dangerous results, thus reduces
possible negative results by making the most out of the positive possibilities.
Demand for efficiency and quality, a good entrepreneur demands quality and efficiency
not only from himself but also from her workers and suppliers.

A successful entrepreneur demands quality standards and cannot stand a bad

performance from people he is working with.

Efficiency, on the other hand, is the ability of an entrepreneur and its staffs to work well
without errors or without wasting time, money and energy. Having demands for efficiency
and quality is a normal occurrence in any
business.

Information Seeking is the behavior of gathering information from relevant sources. The
gathered information is critical to the formulation of different business strategies.
Information-seeking means an entrepreneur must always be ready to seek useful
information from persons related to his business including clients, suppliers, and
competitors through contacts or information networks. He must also be open to the idea of
expert consultation for business and technical assistance.
A person with a high goal-setting ability is genuinely realistic. He plans his every action and
carefully makes decisions based on where he wants to go.
His visions are attainable and can inspire his drive in making his goals come to life.
He is competitive in a positive way and loves the idea of winning through hard work and
perseverance.
For him, achievement is everything that keeps his burning passion alive.

A person with self-confidence has a solid self-belief. He trusts his own skills and embraces
his own imperfections. His self-awareness and faith in his personal ability makes it easier for
him to complete any task or activity.
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.
Listed below are the important skills of a successful entrepreneur:

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.
Product Development
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1. Examine existing goods and services. Are you satisfied with the
product? What do other people who use the product say about it? How
can it be improved? There are many ways of improving a product from the
way it is made to the way it is packed and sold.
2. Examine the present and future needs. Look and listen to
what the customers, institutions, and communities are missing
in terms of goods and services. Sometimes, these needs are
already obvious and identified right away.
3. Examine how the needs are being satisfied. Needs for the
products and services are referred to as market demand. To satisfy
these needs is to supply the products and services that meet the
demands of the market.
4. Examine the available resources. Observe what materials or
skills are available in abundance in your area. A business can be
started out of available raw materials by selling them in raw form
and by processing and manufacturing them into finished products.
5. Read magazines, news articles, and other publications on
new products and techniques or advances in technology. You
can pick up new business ideas from magazines such as
Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Business Magazines, “Go Negosyo”,
Know About Business (KAB) materials, and Small-Industry Journal.
The Internet also serves as a library where you may browse and
surf on possible businesses.
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.
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.

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:
- deliver message clearly,
- confirm credibility,
- connect to target prospect,
- motivate buyers, and
- 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.
3-WAY SWITCH
3-way switches are used to control lights with two switches. These
switches do not have an on/off position like single pole switches. It is
important to understand how these are wired before attempting to
troubleshoot or replace.

The diagrams below show the conventional wiring for 3-way switches.
Unfortunately, not all 3-way switches are wired the conventional way.

If you have any problems with these switches, it may be best to call an
electrician.
3-Way Switch Wiring
All of the switches shown below are 3-way. 3-way switches have
three terminals, one common (usually black color) and one pair of
travelers (usually brass color).

With conventional wiring, the common wire from one switch

connects to line, the common wire from the other switch connects
to the load (lights). The pair of travelers on one switch connect to
the pair of travelers on the other switch.
This 3-way switch wiring variation was used as a way to wire 3-way switches and be
able to supply line voltage and lighting load to either switch switch box. This
configuration is no longer allowed if a neutral is not present in each switch box. This
wiring option is sometimes seen in certain commercial environments.
Conventional 3-way wiring is not very complex. With conventional wiring, the line (line
voltage) connects to the common of one switch, while the load (light) connects to the
common of the other switch. However this wiring variation could cause confusion.

This 3-way switch wiring variation is described below.

The common terminal from each switch are connected together.

One traveler from each switch are connected together and to line voltage.
The other traveler from each switch are connected together and to the load(s).
Fluorescent Lamp and Working
Principle of Fluorescent Lamp
Key learnings:
 Fluorescent Lamp Definition: A fluorescent lamp is a low-weight
mercury vapor lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light.
 Efficiency: Fluorescent lamps are more efficient than incandescent
lamps, with a luminous efficacy of 50 to 100 lumens per watt.
 Working Principle of Fluorescent Lamp: When powered on, a
voltage surge ionizes the gas mixture in the tube, causing mercury
atoms to emit ultraviolet light, which excites the phosphor coating to
produce visible light.
 Circuit Components: The basic circuit includes a ballast, switch,
fluorescent tube, and starter, crucial for the lamp’s operation.
 Historical Development: The ability to transform ultraviolet rays into
visible light was discovered in the 1920s, leading to the development
and commercialization of fluorescent lamps in the 1930s.
A fluorescent lamp is defined as a low-weight mercury vapour lamp that
uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current energizes the
mercury vapor, creating ultraviolet radiation, which then makes the phosphor
coating on the lamp’s inner wall emit visible light. A fluorescent lamp has
changed over electrical energy into useful light energy to a great deal more
proficiently than incandescent lamps. The normal luminous viability of
fluorescent lighting frameworks is 50 to100 lumens per watt, which is a few
times the adequacy of incandescent lamps with equivalent light yield.
Here we connect one ballast, and one switch and the supply is
series as shown. Then we connect the fluorescent tube and a
starter across it.
How does a Fluorescent Lamp work?

 When we switch ON the supply, full voltage comes across

the lamp and as well as across the starter through the
ballast. But at that instant, no discharge happens, i.e., no
lumen output from the lamp.
 At that full voltage first the glow discharge is established in
the starter. This is because the electrodes gap in the neon
bulb of starter is much lesser than that of the fluorescent
lamp.
 Then gas inside the starter gets ionized due to this full
voltage and heats the bimetallic strip. That causes to bend
the bimetallic strip to connect to the fixed contact. Now,
current starts flowing through the starter. Although the
ionization potential of the neon is more than that of the argon
but still due to small electrode gap, a high voltage gradient
appears in the neon bulb and hence glow discharge gets
started first in the starter.
 When current flows through the starter’s neon bulb, the
voltage drops across the inductor (ballast). With reduced or no
voltage, the gas discharge stops, cooling the bimetallic strip and
breaking the contact. This interruption creates a large voltage
surge across the inductor.

 This high valued surge voltage comes across the fluorescent

lamp (tube light) electrodes and strikes penning mixture
(mixture argon gas and mercury vapor).
 Gas discharge process gets started and continues and hence
current again gets a path to flow through the fluorescent lamp
tube (tube light) itself. During discharging of penning gas mixture
the resistance offered by the gas is lower than the resistance of
starter.
 The discharge of mercury atoms produces ultraviolet radiation
which in turn excites the phosphor powder coating to radiate
visible light.
 Starter gets inactive during glowing of fluorescent lamp (tube light)
because no current passes through the starter in that condition.