WHO IS A TECHNOPRENEUR AND A MINIPRENEUR?

Most of us have heard of the word entrepreneur and the meaning that single word conveys. Yes, an entrepreneur is the one who is willing to own and operate and take the risk of operating any business. He is the one who manages all the factors of production to carry on with production. But with time, the purview of the word entrepreneur changed dramatically and it became a comprehensive word signifying a lot of different aspects of business.

Two major extensions of entrepreneurship that has resulted due to the changes in the markets are Technopreneurship and Minipreneurship. The words are self explanatory but let's try to have a look at these words in more detail and try to understand the basic essence of these words. Who exactly is a technopreneur? Well, he could be understood as a new age entrepreneur who makes use of technology to come out with something new or to make some innovation. And once he is successful in it, he exploits his achievement in the market to make money.

What differentiates a technopreneur from any other businessman is the way a technopreneur operates his business. His business is generally marked with a high growth potential and high leverage of knowledge and intellectual property. What is more, he always has a viable exit mechanism.

Then we can have a classic entrepreneur. He is the one who starts his own business. Or you can have a multipreneur who starts a number of companies as per his potential. But the maximum number of entrepreneurs falls in the category of intrapreneur. These are the ones who use their creativity, their knowledge, and their drive in a large corporation. And yes, how can we leave aside a minipreneur. Yes, he is the one who doesn’t possess huge capital base to start a large business but is the one who starts a new venture with this limited capital and with the help of that small capital base expands his business to great heights.

If you are thinking of starting a new business venture of your own, you should asses yourself very objectively if you are game for it. For example, if you are thinking to be a technopreneur, you need to have some personal traits that include being ambitious, independent thinking, passionate about your work, self confidence to take bold decisions, commitment to your job, creativity in good doses, having risk taking abilities, and having a vision for future.

So, if you want to be a technopreneur, start with assessing yourself, if you are really for it. And be very honest about it. You can't cheat yourself. What are your interests? Are you really interested in being a technopreneur or are you joining the bandwagon? Do you have the aptitude to be a technopreneur? What are the relative advantages and the disadvantages of being a technopreneur?

You must be very sure of what you want. Another option could be of being a miniprenuer. The best thing about it is that you can continue in your present job and pursue your business in part time. And when you think that you are ready to pursue it full time you should leave your job and do it full time. It all depends on your personal choice and personal willingness.

Why Do You Want To Be An Entrepreneur?

Most of the discussions start with the question, "How can you be an entrepreneur?" and "What should be done to be a successful entrepreneur?" but the first question that must be dealt with is "Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?" Do you really want to be an entrepreneur? This is the first question that must be asked by anyone and everyone before thinking of starting any business venture? This is the moot question. And yes, first of all you would have to understand who is an entrepreneur? What is entrepreneurship per se?

The word entrepreneur comes from Latin. Entre-enter; pre-before; neur-nerve center. Taking its derivation we could understand entrepreneur as someone who enters the nerve center of a business that no one entered before and then makes changes to it that results in a paradigm shift in the whole process. An entrepreneur is the one who is willing to take risk in any business endeavor. Entrepreneurship is the art of finding an opportunity and then pursuing it to success. As a saying goes "brilliant people also see the same things that others do but they observe things that others don’t." It is the same with entrepreneurs also. They come out with ideas that others don’t think about and that is why they become successful.

Another term which has found a lot of popularity in recent time is a technopreneur. Well, a technopreneur could be understood as an entrepreneur in a business related to technology. It is generally seen that a technopreneur generally has some kind of proprietary and patentable intellectual property rights that he commercializes and reaps benefits out of it. Technopreneurship is a term which is generally used for software companies.

Now let's talk about our earlier question. Why entrepreneurship? Why are you thinking of being an entrepreneur? Do you really want to be an entrepreneur or is there some kind of compulsion to be an entrepreneur? Is it because you don’t have any job or you currently find yourself out of job? There are many who get into the field because that is what his father and forefathers have been doing. Well, after all, it is their family business. And there is another category that interests me the most. It is the one where people claim that they want to be entrepreneurs for the very simple reason that they want to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is in their blood.

It is for you to ask yourself. Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? I would like to tell you one thing. Entrepreneurship can really prove very rewarding but and this is a very big but, it is very risky and not easy. Until and unless you are ready to slug it out till the end, the chances of success are very limited. If you are fed up with you daily office routine and want to try your hands in entrepreneurship, let me tell you that the time you would have to spend for your own company would be far more. The effort that you would have to make would be far greater than what you have been making. There has never been any short cut to success and there would never be any. But yes, when you really become successful, the rewards compensate for everything.

The avenues open are many but you would have to make appropriate choices. The present time offers you opportunities where you can earn money and make a mark for yourself without actually investing too much of capital. Yes, we are in the age of "MiniPreneurs" where anyone and everyone can start a business of their own.

If you want to read more, wait for the next article on MiniPreneurs . We would also be discussing on NetPreneurs.