//iBLOG

The Youth Entrepreneur Profile - Initial Steps - Part 3 of 4

by Anastasios Vasileiadis

According to Javier (2008) the entrepreneur should also have a technical background, and previous job experience.

This point of view is based on an open exposition where the entrepreneur should have:

knowledge of business sector and markets
knowledge on production process
technical knowledge of the product or service to be produced
knowledge for potential clients
knowledge and relationship with potential suppliers
team working
management and/or leadership

Moreover, Byer & Fairmont (2002) suggested that the IT ability is crucial for business development while, Velegrakis et al. (2009) in their extensive research stated that the competences that a European SME entrepreneur/manager should have are:

Attitude towards uncertainty and risk
Innovative spirit
Fulfillment of tasks and goals
Self-confidence
Communication skills
Ability to discover new opportunities
Conceptual ability (understanding the business as a system)
Negotiation and decision-making abilities
Time management for own work and team's work
Communication to the team of clear expectations of performance
Regular provision of information to the team about its performance
Fully leverage the capacities and the knowledge of employees
Promotion of mutual confidence
Development of the autonomy of a group
Raising awareness of collective responsibility
Ability to build and lead a team (leadership spirit)
Project management ability
Ability to create and provide Strategic/Tactic/Operational plans
Allocation/attribution of tasks to human resources in an organization
Management of other (non-human) resources

Knowledge of what to think about when deciding whether to found a business or not
Awareness of corporate social responsibility
Knowledge of legal requirements for business
Knowledge of the most important legal forms of business ownership
Process analysis and change management
Knowledge of the administrative/bureaucratic procedures for a business start up
Knowledge of general business conditions and functions
Knowledge about foreign trade and international business relations
Knowledge about the difference in financial issues between different types of enterprises (manufacturing vs. services, for instance)
Knowledge about how to manage the different functions within an enterprise (production, sales, financial management, research & development.)
Understanding the different forms of financing (self-financing, external financing)
Basic skills for sales planning
Knowledge about accountancy and taxes
Ability to plan and control: direct costs, overhead costs, cost prices, gross and net sales price, and earnings/profit

Furthermore, a research conducted in the frame of a Leonardo da Vinci project named Studentstarter highlighted several personal and management competences and indicators for entrepreneurship and for the entrepreneur profile. These are:

Plan and to organize
Awareness of the market
Take risks on a calculated base
Willfully
To be pro active
Initiating

Perseverance / drive / motivation
Sharp notice of chances and possibilities and to use these
Communication
Decisiveness
Customer orientation
Environmental aspects
Networking

Moreover, Vasiliadis (2009) in his work proposed the knowledge, skills and personal characteristics that an entrepreneur should meet, and these could be seen to the following table:

Knowledge	Skills	Personal Characteristics
Promotion of entrepreneurial idea Start up and enterprise development Developing strategies to address threats and integrate changes Funding Sustainability plan Financing Small enterprises Low issues Human resources Different types of enterprises Estimating entrepreneurial competences Basic management knowledge Entrepreneurial advantage Entrepreneurship difficulties Successful entrepreneurship Product quality Risk taking techniques	Market research Competition analysis and entrepreneurial strategy Funding programming Management skills Sales skills Problem solving Business plan IT skills Writing and oral communication decision making Negotialtion techkniques Identifying business opportunities Management and administration of business resources Pricing Promotion Market analysis	Creativity Entrepreneurial potential Self control Innovation Risk taking Tolerance for change Leadership

Finally, Man et al. (2002) categorized entrepreneurial competences in six key areas. The key clusters are opportunity, relationship, conceptual, organizing, strategic and commitment competences. In the literature on competence profiles of entrepreneurs, several competences that meet the outlined criteria and fit in one of these six clusters can be recognized.

Competence cluster	Description	Underlying competences
Opportunity competences	Competences related to recognizing and developing market opportunities through various means	General awareness International orientation Market orientation
Relationship competences	Competences related to person-to-person or individual – to - group based interactions	Communication Negotiation Networking Persuasiveness Teamwork
Conceptual competences	Competences related to different conceptual abilities which are reflected in the behavior of the entrepreneur	Conceptual thinking Problem analysis Vision and judgment
Organizing competences	Competences related to the organization of different internal, external, human, physical, financial and technological resources.	HRM/HRD Leadership Planning and organization
Strategic competences	Competences related to setting, evaluating and implementing the strategies of the firm	Learning orientation Management control Result orientation Strategic orientation
Commitment competences		Self-management Value clarification Vision

The above review is only a small part of the discussion for the competences that an entrepreneur should have in order to be successful at starting and running his/her enterprise. On the contrary small amount of literature exists for the description of the youth entrepreneur profile and more precisely for the functions, activities and tasks that he or she should fulfill during the entrepreneurial process and the learning outcomes for these qualifications.