Entrepreneurs fuel growth, generate jobs and unleash innovations. Without these business-minded people, the global economy would stagnate. The good news is that an entrepreneurial drive is strong in the younger generations. For instance, the IPSOS 2021 Entrepreneurial Spirit Index showed that 66% of Generation X and 72% of Millennials exhibit ‘high’ or ‘very high’ entrepreneurial spirits. What needs to be done now is to instil a business mindset in all this entrepreneurial drive.
Let’s find out more about how we can do that.
What is a business mindset?
Before looking into how someone can develop it, we should first define what a business mindset is and what it isn’t.
There is a widespread misconception that an entrepreneur build replicas of existing firms. However, this is not entirely false.
An existing and successful company has built something unique. It has something that consumers are willing to spend money on to have their hands on its products or services. Even though a replica company has a solid foundation to be successful, this is not what a business mindset truly represents.
A true business mindset understands what people want, is able to create an idea as a response, test it, see what works and what does not, and test it again.
The clients are the most important part of any business. That’s why the majority of new business ventures fail. It is not that they lack products or services, its that there is not a market for them. Either that or there is clearly an issue of communication and getting that message across to your prospective clients.
Why a business mindset is important
A business mindset can help us escape from the conditioning our brains go through, preventing us from starting our own business. What does that mean? Educational institutions are more focused on creating competent employees but do not cultivate the creativity and drive needed to create a startup for example.
We have learned to start in a position, upskill ourselves, learn how to be team players, and that’s it. But all this really does is add one more person to the bottom of the hierarchy ladder. As a result, the critical thinking and the growth mindset of individuals that are invaluable assets to an entrepreneur stagnate.
Being an entrepreneur is no ordinary job. In fact, it is a lot of jobs together as one has to do HR, finance, marketing etc, especially at the early stages. Also, there is no handbook that can guide you and advise you on what goes next. Or what is the optimal way of doing things? Entrepreneurs are essentially trailblazers that risk everything with the hope of creating something valuable for consumers and increasing the return on their investment.
How to build an entrepreneurial mindset
Entrepreneurial or business education is good enough to nurture a business mindset. However, it all boils down to how this education is delivered. It should certainly not be how traditional business education was in the past.
This type of education should work best outside of the classroom with more applied learning. Doing business is such a wide field, and students need to be exposed to as many as possible and learn how the market works. After that, they should start experimenting with business model creation, then identify the needs of consumers and try to match those needs with possible solutions.
Being an entrepreneur requires energy, a drive and motivation for success. To acquire all these attitudes and a business mindset, students need to escape the confines of a classroom and get their hands on how doing business really is.