Monetary Challenge & Location as a Challenge

The most evident challenge that any entrepreneur is prone to face is the funding for the venture. Every new business would be perceived as a potential risk by the investor. It takes great efforts and persuasion to get an entrepreneurial venture funded by the bank or by financial institutions. There are a few organizations and networks that cater to the needs of an entrepreneur in the form of finding. There are the angel funders (Pool in their money to invest in startups) and Venture capitalists (Pool in money from several sources to fund the startups). Also many of these funders would want to witness a pilot project or prototype before actually funding the venture.

The location of the entrepreneurial venture is a vital factor. An urban place may be of great help in terms of procuring resources and the usage of technology but the capturing of market share and the competition are fiercer in an urban place. In a rural place there may be other factors like connecting with the people in that locality and also obtaining the resources needed for the venture. There are both pros and cons in both the places.

The Choice of place is vital not only in setting up the venture but also in terms of the target market. The location is also dependent on the type of venture set up. The service oriented ventures would need a place that could cater to all the genres of people targeted. The product oriented ventures would be set up at one place and marketed at many other places. The choice of the location and the successful implementation is a tough call for all the entrepreneurs to make.

Challenges faced by an Entrepreneur

The hardships of any entrepreneur who wishes to set up an entrepreneurial venture vary in different perspectives and different scenarios. The most evident challenges that most of the entrepreneurs would face are listed and clearly illustrated with suitable examples.

The challenges are:

• Monetary Challenges
• Location as a Challenge
• Time as a Challenge
• People as a Challenge
  

The challenges that were mentioned above referred to the broad form challenges and the most evident challenges that an entrepreneur would face. Entrepreneur magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted the “Entrepreneurial Challenges Survey”. Here’s what the survey discovered.

The following were considered the biggest challenges by entrepreneurs

•  Retention of key workers
•  Developing new products/services
  
•  Expansion to other markets
  
•  Increased productivity
  
•  Upgrading technology
  
•  Creating business alliances
  
•  Better management of cash flow
  
•  Expansion outside their territory.
  
•  Improving risk management
  
•  Finding new financing
  
•  Buying another company or launching a spinoff
  
•  Going public
  

There may be many surveys and many experts who voice about the challenges faced by an entrepreneur but in the end the real challenges are much more than it is said. The challenges are not something that one could just anticipate at ease. A true entrepreneur needs to explore the possible challenges in his relevant domain or area of specialization.

Rural development and Entrepreneurship

Rural development is more than ever before linked to entrepreneurship. Institutions and individuals promoting rural development now see entrepreneurship as a strategic development intervention that could accelerate the rural development process. Many development agencies see rural entrepreneurship as an enormous employment potential; politicians see it as the key strategy to prevent rural unrest; farmers see it as an instrument for improving farm earnings; and women see it as an employment possibility near their homes which provides autonomy, independence and a reduced need for social support. To all these groups, however, entrepreneurship stands as a vehicle to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment.

The entrepreneurial orientation to rural development accepts entrepreneurship as the central force of economic growth and development, without it other factors of development will be wasted or frittered away. However, the acceptance of entrepreneurship as a central development force by itself will not lead to rural development and the advancement of rural enterprises. What is needed in addition is an environment enabling entrepreneurship in rural areas. The existence of such an environment largely depends on policies promoting rural entrepreneurship. The effectiveness of such policies in turn depends on the framework about entrepreneurship.