I am doing a course called "The challenges of Global Poverty". Its a free course I found online (you can try free courses on www.edx.org or on www.coursera.org). In this course, we address many surprising facts. One was that in developing countries, a large percentage of the poor are actually business owners. What is even more surprising is that these business owners did not want their own children to run their own business. This is because most of these poor business owners are self-employed and are not entrepreneurs.
The main difference between self-employment and entrepreneurship is freedom and continuity in the absence of the business owner.This is to say in the case of entrepreneurs, you do not need to be present for your business to continue making money for you, while the self-employed has to be present. The self employed person works to make money, while the entrepreneur works at making money work for him.
I read this article by Brandon Kennington and I found what he said to be the perfect definition of entrepreneurship:
"Entrepreneurship is an art. It takes practice and requires a lot of knowledge of disparate areas of business. It also takes a certain mind set, which unfortunately, many business owners never seem to learn. The baby boomers are now retiring, many of whom are self employed business owners with no money to retire. They ran successful businesses for 30 years or more, but sadly they never learned that running a business and owning an automated business are very different. And after 30 years they result in two very different outcomes."
Our aim at Zimbabwe Entrepreneur Zone is to inspire ordinary Zimbabweans to start a business. A business that can contribute significantly to the development of our country's economy. That is why we are here. To preach entrepreneurship not self employment - Inspire you to create a successful retirement plan while reducing the unemployment rate. It is time for us, as Zimbabweans, to say no to self-employment and explore entrepreneurship.
In order to ensure you do not fall prey to the wicked cycle of self employment make sure you have a business plan. Carefully lay out your objectives and constantly review them, make adjustments where necessary. Train new people to run with your vision! Employ the right people. Think big. Start something... not just something but something huge!
Vongai C Mudzamba
Co-Founder Zimbabwe Entrepreneur Zone
Twitter: @vongzie
I am and always will be inspired to inspire.