ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BUSINESS PLAN DEVELOPMENT

Description

The term entrepreneur and entrepreneurship are often used interchangeably. But, they are conceptually different. Hence, before dealing at large about entrepreneurship it is better to have an exposure to the term entrepreneur. The word entrepreneur is derived from French word ‘Entreprendre‘which was used to designate an organizer of musical or other entertainments. In the early 16th century the French men who organized and lead military expeditions were referred to as „entrepreneur’. After 1700, the term was applied to other types of adventures, mainly civil engineering like constructions of roads etc. But it was Richard Cantillon, an Irishman living in France who first used the term entrepreneur to refer to economic activities. According to Cantillon “An entrepreneur is a person who buys factor services at certain prices with a view to selling its product at uncertain prices in the future”. An entrepreneur is a bearer of risk, which is non-insurable. J.B.Say, is another Frenchman, expanded Cantillon‟s ideas and conceptualized the entrepreneur as an organizer of the business firm, central to its distributive and productive functions.