Entrepreneurs are the engines of invention, and their perseverance touches billions of people every day, creating the jobs required for economic growth.

They are preoccupied with material, economic issue. Their platform is proactive, exclusive, crucial, and scalable. They meticulously build a brand, culture, and talent-management strategy that complements the purpose. They are guided by a clearly defined set of value-creating measures that have a direct and immediate impact on entrepreneurship.

There are various fundamental factors that drive growth, and when organizations ignore these business fundamentals, growth suffers. For an organization to be successful, several things must happen behind the scenes.

Specifically, there must be strategy, planning, and plan implementation. These stages require time and dedication, but they can result in rapid and sustainable progress.

1. Not Having a Defined Mission and Vision 

All organizations have a purpose.  And, this purpose drives decisions, strategy, and business approach. Taking the time to articulate why a business exists (mission) and what it is it is trying to achieve (vision) gives clarity to the purpose.

Organizations sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day that they lose sight of who they are and what it is they are trying to accomplish. A well-written mission and vision statement helps to keep that focus.

2. Not Having a Strategy to Achieve the Vision

Planning is one of those exercises that people either love or hate. But a written plan is a systematic approach to achieving business objectives. A Strategic planning process is intended to pause and take some time to think through what it is that the organization is trying to achieve and develop a strategy and plan to get there.

This type of planning and focus also helps to keep the organization from veering off into areas that may not line up with the vision. Keeping focused on strategy is the goal!

3. Not Staying Current with Changing Trends and Technology

Business trends and technologies are changing at lightning speed! And, organizations that don’t make it a business priority to keep up with changing trends will soon find themselves behind the curve. For example, think about how you did advertising just a few short years ago.

Today if you are not using social media to help boost your business you will soon find out that the ones that are will be capturing a larger percentage of the market. You need to create a system for continuous learning. You can do this by subscribing to newsletters and blogs or attending conferences hosted by the forerunners in these areas.

Keeping up with trends should be considered an important business strategy!

4. Not Having Goals

Writing and implementing business goals is the practical side to achieving vision through strategy. Mapping out a plan, assigning responsibility, and determining a timeline for completing action items is crucial to goal attainment.

Delegating tasks that support those goals down to the employee level is the next step of the process. Employee goals should be written for all levels of the organization so employees can see how what they do affects achieving the organization’s vision and strategy.

5. Not Understanding Who The Customers Are and What They Want

It is amazing the number of businesses that don’t understand who their customers are or what they want. Every organization should have a process in place to gain customer perspective from customer comment cards or customer satisfaction surveys and to take that feedback and turn it into improved products and services.

Read Also: The Major Drivers of Entrepreneurial Growth

There are lots of survey software available. Google docs has a free survey tool. Customers are moving targets and what they want today may be different from what they want tomorrow.  Think about your own expectations for a cell phone company.

Just a few years ago an affordable price for minutes and texting was what we wanted. Today, most plans offer unlimited text and talk but now data is the big thing.  What will tomorrow bring?

6. Not Taking Care of Their Employees

Employees are a business’s most important customers because they are the ones who do the work and interact with consumers. Organizations need to foster employee engagement and take care of employees by providing the necessary resources to do their job. This could mean job training, equipment, or simply a say in how work is performed.

It is important to assess the work environment, from the employee’s perspective. This can be done by using employee satisfaction surveys and incorporating feedback into improvement plans. When employees are engaged with the organization, they go above and beyond to do a good job and take care of the customer. And, at the end of the day, isn’t that the most important goal?

7. Not Having a Good Performance Management Process

Successful organizations have learned the value of managing employee performance. Employees need to have a good understanding of what is expected of them and how they will be held accountable for those expectations. Good communication and coaching can help with setting expectations and identifying developmental opportunities for employees. Additionally, these one-on-one supervisor interactions may also identify those employees who may not be the right fit for the organization.

In the classic book Good to Great, Jim Collins says, “…to build a successful organization and team you must get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats..”

Structured communication processes help to identify the right people, the right seats, and the wrong people to let off the bus.

8. Not Managing Resources

Managing business resources is critical to the long-term health of an organization. This means managing people, time, and money. Employees need to be managed so that what they do every day truly impacts what the organization is trying to achieve.

As well, neglecting to pay attention to how money is spent, taking financial risks and leveraging assets can quickly turn to disaster. It is important to develop a consistent budgeting process that supports strategy and corporate objectives.

In addition, keeping a watchful eye for employee fraud and data theft is also an important aspect of resource management. Organizations that get lazy and don’t pay attention to these critical areas are at risk of waking up one day to a mess that is often irreversible.

9. Not Having Fun

If we are all in this for the long haul, we need to enjoy what we are doing. Doing things intentionally to make the work environment fun and helping employees manage a healthy work-life balance can really contribute to the long-term health of an organization.

Most organizations don’t experience rapid growth without intentional planning and strategy. Investing the time and resources into figuring out what the purpose of the organization is and creating a plan to get there is an important step in growing your business.

What Factors Hinder Entrepreneurial Growth in Any Country?

Political Factors

Political factors play a huge role in the development of entrepreneurship in a given geographical area. This is because politicians decide the type of market that is in place.

The market could be capitalistic, communist or some countries have adopted a mixed economy. Each of these three markets has very different implications for the way in which entrepreneurs are required to function.

Capitalism requires breakthrough innovation whereas communism requires entrepreneurs to be well connected with the political class. Therefore, it has been observed that the more capitalistic any country is, the more entrepreneurship flourishes in the region.

Legal Factors

Entrepreneurs are dependent upon law for a wide variety of factors. The strength and fairness of the legal system of a nation affect the quality of entrepreneurship to a large extent. This is because entrepreneurs require a wide variety of legal services to function.

For instance, entrepreneurs would require the courts to enforce the contracts that were entered to between parties.

In many countries, such contracts are not enforceable and therefore the resultant risk prohibits the development of entrepreneurship. Then again, entrepreneurs are dependent on the courts for the protection of their property rights.

Also, many advanced countries have noticed that the provision of declaring bankruptcy has been positively associated with the development of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs do fail a few times before they find the right innovation that leads to their success.

The United States is amongst the countries with the highest rate of entrepreneurial development and it is also known to have one of the most advanced bankruptcy laws! Even business legends like Henry Ford had declared bankruptcy in their early days.

Taxation

The government can also influence a high degree of control on the market through provisions of taxation. Some amount of taxation is necessary for the government to maintain the legal and administrative systems in place for the entire economy.

However, a lot of times governments resort to excessive taxation. They usually adopt the policy of beggaring the rich and giving it off to the poor. This goes against the basic tenets of entrepreneurship which believes in survival of the fittest.

Therefore, countries where tax regimes are restrictive find an outflow of entrepreneurs. In short, entrepreneurs want to set up shop in places where there is minimal interference from the government.

Availability of Capital

The degree to which the capital markets of a nation are developed also play a huge role in the development of entrepreneurship in a given region. Entrepreneurs require capital to start risky ventures and also require instant capital to scale up the business quickly if the idea is found to be successful.

Therefore, countries that have a well developed system of providing capital at every stage i.e. seed capital, venture capital, private equity and well developed stock and bond markets experience a higher degree of economic growth led by entrepreneurship.

Labor Markets

Labor is an important factor of production for almost any kind of product or service.

The fortunes of the entrepreneurs are therefore dependent on the availability of skilled labor at reasonable prices. However, in many countries, labor has become unionized. They demand higher wages from the entrepreneurs and prohibit other workers from working at a lower price. This creates an upward surge in the costs required to produce and as such has a negative effect on entrepreneurship.

With the advent of globalization, entrepreneurs have witnessed the freedom to move their operations to countries where labor markets are more favorable to them. This is the reason why countries like China, India and Bangladesh have witnessed a huge rise in entrepreneurial activity in their countries.

Raw Materials

Just like labor, raw material consisting of natural resources is also an essential product required for any industry.

In some countries, this raw material is available through the market by paying a fair price. However, in some countries, seller cartels gain complete control over these natural resources. They sell the raw materials at inflated prices and therefore usurp most of the profit that the entrepreneur can obtain.

Therefore, countries where the supply of raw material faces such issues witness depletion in the number of entrepreneurial ventures over time.

Infrastructure

Lastly, there are some services that are required by almost every industry to flourish. These services would include transport, electricity etc. Since these services are so basic, they can be referred to as the infrastructure which is required to develop any business.

Therefore, if any country focuses on increasing the efficiency of these services, they are likely to impact the businesses of almost all entrepreneurs in the region. Therefore, countries that have a well developed infrastructure system witness high growth of entrepreneurship and the opposite is also true.

Of course, the above list of factors is not exhaustive. Entrepreneurship is far too complex a subject to capture in a few bullet points. However, the above list does provide an indication of the type of factors that can play an important role.