Entrepreneurship

Integrating Competencies
Success  as  a  farmer-entrepreneur  comes  through  the 
ability of the farmer to combine the entrepreneurial, 
technical and managerial competencies in practice.

---

ConfidenCe
•  Risk taker
•  Self confident
•  Positive
•  Persuasive
core values
•  Trustworthy
•  Honest
competiton
•  Competitive
•  Takes initiative
•  Goal-driven
problem-solving
•  Problem solver
•  Creative
•  Innovative
•  Imaginative
•  Learns from failure
drive
•  Highly
motivated
•  High energy
•  Determined
•  Persevering
flexibility
•  Flexible
•  Adaptive
•  Change is an
opportunity
•  Tolerates ambiguity
The farmer-
entrepreneur
50                                                  
Entrepreneurship in farming
ENTREPRENEURIal CHaRaCTERISTICS
As  the  previous  two  chapters  explained,  there  is  a 
difference  between  farm  business  management  and 
entrepreneurship. Farm business management is about 
better planning, implementation, control and managing 
risk.  Entrepreneurship  is  about  looking  forward  – 
identifying  opportunities,  creating  a  vision  of  how  the 
business will grow, innovating and taking risks.
 
Entrepreneurs  have  some  special  qualities  or 
characteristics that set them apart from the average farm 
manager. 
 
Some  ‘typical’  characteristics  of  a  farmer-
entrepreneur are shown in the figure below. They can be 
grouped into six categories: core values, problem-solving, 
flexibility,  drive,  competition  and  confidence.  Some  of 
these are very similar to entrepreneurial competencies 
that will be discussed later in this chapter.