Are you an Entrepreneur? I am...

My name is Jessica Loren Popov and these are my confessions to you as an Entrepreneur.

I would like to start off by saying thank you to anyone who takes the time to read my blog. By no means am I an expert or for that matter a writer; I will only offer my simple advice and knowledge as a young Entrepreneur here in Chicago. To be honest I have always thought of myself as a ChiPreneur, which I derived from Chicago and Entrepreneur. ChiTown has been a nickname for this great city for as long as most of my family members and I can remember. “”Chi-Town” or “Chitown” Pronunciation of this nickname can vary (from chai-town to shy-town). I would also like to add that spelling and grammar have never been my strengths, so I apologize and feel free to correct me.

A little bit more about myself, first off, I am a growing web enthusiast. I was born in Chicago and as a small child lived in the Elmwood Park area. My family moved on to Florida for a stint and then moved back to the suburban area of Chicagoland. I have always had a passion for the city. I have had many a sales job in the past always toping and exceeding my sales goals. I have worked with large companies such as The Career Education Corporation, Nextel Communication and Cortiva Institute. However, I pride myself with some of my more successful ventures as a child being when I was a only 7 years old selling hot dog at my neighborhoods annual garage sale as well as lemonade stands. Needless to say, my quest for success has grown since my childhood. I use my day-to-day life as a sponge for new ideas in the business of web creation. I am an avid reader of industry related articles, books and magazines such as Entrepreneur Magazine, being one of my favorites.

I am educated from Indiana University Bloomington as well Loyola University Chicago with studies in Advertising and Public Relations. However, as most entrepreneurs I have yet to finish but I do plan to do so in the future. I thrive on new ideas and the ability to make them a reality. I am a superior networker and I’m guaranteed to know exactly what you do and how we can connect or connect with someone you know within the first meeting.

The reason for this blog is to offer a viewpoint to others of being a young entrepreneur here in Chicago and hopefully to offer advice and well as gain some from other ChiPreneurs. Younger or older we can all learn from one another, The young have a viewpoint of the new wave of the social marketing media avenues and well the more experienced, have just that, EXPERIENCE!

I would like to start off the new year of reminding all fellow entrepreneurs of their strengths. Times may be tough right now but we can all get through it. Especially with the help of each other, which I hope, this blog will achieve.

Please remember that an entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. Yes, that right as entrepreneurs we take risks, which don’t always turn out the best but we always survive and pull through. He or she is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. The term is a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to the type of personality who is willing to take upon herself or himself a new venture or enterprise and accepts full responsibility for the outcome. Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist, is believed to have coined the word Entrepreneur first in about at 1800. He said an entrepreneur is “one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediately between capital and labour”.

Entrepreneurship is often difficult and tricky, resulting in many new ventures failing. The word entrepreneur is often synonymous with founder. Most commonly, the term entrepreneur applies to someone who creates value by offering a product or service, by carving out a niche in the market that may not exist currently. Entrepreneurs tend to identify a market opportunity and exploit it by organizing their resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions within a given sector.

Observers see them as being willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue opportunity.

Business entrepreneurs are viewed as fundamentally important in the capitalistic society. Some distinguish business entrepreneurs as either “political entrepreneurs” or “market entrepreneurs,” while social entrepreneurs‘ principal objectives include the creation of a social and/or environmental benefit.

I hope this definition gives you the drive to push through this year, as we are all in it together.

This years is for all strong ambitious leaders, we will make this year 2010 strong and prosperous.

References

1. Sullivan, arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 6. ISBN 0-13-063085-3.

2. Guide to Management Ideas and Gurus, Tim Hindle, The Economist, page 77

3. See WILLIAM J. BAUMOL, ROBERT E. LITAN & CARL J. SCHRAMM, GOOD CAPITALISM, BAD CAPITALISM, AND THE ECONOMICS OF GROWTH AND PROSPERITY 3 (2007) (citing generally PETER F. DRUCKER, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (1985) (attributing coining and defining of “entrepreneur” to JEAN-BAPTISTE SAY, A TREATISE ON POLITICAL ECONOMY (1834)); but see Robert H. Brockhaus, Sr., The Psychology of the Entrepreneur, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP 40 (Calvin A. Kent, et al. eds. 1982) (citing J.S. MILL, PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY WITH SOME OF THEIR APPLICATIONS TO SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY (1848). Note th