Elisa: "What's the point of starting a business?"
To answer this question, which seems simple but is actually very complex, it is important to start by defining what a business is. There are many definitions of a business. But the one we will use here is that a business is an organization, i.e., women and men who mobilize resources such as premises, tools, machines, knowledge, information, or financial resources to produce goods or services and sell them to customers who are willing to pay for them.
Jean-Marie Courrent, University of Montpellier
This organization is the result of an idea that germinates and develops in the mind of one or more individuals. When the entrepreneur or entrepreneurial team believes that this idea will be well received by the market, in other words, that there will be enough customers, this idea is called an opportunity. It may be an idea for a new product or service, a new way of producing or offering that product or service, or even a new business. It is this conviction that the project will find its market that turns the initial idea into an entrepreneurial project. This project may therefore take the form of a start-up, but it may also develop within an existing organization.
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Answering the question "What is the point of starting a business?" means considering the usefulness of starting a business, both for customers and for the entrepreneur. Starting a business serves to meet the expectations of consumers, and even society as a whole, if we consider, for example, the introduction of less polluting vehicles onto the market.
It also serves to satisfy the personal aspirations of the entrepreneur or their team, who may see the entrepreneurial project as a means of exercising their freedom of decision, enjoying innovation, acquiring power, becoming wealthy, contributing to a better world, etc.
This article is co-published withLUM, the science and society magazine of the University of Montpellier.
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Jean-Marie Courrent, Professor of Entrepreneurship and SME Management, University of Montpellier
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