Enterprise, business growth and size

• An entrepreneur is a person who organizes, operates and takes the risk for a new business venture.
• Many new businesses fail due to lack of financial and other resources, poor planning and inadequate research.
• The benefits of being an entrepreneur include choosing how to spend time and money, putting own ideas into practice, and the possibility of becoming famous and successful if the business grows.
• Disadvantages of being an entrepreneur include lack of knowledge and experience in starting a business, loss of income from not being an employee from another business, and the risk of business failure, especially if there is poor planning.
• Successful entrepreneurs are typically hard working risk takers, creative, optimistic, self confident, independent, innovative, and often support government efforts to promote business start-ups.
• Governments support business start-ups to reduce unemployment, increase competition, and contribute to an economy's increased output of goods and services.
• Entrepreneurs may create social enterprises which offer other benefits to society other than jobs and profit.
• A business plan is a document containing the business objectives and important details about operations, finance and the owners of the new business.
• Owners often want their businesses to grow for the possibility of higher profits, lower average costs, and a larger share of the market, which gives the business more influence when dealing with suppliers and distributors.
• Horizontal merger occurs when one firm takes over or merges with another one in the same industry at the same stage of production.
• Benefits of horizontal integration include reducing the number of competitors in the industry, offering opportunities for economies of scale, and increasing the combined business's share of the market.
• External growth occurs when a business takes over or merges with another business.
• Conglomerate merger occurs when one firm merges with or takes over a completely different industry.
• Benefits of conglomerate integration include diversifying the business's activities, spreading risk, and potentially transferring sales between different sections of the business.
• Vertical merger occurs when one firm merges or takes over another one in the same industry but a different stage of production.
• Reasons why some businesses fail include poor management due to lack of experience, failure to plan for change in the business environment, and poor financial management due to a shortage of cash.
• Internal growth occurs when a business expands its existing operations.
• Reasons why some businesses stay small include offering specialised personal services or products that would be difficult to provide on a large scale, having a small total number of customers, and some business owners preferring to keep their firms small due to control or personal reasons.