THE ROLE OF A SME OWNER

In business there are no guarantees. There is simply no way to eliminate all risks associated with start-up businesses - but it is possible to increase the chances of success with good planning, preparation and close examination of business conditions. The owner must have a good idea to assess the strengths and weaknesses of his small business. It must be carefully considered including all concerns, such as:

 Do you venture into everything yourself (i.e., whether each project, organizing, monitoring, just go through the owner or someone else),

 How well is the owner getting along with the environment (the owners have to develop working relationships with a variety of people including customers, vendors, bankers, lawyers, consultants, etc...)

 How well and how does the owner plan to organize a business (a good finance organization, storage, distribution, production can help avoid many downfalls),

 Is the urge to own a business strong enough (business management can significantly emotionally downfall on owners, so many owners burn out quickly, precisely in order to submit all the pressure, all liability for (non) success of their business).

 How will the business affect the family of the owner (the first few years can be very difficult for the family life of the owner, so it is important for family members of owners to know what to expect, but for the

owner it is very important to know that they will have the support of family members when it comes to difficulties in business) (Morgan, 2007.).

Picture 1 (Saroj and Mehndiratta, 2009.)

Ideas to the new business owner can come from various sources. Some owners run the business and develop existing ones, according to some of their personal interests. Any specialized knowledge or skill may be the owners to indicate, and the possibility of turning it into a business. Through time, as companies reduce, or require more external services (outsource), so the opportunities for entrepreneurs are born. Any task or responsibility that large companies do not want, or do not have time to do it, can be the basis of the owner of an SME to be involved in cooperation (and Saroj Mehndiratta, 2009.).

The role of the SME owner is to learn all aspects of his business potential, to make such a good knowledge that could lead to good functional and business decisions. There are entrepreneurs who are very inventive in their work, including developing new or improving existing products which can interfere with much larger "players" in the market. There are some advantages in developing your own business. Again, the owner is the main pillar of that development. It is less costly to start and develop their own business, rather than to buy someone else‟s which already had numerous disadvantages encountered. Most people who start their own business are good at what they do, so it is easier for their colleagues to rely on them in the process of developing a business (and Saroj Mehndiratta, 2009.).

When owner family members are involved in the whole story, then it is possible to develop their own management style and approach, their own policies, ways of treating the problem (and of course there are risks that cannot stop the realization of the process of business development) (Saroj and Mehndiratta, 2009. ).

The characteristics that a SME owner has (at least most of them) to meet are:

 Ability to take initiative - an entrepreneur is a person that identifies an opportunity, trying to extract the best outcome from it, if he doesn‟t have this capability, the entrepreneur cannot continue to progress,  Self-confidence,

 Possession of leadership quality- an entrepreneur would have to be able to influence the behavior of his employees so that they achieve the objectives of the organization,

 Ability to assume the risk- an entrepreneur would have to be able to analyze the opportunities and calculate risk factors before taking the next step,

 Originality,

 The ability to predict- an entrepreneur must try to understand future trends and to plan for their outbreak,  Creativity- an entrepreneur must be able to generate new ideas and designs, to depart from ordinary

products, and to open new markets,

 The inner drive to succeed- entrepreneurs set big goals in front of them, they tend to behave very ambitious, removing obstacles to success,

 Dynamics- entrepreneurs recognize the importance of coming and staying "on top", and the only way to achieve this is to change and grow depending on the situation in the region,

 High Motivation- high standards and objectives that need to be achieved by looking for entrepreneurs to be motivated and to motivate their employees,

 Acceptance of constructive criticism-good entrepreneurs must know how to receive criticism, hurdling obstacles are a part of the picture in business conduct , so they have to be treated, with analyticity,  Good interpersonal relations-Entrepreneurs with good interpersonal relationships can more easily find

their way to market, to develop a network with its suppliers, etc. retailers. Good relationships help them work more efficiently,

 Appropriate strategic planning-, medium-term and operational planning must be present to access business opportunities in the best possible way, to be implemented (and Saroj Mehndiratta, 2009.).