The fashion entrepreneur is the key, innovative person managing the entrepreneurial process. This will usually involve planning, organizing, directing and controlling the input of suppliers, contractors and the design team members, together with accepting the associated business risks. The key words from these explanations are; innovation, opportunity, new venture, enterprise, management and risk.

Fashion entrepreneurs are acknowledged as being the driving force behind innovative change in our society and the fashion and textile industry is no exception. Using the above definition, a fashion entrepreneur can, therefore, be defined as someone who sets up a new fashion venture, or starts a new fashion label. To achieve this, the fashion entrepreneur needs to be able to spot commercial opportunities and determine customer needs by co-ordinating resources to design, manufacture and supply fashion products or provide a service.

Fashion designers are 5 times more likely than any other profession to start their own businesses. This is partly due to; a low barrier to entry (starting with a sewing machine at home); the fashion industry's acceptance of fresh, creative ideas; and that fashion designers are able to offer a product or service (fashion collection, fashion illustration, fashion illustration, fashion design, pattern and garment making).

Gone are the days when an excellent CV was all that was needed to find a job in the fashion industry - you now need entrepreneurial skills as well. In Britain, the government reported that 25% of all graduates were doing a job that did not require a university qualification. To overcome this weak link in the education process, fashion entrepreneurs need to develop their entrepreneurial skills to help them establish a network of useful contacts and to help them identify career path opportunities. This includes, not only starting their own businesses, but finding a job within a fashion industry as an intrapreneur.

Large companies are increasingly recognizing that they need entrepreneurial spirit from their employees to keep their company at the leading edge of technology and prevent their organization becoming overloaded with head office bureaucracy. Hence, many fashion intrapreneurs work within a fashion company using their entrepreneurial skills before leaving to start their own fashion ventures.

Author bio:

Keerti Singh is an education and teaches english and computer science to school students. She also helps students in taking up courses of their choice at various levels of their education. To know more about Fashion designing and entrepreneurship visit at http://www.utm.ac.in