How do you approach solving any problems that your business faces when, quite frankly, you may have exhausted yourself looking for the answer? It may be worth looking to someone else for the answer – someone you work with every day. Do you already have an intrapreneur working for you?

Intrapreneurs can help you develop your business by creating new and innovative solutions to the everyday problems that you face.

In this article, the Burton Beavan team explain what an intrapreneur is, what they do, and how you can use them to grow your business.

What is intrapreneurship?

An intrapreneur is your own in-house, inwardly-focused version of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs like you establish businesses and you take financial risks with the hope or expectation of making a sizable financial return in the future.

Intrapreneurs don’t establish business and they don’t take financial risks. What they do is bring vision, drive, commitment, and inventiveness to somebody else’s business.

What does an intrapreneur do?

An intrapreneur is an employee working for a company who uses their “entrepreneurial traits” to take the business in a new direction, spearhead a project, or rework a business’s existing systems or processes. This way, an older company can stay competitive while maintaining their tried and tested methods of doing business.

For example, your business might have an issue with customer service. An intrapreneur could step in and assess the channels of communication that are currently available for your customers to reach you and change them so that they are more effective and more appreciated. The intrapreneur understands what the problem is and they know the resources they have to work with to solve the problem.

Additionally, an intrapreneur might do some work to see what other services you can provide to your current target market with the resources that you have available. In essence, an intrapreneur takes what your business already has and tweaks your practices to make you more efficient.

What makes a good intrapreneur?

A good intrapreneur has all the same characteristics as a good entrepreneur. These main traits are:

• A creative approach to common difficulties that businesses face,
• A keen eye for details that define a target market,
• A hard-working attitude,
• The ability to take a risk, make mistakes and then learn from them.

Not everybody that you employ will have the necessary resilience that it takes to be a good intrapreneur. However, a lot of these traits can be fostered in the workforce that you already have – but more on that later.

What can an intrapreneur do for your business?

An intrapreneur can help resolve any issues that your business might have. Issues such as low productivity, cashflow issues, or a high staff-turnover are all issues that can be tackled with an intrapreneur.

Not only can intrapreneurs help resolve the existing problems that your business faces but they can also help your company break new ground into different markets. To stay ahead of your competition, you always need to be trying new things and an intrapreneur is a ready-made and cost-effective way to get your business creating new ways to serve your customers.

How do you find an intrapreneur?

You can hire somebody with the sole purpose of making them an intrapreneur within your company or you can take the more common option of finding intrapreneurial talent already within your organisation.

The best way to find the kind of person who fits the intrapreneurial bill is to start giving your employees the option to grow and demonstrate their abilities. Those who stand out and go the extra mile may turn out to be the people you need to make progress.

We can help

For all accounting and bookkeeping questions, please call us today on 01606 333900 or email hello@burtonbeavan.co.uk.