Many people believe that being an entrepreneur is just about starting a business, but there are many other facets of the career path. Entrepreneurship is about building value for yourself, your employees, and your customers.
It takes years of hard work, accomplishments, and failures before it can pay off. Many new start ups and business ventures actually fail within the first 18 months. Starting a business is difficult, but many succeed by following some important tips.
Skills and knowledge can vary from company to company and industry to industry. It is important to have these attributes in your various niche, but other factors will make a big impact. In todays world, you need to be a technically savvy, and for certain businesses, will need to have necessary programming experience. For other companies, you may just need to be savvy at talking and interacting with people.
There are certain personality characteristics that define a successful entrepreneur. Temperament and mental fortitude are what set them apart from those who fail and the even bigger group of people who never try to start their own business.
Regardless if you are starting a law practice, a pilates studio, or a tech startup, all successful entrepreneurs share a few key personal characteristics that differentiate them from the rest.
Having a Vision
Having a long term vision is key in entrepreneurship. As the leader of your business, you will be the one who needs to cast a vision for your entire company. You’ll need to set the vision for the team, for your customers, and perhaps even for investors. This requires the ability to think strategically and long term about your companies potential in the future. It could be imagining a larger role for your company than just the service or product it provides.
Having a successful vision is motivating and will push you to perform at your best, even when times are tough.
Resourcefulness
Entrepreneurs need to find ways to scale their time and effort. They wear many hats, so you’ll often need to learn new things quickly and find ways to maximize your time. Other strategies are to rely on other people and technology to help get more done.
Use of technology is important for entrepreneurs as it enables them to find ways to reduce workload and accomplish more every day. It can also be used as a resource for quickly learning new skills or knowledge. Some great examples are automated appointment booking and reminder systems like social media marketing and automation like Hootsuite, automated appointment booking and reminder systems like Appointment Reminder, or do-it-yourself website building and hosting like Bluehost.
Decisiveness
As an entrepreneur, you’ll need to make tough decisions almost every day. The ability to quickly decide on everything from how to price your product or service to where to invest your profits or how to deal with an unforeseen crisis are critical.
It is important to find ways to quickly and easily analyze possible scenarios and make the best decision. Allowing yourself to this will allow you have to be able to move on with your day.
Sales Driven
Sales is an important factor, regardless of the type of business. Even if you’re not selling a product or service directly, you need to be able to sell your business to just about anyone. Partners, customers, clients are all important in sales. You need to be able to speak intelligently and passionately about what you do and why you do it.
Not being afraid to fail or face rejection means being able to keep composure in the face of roadblocks or tense negotiations.
Adaptability
As an entrepreneur, you should be prepared for change at all times and be ready to adapt to what comes your way and tackle new challenges. This means you also need to be willing to change your vision if you determine that it’s not viable.
There are many start ups that begin their business headed in one direction, realize that they are not hitting the need of customers, and totally redirect. It’s adapting to the environment, and what people want, even if it’s not the original vision.
Responsibility
When you are an entrepreneur, your company’s wins or losses will ultimately be attributed to your decisions and actions. Which means you have to be able to not only own that burden but also be willing to take responsibility for all your employees.
Being responsible is one of the primary roles of any entrepreneur. If you’re not taking charge, there’s no one behind you to pick up the slack.
Risk-Taking
Entrepreneurship is all about taking a bet. You’re betting on yourself, your product or service, and on your team. Whether you’re taking on loans to finance growth, putting your personal savings into the company to get it started, or deciding whether to hire another employee, you will always have risk associated with running a business.
As an entrepreneur, you must embrace risk and be driven by it. You can not be afraid. You must have confidence enough to face the risk every day and keep doing the work that needs to be done.