Characteristics of an Entrepreneur – Keys to Being a Successful Entrepreneur
You probably know at least one business entrepreneur who seems to have it all figured out.
He may have gone to an expensive, Ivy League business school or he may have spent decades climbing the corporate ladder.
Maybe he relies on successful business coaches to give advice along the way. Or perhaps he has no formal training, but has just managed to figure it out on his own.
Truth be told, there is no wrong way or right way to become a successful business entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and career paths.
But there are some key differences between what successful entrepreneurs do and what average entrepreneurs do.
Take Advantage Of Technology
Whether you are the owner of a one-man business working out of a garage or own a multimillion dollar business, utilizing technology effectively is extremely important.
Especially for small business owners, it can be a way to level the playing field. If you are working out of your garage and have a fantastic website, no one will ever know.
If you own a large business with a bad website, people will assume you are working out of your basement. Successful entrepreneurs make new technology work for them flawlessly.
Reinvest Wisely In Your Own Business
When a mediocre business owner starts to make money, he spends it instead of putting the money back into his business. Don’t make this mistake.
Learn from the example of Warren Buffet, who started his business career by buying a pinball machine to put in a barbershop. When he started making money on his investment, he bought more pinball machines.
Do What You Love
It is almost impossible to be successful if you don’t enjoy what you are doing.
On the other hand, if the focus of your business is something that truly interests and motivates you, you will be able to put forth your best effort, which will be reflected in your personal well being as well as your company’s bottom line.
Use Of Common Sense
Researches show that the majority of successful businessmen consider common sense as the foundation of their success.
Common sense is defined as a capability to make sensible judgments on the issues, which you come across in everyday situations.
Good judgment depends on acquired information and experience. The combination of these two creates essential prerequisites in developing common sense in a person.
Common sense also enables you to understand complex issues into simpler terms and get into the core of a problem.
Specialized Knowledge Of Your Field
It is easier to start a successful business, if you have deep knowledge of the business field that you determine to go after.
About half of all home-based start-ups are launched by individuals who decide to use the knowledge, which they acquired from their previous work experience of a specific niche area.
Philip Green, a billionaire, who made his fortune in garment’s retailing, claims that corner stone of his success is his expertise of rag trade.
He, without doubt can price a fabric simply by rubbing it between his fingers. Just by looking at a rack of coats he can foretell which ones won’t sell next season.
That’s the kind of skill required in order to become successful in entrepreneurship.
According to the research, around 45 percent of all start-ups fail to survive more than two years.
One of the main reasons is that most of the entrepreneurs do not accumulate needed industry knowledge before jumping into a business world.
Self-confidence
Self-confidence is a crucial entrepreneurial skill for success. It is easy to become depressed frustrated and vindictive if you lack self-confidence.
Self-confidence is concerned with how an individual feels about his ability. A thriving entrepreneur believes in his abilities.
He is not terrified to explore un-chartered territories, take risk and take tough decisions.
Self-confidence, however, is not a personal quality that either you have, or you don’t. An individual can have high self-confidence in one situation and totally lack in another.
This is one of those skills that can be developed by practice.
Ability To Get Things Done
Successful entrepreneurs are stubborn and hardworking.
They master self-discipline to such extent that if a task is significant and linked to their goals, they will, eventually, complete it. Getting things done is the key link between motivations and their result.
At times, entrepreneurs force themselves to prefer to work over fun, a boring job against a pleasant one, working on tax papers rather than reading a glamour magazine.
This requires a self-control that majority of individuals simply fail to develop in them.
