As the Marketing and Community Manager of Puzl – a free business website builder specifically targeting SMEs, self-employed and entrepreneurs, giving them the opportunity to create a 100% free professional website, I have come across many start-up founders and entrepreneurs. In the scope of our talks over the professional world, I decided to focus my research on one of the “ever green” topic that has always struck me.
Are entrepreneurs originally born entrepreneurs or they are raised to be successful? Is it simply a combination of personal characteristics or a mix of skills to be acquired in the severe battles of business?What are the key traits to distinguish a great entrepreneur?
Since I have gathered volumes of opinions on the topic and have participated in many related discussions, I have realized that there is no certain stereotype of the ideal entrepreneur. Anyways, here is my summary list of the 10 personal characteristics that I believe are “essential” assets for achieving entrepreneurial success. Have a look and self-evaluate your traits to find out do you have the potential to become the next Donald Trump. Don’t hesitate to share your opinions by commenting the article!
Discover my top 10 tips on how to become a successful entrepreneur:
1. Self-Motivated
As the motivational speaker Nick Vujicic states: “Motivation gets you through the day, but inspiration lasts a lifetime. “ A good entrepreneur should first and foremost have the ability to motivate himself and have a strong orientation towards the achievement of a task.
As motivation is the “ fire starter” activating the whole mechanism, entrepreneurs cannot afford a lack of motivation. A decent dosage of motivation can always be found in a good business book, some aspiring success stories or the wisdom of famous people quotes.
2. Self-Confident
Entrepreneurs must be self-confident and truly believe in themselves when pursuing their targets. The inner flame of confidence strengthens their determination and helps entrepreneurs energetically focus efforts on a project, business deal, mission, or objective. A real entrepreneur must have a strong desire to be a winner.
3. Workaholic
Vince Lombardi has been cunning enough to notice it: “The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work” . That means only one thing: Work, work, work! To successfully start a new business venture, a good entrepreneur needs to possess an intense level of determination and willingness to work hard. Working after hours, a total self-devotion to finish tasks within deadlines, readiness to stay up till late and skip vacations if needed – it’s all about steel discipline and strong will to be productive and make it all work out effectively.
4. Passionate, enthusiastic, pro-active
To love what you do and invest all your passion in achieving your professional targets – that makes the big difference. Putting your heart to your project will surely enough be reflected on the results and quality of work done.
A thought just came to my mind in relation to this – “I rate enthusiasm even above professional skills.” Edward Appleton. True story. Having the right mindset and attitude is a crucial part of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
5. Excellent Time Manager
Time is a priceless asset in the hectic working schedule of an entrepreneur.
Knowing how to figure out an effective timetable of the tasks for the day and smartly arrange your priorities is a must. Focusing on the critically important and dismissing all other distractions will make all the difference. Strong organization skills and effective time management will enable you to maximize your productivity, wisely allocate your time resource to excel efficiency, and ensure that all tasks are completed in a timely manner with reduced stress and tension.
6. Smart Risk-Taker
An entrepreneur must know how to deal with risk. “Dare to risk” attitude is needed but keeping the right balance is essential to prevent from dipping in unreasonable business deals with no return on investment.
Successful entrepreneurs are neither high risk takers, nor gamblers. They are a kind of moderate risk-takers finding the right balance between the two extremes. They take moderate challenging risks to attain moderate returns which are within the reach of their abilities and professional situation.
7. Out of the box thinker
An entrepreneur must be innovative and creative. Through his innovative ideas and creative thinking an entrepreneur is able to find bright solutions to solve tough problems, come up with an amazing new strategy, develop new methods of production, discover new market, come up with great findings, ever explore new opportunities, bring some fresh air in the working atmosphere and even inspire other team members.
8. Well-versed in the art of communication
A communication gap is quite a menace for a business, so a successful leader and business owner must be able to effectively communicate in a respectful and professional manner. He should be a person who likes working with people knowing how you handle employees and motivate them through his interpersonal skills.
Having a vision for your business is great. But if you cannot share it with others, you will highly increase your risks of failure.
Compelling speech, rich business vocabulary, intelligent and persuasive speaking manner, strong argumentation and logical skills, excellent psychological shrewdness, emotional stability, tactfulness and warm human attitude are some important characteristics to maintain and establish good relations with customers, employees, suppliers, creditors and other people related with the business.
9. Flexible
Nothing in a startup ever goes as planned, and thus, the founders must be able to fully adapt to changing circumstances and at the speed of light. Especially in Today’s world where markets change so quickly, a skilled entrepreneur has to be a real chameleon adjusting to a constantly evolving business environment, constructively learning from mistakes and always making the most out of his experience.
10. Decision Maker
The ability to take good decisions is one of the essential skills of a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneur must be realistic in their approach. They should be able to quickly analyze the circumstances and build a clear vision on the situation without being affected by the personal likes or prejudice. This doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes—even good decision makers don’t always have all the answers. What is important is that a good entrepreneur has to possess a strong feeling for justice and acute intuition on the most appropriate decisions to take according to the best possible outcomes.
