The clamor for entrepreneurship is on the rise, however only a few have what it takes to succeed in the journey of entrepreneurship. When you study the characteristics of the entrepreneur, you will understand that not everyone is called to be an entrepreneur.
See Also: Types of entrepreneurship and different classifications of entrepreneurs.
Every entrepreneur must possess these qualities to make a success of their business venture. Entrepreneurship is the act of setting up a business while navigating the risks that such a journey presents. As an entrepreneur, you will sacrifice time, money while trying to make something out of nothing.
Of course, you will agree with me that the journey is not for the faint-hearted. The characteristics of the entrepreneur are the qualities that make the journey worth embarking on.
See Also: Resources that will help you start, market and grow a sustainable business.
In this piece, we listed with detailed explanations the traits that every entrepreneur must have to succeed in business.
Characteristics Of The Entrepreneur
Creativity
One of the characteristics of the entrepreneur is the ability to be creative. Entrepreneurs are creative creatures. Creativity is the ability to think outside the box.
When you look around you, you will see problems. When an entrepreneur looks at these problems, what he sees is opportunities. What they then do is look for innovative ways to proffer solutions to the problems around them and creatively market these solutions to the market.
Also, the entrepreneur is creative in how they process and execute business ideas. Ideas can strike anywhere and in unrefined forms; it is only a creative person that can harness them to the gold they should be.
See Also: Importance of creativity and how to boost your team’s creativity.
Optimistic
Negativity is the recipe for staying stagnant in life but having a positive outlook towards life brings you a step closer to your dreams each day.
Entrepreneurship is all about risk-taking and taking no risk is a risk in itself. As you take calculated risk, you need to believe that everything will work out fine even if no one believes in your idea. Being optimistic is persevering in the face of challenges and being hopeful for a positive outcome.
One of the ways to stay positive is to draw inspiration from people who have walked the path you are walking. Also, it helps to speak out to people who are of like minds as it releases tension.
See Also: Optimism – An important recipe for entrepreneurial success.
Passion
An entrepreneur has to be very passionate. Passion is the fuel that will drive you on days that you feel down and when you are having difficult days. Steve Jobs, Apple Co-founder once said “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.
This means that passion is an all-important ingredient for an entrepreneur to succeed. Think of it this way; if you are not passionate about your business and the solutions that you are building, will you be able to convince other people to believe in your vision?
To find your passion with your business, think about the meaning behind what you are building.
Motivation
An entrepreneur needs to be motivated enough to pursue success. Motivation is the entrepreneur’s will to accomplish things in a period of time. In today’s world where there is a huge explosion in the number of entrepreneurs entering the fray every day, execution is what will set you apart from dreams. To help you stay motivated, you need to create a goal document that looks at helping you achieve strategic goals. To achieve goals better, you can break your goals into milestones, projects, and smaller tasks.
Product Or Service Knowledge
Another important characteristics that an entrepreneur needs to possess is the knowledge of the product/service that he is offering. As an entrepreneur, you are the chief visioner of your organisation, so you need to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to product knowledge. No one can understand your product more than you do, so you need to not only understand it but know how to communicate your offerings effectively.
Ability To Network
The ability to network is one of the characteristics of an entrepreneur. True, many people are not born with an outgoing nature or the gift of eloquence, but it is a characteristic that can be learned. The fact is that you need to sell your products and services one way or the other, and networking is a very viable way to sell. So, the ability to network is an entrepreneur characteristic that you must have.
Self-confidence
Self-confidence is an absolutely integral characteristics of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur should be someone that believes in himself and his dream. Self-confidence helps make sure that even when the going gets tough, you never doubt yourself.
Imagine how confident Thomas Edison was to fail at creating the electric bulb 1,000 times before finally achieving his goals. Entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk have one thing in common- they fiercely believe that their dreams are valid, and they give it their all. That only happens when you are self-confident.
Vision
An entrepreneur must have a vision, it is one of the characteristics that an entrepreneur should have. In fact, it is your vision that will help you identify gaps and problems in the market before you start building solutions. Therefore, any entrepreneur that wants to achieve success must have a vision. Additionally, you can fuel your vision by reading books, watching videos and generally sharpening your mind. Vision is what will help you identify an opportunity when it comes.
Goal Mindset
You need to be organised as an entrepreneur. To help you stay on track, you need to set goals. You can set yearly goals, then break them down to quarterly, monthly and even monthly goals. Setting goals will help you have an overview of what you are pursuing and everything you need to do to achieve those goals.
Moreso, an entrepreneur that wants to be successful needs to have a goal-getter mindset. You need to be an individual that makes up their mind about what they want and pursues it with all their strength. That is how you achieve results in entrepreneurship. People will slam doors in your face, others will stop taking calls, but a goal-getter will not stop until the result is achieved.
Persuasiveness
As an entrepreneur, you will need to market your products at some point. To sell your products effectively, you need to have the skill of persuasion. Persuasion is a skill that will help you close many business deals. By learning about your product, its unique selling proposition, you can sell it effortlessly.
Decision-making
Another character that is integral to entrepreneurship is decision-making. You need to have decision-making skills that will help you take the right action at the right time. Successful entrepreneurs are people that execute their ideas. And in a world where there is information overload, you need to be intelligent enough to make smart decisions that will have positive impacts on your business.
Tenacity
Tenacity is your ability to persevere when you encounter obstacles in your entrepreneurship journey. As an entrepreneur, you are going to encounter difficulties. You will only become successful when you are able to navigate your obstacles and turn them into stepping stones. So, tenacity is a strong tool to have in your arsenal as an entrepreneur.
You can develop tenacity by building a positive network and connecting with like-minded role models.
Money Management
One thing that has become less and less talked about in entrepreneurship is money management. If you are like the majority of the world, chances are that you will not have all the money in the world when starting your entrepreneurship journey. So, you need to be a good money manager to succeed as an entrepreneur. Moreover, when the money starts coming in, you need to be able to manage resources appropriately.
Adaptability
As an entrepreneur, you need to be aware of, and receptive to change. This is because, with rapid development and rapid globalisation, things tend to shift rather quickly. Adaptability will help you become open to change and build businesses that can adapt to terrains very quickly.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to adopt work-from-home strategies to survive at the peak of the pandemic. For businesses that did not embrace adaptability, they were quickly thrown out of operation.
Organised
One of the characteristics of the entrepreneur is that he is organised. Being organised starts from always having a tidy desk space although that is never always the case with entrepreneurs.
A successful entrepreneur follows up on plans and delivers on promises. Additionally, being organised is retaining detailed knowledge of your business processes. It is also about time management and planning your time around your activities in ways that no area of the business suffers.
See Also: Qualities the entrepreneur should possess to succeed in business.
Self-discipline
Discipline is the first quality that an entrepreneur should imbibe. Self-discipline is disciplining yourself to do what you should do whether you feel like it or not.
An entrepreneur who gets himself to be self-discipline is guaranteed of success. Therein lies the difference between successful entrepreneurs and failures. Both don’t like to do a task but the successful entrepreneurs does it anyways because he/she knows that, it is the price they have to pay for success.
Self-discipline define how you act, spend your time, the quality of life and your lifestyle as an entrepreneur.
See Also: Entrepreneurship as a career option; four ways to go into entrepreneurship
Leadership
As an entrepreneur, you have multiple roles. You are a leader charged with the responsibility of motivating your employees, acting as a role model and acting as a figure head for your business.
There are different types of leadership styles and there’s no one size fits all. The type of leadership style you choose for your business will depend on the type of culture you want to build for your business. Whichever style you choose, ensure that it provides an enabling environment for your team to strive.
You don’t have to have employees to be a leader. Even as a solopreneur, you have to show good leadership while dealing with contractors, clients and the general marketplace.
See Also: Leadership – A quality every successful entrepreneur must embrace.
Commitment
Entrepreneurship is a marathon not a sprint. It requires hard work and many sacrifices. Also, you will face failures and setbacks. In other words, it is a wild ride.
Success does not happen in a flash; it takes time and requires hard work. In the end, it boils down to the ability of the entrepreneur to commit to the vision of the startup.
Committing to your business means that you have to compromise in most areas of your personal life so, you can devote your time to your business. Truly committed entrepreneurs take risks, are responsible and they achieve their goal no matter the challenges they face.
See Also: Entrepreneurship and risk – How entrepreneurs should deal with risk
Open Mindedness
Can you be flexible and open-minded in the face of change? Being open-minded is an important characteristics of the entrepreneur.
As you start your business, new ideas and opportunities will present themselves. The true realisation of which scenario can be a useful opportunity for your business is necessary. So, if you are not open-minded and willing to explore different options, you may miss out on opportunities.
An entrepreneur should be determined and face his wins, humbly, and his losses with a positive attitude. Having the right mentality to business where you don’t frown at defeat is what being a successful entrepreneur entail.
Also, it is about learning from every situation and from everyone including your clients and employees. When you are open-minded, you can also learn from your competition.
See Also: Character versus skill – what should an organisation hire for?
Resourcefulness
In the early stages of the business, you will find yourself doing almost every task required in the business. If you need to send an invoice or design a website, you should find a way to do them especially when you are bootstrapping.
Being resourceful is having complete knowledge of your industry. When you are knowledgeable about your industry, then you can tackle any crisis that rears up its head.
A successful entrepreneur is always increasing his knowledge bank which is why he is constantly learning.
See Also: 100 Profitable business ideas for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors.
Team Building
A successful entrepreneur knows that he need the help and support of a team to build a successful business.
The first task as your business grows is finding the right people who have the right culture and who will buy into your vision.
Part of the job of an entrepreneur is focusing on the development of your team and pulling out the best in them. It includes delegating fully and trusting them to do the best they can, stretching them and encouraging them, and helping them to grow.
See Also: Effective ways to kill your team – Entrepreneurship for dummies.
Risk Taking
Mark Zuckerberg said “In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.”
An entrepreneur is born to take risks; without risk, he cannot build something out of nothing. Taking calculated risk is the main course on the menu for the entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs know how to plan for the unknown and make decisions that are best for them and their business.
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