Courtesy of Leo
What does it take to be an entrepreneur? I find myself asking this question often as many of you may. While I don’t believe there is any one thing or set of characteristics that make or break you as an entrepreneur, I do believe there are definite entrepreneurship characteristics that can greatly benefit you as an entrepreneur should you be lucky enough to possess them. Today, I would like to kick off the first of a three part post on what characteristics one should aim to have if he or she is interested in a career as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship Characteristics: Part #1
My reasoning behind doing this is to provide the reader with some guidance into what it takes more often than not to make it as an entrepreneur. This of course is based upon my own experiences, research, and from several very successful entrepreneurs I’ve had the chance to know and interview (i.e. Interview With Serial Entrepreneur Alex Lawrence). Here now are the first five:
- Plan constantly: A business plan, model, and road-map for your start-up is vital to most successful ventures.
- Put the customer first: Your business will either sink or float, and its the customer who will determine it.
- Enjoy what you do, but take it seriously.
- Manage money appropriately: Knowing when to spend and when to save is often vital as an entrepreneur.
- Become a self-promoter: Only you can get the word out there. Take every opportunity to do so.
Remember that no one list can define the success or failure of someone as an entrepreneur, but characteristics such as these can greatly help improve your odds of being successful. Be on the look out for the next two installments where we will further discuss just what this means.
An excellent list of characteristics you’ve planned out. I would like to add
1) Work extremely hard: and I mean it. Especially for those home work at home, don’t delude yourself into thinking you “work 60 hours a week” when in practice, 80% of those hours are spent surfing the Internet and email friernds.
(Then agian, I heard the average office workers only spends 7.5 hours doing something they were hired to do! So it’s not too hard to beat)
[I also suspect because entrepreneur hours are self repeated, they tend to be inflated]
2) Get to test failures points fast. As quick as possible, figure out whether something will work or not.
3)Do things fast. It takes the same amount of effort to make say $100,000 1 year, 3 years or 20 years. Alright, this isn’t a perfect analogy, but you get my point. Do it today if you can.