To avoid recession, the world needs successful entrepreneurs. But how do you know if you’re an entrepreneur?
Answer our questions to find out if it’s something you should think about…
Are you an ideas person?
One of the characteristics that set entrepreneurs apart from the rest of the population is that they’re curious and open-minded. They’re always looking for new ideas and innovations that make life better or make things work better; they’re not merely selling goods and services, they’re selling dreams and chasing the rainbow.
How financially savvy are you?
Business cannot live on ideas alone. If you don’t also have an understanding of costs and benefits, profit and loss, of the bottom line, then you’re in for a very short entrepreneurial career. Every decision can have financial repercussions and though you don’t need to be an accountant or a financial manager you do need a basic but thorough financial education to make sure that your business doesn’t collapse merely because you didn’t monitor your financial position or manage your cash flow.
Will you provide passionately great leadership?
Steve Jobs of Apple showed that passion is one of the essential ingredients for entrepreneurs. They have an inner demon to succeed and they need to be able to inspire, motivate and encourage the whole team. At the same time, the strengths and weaknesses that you may possess as an entrepreneur won’t cover everything you need to be able to do in business. One of the most important attributes is to be able to gather good people around you who you can work with, who will share your commitment and who will complement and balance your talents.
Can you manage change?
Every business is about change. Change can be about everything from products and services, facilities and technology to customers and employees. Successful entrepreneurs thrive on change and can often drive it to take advantage of a new opportunity. Change is therefore positive – except when it’s not. If you don’t manage change then it’s a disaster. It makes sense therefore to acquire some basic skills, in areas such as project management, which will help you plan and manage change yourself or know enough about it to delegate it to someone else so that your project is implemented properly.
Do you have bounce?
Do you remember those kids toys where you pushed them and they would bop back up again? That’s the kind of attribute that you need to have to be an entrepreneur. Often you’ll be pushing the envelope while others around you will be trying to hold you back. You’ll need to be able to take on constructive criticism and ignore destructive comments. Entrepreneurs can accept failure and use it as an opportunity for learning.
Are you driven?
Look at any entrepreneur and you’ll see that they tend to be energetic, obsessional, competitive, risk takers and love to take the initiative. They’re the kind of people who think nothing of working all the hours in a day and live off stress and the unexpected.
Do you put the customer first?
Successful entrepreneurs know that their business is nothing without its customers. They are the ones who will buy what the entrepreneur has to sell and keep the business alive. Entrepreneurs must orientate the business around satisfying customer needs and desires. In this way they produce goods and services that sell.
Entrepreneurial links:
- The Entrepreneurs’ Forum was created by a group of North East England’s leading business people to create a group of individuals who could share ideas, knowledge, inspiration and opportunities in a confidential environment.
- The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is a global network of more than 8,000 business owners in 40 countries. Its purpose is to enable entrepreneurs to learn and grow from each other.
- Innovators is an Innovation Exchange™ who’s object is to allow corporations worldwide to discover, partner with or invest in innovative young start-ups and entrepreneurs.
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