Chapter 3 Entrepreneurs: Key Characteristics and Skills

1 11 Chapter 3 entrepreneurs : Key Characteristicsand SkillsIf your mind canconceive it,and your heartcan believe it,then you canachieve it!Are All entrepreneurs Alike?While entrepreneurs have in common certain Characteristics and Skills ,there is a wide range of individuality among them. In sports, someathletes do well because they love a sport and are trained to play have developed their Skills . Others are full of natural talent andrequire much less special training. Still others simply find their ownsuccessful approach to playing a sport even though they may not havebeen are the same receive formal trainingand skill development. Othershave a natural flair for it. Stillothers break every rule ordevise very unusual approaches,but still succeed.

2 Which do youthink would be your style?While there is no recipe for be-coming a successful entrepre-neur, certain characteristicsare associated with entrepre-neurial success. Here areseveral important What You LoveAccording to research, one of the most important qualities associatedwith successful entrepreneurship is passion. When people feel commit-ted to what they are doing and when they care deeply about it, theystand the best chance of being successful at it. The heart must becomean ally of the mind. Think about this popular business saying:If your mind can conceive it,and your heart can believe it,then you can achieve it! entrepreneurs typically care more about what they are doing than howmuch money they might make.

3 They must earn an income, of course, orthey cannot continue to be entrepreneurs ; however, the amount theyearn often is secondary to achieving their goals. 12 Entrepreneursare self-reliant,opportunity-focused, willingto take risksand thrive I Think I Can .. I Can!Another key quality of the successful entrepreneur isself-confidence. If you are thinking that youwould like to be an entrepreneur, do you haveconfidence in your ability to succeed? Everyentrepreneur encounters problems, and youhave to believe you can overcome you feel you lack self-confidence,perhaps you re not fully appreciative ofyour past accomplishments. Think about all the things you ve you participated in activities at school like music, art and sports?

4 Have you held part-time jobs? Do you do chores regularly at home?When you think about all of the things you have accomplished, you willfind that you have every right to be self-confident. Successful entrepre-neurs believe not only that they are capable of success but also believethat they are worthy of are self-reliant. They do not wait for others to tellthem what to do. They are self-starters and feel confident have other qualities as well. To accomplish their goalsand make their vision a reality, successful entrepreneurs must havedrive, persistence, the ability to complete tasks, and bewilling to work hard. Additionally, they areopportunity-focused and are able to set both short- and long-termgoals. They create a vision of what theywant their future to be, and then theywork to achieve it.

5 These are some ofthe qualities that help them seeproblems as we discussed earlier, entrepre-neurs are willing to take a most people try to avoid risk, 13entrepreneurs understand that risk is a natural part of trying to achievegoals. Their self-confidence helps them accept the challenges of therisks they tend to thrive on competition. Whilethey may actively compete with others, they aremore likely to compete against themselves. In otherwords, they are constantly trying to improve theirown performance regardless of what others maybe they may not realize it, most entrepre-neurs are creative. This does not mean theypaint pictures or write poetry (though it can);rather, it means they find innovative ways to prob-lem solve.

6 They always look for new and betterways to do things ways that have not occurred to others. Believe inyour ability to be creative. Experts tell us that the biggest block tocreativity is thinking you are not , entrepreneurs are willing to learn. They are informationseekers. They may already know a great deal, yet they recognize thatno one knows everything, and that they can learn valuable informationfrom others. entrepreneurs who are not open to learning often compro-mise the degree of success they will be able to Is Not for Everybody Or Is It?Not everyone has the qualities it takes to be an entrepreneur or evenwants to be an entrepreneur. Even people who possess the necessaryqualities are not necessarily made happy by being who have entrepreneurial Characteristics are often happierworking for someone else.

7 They use their entrepreneurial Skills toadvance their own careers without taking the risks associated withbeing an entrepreneur. If you recognize that you have some of thecharacteristics discussed here but do not feel drawn to becoming anentrepreneur, you can find ways to further your goals or your chosencareer by putting your entrepreneurial Characteristics to work for may surprise you how much recognition you ll get for the goodwork you are not opento learning oftencompromise thedegree of successthey will be ableto achieve. 14 Activity: In your Personal Journal, turnto page 4 and complete the activity entitled Are You a Potential Entrepreneur?Part 1: Entrepreneurial Characteris-tics A Personal Review and Assess-ment.

8 Some Entrepreneurial Skills YouMust Have for SuccessAs with any sport, having the right attitudesand Characteristics can carry you only so also need the Skills that will help yousucceed. However, unlike personal character-istics and attitudes which can often be hardor impossible to change entrepreneurscanacquireskills if they are willing to learn them. Additionally, they canhire people to work for them who have the needed Skills . Either way, thefollowing Skills are important if the entrepreneur s business is to to Plan: The ability to plan is a key skill for must be able to develop plans to meet goals in a variety of areas,including finance, marketing, production, sales and personnel (hiringand maintaining productive and satisfied employees).

9 Communication Skills : entrepreneurs should be able to explain,discuss, sell and market their good or service. It is important to be ableto interact effectively with your business team. Additionally, entrepreneursneed to be able to express themselves clearly both verbally and inwriting. They also should have strong reading comprehension Skills tounderstand contracts and other forms of written business Skills : A business s success or failure is very dependent onwhether the business reaches the market (its potential customers), inter-ests the market and results in those in the market deciding to buy. Manyentrepreneurs who failed started with an innovative good or service thatwith proper marketing could have been very successful.

10 Good marketingskills that result in people wanting to buy your good or service arecritical for entrepreneurial marketingskills that resultin people wantingto buy your prod-uct are critical forentrepreneurialsuccess. 4 Activity: Are You aPotential Entrepreneur?Part 1: Entrepreneurial Characteristics A Personal Review and AssessmentSelect the number that best indicates what you believe about each of the following. At the extremes, 1" means strongly disagree, while 10 means strongly agree. I am a person who:Is passionate, with strongfeelingsabout thingspersonally important to me .. 1 2 345678910Is self-confident .. 1 2 345678910 Has high self-esteem .. 1 2 345678910Is capable of accomplishingwhatever I set out to do.