Ideal Entrepreneur: Who Are They?

What makes people start their own business? Everyone has different reasons. Some are attracted by financial prosperity from pre-established salaries. Others don`t like working for someone and strive for independence. But why does not everyone achieve the desired success? The cold statistics shows that only every tenth entrepreneur, starting a business for the first time, can make it through the first year of work.

And this may happen because the entrepreneur could not correctly analyze the market or allocate financial resources, maintain good relations with a partner, or build up a team of professional employees. All of the above could be avoided if a person had the traits necessary for a successful business person. Let us review the key qualities and abilities you should acquire to reach success in entrepreneurship.

Founder`s Responsibilities

To better understand what an entrepreneur should be like, it`s necessary to be aware of the tasks you`ll be responsible for.

Planning

This is not about just writing of a business plan, especially based on a template downloaded on the web. Everyone can do it. Another thing is how thought-out and effective this plan is. An entrepreneur should build long-term strategies, see the right direction, and set tactic tasks. This requires great analytical abilities and prevision skills.

Organization

To organize business processes so that it grows and develops is the major duty of an entrepreneur. Otherwise, the company will stand still and is doomed to shut down. Business organization means to bring order, introduce competent work schemes, and ensure a sufficiently high performance level.

Delegating

This is somehow related to the previous paragraph. Anyway, you can`t bear everything on your back. Thus, founders have to delegate tasks and responsibilities wisely. Here they need to choose the right people and distinguish between things they can do on their own and those they have to assign another person with. If you know how to do it, success is almost guaranteed.

Motivation

Apart from practical duties, an entrepreneur should be the main source of inspiration for the team. Serving as a sort of engine, they should keep your employees motivated and passionate about what they are doing. Here you need great leadership skills to channel your enthusiasm and instill it in others.

Control

At early stages, founders have to control everything by themselves. This is particularly challenging when your startup suggests a lot of departments and areas to work on. It`s also important to be able to hand over control to the right people so that the business stays afloat. At the same time, you should keep an eye on the strategic aspects of your project.

Team making

Your team is the heart of your startup. To make it "beat", entrepreneurs have to bring together people with the talents they need. On top of that, you should be able to guide them in the right direction and create an enabling environment so that the employees could fulfill their potential.

Education

Apart from motivating, founders need to constantly educate their team members. In a broad sense, it means teaching sales, negotiations, and management. In addition, you should teach your employees the values of your company, approaches, compliance, and corporate culture principals.

Prevision

Don`t worry, it`s not about clairvoyance. Though if you want to be an entrepreneur, you should be able to predict many things, from market demand to upcoming tendencies. Everything needs to be measured and controlled. So, from these measurements of yours, you have to draw some conclusions. And based on this, try to give some kind of forecast.

Changes

Founders have to change their startups, introduce novelty, set new business goals, and even pivot when needed. In other words, you have to improve your business by constantly making some changes and adjusting to new circumstances. Maybe the word “change" scares you. But how to improve something without changing anything?

Negotiations

This is an essential part of any business. This includes not only the ability to negotiate with partners and conclude deals, but generally to communicate with people, whether these are employees, customers, partners, or suppliers. Overall, communicating and persuading are what every entrepreneur needs.

Necessary Skills for Entrepreneurs

After learning the founder`s duties, we can proceed to review the key skills needed to accomplish the mentioned tasks.

Leadership

An aspiring entrepreneur should be convincing in communicating with people – investors, co-founders, and the team. To do this, you need developed communication skills and the ability to persuade when achieving your goals. This is a founder around whom other players are centered. Therefore, it`s necessary to be able to inspire people and lead them on your way to success.

Team Management

To build a strong team, it`s not enough to just find qualified specialists. The work of employees should be planned and organized by the founder. It is important to learn how to delegate authority competently so that subordinates reveal their best qualities, become more experienced, and productive.

Sales

This is one of the essential skills for a startup founder. This includes the assessment of interest and analysis of customer behavior, use of methods, systems, and practices to attract new customers. You don`t have to understand the art of sales from A to Z, but some basic knowledge and hunch are a must.

Marketing

When launching, it is crucial to draw the attention of as many people as possible to the startup. Of course, this is only possible when conducting a successful advertising campaign. The manager needs to study marketing in order to independently organize promotion or understand what is happening in the company if another employee is engaged in promotion. To make your company well-known, you need to get the hang of the way marketing works.

Consciousness

The conscious approach helps founders view business as an art, to act in the flow, and to enjoy their activities. A successful entrepreneur can minimize losses and understands the motives of others' actions. By acting consciously, you make smart choices and manage risks.

Finances

All profits and losses of the company are primarily the responsibility of the founder. Therefore, it is necessary to keep them under strict control. The organization of finance for business requires an understanding of accounting and taxes, the ability to compile accounting statements and take advantage of special programs.

Must-have Qualities for Entrepreneurs

As soon as you know the skills you need to develop, it`s time to see what qualities can boost your startup experience.

Determination

You can be very smart, quick-witted and build in your head the most incredible ways to solve any problems. But what's the point if you can`t make up your mind to turn thoughts into concrete actions? The ability to make decisions quickly and accurately is the basic characteristic of a successful founder.

Most markets now tend to change quickly and it is extremely important to be able to navigate these changes on the spot and act decisively in the set conditions.

Creativity

To generate innovative solutions, you should possess great creative thinking and endless imagination. Entrepreneurs come up with new things and think outside the box, find a solution where ordinary people would not look for it. The ability to intuitively recognize a brilliant idea is important in business like nothing else. A good idea and a non—standard approach are the ground for success.

Boldness

Even to dream of your own business, you need to be a bit of an adventurer. If you are not ready to take risks, many opportunities for the growth and development of your company will pass you by. But don't confuse courage with recklessness. The owner of the company should maintain some balance between them, think through every detail, and weigh the risks carefully.

Passion

If you are not passionate about what you`re doing, you`ll quickly burn out and quit. Entrepreneurship is associated with a lot of difficulties. The only thing that will not let you give up and forget about the ultimate goal is your own enthusiasm. After all, love for your business is the key to success whatever you do.

Sociability

It is not necessary to be a professional speaker or become the best friend of everyone you meet. But the personal qualities of an entrepreneur include the ability to communicate with people.

Doing your business, you will have to meet a huge number of people — therefore it is important to earn a reputation as a professional and a person who easily makes contact. Try to establish and maintain good relationships with everyone you encounter in the process of doing business, whether they are customers, partners, suppliers or even competitors.

Flexibility

Sticking to your concept is good, but don`t overdo it. The market climate may change rapidly, consumers are constantly putting forward new requirements for goods, partners might change the terms of cooperation. It is important to be able to adapt to changes without compromising yourself.

Conclusion

Even though you don`t possess all the listed qualities and abilities, don`t worry. We believe that entrepreneurs are not born, but made. It all depends on your commitment and passion to set up a successful startup and make your dreams happen. All these skills can be acquired, it`s just the matter of time and willingness. The harder you work, the better results you achieve whatever qualities you were born with.

Just take a look at famous entrepreneurs. They are all different but have something in common — a lot of enthusiasm and faith in themselves. It`s impossible to reach perfection and you don`t even have to. Just follow your dreams and be the best version of yourself.