Characteristics that Make for a Successful Business Owner
Characteristics that Make for a Successful Business Owner
Often times a business owner is the visionary and good at sales, but when it comes to organization, details and accounting, this is not his/her strong suit. The great thing about this is that you can hire people to do this for you, and then you become a great team that will make your company successful.
So get to know your strengths and hire out the rest: Be honest with yourself as a business owner and recognize what you are not good at, and then either hire an employee or develop a business relationship with that source. For example: If you don’t know accounting, hire a bookkeeper to do it right; if you are disorganized, hire an assistant to help you; if you don’t know how to financially manage, then hire an expert to help you; if you are not a marketer, then hire help with that.
So below is a list of some main characteristics that are needed in yourself and your management team to consider in the building of your company and making it strong. Take an honest look at yourself; it can only make you and your company more successful.
1. Courageous----Be Decisive. Do not fear mistakes, rather embrace them and learn from them: Whether we want to or not, we will all make mistakes, but it is our perspective on them that determines whether we will be successful or not. In other words, use the mistakes as a way to learn and keep going forward. All successful business owners take this approach. They decide if it doesn’t work, then they try another way, until they find the path of success. If we crouch in fear of making a mistake, never make any decisions, it is guaranteed you will not move forward and not succeed. It is a trap to be engaged in “paralysis by analysis.” Just decide, make the mistakes, learn and move on. It is really that simple. I have heard great and successful men say that their greatest mistakes and hardest of situations, became the greatest gifts they could have ever had. It’s a perspective of courage.
2. People Person----Be relationship oriented. All endeavors in life are based on relationships, and so in business. This is why you build strong relationships, which create a stable customer base, vendor base, and employee base, because they are the support of your successful business.
3. Character----Be a person of character: How the owner is reflects down to the lowliest person in the company and is what the company will be known for. As you go, so your company goes. If you are person of strong character, then your company will be a success.
4. Attentive----Be a person who pays attention to the financial side of your business: Especially in a down economy is this crucial, but is something a successful business owner does at all times. You cannot just think that because you have money in the bank, you are doing well. You have to know your company’s financial status, have solid accounting in order to know this and know how to use your financial documents in order to manage the direction of your company. This is sometimes the last priority for a business owner, but in actuality it should be a top priority. This often times requires you to hire a good bookkeeper or accounting person. Do not skimp financially on this, this is one of the most important aspects of your business. This can make or break you literally!
5. Committed----Be committed. Again as you go, so will go your business. You don’t have a business to service you; it is actually to service your customers and to make money in the process. Be committed to your goal, be committed to your customers, be committed to your team, and always do what it takes to uphold that commitment.
6. Determined & Positive----Know you will succeed. You cannot go into small business and just hope it all works out, you have to KNOW that you will succeed, because this will drive you in every area of what you do and determine your decision making and success.
7. Passionate---Do what you love. The kind of time, energy and commitment that is involved in small business demands that you love what you do. If you don’t love it, then it makes it hard to do what you need to do to make it happen and be a success.
8. Wisdom/Humility---Wisdom is knowledge applied. This is the ability to know when to speak, when not to, when to do something, when not to. It is often times what comes with experience, but if you keep an open heart and mind, you can become wise beyond your experience or years. So really wisdom comes from an approach of humility to be able to listen, learn and apply what you learn appropriately. A wise business owner will surround himself with qualified experts, as in a lawyer, banker, accountant, and any one else that might be helpful in his/her industry. This is not a place to skimp financially as well, you usually get what you pay for, and so make sure you have a great team in this way. Remember, there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.
9. Organized/Detailed---Though sometimes this is the last thing a business owner may think is important, it is again, one of the top priorities. As mentioned above, this is sometimes not a business owner’s strong suit, but the great thing is you can hire someone to fill this gap for you. It cannot be emphasized enough, that to be successful, you absolutely need to be detailed oriented and organized to a fault. Just remember, there will be a competitor that is and most likely customers will go to that company rather than yours, if this is not in order.
10. Understands Value---In order to be successful, a business owner must know how to create value, sell value and maintain value. Often times in an attempt to get more business, a business owner will undersell his product or services, which both reflects on what the perceived value of your product or services are and may not be enough to make money. This is where you could go to your multitude of counselors, you can network and find out information there, and you can do market research to find out what is an appropriate price which represents the value of your product or service. Be bold! Be confident! Be Wise! Don’t undersell yourself and don’t price yourself out of the market, know your value and price it accordingly.
These are some main characteristics that make for a successful business owner. Please consider this honestly and carefully and hopefully you will find some insight for yourself and do what you need to do and hire who you need to hire to make your company the most successful it can be.
Characteristics that Make for a Successful Business Owner - To learn more about this author, visit Jacquie M. Adkins's Website.
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In this Tips Letter we are going to give 10 characteristics that make for a successful business owner. When reading this, you can use it to determine maybe where you might have a need to hire someone to make up for an area of need for you. The truth is we all have areas we are strong in and areas we need support in, and that is just perfectly fine. Wisdom tells us to recognize who we are and then in our business, hire someone who has the strengths to fill the gap where we have need. That is how you can be very successful. You can relax knowing you don’t have to know it all and have it all, because none of us do. So openly take a look and see where you might be able to hire someone to join your team to support you in the areas where you need it.
Often times a business owner is the visionary and good at sales, but when it comes to organization, details and accounting, this is not his/her strong suit. The great thing about this is that you can hire people to do this for you, and then you become a great team that will make your company successful.
So get to know your strengths and hire out the rest: Be honest with yourself as a business owner and recognize what you are not good at, and then either hire an employee or develop a business relationship with that source. For example: If you don’t know accounting, hire a bookkeeper to do it right; if you are disorganized, hire an assistant to help you; if you don’t know how to financially manage, then hire an expert to help you; if you are not a marketer, then hire help with that.
So below is a list of some main characteristics that are needed in yourself and your management team to consider in the building of your company and making it strong. Take an honest look at yourself; it can only make you and your company more successful.
1. Courageous----Be Decisive. Do not fear mistakes, rather embrace them and learn from them: Whether we want to or not, we will all make mistakes, but it is our perspective on them that determines whether we will be successful or not. In other words, use the mistakes as a way to learn and keep going forward. All successful business owners take this approach. They decide if it doesn’t work, then they try another way, until they find the path of success. If we crouch in fear of making a mistake, never make any decisions, it is guaranteed you will not move forward and not succeed. It is a trap to be engaged in “paralysis by analysis.” Just decide, make the mistakes, learn and move on. It is really that simple. I have heard great and successful men say that their greatest mistakes and hardest of situations, became the greatest gifts they could have ever had. It’s a perspective of courage.
2. People Person----Be relationship oriented. All endeavors in life are based on relationships, and so in business. This is why you build strong relationships, which create a stable customer base, vendor base, and employee base, because they are the support of your successful business.
3. Character----Be a person of character: How the owner is reflects down to the lowliest person in the company and is what the company will be known for. As you go, so your company goes. If you are person of strong character, then your company will be a success.
4. Attentive----Be a person who pays attention to the financial side of your business: Especially in a down economy is this crucial, but is something a successful business owner does at all times. You cannot just think that because you have money in the bank, you are doing well. You have to know your company’s financial status, have solid accounting in order to know this and know how to use your financial documents in order to manage the direction of your company. This is sometimes the last priority for a business owner, but in actuality it should be a top priority. This often times requires you to hire a good bookkeeper or accounting person. Do not skimp financially on this, this is one of the most important aspects of your business. This can make or break you literally!
5. Committed----Be committed. Again as you go, so will go your business. You don’t have a business to service you; it is actually to service your customers and to make money in the process. Be committed to your goal, be committed to your customers, be committed to your team, and always do what it takes to uphold that commitment.
6. Determined & Positive----Know you will succeed. You cannot go into small business and just hope it all works out, you have to KNOW that you will succeed, because this will drive you in every area of what you do and determine your decision making and success.
7. Passionate---Do what you love. The kind of time, energy and commitment that is involved in small business demands that you love what you do. If you don’t love it, then it makes it hard to do what you need to do to make it happen and be a success.
8. Wisdom/Humility---Wisdom is knowledge applied. This is the ability to know when to speak, when not to, when to do something, when not to. It is often times what comes with experience, but if you keep an open heart and mind, you can become wise beyond your experience or years. So really wisdom comes from an approach of humility to be able to listen, learn and apply what you learn appropriately. A wise business owner will surround himself with qualified experts, as in a lawyer, banker, accountant, and any one else that might be helpful in his/her industry. This is not a place to skimp financially as well, you usually get what you pay for, and so make sure you have a great team in this way. Remember, there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.
9. Organized/Detailed---Though sometimes this is the last thing a business owner may think is important, it is again, one of the top priorities. As mentioned above, this is sometimes not a business owner’s strong suit, but the great thing is you can hire someone to fill this gap for you. It cannot be emphasized enough, that to be successful, you absolutely need to be detailed oriented and organized to a fault. Just remember, there will be a competitor that is and most likely customers will go to that company rather than yours, if this is not in order.
10. Understands Value---In order to be successful, a business owner must know how to create value, sell value and maintain value. Often times in an attempt to get more business, a business owner will undersell his product or services, which both reflects on what the perceived value of your product or services are and may not be enough to make money. This is where you could go to your multitude of counselors, you can network and find out information there, and you can do market research to find out what is an appropriate price which represents the value of your product or service. Be bold! Be confident! Be Wise! Don’t undersell yourself and don’t price yourself out of the market, know your value and price it accordingly.
These are some main characteristics that make for a successful business owner. Please consider this honestly and carefully and hopefully you will find some insight for yourself and do what you need to do and hire who you need to hire to make your company the most successful it can be.
Characteristics that Make for a Successful Business Owner - To learn more about this author, visit Jacquie M. Adkins's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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