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5 traits of a successful entrepreneur

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Article Overview: Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes including diverse social, economic and education backgrounds. There is no “guaranteed” path to being a successful entrepreneur but this article suggests there are five traits they generally have in common.

5 traits of a successful entrepreneur

If you brought ten entrepreneurs together to ask them to make a list of the five most important traits of a successful entrepreneur they would probably finish up with eleven lists. Entrepreneurs don't like predictability and arriving at simplistic answers. However, if you read each of those eleven lists, I think you would find the following traits on a lot of those lists. 1. Vision

One of the first attributes of all successful entrepreneurs is having a clear vision. The evidence of that is easy to see from the most successful companies - Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson and Johnson, and so it goes on. If you're an existing entrepreneur, what made you start the journey of being a business owner? Make sure you haven't moved away from that. If you have, find it again and re-focus your long term goals.

2. Plan

When was the last time you revisited your business plan, sales and marketing plan, communication plan and productivity plan. Too many plans? Most businesses take seven to 10 years to be "successful." Success is not an overnight event. It may arrive quickly but it may arrive quickly because of the blood, sweat and tears it took to get there.

3. Keep it real

... and in perspective. It's not your imagination that sales are down, customers don't seem as happy as they used to be, employees are worried but as an entrepreneur "keep it real" till the dust settles and you can get back to it.

4. People

I would suggest that no entrepreneur has been successful on their own. It would be equally true, that all successful entrepreneurs developed to a very high degree, the ability to communicate and inspire a team that they led. I would suggest this is even truer today because of the many layers to running a successful business. The many layers of legal, accounting, sales, marketing and technology prevent one person from doing them all. However, they do not prevent one person from hiring the brightest and best and building them into a powerful team.

5. No is a word - not a destination

Keep looking for people to buy your product or service. In a challenged economy they will be less and you are going to have to ask more people to get a yes. That's what sales is all about so keep selling.

And probably the one trait you will see on all the lists is - never give up.

If you are thinking of becoming a business owner but are not sure where to start, you have three options. Option one is to start your own business, option two is to buy an existing business or option three is to buy the rights to a local franchise. Each option comes with different variables. Work and understand the variables and you are on the path to success.

Related Articles
  Characteristics of Successful Internet Entrepreneurs
  Entrepreneur Traits
  Five Attributes of Entrepreneurs
  Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur
  Characteristics of Entrepreneur - Successful Entrepreneurs Need These Traits!

Article Tags: Andrew Rogerson, business, Business broker Sacramento, business escrow, business for sale, Business ownership, business plan, due diligence, Entrepreneur, exit plan, franchise, franchise for sale, Murphy Business and Financial Sacramento, Sacramento business broker, Sacramento business ownership, Sacramento business valuation, Sacramento business value, Sell a business, succession planning



Related Forum Posts
Re: Does birth order influence the desire to start a business? - Thanks for the very informative post on the traits of first-born children, Sajis. I found it very interesting and intriguing. I see some similarities as well as differences between what you posted and what me and my older sister are like. When it comes down to it, each individual is unique in their own way and portray traits that are unique to themselves. We can generalize and stereotype all we want about birth order and what traits each will have, but that in no way will guarantee that they will have some if any of those same traits or characteristics.
Re: Kevin's Case Study #14 - When to quit being an entrepreneur? - I'm piggy backing on your question about when to become an entrepreneur and saying the time to quit being an entrepreneur is when you lose the passion for what you are doing. Once you lose your passion, you lose the momentum you need to be a successful entrepreneur, and if you aren't being successful there is no reason to keep doing it. In fact, you probably better get off your but and go find a JOB if that's the case. There are some really fun ones out there. Like I've posted elsewhere on this forum, read the FISH books. They will teach you to have fun no matter what your job (unless your job is just making you feel physical pain.....in that case it's hard to have fun no matter what you try.)
KeywordBox.com - Thanks theFranchiseMarket - like bennyboy7, I'm a user of Google's tool (after all, if you're optimizing for Google, why not use their own database?) I put in the keyword "entrepreneur" into keywordbox and got the following top 12 results [quote:13n1aucz]Count Keyword us 51255 entrepreneur 7139 entrepreneur magazine 2569 famous entrepreneur 2441 business and entrepreneur 2256 change child educate entrepreneur leaving microsoft odyssey world world 2243 successful entrepreneur 1918 social entrepreneur 1574 young entrepreneur 1536 book book e entrepreneur from infopreneur information make money product 1504 woman entrepreneur 1358 filipino entrepreneur 1340 book book else entrepreneur free free free get money money money rich somebody wont working[/quote:13n1aucz] It seems strange to me that "change child educate entrepreneur leaving microsoft odyssey world world" would get 2256 searches and would outrank successful entrepreneur and young entrepreneur. Further down the list are other strange keyword combinations. Have you had a better experience using the tool?
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Great thread, Yinka. I agree with Robert and GT that at any point in time we possess at least one of those skills, with the ability to call upon any of the other skills when needed. Of course, everyone is born with specific skills and traits, and some skills and traits need to be learned and put into practice first.
Re: True Characteristics of an Entrepreneur - yes there are so many traits/characteristics which could "potentially" make a great entrepreneur, could be alot against someone too, i think ultimately you have to have a passion and a drive for something and the others will follow in toe.


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