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Six Traits Needed for Self Employment

Guest post by: Andrea Travillian

Article Overview: Thinking about starting your own business? Make sure you have these traits to succeed.

Six Traits Needed for Self Employment

So you're tired of your job, your boss and your direction in life. Seriously thinking about self employment? How many of those quizzes that tell you if you should be self employed have you taken? Do you keep getting the same answer? Do you believe what they are telling you? Can you really tell if you would be good for self employment from a quiz? I for one do not think a quiz can predict your success. I "failed" that quiz when I started my business, I would actually probably still fail it today if I were to take one again! But I have found I love running my own business, and am not too bad at it! So how do you really know that self employment might be right for you? It comes down to personality traits! If you have these traits you can learn the rest! Following are six traits that you need to make it in the self employed world.

1. Are you decisive? It is your job to be the final decision maker; if you struggle making decisions then running your own business will be very hard from the beginning. When you work for yourself you will be making decisions every day, all day.

2. Are you willing to ask for help? This might seem like a silly question, but the amount of time you don't spend asking for help is a drain on your time, energy and future growth. Help goes beyond asking a CPA or an attorney for help. You ask others for help to simply grow your business; networking is asking and receiving help. Hiring an employee is asking and receiving help. Even in a paid or reciprocal relationship you have to be able to reach out to others for help. The "I can do it all" attitude does not work!

3. You must be able to follow through. As a small business you must be able to complete the task. No one else will do it for you, unless you ask for help (see number 2). This is really hard for the true entrepreneurs, the ideas tend to come quicker than you can execute and complete them.

4. Self Motivation. If you are only motivated one day a week, building your business will take a long time! Your desire to grow and achieve must be from within.

5. Tenacious, able to take no repeatedly, belief in self, able to survive with no wins for a while - whatever you want to call this, you must have it! Especially in the beginning you need to have the ability to keep going even with every not that come your way. How is this different than self motivation? You may be able to get yourself going, but this is more about can you do it on day 100 after pounding the pavement with very few wins in your bag. This is a completely different type of motivation.

6. Flexibility. Can you change at the drop of a hat if needed? Business moves fast and you learn as you go, so you must be able to be willing to make those changes without hesitation. Changing direction and plans at a moment's notice.

If you can manage these six things then you can have a great shot at being self employed. But what about risk, money and all the other things that everyone talks about with self employment? Those are all relative and they depend on your situation. One twenty question quiz will not answer those and take into consideration all the outside factors. So ensure you have the personality to be self employed and then take the time to evaluate the other factors as they relate to you. Then make your move!

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Article Tags: can I make it in business, self employment, starting your own business, traits for self employment
Referred by: http://www.SohoMarketingGuru.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Great at one thing OR good at everything? - [quote="babyjoy214":tb4042ja]I heard this from my dad "Jack of All Traits, Master of None"[/quote:tb4042ja] Personally, I see myself as being a good at a lot of my passions, but not "great" enough to earn a living from any of them. I feel that our society favors those who specialize and pigeon hole themselves into one thing. In fact, I don't think you can even get a high paying job without spending 6 years studying that one subject in college + post grad studies.
A Start Up With A Massive Contract Need Help - In 2003 I lost my job. So I decided to go into business. I then travelled to a South American country with a technology business idea. I took a huge company with me,but we did not strike gold. I always knew that tranfering simple technology to these country is a gold mine. So for the next 4 years I would constantly go back and spend most of the year,proposing business ideas,meeting with politicians,networking and bidding on contracts. I put together a small IT team and we won a contract last year. CONTRACT: After convincing the capitol municipality on the importance of traffic ciatation,the cmpany that I formed won a contract for 15 years. To implement,operate then transfer a paid parking meter system along with a full citation system that will issue citation for parking etc.This is something that they had always had in their city by laws,but never implemented. The revenue on the project is great but me on the other hand used up all my money over the past 4yrs of endless work with no real income. Help Needed So I am back in the US,looking for help,ideas and the most important aspect,the finance to get this project up and running. If anyone can help me or direct me in the right direction I would appreciate it.I did all the research on parking meters,citation software and the industry has realy evolved over the years.


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