Personal Qualities Required To Be An Entrepreneur And Start Your Own Business
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The success of every small business and especially a new start up business is
dependent upon the personal qualities and abilities of the small business owner.
Some skills and abilities are more important than others to an entrepreneur but
rarely are all qualities are required and invariably some are essential to start
your own business and make it a success.
Not everyone is a master of all business attributes in fact very few are.
Certain personal qualities are essential to fight the inevitable battles to
come. Business battles the successful entrepreneur wins.
Medium and larger business is dependent on the skills of its people as much
as the business owner. An entrepreneur makes the right choices in employing the
right people with the right skills and experience. A sole trader just starting
out has to settle for a comfortable living or have the ability to grow the
business to the point where more specialist abilities can be added to the
business.
Most small business owners who start a new business do so in an area where
that small business owner has some knowledge, experience and skill. It is a
natural progression having acquired the business knowledge and experience to use
those abilities to build the business under self employment rules rather than
earn profits for an employer.
The personal qualities a small business owner possesses are more likely to
determine the level of success. Abilities such as hard work, determination,
persistence, intuition, tolerance and aggression can be the bedrock of success.
But the road to success is not all slam wham bang for the entrepreneur.
Small business owners invariably work longer and harder than employees. An
employee works for wages and an adequate work performance is enough. A small
business owner is more likely to be on the job at first light, miss the coffee
and dinner break and twelve hours later announce he has to finish off for the
day because he has to go home and do the business accounting books that he
started on Sunday.
Determination and persistence go hand in glove with success. Every new
business runs into problems at some time or reaches a stage where the business
owner needs to be completely focused and stick with a strategy to make the plans
work. Not every path and decision is right; its normal, determination and
persistence are valuable qualities to see through these times.
Being stubborn and single minded is sometimes the only choice and has to be
implemented and forced through. Not physical violence but the heightened state
of anxiety to push through the plan and make it work with controlled aggression
and passion. The small business owner has to be able to respond and just go with
it.
Many small start up businesses go out of business within 2 to 3 years of
starting a new business. A major cause is under capitalisation which basically
means they run out of money. Liquidity is a major area of concern for every
small business entrepreneur and a cautious approach to a new business can be of
considerable value.
There is a strong tendency for a new business start up to borrow money and
buy new equipment just to get started. Such businesses are taking a major risk
the plans will work. Some plans do work but rarely it is a smooth path and a
better option is to build the business and reinvest profits made.
A more cautious approach would be to start a new business without borrowing
substantial funds because if the small business owner has the ability to make a
success of the business and make money then they can usually do so without
external funding and use the profits made to build the business in the future.
The sound reason for a small business or a start up business to borrow money is
to already be showing a good financial performance and use extra funds to speed
up future success while borrowing funds with no track record is a gamble and a
gamble which fails only too often.
About the Author
Terry Cartwright, accountant and CEO at DIY Accounting, designs Accounting
Software at
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/ providing accounting solutions for small to
medium sized business in the UK with payroll software at
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/payroll.htm for up to 20 employees
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2008-03-07 06:54:38 in Business Articles
