Have You Got The Makings Of An Entrepreneur?
Cally Robson 12 Nov 2009
Every innovative person has an entrepreneur hidden somewhere inside them. In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, here's my checklist of the entrepreneurial traits needed to unleash the business success in a great idea. 1) Think Business Go for the business opportunity. Drag yourself away from the specifics of your the idea and ask, "What are buying customers crying out for and how can I best give it to them?" At a profit, of course.
2) Be Bold, But Not Brassy Being confident doesn't mean you need to be confrontational. You'll never get anywhere if you don't make a stand for your product, but be "invitational, not confrontational" (thank you Rob Lucas). This will win you and your idea friends, and help you influence people.
3) Be Calculating By all means be a risk-taker and follow your instincts. But make sure you back up your risk taking with calculations. Be rigorous in your questioning your idea, find answers to every objection, and adapt accordingly. Capture it all in your business plan. The spreadsheets with forecasts will be the most telling pages.
4) Take Advice With A Pinch of Salt There are many experts out there. From patent attorneys, to product designers to PR agencies, to business advisers. Just because they offer you good advice, and their services, know that calculating the benefits to your business is always down to you. Not them. Listen, learn, and then make your own decisions.
5) Resist Your Inner Angel It's great to be passionate about your idea. And to want to leave a legacy of good in the world. But not at the expense of your own finances and sanity. If you can't see away to make your idea earn its living, don't live in hope that a guardian angel will recognize the worthiness of your idea and arrive to bail you out. Adapt or get out fast.
6) Be Careful What You Ask For If you want a flexible lifestyle business that keeps you ticking over income-wise, that's what you'll get. If your heart is set on a business empire that sells for a small fortune 10 years down the line, then the Universe, with your committment, will deliver. The trick is in deciding what you most want. If you don't ask, you don't get.
7) Be Prepared To CheatOK, if not to cheat, then be on the lookout for shortcuts. It's a competitive world out there, and fortune favours those that dare to steal the edge. Think technology, think outsourcing, think skills swaps and bootstrapping, think beg, steal or borrow to make things happen. 8) Be Perfect
Know that you can't always get things right, that things in product development don't usually go right and everyone but you is always right, too. In other words, be a perfectionist, but trust that ultimately the details are beyond your control. Everything is just as it should be in the world. You can only do your best. Anything more is usually counter productive. 9) Be CommittedThe courage of committment acts like nothing else to win people over, make things happen and land unexpected help in your lap. Being committed and purposeful feels great too - the flip side to the drain of indecision. 10) Take ActionYou can BE anything in the world, but unless you take action, seize the day, all your hopes and dreams are built on air. To be an entrepreneur you've got to take persistent and consistent action toward your desires. You might move in tiny steps. But any action at all does indeed have power to it.
© 2006-2010 Catallyst Ltd
2 North Lodge, Cornbury Park, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, OX7 3EH, United Kingdom
Registration number (England and Wales): 4583426
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
|