There are many important characteristics and circumstances that lead to entrepreneurial success, however, there are several key characteristics that many writers and experts on the subject tend to refer to more often. Before we jump into them, let us take a moment to define what an entrepreneur is.
The word “entrepreneur” is of French origin from the term “entreprendre”, literally translated as “between taking”, or describing a situation where a person takes a position between available resources and perceived opportunities and is able to make something positive happen. In his book, Building a Dream: A Canadian guide to building your own business, Walter S. Good identifies an entrepreneur as, “Someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it.” For the purposes of this article, though, I am going with Wikipedia’s suggestion that an entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation.
Work smarter, not harder.
As a professional business manager or team leader, your principle job is to keep either the business or your team performing well within a given set of resources or parameters. By applying an entrepreneurial approach to every day problem solving, or by fostering a method whereby working teams are able to take an entrepreneurial idea and present it for consideration, companies may be giving themselves an added competitive advantage in the ever changing economic climate they find themselves in.
While these are not the only factors contributing to a successful business, many experts agree that they are the keys to defining it.
1) Be a good risk assessor
Successful entrepreneurs are not gamblers they are good risk assessors. Simply jumping on a new opportunity or idea without first taking time to evaluate and calculate the risk is not the roadmap to success. Being fearless and creative enough to accept the possibility of a new opportunity or approach as having the potential to elevate your business is.
2) Respond optimistically to failure
High-performance entrepreneurs treat mistakes and failures as temporary setbacks – bumps – on the road to success. By demonstrating a willingness to learn new things and to accept new realities, you can turn lessons learned from mistakes into business savvy or wisdom that can carry your business through troubled times.
3) Be a good leader or team builder
Good entrepreneurs do not see themselves as superheroes, but as hero-makers. They understand it takes a team effort to build a strong business. By learning how to inspire the people you attract to your enterprise, and by actively developing strategies to encourage the members of your team to be a part of your business’ success, you are leading the way to strong business outcomes.
4) Be success and goal orientated
Growth-minded entrepreneurs measure success as achieving, and then surpassing, their goals. By sensing areas of unmet needs, and your team’s potential for filling those gaps, you can take business-challenging situations and turn them into measured achievements. Encouraging your team to outperform it’s own best results, rather than another person or organization’s, further enhances your team’s sense of accomplishment.
5) Integrity, honesty & reliability
Mean what you say, say what you do, and do what you say. Long-term business success is dependent on trust as much as economic factors. By demonstrating your honesty, reliability and integrity, you are earning the loyalty, custom and goodwill of your customers, suppliers, investors, colleagues and employees necessary for ongoing success.
Entrepreneurial characteristics have a lot to offer. They don’t take the place of good management practices, but they can help to bring about purposeful change when needed. They can help a company break new ground, develop new markets, launch new initiatives and expand earning potential. Keeping an entrepreneurial approach to management, leadership or team building may go a long way to ensuring the market success of any enterprise.
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