The qualities of an Entrepreneur

Having a business makes you an entrepreneur, but you need to have the right drive, determination and attitude to become a successful entrepreneur. Although qualifications can help, it is the inner drive and personal qualities that make a successful entrepreneur; think Alan sugar and Richard Branson.

After thorough research, it seems that the same qualities appear to arise when it comes to ‘what makes an entrepreneur successful’, and these are:

Ambition
It is an entrepreneur’s ambition and drive that makes them successful. Entrepreneurs are often set enormous goals for themselves; larger than the usual employee would. No obstacle is too big to prevent a successful entrepreneur achieve these goals.

Ideas and Modernization
A successful entrepreneur needs to be creative and resourceful; constantly finding new ideas to better their products or service.

Change
Entrepreneurs will simply make a change if something is not working for them or their business without dwelling on ‘the way things used to be’. It is essential to keep on top of your industry and this will involve changing with the times, in terms of technology and/or service techniques.

Motivated and Competitive
Entrepreneurs will always succeed if they are always moving with the times, energetic and highly motivated. The drive to succeed, their self motivation and the way they thrive on competition is absolute key to being successful.

Unique Sales Proposition

In order to be a successful you need to stand-out and get noticed. This can be done by having a Unique Sales Proposition (USP ); this could have benefits such as increased press/media interest and increase of word of mouth promotion. In order to create a USP, you need to be realistic; your consumers need to be able to believe what you are promoting and believe that it is possible. You need to be unique when creating your USP and refrain from using obvious phrases such as you're 'the highest quality' or 'the cheapest'

Communication
Consumers, in general, do not like talking to automated service machines; people like to be reassured by talking to someone and asking questions. If there is a person on the end of the line, then you are more likely to gain a sale. A fail proof method of becoming a successful entrepreneur is to answer all calls within 3 rings, identify yourself and sound interested in the callers need. If using voicemail or automated services is unavoidable, be sure to provide a clear, friendly and well spoken message.

Follow-up and feedback
After care of a sale is as important as the sale itself. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to realize that your service does not stop as soon as the sale has been made. Feedback from a sale can also help your business to succeed; it is important to acknowledge that you have taken customers feedback into consideration and/or make the changes necessary.

Discipline & Delegation
work hard and discipline are essential if you want to be successful. 99.9% ‘Get Rich Quick Schemes’ are not highly successful; money cannot be made without discipline and hard work. Discipline yourself when it comes to managing your time; do not spend days on a task that could be done much quicker by outsourcing or hiring someone to help; hiring and managing staff at the same time as making money through a business is the true mark of a successful entrepreneur.

Work hard, be motivated and always remember that failure is not a word in a successful entrepreneur’s vocabulary.