What It Takes Being A Entrepreneur

In this article I will share with you what it takes being a entrepreneur ,please I suggest if you have a question or something to add write it down at the comments.

1.The Right Attitude

Every endeavor, large or small, benefits from a proper mind-set. As Henry Ford once said, whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can’t, you’re absolutely right. In the business world, this means having or developing above-average levels of the following before beginning a business endeavor:

− Drive and determination. Including initiative, high energy levels, and a hearty appetite for achievement.

− Ambition. Harboring a fierce desire to succeed as well as forming a substantial, realistic, and personal definition of exactly what success is.

− Intelligence. The desire and aptitude to gather, interpret, and prioritize information.

− Commercial intellect. The motivation and know-how to scan business environments for weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.

− Confidence. The courage to be decisive and assured (not arrogant), with your abilities.

− Curiosity. An innate interest in the world and how it works.

− The will to win. The determination to come out on top rather than just participate. (For example, consider the thousands of entrants that enter big city marathons. Only a dozen or so can expect to win. Most are happy to just finish the course. In business, you must enter to win.)

2.Implementation (Putting Plans into Action)

Winning as an entrepreneur is based on being a doer, not a dreamer. This means having the guts to leave the comfort of familiar surroundings and march off into the unknown with a well-honed idea and a keen sense of adventure. Prerequisites for these attributes include:

− Communication skills. The aptitude to state what is needed clearly and concisely.

− Motivation. A willingness to work long hours whether you feel like it or not.

− Self-discipline. The ability to rein-in temptation or excess.

− Persuasiveness. The ability to convince others and inspire them to do your bidding.

− Speed and Agility. The ability to respond intelligently to situations both rapidly and effectively

The Four Main Fears of Entrepreneurship

Obviously, the number of qualities and attributes needed to succeed in business is quite extensive. So does that mean that an entrepreneur needs to be a superhero to triumph in the business world?

Absolutely not. Few people are born with all the marvelous abilities that are needed to succeed in life. Yet successful business owners appear to get around their shortcomings by learning as they go, admitting their frailties, and shoring up their weaknesses

– a process that helps overcome their fears. Fear is a common emotion that often manifests itself into excuses, procrastination, or inaction. Indeed, many psychologists say that fear is the root cause of most human problems. Listed below are four of the most common fears associated with starting a business. 1. Age.

Exactly what age is too old or too young to run a business? Years ago, the owner of a sporting goods store in the USA celebrated his 100th birthday (he opened his enterprise in 1933). He was only working four hours a day, but he was still working, and introducing new products, and beating his competitors. Colonel Sanders, the man who invented Kentucky Fried Chicken, began selling his secret formula to franchisees at the age of 64. Ray Kroc, a malt-shake machine salesman from Illinois, bought four California hamburger restaurants when he was 52 years old and re-tooled them into the McDonald’s empire. And so it goes as the number of entrepreneurs over the age of 50 is expected to rise dramatically according to industry experts. At the other end of the scale, Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computer, began his first business at the age of 13. By the time he turned 19, the computer parts business he ran out of his college dorm room was grossing $80,000 per month. Not to be outdone, Bill Gates started Microsoft at the tender age of 19. And today, millennials are starting businesses at almost twice the rate of their older peers (Petrilla 2016). The overall message is that age is not a determinant factor when it comes to starting and running a business. Attitude, courage, and action are far more important.

2. Lack of Money.

There’s no doubt that having lots of capital makes starting a business somewhat easier. Yet a sizeable number of successful practitioners steadfastly believe that having a better-than-average amount of start-up capital has little to do with overall success. Indeed, quite a few hard-nosed entrepreneurs claim that it’s actually beneficial to create a business with as little money as possible. Their belief is that too many individuals, when starting with a pile of cash, waste it on things they don’t need – an office, a secretary, expensive computer equipment, and so on. On the other hand, having a small amount of startup cash teaches frugality and efficiency. If you’re not convinced by this argument consider the hundreds of thousands of folks around the world who began their businesses with little more than chump change and a burning desire to see their idea bear fruit.

3. Fear of Rejection.

Most successful business owners readily admit that the path to prosperity is paved with rejection. Indeed, many hard-core entrepreneurs state quite openly that they often fail twice as much as others. So why do they end up succeeding? Because they try more. Instead of giving up, successful business owners learn to deal with failure and adversity and then move on. Take for example Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank who, in 1978, joined forces with co-worker Ronald Brill and founded Home Depot – after all three men had lost their jobs in a corporate buyout. Or consider King C. Gillette, the inventor of the safety razor, who suffered six years of humiliating rejection from companies, investors, and toolmakers while they laughed out loud at his innovative new product. When King eventually decided to produce his invention himself, sales rose at a rate of 1,000% annually! The story of Ewing Kauffman provides another good example of how successful entrepreneurs rebound from rejection. Shortly after WWII, Kauffman was fired from his job as a salesman because his commissions exceeded the president’s salary at the company where he worked. Undaunted, he descended into his basement and began making calcium pills from oyster shells. Years later, after capturing forty percent of the $100-million calcium supplement market, he sold his company to Dow Chemical for a fortune. Such bounce-back stories are not the stuff of old fashioned motivational stories. Indeed, millennials seem to be more prone than their elders to learn from failure, brush it off, and then parlay it into victory (Petrilla, 2016). The lesson here is that winning often lies in the mind. Success to those with the perseverance to stay in the game is usually nothing more

4. Lack of Education or Experience.

There is evidence that suggests a college education does not guarantee business success. Indeed, it sometimes appears otherwise. Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak, for example, founded Apple Computer after dropping out of college. Neither one of them had any entrepreneurial experience. Michael Dell, the multi-millionaire founder of Dell Computer, is also a college dropout. The same goes for Ted Waitt, who, after quitting school, underwent nine months of on-the-job training at a computer company only to leave and start Gateway 2000. Ten years later, his salary exceeded $500,000 per annum. John Bond, former chairman of HSBC (one of the world’s largest banks), also never went to university. Still not convinced? Then consider the story of Ian Leopold, whose college professor failed him because of the unrealistic business plan he submitted in class. By sticking to his instincts, Leopold turned a $48 investment into $4-million in ten years with the very same plan (writing university guidebooks). And in the last years of her life, multimillionaire Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, advised entrepreneurs to ‘stay away from business schools’. Her belief was that business schools focus too much on the financial side of business and ignore the all-important human element. Of course this does not mean that education and experience are not needed to start and run a business. The following statement was relayed to me several years ago by a successful entrepreneur in France: ‘I didn’t learn any ground-breaking secrets in business school,’ he said. ‘Most of what I’ve learned I experienced on the job. Yet one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that no matter where business studies are taught, the folks who need this information the most are usually nowhere to be found.’ His point is that there’s no shame in not knowing everything there is to know about running a business. There is only shame in not admitting it and ignoring the need to improve.

Overcoming Negativity

Perhaps now it’s easy to understand why so many people forgo the notion of starting their own business and choose to work for someone else instead. Simply put, building a business is hard work and the odds of succeeding are harsh. That being said, if starting a business seems beyond your reach because the people surrounding you - not the facts - are filling your head with negative thoughts, the following advice from experienced business practitioners may be worth considering:

− as a rule most people in life will tell you what you cannot do rather than what you can do.

− just because someone doesn’t believe in you doesn’t mean you can’t succeed.

− no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

− your past does not have to contaminate your future.

− where you come from isn’t important, it’s where you’re going that counts.

− if you focus on what you want, instead of what others deny you, you’ll have a much greater chance of succeeding.

− fear of the unknown (and the known) can be controlled once it’s admitted.

Developing a Healthy Definition of Success

Still afraid of taking a risk and stepping out into the unknown? You’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for even experienced entrepreneurs to measure themselves against unreasonable standards and see themselves falling short.

Overconfidence

Wilbur Wright, the co-inventor of the airplane, once wrote to his father, when flying, I have learned that carelessness and overconfidence are far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks. Put another way, the inventor of one of the world’s most useful devices firmly believed that a little fear is a good thing. His contention is that fear keeps one in check. ‘Overconfidence can lead to misjudgment, disregard, or the ignoring of good ideas and advice,’ says psychologist Amanda Druckerman. She goes on to say that people who believe that they’re superior to everyone else (which is partly what defines overconfidence) are often incompetent and self-deceptive, which opens the door to missing out on opportunities.

Advice from the Pros

By now it should be apparent that starting a business is an eclectic, all-or-nothing endeavor filled with misconception, contradictions, joy, defeats, and advice (both wanted and unwanted). With that in mind, this chapter has been concluded (as has every chapter) with the wisdom of entrepreneurs, many of whom assisted in the writing of this book with their hard-won advice.

− In business, as in life, know that you cannot change what you tolerate.

− Be honest as to what you want and need.

− Accept the fact that some things in life cannot be taught, they can only be learned.

− Remember that fear is a gift. It is nature’s way of keeping you alert.

− Think of fear as an acronym: False Evidence Appearing Real.

− Make a list of what you are afraid of (it’s not so frightening now, is it?).

− Find out if others have experienced similar fears and what they did to overcome them.

− Tear up the list you wrote above.

− Know that there is no trust or safety where there are unanswered questions.

− Map out the direction you wish to take by writing down what needs to be done.

− Start moving toward your goal by gathering as much related information as you can and adapting it to fit your prospective customers, your region, and the business-structure you would like to begin. You have nothing to lose by educating yourself.

− To an entrepreneur, every day is a crisis

How To Manage Your Business Risks.

Every business involves some risks. This may be little or much depending on the type of business as well as many other market factors. Identifying, outlining, and assessing the risks involved in a new business and developing strategies to manage those risks is an important, in fact indispensable step to take when planning a new business.

By understanding potential risks to your business and outlining strategies to cushion their effects, you will help your business recover quickly if an unexpected incident occurs. For instance, a risk assessment will unveil workplace risks that you or your employees are exposed to. And it will help you meet your legal obligation for providing a safe workplace and reducing the likelihood of workplace mishaps that can impact negatively on your business. Types of risk vary from business to business, but conducting a risk assessment and preparing a risk management plan involve a process that is common to all business. It goes without saying that the first step to take when conducting a risk assessment is to identify potential risks to your business. Understand the scope of potential risks will help you come up with realistic and cost-effective strategies for handling them. When considering the types of risks that your business is prone to, it is very important that you think broadly. This is where many people go wrong in their risk assessment; they focus only on the obvious concerns like fire, theft, competition, etc. without paying attention to subtle but equally dangerous concerns.

Accessing Your Business For Risks

Only after assessing your business can you successfully identify the risks associated with it. Start by thinking about your critical business activities, which includes your main services, your resources, your employees and factors that could affect them or their work. These factors include natural disasters, accidents, power failures, and illness. By assessing your business this way, you can work out those aspects that are indispensable to your business.

How To Identify Risk In A Businesses

After assessing your business to get a clear picture of it, you can start identifying the risks involved. Go through your business plan to see those things your business cannot do without, and list some possible risk factors that could cripple those indispensable things.

Don’t forget to identify each step involved in your work processes and outline the associated risks. Think of what factors could hamper each step and how this could affect the rest of the process. Once you have identified the risks associated with your business as explained above, you will need to analyze the likelihood and consequences of each, and come up with options for managing them.

Achieving A Good Marketing Strategy For Your Business Plan

To access a good marketing strategy for your business you need to do the following things:

1. Define Your Target Market

   The first major step of your marketing plan is to define your target customers. Of course, that goes without saying. While some offers (such as snacks or processed fruit juice) can be targeted at all age groups, most products and services are needed only by a specific category of people, your target market. You need to define your target market to avoid marketing your products or services to those who don’t need them.

2. Define Your Customers

   The details and the questions you will ask will vary greatly based on what you are offering. Essentially, you want to paint as detailed a picture as possible with both the qualitative and quantitative information you can gather. There are many ways to break down your customer segments, but you will want to do it in a way that’s most meaningful for what you are trying to market. As far as marketing is concerned, you will need to provide a detailed plan on how you will go from generating awareness to ultimately getting what you are selling into the hands of your target customers

3. Write Down The Benefits Of Your Products Or Services

   Think of the benefits that consumers will enjoy from your products or services and list as many of them as possible. Keep in mind that these benefits must include those that your customers already expect from your product or service. For instance, if you are starting a tablet PC manufacturing or retailing business, customers won’t buy your products if each unit doesn’t come with WiFi and the reason for this clear: everyone expects all tablet PCs to come with WiFi.

4. Define Unique Selling Points Of Your Products

   In addition to the benefits that customers expect from your product or service, list those benefits that make your offer unique. Figure out those benefits that are missing in your rivals’ offers. Even your pricing could be a unique selling point, especially if your products or services are cheaper than others in the market, and yet are of the same or even higher quality. The more the advantages your offers have over others already in the market, the brighter your chances of attracting tons of customers to your business.

5. Define Your Marketing Methods

Even if your offer has an endless list of unique benefits, customers won’t buy unless you let them know about your offer. And that’s what marketing does. However, your marketing efforts could be futile if you don’t adopt the right methods and media. For instance, if your target audience are teens and young adults, then mobile advertising would work magically for you because teens spend long hours with their mobile devices each day.

Similarly, if you are targeting seniors, consider newspaper advertising because older people read newspapers a lot. But if you are targeting a general audience, then TV advertising would work. Of course, everyone watches TV. Keep in mind that your marketing methods must comprise both online and offline advertising media.

Advertising Or Promotion plan

Will you have a dedicated presence across many of the popular online channels (such as website, social media, relevant marketplace, etc) used today to gain brand awareness?

● Will your marketing plan be primarily inbound focused (such as SEO, social media, blogging, etc), outbound focused (such as PPC, affiliate marketing, sales teams, etc), traditional focused (such as direct mail, brochures, and print advertising), or a mix of all three?

● What are other low-cost yet effective marketing mediums that you will leverage to get attention?

● What is your PR strategy? Why would the press be interested in your story?

Sales And Distribution Plan

● What channels will you use to get your product out there? Will you sell via your website, a retailer, wholesaler, or a totally different channel?

● How will customers pay for your product?

● What will your return policy look like? Will you offer any guarantees? If so, what will they look like?

● What happens after a customer makes a purchase?

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