vdmlovers 
Business is hard, but if you put in the work and keep a positive mindset you will succeed.
You might have come across the above before now, and am your perception toward it may be different from mine, even if it is your first time seeing that statement, I am sure you are trying to validate the statement.
Probably, you might have made a decision whether the quote is correct or not in the real sense, but it is not really been concerned here.
Running a business is not hard, it is technical, so if you are a start-up entrepreneur, here are some of the characteristics of a good entrepreneur you should consider portraying.
I was told you have to start anyhow, until I started my first brand in 2012, mehnn this was a really tough one for me- and I am not publishing you to scare you away because the main purchase of this content is to share with you what is required of an entrepreneur.
You cannot control a house if you don’t have the qualities to do that, so examine yourself before reading on, do you have the qualities successful entrepreneurs? I should give you time to ruminate about that be you launch the next paragraph.
I remember, before starting that year, what I did was to read books by warren buffet and other successful business men who made waves no, so the brand in 2014, I later realized something was missing in me (an entrepreneur), this are the characteristics I need to portray to be successful.
I made amendment on that, and now I currently running 2 promising brands.
List of characteristics you must acquire if you want to be a successful entrepreneur
- You must be able to strategize
Entrepreneurs are strategic, they work on critical planning, a good example is planning the location of your company, and in this case you have to be a critical thinker.
You should be able to understand that there are several factors that will influence the location of your business, for instance, it is wise for someone who manage a butter (margarine) reselling business to place his or her shop beside a bread company.
This is what is called strategy; you need to acquire this attribute.
- You must be passionate about what you are planning to achieve
It is not funny how I have planned business idea I was not passionate about, not that I was not curious at first, but as time goes on, the passion for that dies.
The best thing to do if you are in this position is to execute your business plan immediately you strategize it, if you wait for the right time or you have to delay execution because you feel there is a need for modification, then the passion you have for the business plan may decrease.
- You must be a proper executor
You are done with planning, then you need to execute as fast as possible, but the question is, are you good at executing?
This is one vital quality an entrepreneur must have before running a successful business.
- You must be consistent in what you have started
Should I say this is the most important? No, everything work together, but this is still important.
Imagine you started a business, you planned it well but you were not consistent, it is going to be a wasted effort.
So you have to dedicate time in other to be consistent with your start
- You must be smart
I am quite aware you have this quality; I know you are smart, but I need you to be smarter when it comes to planning your business and also executing your plans.
Take for instance, chess is a game of the brain, it is a game that requires smartness and high level of Intellectuals- same thing implies to being in the entrepreneurship world, you have a competitor you are playing with, and one of those things that will distinct you from your competitors is how smart you are.
- You must be tenacious
You also have to be rugged as an entrepreneur, what I mean by this is that you need to be a business person who doesn’t give up. Surely, time will come in which you will be really frustrated; you have to train yourself through the process.
You may fail during the entrepreneurship race, you just have to be aware that losing do not mean you can’t start again, never get tired of pursuing your dream and never quit
- You must be able to manage your money
Management skill is very important; this will prevent you from spending extravagantly- with this quality, you can spend less and get huge return if necessary steps are being followed.
- You must possess a good bargaining skills
This is interlinked to management skills, but most entrepreneurs skip this, or they take it for the management skill in general.
Management skills help you utilize every bit of your expensive, fine! The bargaining skill is included in this content so you have to know, it need more emphasis, although it also reduce cost.
You need a good knowledge in bargaining in other to be able to cut cost, during transaction, I can remember I was about to purchase some set of laptops for my workplace, the initial budget is buy 7 laptops for N500,000, due to my competence when it comes to bargaining, I was able to relate with the supplier and I bought it at below my budget.
- You must be able to grab attention
Even if you are selling the most valuable product in the world, and you are unable to grab attention, you are business in not going to grow by that.
You need to be able to grab your audience attention with the publicity; in the process of publicity is where tactics come in.
Your publicity must be able to catch your audience attenstion, by doing this; you are one step away from losing as an entrepreneur.
- You must be a good convincer
After grabbing your audience attention, it is now left to you to convince them that the product or service you sell is beneficial to them; you need to make them aware that you have something worth it (their money).
You were able to grab their attention, but if you cannot successfully convince them that you have what it takes to sell your product or service to them, you have woefully failed.
So in other not to be a failed entrepreneur, you have to be a good convincer.
- You must be ready to unlearn and learn
If you feel you can’t be correct- like you are know-all personnel, and then be ready to have issue as a business person, you will have to learn new things every day, in some cases it may require you to unlearn what you have learned.
This does not mean that you have to let go the basics of entrepreneurship, but have to be ready to learn new things even if it worth getting the information from your colleague.
Above all, make sure the information you are getting is not toxic, this is why you are a smart entrepreneur, and you should filter information.
- You must have good personal relation with your customers
This characteristics matters a lot, if you are the good relation person, you relate with your customer well, you will surely have no reason with your customers coming back to you to patronize you if your product worth it.
In the case whereby you are not in charge of the customer relation, maybe you have a receptionist, then make sure you hire someone that can relate well with your customers.
- You must be a risk manager
Aside from managing finance, you are also the risk manager of your business.
You bear the risk of your decision, weather it in turn to profit or loss.
- You must be innovative
You an entrepreneur must be creative, the creativeness goes a long way, it means you can come out with something ground-breaking when it is call for.
This will help when you need an alternative plan- it may be urgent. Your innovative techniques will help you out.
- You must be able to bear with pressure
I have heard people said entrepreneurship is a career where you can work anytime you like, it is an escape from the rat race i.e. 8am- 5pm race.
But you have to know that entrepreneurs can spend a whole day-restless, planning and review what next plan to take for the betterment of the business; I waked up during the midnight during the weekend to work most times.
Imagine, staff can take break on Saturday and Sunday, even during the working hours, your workers work during the day and leave you to your effortless thoughts and plans.
So the question is can you bear pressure? The pressures of working all day and still ask yourself, hope this is not going to fail me.
- You must be a good decision maker especially during critical situation
Matter will arise where you have to make decision in critical times; you have to be a smart decision maker.
This is good quality especially if you are running a big firm; you need this skill to cover up when everything seems turning down.
- You must be optimistic
Everyone is a dreamer; you have a dream with plans in places, as an entrepreneur encourages the act of seeing the positive side of your dream.
Successful entrepreneurs I have met sees opportunity in any difficulty they find themselves, being optimistic helps improve your creativeness; you have the feeling you can still do something even when the case seems worse.
In other to develop this quality, you start considering any challenges you find yourself into as an opportunity scheme, like I do tell myself- there is always a way out of difficult issue/time.
This short statement is what I have been saying to myself, and it has been of great advantage.
- You must be confident in yourself
You should put this at the back of your mind- you have to start fits by believing in yourself, it is not possible to get to the entrepreneurship peak if you don’t believe in yourself first.
Self- confidence is very important; you need to work on it if you see yourself and the inferior type.
- You must possess a networking skill
As your business grows, there will be a need to connect with more people and also seek for partnership; the ability to connect is what will make the process easier.
If you are capable enough to connect with people, also being able to recognize opportunities and
- You must be a team builder
You started a business and it is going smooth, as it grows you will need more hands on deck, this will request for you working with team.
Now you have to gather your team, which is not a serious problem, but how well can you build a team to achieve what you aim at. I am sure you know there will be some team member that won’t perform well due to one reason or the other.
It is important you learn how to build a team, because if you don’t have a better team, you cannot achieve any of your business plans
- You must be loss tolerance
It is not every time you will win, there are some times you will also lose, so make sure you are working toward tolerating loss
- You must be able to coordinate
One thing is to build a team, another thing is to be able to coordinate them, and giving them the task you are sure they are best at.
You have to engage in a proper survey in other to know who is better when it comes to handling a particular task, this will help your business.
Conclusion
This is an avenue to review yourself before starting a business, if you have started one, it is also not too late to check yourself if you have these qualities of an entrepreneur.
Possessing these qualities will give you an edge and you will be able to run your business successfully.
