Qualities of an Entrepreneur

In order to be successful, an entrepreneur should have the following qualities:

• Opportunity-seeking
• Persevering
• Risk Taking
• Demanding for efficiency and quality
• Information-seeking
• Goal Setting
• Planning
• Persuasion and networking
• Building self-confidence
• Listening to others
• Demonstrating Leadership

1) Opportunity-seeking:

 An opportunity is a favorable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service or business. It includes access to credit, working premises, education, trainings etc. An entrepreneur always seeks out and identifies opportunities. He/she seizes an opportunity and converts it into a realistic and achievable goal or plan.

2) Persevering: 

An entrepreneur always makes concerted efforts towards the successful completion of a goal. An entrepreneur perseveres and is undeterred by uncertainties, risks, obstacles, or difficulties which could challenge the achievement of the ultimate goal.

3) Risk Taking: The best entrepreneurs tend to:-

• Set their own objectives where there is moderate risk of failure and take calculated risks
• Gain satisfaction from completing a job well
• Not be afraid of public opinion, skepticism
• Take responsibility for their own actions

Importance of Risk-taking

• Build self confidence
• Create a feeling of leadership
• Create strong motivation to complete a job well

4) Demanding for Efficiency and Quality

Efficiency: Being efficient means producing results with little wasted effort.

Quality refers to:

1. The ongoing process of education, communication, evaluation and constant improvement of goods/services to meet the customer’s need in a way that exceeds the customer’s expectations;

2. A characteristic of the product or service that makes it fit to use. It makes a product, process, or service desirable.

The ability of a product or service to meet a customer’s expectations for that product or service.The importance of quality management in entrepreneurship is reflected in the income statement of the business. There is always a demand for quality products and efficient services. Quality plays an important role in this new era of globalization because it confers certain benefits which include:

•  Reduction of waste: Striving to maintain quality means examining all processes that contribute to the creation of a product, to remove non-productive processes and waste. If businesses keep to their standard of maintaining the quality of the product, the number of defective products will be reduced. Consumers prefer to buy quality products. Hence the quality products/services help in increasing the share in market and ensure that they will not be returned.
• Cost-effectiveness: Striving to ensure quality helps businesses to minimize the chances that they will make mistakes. As a result, the costs of re-doing work or changing the product after it has been sold are greatly reduced.
• An increase in market share: Customers prefer to buy the same product again and again if they are satisfied with the quality. If they are satisfied with the quality of a product, then they will not only purchase the product/services more than once, but they will also recommend it to their friends. As a result, this contributes to an increase in the company’s market share.
•  Better profitability: Better quality of product satisfies customers. Increased customers means increase sales, increased shares in market and consequently increased profits.
• Social responsibility: By providing quality products and services, a company is more likely to be able to fulfill its responsibility to the community and meet standards set by government.
• Reputation: Quality of goods and services improves the reputation of the business for competition in the market and growth. 

5) Information-seeking: 

Successful entrepreneurs do not rely on guesswork and do not rely on others for information. Instead, they spend time collecting information about their customers, competitors, suppliers, relevant technology and markets. Gathering relevant information is important to ensure that the entrepreneur makes well informed decisions. Information on the area of market, supply, operations, finance, legislation, and infrastructure are important for entrepreneurs.

6) Goal Setting

A Goal - is a general direction, or long-term aim that you want to accomplish. It is not specific enough to be measured. It is large in scope, not necessarily time-bound, and is something that people strive for by meeting certain objectives which will hopefully add up to eventually achieving the goal.

Objectives - are specific and measurable. They are concise and specific. Think of the word “object.” You can touch it, it’s there, it’s actual, and it’s finite.

An entrepreneur must have a goal and an objective which is specific, measurable, attainable relevant, and time bound (SMART).

•  Specific: Great goals are well-defined and focused. The moment you focus on a goal, your goal becomes a magnet, pulling you and your resources toward it. The more focused your energies, the more power you generate.
• Measurable: A goal without a measurable outcome is like a sports competition without a scoreboard or scorekeeper. Numbers are an essential part of business. Put concrete numbers in your goals to know if you’re on track.
• Attainable: Far too often, entrepreneurs can set goals which are beyond their reach. Dream big and aim for the stars but keep one foot firmly based in reality.
• Relevant: Achievable business goals are based on the current conditions and realities of the business climate. For example, you may desire to have your best year in business or increase revenue by 50%, but if a national economic crisis is looming and three new competitors just opened in your market, then your goals are not relevant to the realities of the market.
• Time-Based: Business goals and objectives just don’t get done when there’s no time frame tied to the goal-setting process. Whether your business goal is to increase revenue by 20% or to find two new clients, it is important to choose a time-frame to accomplish your goal.

7) Planning: 

Planning is making a decision about the future in terms of what to do, when to do, where to do, how to do, by whom to do and using what resources. An effective entrepreneur therefore usually plans his/her activities and accounts as best as they can for unexpected eventualities.

8) Persuasion and Networking

Persuasion is a way of convincing someone to get something or make a decision in your favor. It is inducing or taking a course of action or embracing a point of view by means of argument, reasoning, or entreaty; to convince; to succeed in causing a person to do or consent to something; to win someone over, as by reasoning or personal forcefulness; to cause to believe; to induce, urge, or prevail upon successfully.

Importance of Persuasion in Business

• We purchase goods from people
• We sell goods to people
• We need support from people
• We work with people.

Without people, be they are suppliers, workers, and most importantly customers, there is no business.

Networking is an extended group of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and remain in informal contact for mutual assistance or support. In a business environment where we are in, we network with customers, suppliers, competitors, various firms, different organizations, government offices and family, etc.

Factors that Affect Persuasion and Networking

• Socio-cultural background and perceptions
• Communication skills (both verbal and non-verbal).
• Negotiation skills

9)    Building Self-confidence:

Self-confidence is the state of being certain that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective given the circumstances. Confidence can be described as a subjective, emotional state of mind, but is also represented statistically as a confidence level within which one may be certain that a hypothesis will either be rejected or deemed plausible. Self-confidence is having confidence in oneself when considering a capability. Overconfidence is having unmerited confidence-believing something or someone is capable when they are not.

Characteristics of a Self-confident Person
A person with self-confidence may exhibit some of the following characteristics:

•  Risk-taking: willing to take risks and go the extra mile to achieve better things.
• Independent: entrepreneurs like to be their own masters and want to be responsible for their own decisions.
• Perseverance: Ability to endure and survive setbacks and continue to build confidence in whatever you do in your business
• Able to learn to live with failure. Entrepreneurs are going to make mistakes. They are human. But they learn from these mistakes and then move on.
• Ability to find happiness and contentment in work.
• Doing what you believe to be right, even if others mock or criticize you for it.
• Admitting mistakes and learning from them

10) Listening to Others: 

An entrepreneur does not simply impose his/her idea on others. Rather, he/she listens to other people in their sphere of influence, analyses their input in line with his/her own thinking and makes an informed decision.
11) Demonstrating Leadership: 

An entrepreneur does not only do things by him/herself, but also gets things done through others. Entrepreneurs inspire, encourage and lead others to undertake the given duties in time.