It is a question that is regularly on the lips of business start-ups – are you born or made an entrepreneur? What innate skills are required to become one of the leading business owners of the next generation?
In essence, successful entrepreneurs have backgrounds from all walks of life, through a variety of social and ethnic upbringings. But while all promising business men and women are all individuals the cream of the crop has the same common personal qualities needed to rise to the top.
Starting a new business is always a risky move and here are some of the necessary attributes required to become a profitable entrepreneur.
Risk-taker
It is a well-known fact that as many as one in three start-up businesses in the UK fail within their first three years. A new business venture is always a step into unchartered territory but the best entrepreneurs can spot a lucrative risk-reward opportunity.
Perseverance
A business start-up gets nowhere without the motivation to succeed and bucket-loads of perseverance. This is essential to ensure small business owners negotiate through the inevitable peaks and troughs of their formative years.
High standards
Whilst it is not realistic to be a complete perfectionist in business as there are likely to be many scenarios when you have to make the best of a bad situation, the leading entrepreneurs consistently preach high standards and are happy to accept a significant level of personal responsibility for the work their undertake.
Problem solver
Starting your own business from scratch is not without its hurdles. There will be twists and turns and turbulent times on the horizon and it is how you deal with those that determines your success. Being pragmatic and a problem solver is a major plus, with the ability to think rationally and use your initiative to seek an opportunity or a positive in a moment of uncertainty.
Good listener
Those entrepreneurs who think they know it all from day one are those that are usually forced to return to their former employers, cap in hand, asking for their old job back. The very best business owners show a constant yearning to improve and obtain new skills and information.
Passion
A start-up business can have all the money in the world behind it but it is doomed to failure unless the owner has the necessary passion and desire to make it work. An entrepreneur that lives and breathes its business and enjoys making a difference to its customers every single day is one that is destined for the top.
‘Have you got what it takes to be an entrepreneur’ was written by David Campbell, of www.pallmallestates.co.uk, who own and manage over 5.5 million sq ft of UK commercial property valued in excess of £450 million comprising of over 500 properties in over 125 locations, accommodating over 400 tenants.