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Entrepreneur Success Factors By Audrey Seymour There are many personal qualities needed to start and maintain a successful business. However, it is not required that all be met by a single individual. The following exercise will help you assess some of your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can see where collaboration or further professional development work might be appropriate. What do you notice as you reflect on the following list? 1. Vision - ability to see and articulate the long term picture. 2. Passion choosing a business that inspires you so that it will bring out the best in you -- and so that you will inspire others to do business with you. 3. Service Orientation - valuing quality customer service that brings in repeat business. 4. Initiative ability to motivate yourself and work independently. 5. Focus keeping your eyes on your vision and priorities in the midst of risk, stress and distractions. 6. Persistence staying committed to the course without immediate or constant reward. 7. Adaptability changing course as needed under changing circumstances. 8. Time management skills knowing what to focus on in the absence of external supervision. 9. Strategic and tactical thinking managing daily operations and planning for growth while delivering your service or product. 10. Financial resilience capacity to ride out the inevitable ups and downs while building your business. Cut and paste that list of qualities onto a worksheet, and reflect on your level of confidence and strength in each area. You may want to add a few other entrepreneurial qualities that come to mind. Choose a measurement system that works for you, such as plus/minus or a scale of 1-5. What patterns do you see? What strengths could you be taking advantage of more often? What are the weaker areas where you need support or training? For example, if multitasking is not your strong point and you dislike tracking details, consider hiring an assistant. If youre not a strategic thinker and just want to focus on serving clients, find a partner who loves planning for the long term. By sharpening your skills and building your team, you can have the freedom of an entrepreneur with the richness of community. To your success! -- Audrey Seymour, MA PCC CPCC, founder of Visions Into FormTM, provides career and business coaching services to professionals who want to bring greater passion and profitability to their work. For more articles on how to develop fulfilling work that meets your financial goals, visit www.visionsintoform.com
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