What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? Is the ability innate; are you born with entrepreneurial abilities? Or, are these tendencies the result of nurture? Regardless of their origin, the good news is that any characteristic associated with of an entrepreneur can be learned. In fact there are 5 characteristics of an entrepreneur that crop up over and over again in the most influential of people.
Individuals such as Sir Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerburg, Jason Lemkin, Aaron Levie, Stuart Hearn, Sara Blakely and Arianna Huffington all share similar traits.
But what are these 5 characteristics? And how can we strive to better ourselves so that we aren’t just ordinary business people but successful entrepreneurs? According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there are over 582 million entrepreneurs globally, expected to grow by 15% by the end of 2024. With entrepreneurship on the rise, what lessons can new entrepreneurs take from those already at the top?
Overview
- What is an entrepreneur?
- What makes an entrepreneur different?
- How to become an entrepreneur
- 5 characteristics of an entrepreneur
- Identifying an entrepreneurial role model
- Observation checklist – what to look out for
What is an entrepreneur?
Before we explore the key 5 characteristics of an entrepreneur, let’s nail our understanding of what an entrepreneur actually is. An entrepreneur is an individual who identifies a business opportunity and takes the initiative to create, organize, and operate a new business venture. This person typically assumes the financial risks associated with starting and managing the enterprise with the goal of earning profits.
Entrepreneurs play a key role in driving innovation, economic growth, and job creation by introducing new products, services, or processes to the market.
Their efforts often lead to significant advancements in technology and industry, which can improve quality of life and stimulate economic development.
What makes an entrepreneur different?
One of the main pieces of criteria that makes entrepreneurs stand out from the crowd is their ability to innovate and think outside the box. An entrepreneur is different from other business owners due to their focus on innovation, willingness to take risks, and long-term vision. Entrepreneurs are driven to create new and disruptive products, services, or business models that fill gaps in the market.
This innovative mindset sets them apart from many business owners who usually operate and improve established businesses without seeking to transform the market.
Moreover, entrepreneurs are known for their high tolerance for risk. They are willing to invest significant time, money, and resources into ventures with uncertain outcomes and are prepared to adapt their strategies based on market feedback and challenges.
Traditional business owners, on the other hand, often prioritize stability and steady growth, choosing more predictable and less risky business environments.
How do I become an entrepreneur?
Embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship is an exhilarating yet challenging endeavor. It can begin with a simple spark of inspiration, fuelled by a passion for solving problems or creating something new.
Whilst its important to be able to embody the 5 characteristics of an entrepreneur, it’s just as important to be able to envision the journey.
Whether it’s revolutionizing an industry, addressing a societal need, or simply pursuing a lifelong dream, the path to becoming an entrepreneur is characterized by vision, determination, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty.
The journey to becoming an entrepreneur often isn’t linear. There are though, a few definitive steps that you can follow to help point you in the right direction.
Roadmap to entrepreneur success
1. Identify a Business Idea:
Start by brainstorming and identifying potential business ideas. Consider your passions, skills, and areas of expertise. Look for problems that need solving or opportunities for innovation in the market.
2.Research the Market:
Once you have a business idea, conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience, competition, and industry trends. This will help you validate your idea and identify potential customers.
3. Develop a Business Plan:
Create a detailed business plan outlining your business concept, target market, value proposition, revenue model, marketing strategy, and financial projections. A well-thought-out business plan will serve as a roadmap for your entrepreneurial journey and help you secure funding.
4. Secure Funding:
Determine how much capital you need to start and grow your business. Explore various funding options such as personal savings, loans, investors, or crowdfunding platforms. Be prepared to pitch your business idea to potential investors or lenders.
5. Register Your Business:
Choose a legal structure for your business (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC) and register it with the appropriate authorities. Obtain any necessary licenses or permits to operate legally in your industry.
6. Set Up Operations:
Establish your business infrastructure, including setting up a physical location (if applicable), acquiring equipment or inventory, and implementing operational processes.
7. Build a Team:
Surround yourself with a talented and dedicated team to help you execute your business plan. Hire employees or partner with freelancers, advisors, and mentors who complement your skills and share your vision.
8. Launch Your Business:
Once everything is in place, launch your business to the public. Develop a marketing strategy to promote your products or services and attract customers. Be prepared to adapt and iterate based on feedback from your target market.
5 characteristics of famous entrepreneurs
Emulating your favorite entrepreneurs is a surefire way to emulate their success. By embracing the characteristics of an entrepreneur you can kickstart your journey to start walking in their shoes. Here are a few examples of the characteristics that you can start taking note of.
1. Humility and self-awareness
Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group, believes that successful entrepreneurs show humility. They value the opinion of others.
Branson states that “people think that an entrepreneur is someone who operates alone”, that “they bring [their] idea to market through sheer force of personality.”
Reflecting on his breadth of experiences, he points out that, “almost no one ever achieved anything worthwhile without help.”
He says that “to be successful in business, you need to connect, collaborate and delegate.”
Branson clearly points out that you can’t rely on your wit and hard effort alone to succeed as an entrepreneur.
You need to be self-aware and realize there will always be someone smarter or more experienced than you in a particular line of business. Characteristics of an entrepreneur like this are all about recognising your own weakness and realigning it as a strength.
You need to hire these people; the people whose strengths are your weaknesses.
The CEO of Spanx, Sara Blakely, agrees, stating that, “smartest thing I ever did in the early days was to hire my weaknesses.”
Entrepreneurs need to hire people to not only help them with the critical decisions in the foreground of a business but the operational activities in the background.
But why do startups need help with these operational tasks?
Take, an external call service, as an example. If they were to take and forward customer calls, the in-house staff of a startup would have more time to focus on any critical business issues.
Clearly, then, having external services to take care of a company’s operational activities allows in-house staff to focus more on core business problems.
2. Customer orientated
Reduced in-house responsibility is just one benefit that inbound call services (ICS) can bring.
External call services can also help businesses build strong relationships with their customers.
With virtual receptionists operating 24/7, an ICS prevents customers from facing monotonous answering messages and long waits.
But, why is it so important that startups build customer relationships over anything else?
Two-time entrepreneur, Jason Lemkin, points out that “customer success is where 90% of the revenue is” in a startup.
Clearly, it’s crucial.
Superb customer service is known to lead to greater customer retention; priceless advertising (word of mouth); a reduction in a company’s overall problems and a strengthened brand and public image.
Undoubtedly, it’s clear that entrepreneurs need to stay ‘customer orientated’ to keep their startups afloat.
They need to analyze the quality of the customer service they are providing and they need to take steps to improve it where possible.
3. Cost efficient
Venture capital database, CB Insights, carried out a study which looked into the postmortems of startup companies. One of the outcomes of this study was a report listing the ‘Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail’. Shockingly, the report revealed that “29 percent of startups fail due to running out of cash.”
Why? For starters, office space can be a huge drain on startup resources.
Jennifer Parris, a career writer at Flexjobs, highlights how much money ditching your office and hiring remote workers can save you. She states that “remote workers can save their companies $11,000 annually in overhead costs.”
Evidently, Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox, found his business thriving 8 years ago when he ditched the office-based working culture in favor of a remote team.
Freelance writer and business consultant, Larry Alton, further highlights the benefits of ditching the office space. He suggests that entrepreneurs can get a lot more for their money when they invest it elsewhere.
He says, “you can operate just as efficiently without this startup cost [office space]” by, taking “that money and investing it in something more worthwhile, like sourcing better talent or building up your infrastructure.”
Therefore, it’s clear, that one of the most powerful characteristics of an entrepreneur is to be able of to cut office space costs by working ‘anywhere’.
To work anywhere, startups can use a variety of online services that will help them along the way.
Read about how entrepreneurs have made ‘anywhere’ work
4. Highly adaptable and future orientated
Successful entrepreneurs are also people who are highly adaptable.
Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud company, Box, agrees, highlighting that if a business doesn’t adapt, it will struggle to grow. He says that “products evolve based on assumptions that eventually become outdated. This is every incumbent’s weakness and startup opportunity.”
In this day and age, organizations need to adapt their work culture to meet the flexible needs of newer generations.
Clearly, entrepreneurs need to adapt and adopt flexi-working practices. To do this, they need to consider incorporating online collaborative systems into their business (inbound call services, time tracking software, team collaboration software etc).
5. Risk-taker and not afraid of failure
In an interview with Y Combinator president, Sam Altman, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg said, “the biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing so quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking any risks.”
Thus, to succeed in a startup world, entrepreneurs need to be bold and take risks.
Co-founder of Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington says, entrepreneurs need to use “failure [as a] stepping stone to success.” They need to thrive in the face of failure.
So, be bold; consider investing in an inbound call service (ICS) that will support the flexi-way of life.
Evidently, an ICS, like AnswerConnect, can lead to greater customer happiness; reduced startup costs; less overall problems in the business and a greater employee retention rate.
What type of entrepreneur are you? Take our quiz!
Identify an Entrepreneur Role Model
If you want to be an entrepreneur, it’s likely that you’ve been inspired by somebody in a similar position. Before identifying the generic characteristics of an entrepreneurs that you want emulate, you should first try identify one person in particular that you would like to take inspiration from.
To get a clear picture of who you want to emulate, you can start by firstly asking yourself a few simple questions. We’ve put together a brief checklist to help you get started.
Success and Achievements
- Has the entrepreneur achieved notable success in their field?
- Do they have a track record of business growth and innovation?
Vision and Leadership
- Does the entrepreneur have a clear vision and inspire others to follow it?
- Are they effective leaders who motivate and guide their team?
Resilience and Adaptability
- How has the entrepreneur handled failures or setbacks?
- Are they able to adapt to changing circumstances and pivot their strategies?
Ethics and Values
- Does the entrepreneur demonstrate strong ethical principles and integrity?
- Do they uphold values that resonate with your own beliefs and ideals?
Impact and Influence
- Has the entrepreneur made a positive impact on their industry or community?
- Do they actively contribute to social causes or mentor other aspiring entrepreneurs?
Observation Checklist
When watching your favourite entrepreneurs in action, it pays to question what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Understand the characteristics of an entrepreneur will require study and focus.
Here’s your handy field guide to help you start developing an entrepreneur mindset. Simply remind yourself of these questions when you’re watching your heroes in action.
| Checklist |
|---|
| What is the entrepreneur’s primary goal or objective? |
| How does the entrepreneur approach problem-solving and decision-making? |
| What strategies does the entrepreneur use to overcome challenges or setbacks? |
| How does the entrepreneur interact and communicate with their team or employees? |
| What measures does the entrepreneur take to evaluate and improve business performance? |
Business advice from successful entrepreneurs
To round off the discussion surrounding the characteristics of an entrepreneur, here are a few valuable pieces of advice for budding entrepreneurs from real life success stories.
1. Solve Real Problems – Sara Blakely
- Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, started her company by solving her own problem with uncomfortable clothing. She encourages others to notice everyday frustrations and think about how they could be solved. Blakely’s tip: look for problems you care about and create something that makes people’s lives better.
2. Move Fast and Learn from Mistakes – Mark Zuckerberg
- Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, says, “Move fast and break things,” which means don’t worry if things aren’t perfect. Try new ideas quickly, make mistakes, and learn from them. It’s more important to keep moving than to wait for everything to be flawless.
3. Listen to Unhappy Customers – Bill Gates
- Bill Gates believes that unhappy customers give the best feedback. By listening to complaints, you can find out what’s wrong and make things better. Gates suggests paying close attention to what customers don’t like—it helps you improve and build loyalty.
4. Execution is Everything – Steve Jobs
- Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, said ideas are easy, but doing the hard work to make them real is what matters. Apple’s success came from careful attention to detail and high standards. Jobs’ advice: focus on bringing ideas to life rather than just imagining them.
5. Failure is Part of Success – Elon Musk
- Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, views failure as a natural part of progress. He says if you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough. Musk encourages taking risks and learning from each setback on the way to success.
6. Hire Smart People – Warren Buffett
- Warren Buffett, a famous investor, says it’s important to hire people who are smarter than you. He believes that hiring people with different strengths helps you succeed and keeps you learning. His advice: surround yourself with talented people who challenge you.
7. Stick to Your Vision but Be Flexible – Jeff Bezos
- Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, believes in having a strong vision but staying open to change. He built Amazon by sticking to his big goals while adapting to smaller changes. Bezos’ lesson is to keep sight of your main goal but be flexible with the details.
8. Put Customers First – Tony Hsieh
- Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, believed that customer service is key to success. He focused on making every customer feel valued, offering great support and easy returns. Hsieh’s advice: make customer care a top priority for your whole company.
Thank you for reading our blog on the top 5 characteristics of an entrepreneur. Are you an entrepreneur? Want to find out more about how you can start taking action on building out your business and saving on hiring in-house customer service agents?
