Articles

Calculate your entrepreneurial profile

Category: Business Published on Wednesday, 25 November 2009 09:15 Written by Farrah Gray

(NNPA)—Once you’ve started thinking about launching a business, you may begin to calculate your own role in it. Are you the right type of person to make a success of the new venture? There’s a great amount of detailed work surrounding the notion of being an entrepreneur. Are you able and willing to dedicate yourself? Do you have the passion necessary for achieving your dreams? There’s nothing wrong with not being an entrepreneur. It is more important to discover your unique career skills finding something of value that you are driven to pursue. If your plan involves being an entrepreneur it requires a disciplined approach and acceptance of learning through potential failures during the process.

Yet, there are some general personality traits that are important to being an entrepreneur. If the following traits seem to fit your personality, you may have what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.

I am self-driven with a passionate spirit focused on goals. I am able to turn failures into learning lessons. I have intuition with a sense of thriving on new ideas and opportunities.

I tend to use a unique approach, independently thinking of solutions regardless of accepted norms—always on the move, using my time efficiently.

I am upbeat with great communication skills. I enjoy working with various types of motivated people.

I am generally described as an overachiever, inspiring and goal-oriented.

I’m not afraid of failure, always capitalizing on it, creating new opportunities.

Whether you want to buy an existing business, purchase franchise, start your own company, or merely offer services to others from a home office, starting a business depends on first calculating the numbers. Ask other entrepreneurs in the same or similar business for reliable sources of information. Your ingenuity to calculate out what it costs is helpful for success. Generally, most new ventures need about $5,000 although many home-based opportunities cost much less but plan on achieving revenue benchmarks during the initial three years of the business start-up cycle.

Success in any new venture requires consistent determined efforts with practical approaches. It is important to use a written plan that includes: allocation of financial resources; working with partners and employees delegating workload (investors, suppliers, and so on); view every contact as a business opportunity (marketing sales, PR); know your strengths and limitations. Ask for assistance, it avoids early burnout. Remember, it’s a long distance race, use balanced routine habits both personal and business in your approach.

If you’ve got a great new idea and no competition in sight, you must be sure that the product or service will be of value to customers at a price that also yields a profit. If your aim is to enter a field with established competitors, you should realize your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of your competition. Calculate first whether you can provide a better product or service over a competitor’s price. Develop a thorough market research plan based on multiple reliable sources. Get critical feedbacks, remaining open to new ideas. Find trustworthy friends, mentors and other business owners to gain advice or potential startup funding.

Entrepreneurs may decide to share the startup venture with partners each focusing on segments of the business, i.e. marketing, finance, R&D, etc. Consider how much of the business and control over the startup are you willing to share. Is it 50-50, one-third or quarters such decisions will impact the development process and results. It is important to have a written partnership agreement. For example, if conflicts arise in what manner will they be resolved perhaps using a legal mediator instead of expensive court proceeding.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Keep the sources of revenue balanced by not relying on one customer. If their business falters, it puts your hard work and dedication at risk-through no fault of your own. In the early years, most successful entrepreneurs reinvest much of the revenues back into growing the business taking as little as possible in compensation until the venture has achieved significant financial milestones. Remember, you are passionate in building a vision or legacy that remains well into the future.

Strive for leadership in market share positions by taking educated risks in launching new brand opportunities without incurring significant debt. Study the competition carefully to discover what works for them and what doesn’t. Stay flexible in your approach by seeking new cost-efficient ways to improve the business, profit margins and new product developments.

(Farrah Gray is author of “The Truth Shall Make You Rich: The New Road Map to Radical Prosperity,” “Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer the 7 Lies Blocking You from Success” and the international best-seller “Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out.” He is chairman of the Farrah Gray Foundation. Dr. Gray can be reached via e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or his website at http://www.drfarrahgray.com/.)