This article covers 12 traits of an entrepreneur and reiterates the importance of creativity and continuous innovation.
Whether you are an employee or looking to open up a venture of your own or are doing freelance gigs; you need to be creative and innovative to beat the competition out there. Entrepreneurial instinct is crucial to get that creative juices flowing from within. Isn’t it?
Entrepreneurs view themselves as assets. They continually invest in themselves and in their future through innovation, education and self-improvement. They all have a determination of steel. Traits of an entrepreneur are simple and easy to imitate but it is the combination of these simple traits that makes a common person an exemplary entrepreneur. Level of innovation differentiates between entrepreneurs. Like we need food for energy, entrepreneurs need continuous innovation to evolve. There is a continuous debate of jobs vs entrepreneurship which we have already discussed on this portal. The discussed traits here can help people decide if they have what it takes to become an amazing entrepreneur.
Let’s now discuss the 12 crucial traits of an entrepreneur now:
1) Perseverance holds the key for entrepreneurial success
Entrepreneurs evolve through hard work, a love of what they are doing and a sense of respect for their love.
Above all perseverance acts as a bridge between a failed effort and a successful innovation.
According to old research by Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months.
A massive 80 per cent crash. Needless to elaborate that those who persevere find themselves in the elite 20 per cent club.
2) Effective Planners have an edge
A mind map is crucial. As goalposts keep changing in entrepreneurship, plan for each day is crucial.
Those who plan better, evolve better and gain a competitive edge.
Effective planning is one of the key leadership skills and not just limited to entrepreneurs.
3) Remembering purpose is important to Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are exposed to new ideas every day.
In the myriad of ideas, it is easy to lose track of the original purpose. It is important to keep the purpose in sight all the time.
Entrepreneurs have an insight and an oversight to ensure they never drift away from the larger purpose.
4) Focus holds the key to entrepreneurial success
Quite similar to the previous idea. Purpose engulfs the overall vision while focus implies sticking to minute details of the task. Sticking to a single task differentiates between a successful and an unsuccessful entrepreneur.
This is one of the most important traits of an entrepreneur.
Focus helps in sticking to an innovation. It’s innovation and creativity that helps add the million-dollar prefix of successful behind entrepreneurs.
5) Effective delegation is crucial for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs want to do everything themselves. This the reason most of the startups run out of gas within one year of inception.
Art of effective delegation is required to free up some time as forced breaks are necessary to keep the same energy level.
Effective delegation will leave a lot of things on experts. It is then required to regulate the time freed up by effective delegation. Make sure that you move intermittently.
Don’t sit all day. Stretch and take deep breaths. Take a lunch break. Start your day with a healthy breakfast and clear your desk daily. None of the important traits of an entrepreneur can be imbibed without a healthy routine.
Now before moving further, let’s cater to a key question here. Anyone thinking why one should bother becoming an entrepreneur? Here is an interesting infographic from Entrepreneur.com on why One day everyone would be an entrepreneur. While this infographic comes from an old article, the relevance of the same in today’s world pushed us to include this in our article. Have a look.
6) Excellent visualizing and conceptualisation skills
Visualise your success. Successful entrepreneurs are those who can see the future and conceptualise a roadmap to make sure that the visualized future is realized.
Entrepreneurs regularly visualise their success so that they can create a clear roadmap to their aimed destination.
They have a physical or mental vision board that keeps them motivated whenever they hit a roadblock.
7) Art of saying ‘no’ to opportunities that can get in the way to success
Not all that glitters is gold. It is important to know the art of saying ‘no’ without hurting others. Successful entrepreneurs at times need to say no to most of the things to keep their focus.
Opportunities might be tempting but it is important to look at the trade-offs and most of the times there is a big YES of future success hidden behind numerous ‘No’s.
8) Time management is extremely important
Timing is synonymous to luck in entrepreneurship.
Doing things right at the right time is required to spin-off something special.
One of our articles has already covered some useful time management tips for General managers of hospitality organisations which is equally relevant to managers from all industries.
9) Entrepreneurs are Great listeners
Great entrepreneurs are normally great listeners as well.
They listen to absorb ideas. The ideas then sink in properly and resurface when required.
Listening carefully helps in better retention of words and ideas and this is one of the important traits of an entrepreneur.
10) Entrepreneurs are filled with gratitude
Entrepreneurs always thank everyone for even the smallest of support.
Gratitude acts as a catalyst for learning. It will make sure that the list of well-wishers never dries up.
11) Resourcefulness is an innate talent of Entrepreneurs
Networking, mobilization of resources, arranging funds and getting partners are few of the many specialities of an entrepreneur. Ideas are simply not enough.
We are living in an era of stiff competition and an abundance of talent. It is important to be extremely resourceful and to have an ability to mobilize the resources when required.
Resourcefulness would also mean the intangibles like a fresh idea, investor confidence, brand value etc.
12) Entrepreneurs embrace innovation and creativity
This is a must in all lists if we speak about the traits of an entrepreneur.
Flexibility in ideas and action is crucial and so is continuous innovation. An innovation that was a delight in past might get obsolete within a decade or even in years.
We have a better version of the iPhone every year so that Apple can sustain its place of the top innovator.
Similarly, it is important to stay ahead of the competition. Thus continuous innovation comes into the picture.
Conclusion
Hope this article served your appetite to explore more about entrepreneurship. Apart from the 12 traits of an entrepreneur mentioned above, there are few other common attributes to go with it.
Entrepreneurs are not risk-averse. Successful entrepreneurs are leaders and know what success means to them.
They like to earn success when the rest believe that they were just lucky. Luck to them is just a mixture of several traits, few of which are discussed in this post.
