Step 01
Are you ready to start your own business?
Just as having a road map or GPS will get you to your destination faster when you travel, so will having a plan on how to start your own business.
Numerous studies have been written by small business managers over the years. Many look at traits and characteristics that appear common to most people who start their own businesses, while other studies focus on characteristics that seem to appear frequently in a successful owner-manager.
First consider those characteristics that seem to distinguish the person who opens a business from the person who work for someone else. Studies investigated successful and unsuccessful owners, some of whom went bankrupt several times. Some were successful only after the second or third try. The characteristics they share might almost be said to predispose a person into trying to start a business. Of course, not all these characteristics appear in every small business owner-manager, but the following seem to most predominant.
When a person starts and manages his own business, he doesn’t see risks; he sees only factors that he can control to his advantage. If you possess these traits to some degree or other, it doesn’t mean you will be successful, only that you will very likely start your own business.
Studies have shown that very often the small business owner doesn’t differ from anyone else in risk avoidance or aversion when measured on tests. At first thought, this seems unreasonable, since logic tells us that it is risky to open your own business.
Characteristics of a Small Business Owner
The characteristics that appear most frequently among successful small business managers include drive, thinking ability, competence in human relations, communications skills and technical knowledge.
Drive is composed of responsibility, vigor, initiative, persistence and health.
Thinking ability consists of original, creative, critical, and analytical thinking.
Communication skills include verbal comprehension and oral and written communications.
Competency in human relations means emotional stability, sociability, good personal relations, consideration, cheerfulness, cooperation and tactfulness.
Technical knowledge is the manager’s comprehension of the physical process of producing goods or services and the ability to use the information purposefully.
Self-Evaluation Tools
The following quiz is meant to be a tool for self- discovery and is intended to focus you in thinking about you and your business idea.
Have Questions or Need Help Getting Started?
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