10 Entrepreneurial Qualities You Must Possess to Succeed

1. Listening and Communicating Well

If you aren’t a good listener and communicator it will result in miscommunications and wasted time, not to mention added work to correct the miscommunications. Time is one thing that all entrepreneurs would like more of. How often have you wished there was more hours in a day? Avoid wasting priceless time repeating and redoing tasks due to poor communication.

 

2. Managing Time Effectively

Proper time management is necessary to distinguish between extremely urgent tasks and those that can wait. Use a notebook or whiteboard to prioritize your tasks by writing them down. Mobile devices and tablets have calendars and notepads, but nothing is more effective than actually writing down your “to-do” list. Focus on one task at a time and don’t let new “to-do’s” disrupt your focus. Knock them out one at a time.

3. Not Being Afraid of Delegating Tasks

As entrepreneurs, we tend to always have a full plate and feel that we can take on any task. In reality, if we keep adding to the already-full plate it is eventually going to collapse and create a mess. Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to an experienced member of your company that has the ability to get tasks completed.

 

4. Take What You Do Seriously

You cannot expect to be effective and successful in business unless you truly believe in your business and in the goods and services that you sell. Far too many home business owners fail to take their own businesses seriously enough, getting easily sidetracked and not staying motivated and keeping their noses to the grindstone. They also fall prey to naysayers who don't take them seriously because they don't work from an office building, office park, storefront, or factory. Little do these skeptics, who rain on the home business owner's parade, know is that the number of people working from home, and making very good annual incomes, has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.

 

5. Manage Money Wisely

The lifeblood of any business enterprise is cash flow. You need it to buy inventory, pay for services, promote and market your business, repair and replace tools and equipment, and pay yourself so that you can continue to work. Therefore, all home business owners must become wise money managers to ensure that the cash keeps flowing and the bills get paid. There are two aspects to wise money management.

 

6. Get To Know Your Customers

One of the biggest features and often the most significant competitive edge the home based entrepreneur has over the larger competitors is the he can offer personalized attention. Call it high-tech backlash if you will, but customers are sick and tired of hearing that their information is somewhere in the computer and must be retrieved, or told to push a dozen digits to finally get to the right department only to end up with voice mail--from which they never receive a return phone call.

The home business owner can actually answer phone calls, get to know customers, provide personal attention and win over repeat business by doing so. It's a researched fact that most business (80 percent) will come from repeat customers rather than new customers. Therefore, along with trying to draw newcomers, the more you can do to woo your regular customers, the better off you will be in the long run and personalized attention is very much appreciated and remembered in the modern high tech world.

 

7. Visualizing Goals and Success

You need to see your goals and success in your mind first if you plan on making them a reality. Not only do you need to visualize the end result, but you also need to visualize every step that it is going to take to get there. 

Napoleon Hill said it best: “What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.”

 

8. Seeking Help When You Need It

We often let our stubbornness prevent us from asking for help. Have you ever been stumped and someone comes along with the answer and you think, “Why in the world didn’t I think of that?” Often times a clear mind and different viewpoint can quickly solve a problem or provide an answer to a question. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it, as it can also help to strengthen the communication within your organization.

 

9. Invest in Yourself

Top entrepreneurs buy and read business and marketing books, magazines, reports, journals, newsletters, websites and industry publications, knowing that these resources will improve their understanding of business and marketing functions and skills. They join business associations and clubs, and they network with other skilled business people to learn their secrets of success and help define their own goals and objectives. Top entrepreneurs attend business and marketing seminars, workshops and training courses, even if they have already mastered the subject matter of the event. They do this because they know that education is an ongoing process. There are usually ways to do things better, in less time, with less effort. In short, top entrepreneurs never stop investing in the most powerful, effective and best business and marketing tool at their immediate disposal--themselves.

 

10. Master the Art of Negotiations

The ability to negotiate effectively is unquestionably a skill that every home business owner must make every effort to master. It's perhaps second in importance only to asking for the sale in terms of home business musts. In business, negotiation skills are used daily. Always remember that mastering the art of negotiation means that your skills are so finely tuned that you can always orchestrate a win-win situation. These win-win arrangements mean that everyone involved feels they have won, which is really the basis for building long-term and profitable business relationships.