CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

      Anybody can become an entrepreneur provided he had got a certain set of behaviour traits and mental aptitude. Which success depends more on hard work than good luck. He must be a DOER and not a DREAMER. The success of an entrepreneur depends largely on his intelligence, imagination, capacity to innovate and his ability to turn visions into realities. It is not necessary that he should possess a professor’s intelligence, a prophet’s foreseeing capacity, a salesman’s persuasiveness, a blanker’s financial talent, a politician’s power, a film star’s magnetic personality and so on. The only capacity, very essential to become an entrepreneur is the willingness to work hard. There are certain characteristics features which make an entrepreneur successful in his venture. They have been briefly discussed hereunder:
1. Hard Work : A successful entrepreneur is one who is willing to work hard from the very beginning of his enterprise. An entrepreneur with his tenacity and hard work and pervasive perseverance can revive his business even from on the verge of collapse.

2. Business Acumen and Sincerity :  Business Acumen stands for shrewdness and ability. Again, the success of an enterprise depends upon the sincerity of the people behind the enterprise. If a person is sincere about his venture, he will move heaven and earth to make it a success.

3. Prudence : A successful entrepreneur must be prudent in all his dealings. He should have the ability to work out the details of the venture from all angles, assess the favourable factors and pitfalls and take suitable measures to overcome the pitfalls.

4. Achievement Motivation : The achievement motivation is the most important characteristics of an entrepreneur since all other characteristics emanate from this motivations. He must have a strong desire to achieve high goals in business. In fact, this achievement motivation helps him to surmount the obstacles, suppress anxieties, repair misfortunes and devise plans for success.

5. Self-reliance and Independence : A successful entrepreneur wants to follow his own routine policies and procedures and he does not like to guided by others. He is found to be self, reliant by acting as his own master and making him responsible for all his decisions. He doesn’t like to work for others.

6. Highly Optimistic : Successful entrepreneur is always optimistic about his future and he is never disturbed by the present problems. He always expects a favourable situation for his business and hence he is able to run his business successfully in the midst of temporary hurdles. He does not allow the past to obsess him.

7. Keen Foresight : An entrepreneur must have keen foresight to predict the future business environment. He has the capacity to visualise the likely changes to take place in the market, customer’s attitude, technological development, government’s policy etc., and take timely actions accordingly.

8. Planning and Organising Ability : An entrepreneur is a firm believer in planning and systematic work. Above all, he must have the ability to bring together all scattred resources required for starting up a new venture.

9. Innovativeness : when all is said and done, innovation becomes a different task. One should be always innovative to satisfy the varying demands of customers.For this purpose, the entrepreneur should initiate research and innovative activities to produce new goods and services. It is a never ending process.

10. Risk Taking : An entrepreneur is not a gambler and hence he should not assume high risk. However, he must love a moderate risk situation, high enough to be exciting, but with a fairly reasonable chance to win.

11. Secrecy maintenance : A successful entrepreneur must be capable of maintaining and guarding all his business secrets. Leakage of business secrets to trade competitors will definitely lead to the downfall of his business. Hence, he should be very careful in selecting his subordinates.

12. Maintenance of public relations : The extent of maintenance of public relations or human relations has a vital role to play on the success or failure of an entrepreneur. A successful entrepreneur must have cordial relations with his customers to gain their continued patronage and support. He must also maintain good relations with his employees with a view to motivating them to higher levels of efficiency. Similarly, he must maintain good relations with his suppliers creditors and the community at large so that he may succeed in his ventures.

13. Communication skill : Communication skill is the secret of the success of most entrepreneurs. Good communication skill enables them to put their points across effectively and with clarity and thereby helps them to win customers.

Source:Entrepreneurship Development by E.Gordon & K.Natarajan

Share on