Notes

Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?

Anyone who has the perseverance and determination to start a business can be an entrepreneur. This is what Axis Capital Group Business Funding, a credit source offering loans to small businesses and startup in the United States and is now servicing Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia believes in.

In their book, Start Your Own Business, the staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. guides you through the critical steps to starting a business, then supports you in surviving the first three years as a business owner. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer some tips to help you determine if being a business owner is a smart move for you.

To fully understand the scope and limitations you have, you have to first accept both of your strengths and weaknesses. It can be possible that a person possesses all the qualities needed to be successful but it is very rare for these cases to occur. You need to evaluate the major achievements in your personal and professional life and skills to accomplish them. The following may help you determine your potential:

1. Create a Personal Resume

List all your experiences and expertise. Review them and for each experience, describe the duties you were responsible for and the degree of your success. Include professional skills, educational background, hobbies, and accomplishments that required expertise or special knowledge. When it's complete, this resume will give you a better idea of the kind of business that best suits your interests and experience.

2. Analyze your personal attributes

No one knows who you are better than you do. Are you open-minded? Are you friendly? Are you well-organized? Evaluating your personal attributes reveals your likes and dislikes as well as strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t feel comfortable around other people, then a business that requires a lot of customer interaction might not be right for you. Or you may want to hire a “people person” to handle customer service.

3. Analyze your professional attributes

Some business owners are jack-of-all-trades, master of none. You do not have to be expert of all industries; you can just focus on one. Just be aware of the areas where you’re competent and the areas where you need help, such as sales, marketing, advertising and administration. Next to each function, record your competency level—excellent, good, fair, or poor.

Define your Goals

What is your goal? How can you best approach it using all the strengths and weakness you have or the capabilities you see you can offer? Almost all business owners and start-ups, even scams and fraudulent ones, dream of expanding and growing their business. What can you do in putting yours in the edge? For some people, the goal is the freedom to do what they want when they want, without anyone telling them otherwise. For others, the goal is financial security.