Characteristics Of A Successful Entrepreneur

October 28, 2008 by Rich | 4 Comments
In Advice, Entrepreneurs, Success


The Modesto Bee:

Characteristics of a successful entrepreneur

GUTS– You must have the guts and dedication to be completely devoted to your goal.

BRAINS — You should have a working knowledge about the business you plan to start before you start it.

CAPITAL — Starting any business requires money of your own plus sufficient funds to maintain a positive cash flow for at least a year.

Photo by mjamesno.

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Comments

  • Matt on October 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am

    I doubt this was written by someone who knows much about entrepreneurship. Although all of these can apply- it certainly isn’t the rule.

    You can start a business because circumstances just sort of dump you into it- not because of some bravery or guts- this happens a lot.

    You can’t be dumb but you certainly don’t have to be super smart or have been to college or anything- just good common sense will get you through 99% of business situations.

    And capital need is completely dependent on the business- some businesses are profitable in their very first day- people who start consulting companies with an old boss as a first client come to mind. And lots of service businesses are profitable within a month or two of launching, so capital is not a key driver in getting started.

    It doesn’t really matter, but when I read something so obviously uniformed and offering such retreaded and unhelpful business advice it bugs me and I can’t help playing devil’s advocate.

  • Jaclyn on October 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    I agree with both rich and matt. yes it takes some intelligence on some level to run a business and have appropriate knowledge of the product you are marketing, but also it does not take someone who has alway’s carried a 4.0 through out their life. Business does take money to a certain extent to at least open, some may require extra money to continue cash flow, but then again if the product is good enough that your selling and you do thing’s properly as far as marketing, pricing, book keeping, etc…then the business shouldn’t need a ton of money on hand to keep it’s head above water.

  • Matt Helphrey on October 28th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    I would say that you don’t necessarily need too much capital to start your own business today. An online business can be started for almost no start up cost.

  • CoolProducts on November 5th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    They’re characteristics of an entrepreneur, no one ever said it was a business plan, or put any specific explanation on the three characteristics. Of course entrepreneurship is an incredibly complex field and varies greatly, but those three characteristics are required.

    The one thing that I would modify is that guts means to take risk.

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