The Success Factors of an Entrepreneur
Many businesspeople would argue there is not one concrete recipe for success, but many
successful entrepreneurs have in common certain characteristics that have contributed to
the rise of their companies. With the rapid advancement of technology and communication
methods, entrepreneurship has become a popular means for survival during the past decade
or so, according to a 2003 article from Life Tools for Women. Certain factors contribute to an
entrepreneur's success.
Innovation
One important success factors of entrepreneurs is the ability to come up with a concept,
envision what it looks like and execute it effectively, according to Intercom article titled
"Successful Entrepreneurs" by Judith L. Glick-Smith in 2000. This process, called innovation,
is essential to any successful business owner and entrepreneur.
When coming up with an idea, an entrepreneur must think of what he enjoys doing, analyze
competition, perform market research to see if there's a demand and figure out how
to make the idea work. This takes talent, initiative and creativity.
Money Management
Money is what keeps a business venture afloat. It is an essential part of buying inventory,
paying employees, marketing the business, buying or repairing business tools and paying
his own salary, according to a 2009 article in "Entrepreneur" magazine.
A successful entrepreneur knows how to manage his money. From the very beginning, it
takes dedication and self-control not to make a wrong financial decision or prematurely
spend company money, especially in a lone venture. In addition, he knows when to hire
help, when he can afford an office space and pays his bills on time--all while running his
company.
Planning
Starting a business on your own, let alone with someone else, takes lots of planning.
However, the temptation often is to jump straight into the venture with minimal planning.
The "figure it out along the way" mentality is not one of many successful entrepreneurs.
Planning is essential to starting and running a successful business. From the early stages--
market research and business plan writing--to later stages--hiring, firing and sustaining--a
successful entrepreneur must think ahead, analyze every single business decision and
constantly compile data.
Another aspect of planning is setting goals, outlining how to achieve them and achieving
them. Short-term and long-term goals help motivate and remind entrepreneurs of their
passions and aspirations, according to "Entrepreneur".
Adaptation
Adaptation is essential in an entrepreneur's success. This essential factor comes in
several different forms and is vital to the beginning and life of a new company.
Entrepreneurs must learn how to adapt during the business planning stages. Throughout the
process--whether in market research, coming up with an idea or writing a business plan--
things change, and an entrepreneur must be able to alter an idea or plan to fit the
circumstances.
Another form of this factor is adapting technologically to your industry. With the major
emphasis on technology in all major industries, if you can't keep up, you can't
succeed. Entrepreneurs must constantly research industry standards so they can keep up
with competitors.
I've been an entrepreneur most of my adult life and, recently, I've
begun thinking about what it takes to become successful as an
entrepreneur--and how I would even define "success." I've given a lot
of talks over the years on the subject of entrepreneurship. The first
thing I find I have to do is to dispel the persistent myth that
entrepreneurial success is all about innovative thinking and
breakthrough ideas. I've discovered that entrepreneurial success
usually comes through great execution, simply by doing a superior job
of doing the blocking and tackling. But what else does it take to
succeed as an entrepreneur and how should an entrepreneur define
success? Here's what I came up with:
1. Be passionate. You must be passionate about what you're trying
to achieve. That means you're willing to sacrifice a large part of your
waking hours to the idea you've come up with. Your passion will ignite
the same intensity in the others who join you as you build a team. And
with passion, both your team and your customers are more likely to
truly believe in what you are trying to do.
2. Maintain focus. Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an
opportunity where others see nothing. This focus and intensity helps
to eliminate wasted effort and distractions. Most companies die from
indigestion rather than starvation. Companies suffer from doing too
many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very
well. Stay focused on the mission.
3. Work hard. Success only comes from hard work. There is no such
thing as overnight success; behind every "overnight success" lies
years of hard work and sweat. People with luck will tell you there's no
easy way to achieve success-and that luck comes to those who work
hard. Focus on things you can control; stay focused on your efforts
and let the results be what they will be.
4. Enjoy the journey. The road to success is going to be long, so
remember to enjoy the journey. Everyone will teach you to focus on
goals, but successful people focus on the journey and celebrate the
milestones along the way. Is it worth spending a large part of your life
trying to reach the destination if you didn't enjoy the journey? Won't
your team also enjoy the journey more as well? Wouldn't it be better
for all of you to have the time of your lives during the journey, even if
the destination is never reached?
5. Trust your gut instinct. There are too many variables in the real
world that you simply can't put into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets spit
out results from your inexact assumptions and give you a false sense
of security. In most cases, your heart and gut is still your best guide.
We've all had experiences in business where our heart told us
something was wrong while our brain was still trying to use logic to
figure it all out. Sometimes a faint voice based on instinct is far more
reliable than overpowering logic.
6. Be flexible but persistent. Every entrepreneur has to be agile,
continually learning and adapting as new information becomes
available. At the same time, you have to remain devoted to the cause
and mission of your enterprise. That's where that faint voice becomes
so important, especially when it is giving you early warning signals
that things are off-track. Successful entrepreneurs find the balance
between listening to that voice and staying persistent in driving for
success-because sometimes success is waiting right across from the
transitional bump that's disguised as failure.
7. Rely on your team. It's a simple fact: no individual can be good at
everything. Everyone needs people around them who have
complementary skill sets. It takes a lot of soul searching to find your
own core skills and strengths. After that, find the smartest people you
can who complement your strengths. It's tempting to gravitate toward
people who are like you; the trick is to find people who are not like
you but who are good at what they do-and what you can't do.
8. Focus on execution. Unless you are the smartest person on earth,
it's likely that many others have thought about doing the same thing
you're trying to do. Success doesn't necessarily come from
breakthrough innovation, but from flawless execution. A great
strategy alone won't win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic
blocking and tackling. No matter how much time you spend perfecting
your business plan, you still have to adapt according to the ground
realities. You're going to learn a lot more useful information from
taking action rather than hypothesizing.
9. Have integrity. I can't imagine anyone ever achieving long-term
success without having honesty and integrity. These two qualities
need to be at the core of everything we do. Everybody has a
conscience-but too many people stop listening to it. There is always
that faint voice that warns you when you are not being completely
honest or even slightly off track from the path of integrity. Be sure to
listen to that voice.
10. Give back. Success is much more rewarding if you give back. By
the time become successful, lots of people will have helped you along
the way. You'll learn, as I have, that you rarely get a chance to help
the people who helped you because in most cases, you don't even
know who they were. The only way to pay back the debts we owe is to
help people we can help-and hope they will go on to help more people.
It's our responsibility to do "good" with the resources we have
available.
You might do all of the above and will wonder "but am I successful?"
Success, of course, is very personal; there is no universal way of
measuring success. What do successful people like Bill Gates and
Mother Teresa have in common? On the surface it's hard to find
anything they share-and yet both are successful. I personally believe
the real metric of success isn't the size of your bank account. It's the
number of people in whose lives you are able make a positive
difference. This is the measure of success we need to apply while we
are on our journey to success.
Naveen Jain is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and a technology
pioneer. He is a founder and CEO of Intelius, chairman of education &
global development at XPrize foundation and on the board of trustees
at Singularity University. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of
InfoSpace, and a senior executive at Microsoft Corporation. Among
his achievements are: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year; Albert
Einstein Technology Medal for pioneers in technology; "Top 20
Entrepreneurs" by Red Herring; "Six People Who Will Change the
Internet" by Information Week.
The 10 Most Important Success Factors
for 50+ Entrepreneurs
That’s why Americans age 55 and up are the fastest-growing group of new business owners in the U.S. today. But
feeling a strong desire to do your own thing is not enough to assure new business success. Here are 10 success
factors you should consider before you decide to unleash your entrepreneurial zeal.
1. Can you clearly describe the problem your business will solve or the need it will satisfy? People and businesses
pay for superior solutions—it’s that simple. So can you describe the problem you can solve better than others or the
need you are tops at satisfying?
2. Are you comfortable with running a low-cost business? Some former corporate types insist on a fancy office
suite filled with furniture that rents for hundreds of dollars per month. Some business concepts, such as high-end
consulting, demand such an arrangement. The vast majority of boomer entrepreneurs, however, need to save on rent
by locating at home; use every discount and deal around; and buy help from outside service providers “as needed.”
3. How comfortable are you with a shade of gray? Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that their most important
motivating force is their ability to avoid “decision by committee” when they decide to turn an idea into a new source of
revenue. But most will also caution that an entrepreneur’s life is often ambiguous until well into the business
development process—this lack of initial certainty is not for everyone.
4. How good is your network? Before you start the first paragraph of your business plan, you should be able to
write down a description of who will be your initial group of prospective customers—either by name or described by
whom in your network can introduce you.
5. How does your life vision fit your income needs? Typically over-50 entrepreneurs come into the business
planning process a bit burnt out emotionally from their time in the corporate world. Therefore, when asked to describe
their ideal business venture, they often talk about how they only want to work part-time during a typical week and
intend to not work at all some weeks of the year. This is fine, as long as you are realistic in what level of income you
can produce from this time commitment.
6. Are you more of an outside or inside person? Let’s face it, many of us have had corporate jobs that did not fit
our personalities all that well. Starting a business after 50 is a great opportunity to come as close as you can to “the
ideal job.” So you need to be honest with yourself about what style of work best suits you—for example, do you thrive
on mixing and mingling with people every day or do you prefer to work behind the scenes in satisfying your
customers?
7. Are you willing to be taught? When you launch a business a bit later in life, you don’t have as much time to learn
by doing. You may only want to run your business for five or six years, so you need to be ready to let others teach
you what you need to know to fill in the blanks from your corporate career. And this sometimes requires sucking it up
and getting instruction from a twenty-something-year-old.
8. Are you prepared to pump up your technology smarts? Chances are good that you know how to use a word
processing program, send and receive e-mail and surf the web. For many new businesses, this may be all the
technology smarts you need. But some businesses require a more advanced set of skills, such as running an e-
commerce business where you need to know search engine optimization, autoresponders and shopping cart
software. Make sure that you’re ready to get up to speed with the technology demanded by your particular business.
9. Are you ready to run it full-time for a while? It’s a very appealing notion that you can earn a $100,000-a-year
income only working two days a week. And this is quite possible—just not in the first or possibly second year of your
business.
10 How are your customer service skills? Sad to say, but not all corporate sellers go out of their way to nurture
their customers. If you’ve worked for one, you may need to relearn how really good customer service is presented.
Jeff Williams specializes in guiding 50+ individuals to turn good ideas into great businesses. He is an author, coach,
trainer—and a nationally known expert on bringing new businesses to life. His website at Bizstarters.com offers an
extensive collection of business start-up articles, quizzes and assessment tools, including his free digital booklet “10
Keys to Starting a Great Business After 50.”
