Running a one-person business is a creative, flexible and challenging way to become your own boss and chart your own future. It is about creating a life, as it is about making a living. It takes courage, determination and foresight to decide to become and entrepreneur. From the relatively safe cocoon of the corporate world, where paychecks arrive regularly, you will be venturing into the uncharted territories of business. Is there way to determine whether you can be successful entrepreneur, or you are better off to work for somebody else? Alas, there is no formula for success. However, most successful entrepreneur share these ten Characteristics. Check if you possess any of them. Don’t be discourage if you don’t have any, skills can be learn, “If you want to be great, you have to be someone you have never become”
1. Think success : To attain the kind of success that you want, you need to dream big. Every success story starts with big dreams. You need to have big dream for yourself – which you want to be somebody rich, famous or fulfilled. You need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. But it doesn’t stop in dreaming alone. You should actively Visualize success in your mind that you can almost feel it, touch it o it is within your reach. Play this image back at every opportunity. What does it feel to triple your current income? How will your life change? What will your business look like if you achieved the million-dollar mark?
Successful entrepreneurs possess an attitude of openness and faith that you can have what you want if you can simply envision it as the first step on the path of action to acquiring it. Management gurus have taught us the power of visualization- seeing yourself in your mind as having accomplished your dreams. If you want to be a successful writer, envision yourself signing books for a throng for people who have lined up to have your autograph. If you want to be rich, picture yourself in luxurious surroundings holding a fat bank account. And the process of envisioning success for you should be a constant activity! You need to think that you are successful (or will be one) every single waking hour. When climbing stairs, recite your goal with every step you take. So if want more money say “I will have money” in every step of the stairs. This technique will reinforce your goal and keep it fresh in your consciousness. How to find Business Idea or service 2. Be Passionate with what you do: You start a business to change any or all part of your life. To attain this change, you need to develop or uncover an intense, personal passion to change the way things are and to live life to the fullest. Success comes easily if you love what you do. Why? Because we are more relentless in our pursuit of goals about things that we love. If you hate your job right now, do you think you will ever be successful at it? Not in a million years! You may plod along, even become competent at the tasks but you will never be a great’s success at it. You will achieve peak performance and do what you have to do to succeed only if you are doing something that interests you or something that you care about. Entrepreneurs who succeed do not mind the fact that they are putting in 15 or 18 hours a day to their business because they absolutely love what they do. Success in business is all about patience and hard work, which can only be attained if you are passionate and crazy with your tasks and activities. 3. Focus on Your strength: Let’s face it. You cannot be everything to everybody. Each of us has our own strengths and weakness. To be effective, you need to identify your strengths and weakness. To be effective, you need to identify your strengths and concentrate on it. You will become more successful if you are able to channel your efforts to areas that you do best. In business, for example, if you know you have good marketing instincts, then harness this strength and make full use of it. Seek help or assistance in areas that you may be poor at, such as accounting or book keeping. To transform your weakness to strength, consider taking hands on learning or formal training. 4. Never Consider the possibility of failure: Any Rand, in her novel The Fountainhead, wrote, “It is not in the nature of man – nor of any living entity. To start out without by giving up.” As an entrepreneur, you need to fully believe in your goals, and that you can do it. Think that what you are doing will contribute to the betterment of your environment and your personal self. You should have a strong faith in your idea, your capabilities and yourself. You must believe beyond a shadow of doubt that you have the ability to recognize and fulfill them. The more you can develop faith in your ability to achieve your goals, the more rapidly you can attain it. However, your confidence should be balanced with calculated risks that you need to take to achieve greater rewards. Successful entrepreneur are those who analyze and minimize risk in the pursuit of profit. As they always say. “no guts , no glory” 5. Plan accordingly: You have a vision, and you have enough faith in yourself to believe that you can achieve your vision. But do you know how to get to your vision, you need to have concrete goals that will provide the stepping stones towards your ultimate vision. Put your goal in writing; not doing so just makes them as intangible fantasies. You need plan each day in such a way that every action contributes to the attainment of your vision. Do you foresee yourself as the next Martha Stewart of hand-made home furnishings? Perhaps today, you need to see an artist to you conceptualize the new line of handmade linens that you hope to launch. Intense goal orientation is the characteristics of every successful entrepreneur. They have a vision, and they know how to get there. Your ability to set goals and make plans for your accomplishment is the skill required to succeed. Plan, plan and Plan –because without which failure is guaranteed 6. Work hard: Every successful entrepreneur works hard, hard and hard. No one achieves success just by sitting and staring at the wall every single day. Brian Tracy puts it out this way. “You work eight hours per day for survival; everything over eight hours per day is for success.” Ask any successful business person and they will tell you immediately that they had to work more than 60 hours per week at the start of their business. Be prepared to say goodbye to after office drinks every day, or a regular weekend away trip. If you are In a Start-up phase, you will have to breathe, eat and drink your business until it can stand on its own. Working hard will be easy if you have a vision, clear goals and passionate with what you do. www.techrib.com.ng/2018/02/10-secrets-of-successful-entrepreneurs.html?m=1