13 Essential Skills And Traits Of Successful Business Owners – Forbes
Posted: December 25, 2019 at 4:44 pm
It takes the lucky convergence of opportunity and ambition to create success. Successful business owners, regardless of industry, share a few critical traits that set them apart from the rest of society. Leveraging these skills allows them to turn their business ideas into profitable realities.
Even more so for entrepreneurs who are just starting out, success depends on a firm conviction in their own abilities and clear knowledge of what it takes to start and run your own business. To help those newly self-made people, 13 contributors to Forbes Coaches Council share some of the key traits and characteristics that they consider essential for a successful business owner to attain success.
Forbes Coaches Council members say you'll need these traits and skills if you want to succeed as a business owner.
1. Courage And A Village
Courage, passion, hard work and a community are what it takes to start and run your own business. Courage will get you to start and climb the steep learning curves you will encounter, and passion will attract others in your community to join the mission. Every entrepreneur I have ever worked with has devoted an enormity of hard work to get the business off the ground and find mentors who can help. - Russ Watts, The Watts Group
2. A Strong Vision
There are many traits that are needed to run a business successfully, including leadership, taking risks and having people skills. Being a visionary, however, supersedes them all. Running a business requires being on the cutting edge of where your industry is going, anticipating the needs of your customers and conveying a strong enough vision that a team would want to help you execute it. - Tamiko Cuellar, Pursue Your Purpose LLC
3. Persuasion And Hustle
To be successful in any business, you need to be able to convince others (clients and staff) that your idea is worthy of their support (time, talent and/or treasure). Can you convince enough people to buy your product and enough staff to align with you? It takes a tremendous amount of energy to launch, and the ultimate test will be your willingness to relentlessly hustle your assets. - Carl Gould, 7 Stage Advisors
4. Confidence And Tenacity
To take a business idea into action, it takes bold confidence and tenacity. If you believe you can do it, then you can. But more than anything, you need to be prepared for a marathon and be ready to build your endurance along the way with unwavering tenacity. Game on, champs! - Izabela Lundberg, Legacy Leaders Institute
5. Willingness To Sacrifice
Entrepreneurship by nature requires sacrifices both in your personal and business life: be it sacrificing personal time to learn a new skill to help the business or the willingness to terminate a friend that was not a fit for said business. Hence, if there is little to no willingness to be flexible enough to sacrifice, starting a business should not be an option. - Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group
6. Willingness To Be A Great Leader
Embody leadership: the ability to cast a vision, but also create a plan to drive and execute; the relentless desire to grow yourself and those around you; the commitment to do the hard work rather than thinking this is a shortcut to freedom and independence; have the backbone, grit and confidence to keep running when you are tired; and the willingness to see people and share and celebrate wins with the team. - Christy Geiger MCC, CPCC, Synergy Strategies Coaching & Training
7. An Understanding Of Yourself
We all have certain areas where what I call our "heroic potential" thrives, and that area will not be everywhere. If you try to be the best at all things, you will lose in business because people are not designed to work alone! Prove to others where your best talents lie, and be decent at everything else until you can get help (hires, consultant, coach, etc.). You win on your strengths, not weaknesses. - Cody Dakota Wooten, The Leadership Guide
8. Cognitive Leadership
Vulnerability, self-awareness, curiosity, humility, great courage, discipline, adaptability and thoughtful communicationsthese are just a few skills and characteristics needed to be the boss and run a business. They come and go at different times and sometimes are in unison. A leader is never able to do it all and must come from a confident place of vision and values to realize success. - Lori Harris, Harris Whitesell Consulting
9. Resilience
Resilience, which is a combination of hardiness, resourcefulness and optimism, is a required trait to effectively start and run a business. Being able to bounce back when people reject your ideas, handle the stress of having your career and livelihood on the line and the slow progress that comes with building a business make resilience key to both starting and sustaining your success as an entrepreneur. - Loren Margolis, Training & Leadership Success LLC
10. Motivation And Accountability
Good idea or not, the only way to know if you have what it takes is to do what it takes. You gotta try. You will never know unless you do. That said, I recommend "having" motivation (vision, strategy, tactics, mindset) and accountability (integrity and task/self management). With the skills, characteristics (habits and standards) of "motivation and accountability," you expand self and inspire others. - Jeff Klubeck, Get A Klu, Inc.
11. Gut Intelligence
Oftentimes people will start a business because they have a passion or skill in a certain industry. This is a good start. However, to be a successful business owner or boss, one must have gut intelligence. Gut intelligence is the wisdom to know the truth and the guts to do something about it! When business leaders and owners have high gut intelligence, they notice cues early on and resolve them. - Susan K. Wehrley, BIZremedies
12. Aptitude, Attitude And Altitude
You need three key attributes that can be described as mindsets, skill sets and tool sets to start, build and thrive in your own business. Mindsets are very often the aptitude or inborn personality traits that make you an entrepreneur and great leader. Skill sets are the acquired skills and attitudes that will enhance your aptitude. Tool sets are essential to actualize your vision into reality. - Jacob M. Engel, Yeda LLC
13. A Strong Risk Profile
Lots of people have interesting or novel ideas for a business. Rarely does the idea fail. Instead, the people do. You know your idea is a good one, and you know you have talent and ambition. Great start! Now, do you hold the risk profile to run your own gig? Nothing fails faster than a level three risk profile (on a scale of 10) who is attempting to act like a seven. Take the risk consistent with your profile. - John Hittler, Evoking Genius
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13 Essential Skills And Traits Of Successful Business Owners - Forbes
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