Everything you need to know the characteristics of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur is considered as “an individual who bears the risk of operating a business in the face of uncertainty about the future conditions”.
Professor Jain Tinbergen points out that, “the best entrepreneur in any developing country is not necessarily the man who uses much capital, but rather the man who knows how to organise the employment and training of his employees.”
Some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur:-
1. Self-Control 2. Self-Confidence 3. Sense of Urgency 4. Comprehensive Awareness 5. Realism 6. Conceptual Ability 7. Status Requirements
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8. Interpersonal Relationships 9. Emotional Stability 10. Determination to Succeed 11. Risk Taking 12. Common Sense 13. Decision Makers 14. Hard Working
15. Change Agent 16. Self Confidence 17. High Energy Level 18. Need for Achievement 19. Tolerance for Ambiguity 20. Locus of Control 21. High Desire
22. Foresightness 23. Optimistic Outlook 24. Independence 25. Innovator 26. Best Organiser 27. Mental Ability 28. Clear Objectives
29. Business Secrecy 30. Human Relation Ability 31. Communication Ability 32. Technical Knowledge 33. Provider of Resources 34. Establishes New Undertakings 35. Leader.
30+ Characteristics of an Entrepreneur
Characteristics of an Entrepreneur – Self-Control, Self-Confidence, Sense of Urgency, Comprehensive Awareness, Realism, Conceptual Ability and a Few Others
Entrepreneur is not a simple man who lives normally like the other people but he is one who continuously thinks something for his progress, challenges, business, new ideas etc. Most of the characteristics of the entrepreneur are his achievement motivation. A successful entrepreneur must be the combination of qualities like innovation, initiation, leadership, self-confidence, creativeness and so many qualities that ultimately help the entrepreneur to achieve his goals.
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A series of interviews were conducted with distinguished entrepreneurs. They were asked what characteristics they felt were essential to success as an entrepreneur. Good health was a characteristic mentioned by every entrepreneur interviewed. Entrepreneurs are physically resilient and in good health. They can work for extended periods of time and while they are in the process of building their business, they refuse to get sick.
In small businesses, where there is no depth of management, the leader must be there. You may not be able to afford a support staff to cover all business functions and therefore you will need to work long hours. We all know people who use part of their sick leave each year when they are not sick. Entrepreneurs are not found in this group. At the end of the eight-hour day, when everyone else leaves for home, the entrepreneur will often continue to work into the evening, developing new business ideas.
Characteristic # 1. Self-Control:
Entrepreneurs do not function well in structured organizations and do not like someone having authority over them. Most believe they can do the job better than anyone else and will strive for maximum responsibility and accountability. They enjoy creating business strategies and thrive on the process of achieving their goals. Once they achieve a goal, they quickly replace it with a greater goal. They strive to exert whatever influence they can over future events.
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In large, structured organizations, entrepreneurs are easy to recognize by the statements they make – “If they wanted that job done right, they should have given it to me.” A dominant characteristic of entrepreneurs is their belief that they are smarter than their peers and superiors. They have a compelling need to do their own things in their own way. They need the freedom to choose and to act according to their own perception of what actions will result in success.
Characteristic # 2. Self-Confidence:
Entrepreneurs are self-confident when they are in control of what they’re doing and working alone. They tackle problems immediately with confidence and are persistent in their pursuit of their objectives. Most are at their best in the face of adversity, since they thrive on their own self-confidence.
Characteristic # 3. Sense of Urgency:
Entrepreneurs have a never-ending sense of urgency to develop their ideas. Inactivity makes them impatient, tense and uneasy. They thrive on activity and are not likely to be found sitting on bank fishing unless the fish are biting. When they are in the entrepreneurial mode, they are more likely to be found getting things done instead of fishing.
Entrepreneurs prefer individual sports, such as golf, skiing or tennis, over team sports. They prefer games in which their own brawn and brain directly influence the outcome and pace of the game. They have driven and high energy levels, they are achievement-oriented and they are tireless in the pursuit of their goals.
Characteristic # 4. Comprehensive Awareness:
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Successful entrepreneurs can comprehend complex situations that may include planning, making strategic decisions and working on multiple business ideas simultaneously. They are farsighted and aware of important details and they will continuously review all possibilities to achieve their business objectives. At the same time, they devote their energy to completing the tasks immediately before them.
Accounting reports illustrate this characteristic. Accountants spend hours balancing the accounts and closing them out. For them, the achievement is to have balanced books. The entrepreneur only wants to know the magnitude of the numbers and their significance for the operation of the business.
Characteristic # 5. Realism:
Entrepreneurs accept things as they are and deal with them accordingly. They may or may not be idealistic, but they are seldom unrealistic. They will change their direction when they see that change will improve their prospects for achieving their goals. They want to know the status of a given situation at all times. News interests them if it is timely and factual and provides them with information they need.
They will verify any information they receive before they use it in making a decision. Entrepreneurs say what they mean and assume that everyone else does too. They tend to be too trusting and may not be sufficiently suspicious in their business dealings with other people.
Characteristic # 6. Conceptual Ability:
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Entrepreneurs possess the ability to identify relationships quickly in the midst of complex situations. They identify problems and begin working on their solution faster than other people. They are not troubled by ambiguity and uncertainty because they are used to solving problems.
Entrepreneurs are natural leaders and are usually the first to identify a problem to be overcome. If it is pointed out to them that their solution to a problem will not work for some valid reason, they will quickly identify an alternative problem-solving approach.
Characteristic # 7. Status Requirements:
Entrepreneurs find satisfaction in symbols of success that are external to themselves. They like the business they have built to be praised, but they are often embarrassed by praise directed at them personally. Their egos do not prevent them from seeking facts, data and guidance.
When they need help, they will not hesitate to admit it especially in areas that are outside of their expertise. During tough business periods, entrepreneurs will concentrate their resources and energies on essential business operations. They want to be where the action is and will not stay in the office for extended periods of time.
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Symbols of achievement such as position have little relevance to them. Successful entrepreneurs find their satisfaction of status needs in the performance of their business, not in the appearance they present to their peers and to the public. They will postpone acquiring status items like a luxury car until they are certain that their business is stable.
Characteristic # 8. Interpersonal Relationships:
Entrepreneurs are more concerned with people’s accomplishments than with their feelings. They generally avoid becoming personally involved and will not hesitate to sever relationships that could hinder the progress of their business. During the business-building period, when resources are scarce, they seldom devote time to dealing with satisfying people’s feelings beyond what is essential to achieving their goals.
Their lack of sensitivity to people’s feelings can cause turmoil and turnover in their organization. Entrepreneurs are impatient and drive themselves and everyone around them. They don’t have the tolerance or empathy necessary for team building unless it’s their team and they will delegate very few key decisions.
As the business grows and assumes an organizational structure, entrepreneurs go through a classic management crisis. For many of them, their need for control makes it difficult for them to delegate authority in the way that a structured organization demands. Their strong direct approach induces them to seek information directly from its source, bypassing the structured chains of authority and responsibility.
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Their moderate interpersonal skills, which were adequate during the start-up phases, will cause them problems as they try to adjust to the structured or corporate organization. Entrepreneurs with good interpersonal skills will be able to adjust and survive as their organization grows and becomes more structured. The rest won’t make it.
Characteristic # 9. Emotional Stability:
Entrepreneurs have a considerable amount of self-control and can handle business pressures. They are comfortable in stress situations and are challenged rather than discouraged by setbacks or failures. Entrepreneurs are uncomfortable when things are going well. They’ll frequently find some new activity on which to vent their pent-up energy. They are not content to leave well enough alone.
Entrepreneurs tend to handle people’s problems with action plans without empathy. Their moderate interpersonal skills are often inadequate to provide for stable relationships. However, the divorce rate among entrepreneurs is above average.
Characteristics of an Entrepreneur – Determination to Succeed, Risk Taking, Common Sense, Decision Makers and Hard Working
For the business that wants to develop the business skills for telltale personality traits that most entrepreneurs exhibit is a great place to start.
The personality traits to look out for include:
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All entrepreneurs are by their nature strong willed. They know what they want and are relentless in their pursuit of goals. In a business, these individuals are usually very easy to identify. They will have drive and enthusiasm and are not easily discouraged by setbacks.
2. Risk Taking:
Often, the entrepreneur is typically described as a risk taker. Some of the most successful business people took huge risks in the early days of their businesses. They are open to taking a level of risk that is most likely to possess a level of entrepreneurial attitude.
The risk taking capability is one of the most important factors in the life of the entrepreneurs. They take the risk because they are very much confident about the outcome. They apply all the tools to know about the results. They do through R & D to reach near to the success.
Coupled with risk taking is a level head that may take risks, but risks that have been carefully calculated. Entrepreneurs do take risks, but these are not haphazard. Common sense still prevails. They take risk with the help of all information, knowledge of market trends, their competitors. They do continuous research and after deep analysis they form conclusion.
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One of the strongest entrepreneurial traits to identify in family members is the ability to make clear and concise decisions. Strong entrepreneurial tendencies will always make fast decisions that they always stick to.
All entrepreneurs are adept at getting their hands dirty. They work long hours until they have achieved their goals. Those family members in your business that are strong willed and self-starters are clearly in possession of personality traits that could translate into the development of leading business people.
Characteristics of an Entrepreneur – 7 Characteristics: Change Agent, Self Confidence, Energy Level, Level of Risk, Need for Achievement and a Few Others
An entrepreneur should be on who bears, innovates or imitates and organises the business.
Following are the important personality characteristics of an entrepreneur:
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1. Change Agent:
An entrepreneur is expected to work as a change agent. The entrepreneur is a catalyst for change. He should be alert to the signs that change is needed. “Both external and internal forces can act on the entrepreneurial organisation, just as they do on other organisations. The complex and uncertain environment can create the need to change.”
Here entrepreneur is the person who recognises the need for change and directs it. Whenever a particular need to change is recognised the entrepreneur becomes the key person to initiate that change.
2. Self Confidence:
Entrepreneurs should have confidence in their abilities to make both strategic and day-to-day decisions regarding technical matters, marketing and overall business strategy. They should also feel capable of overcoming any future unanticipated problem. Since entrepreneur is to work as cheerleader and coach while implementing change, he requires capability to overcome any resistance to change. Actually, overcoming any resistance to change requires intense interpersonal efforts and support.
3. Energy Level:
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To be successful, a new venture requires hard work and dedication. In practice, success of an entrepreneur needs the ability to work for long hours in completing the task before him. Entrepreneurs need an unusually high energy level in order to meet the demands of launching and running a business.
4. Level of Risk:
The entrepreneur assumes risk. Entrepreneurs shift resources from areas of low productivity and yield to areas of higher productivity and yield. Of course, there is a risk they may not succeed. But if they are even moderately successful, the returns should be more than adequate to offset whatever risk there might be.
Thus, entrepreneurs are typically characterised as risk takers. Successful entrepreneurs actually tend to take moderate risk rather than little risk or excessive risk.
5. Need for Achievement:
Entrepreneurs exhibit a high need for achievement which accounts for their seemingly endless drive. Studies show that people with high need achievement like to take risks but only reasonable ones and such risks stimulate them to greater effort.
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Moreover, McClelland found that certain societies tended to produce a larger percentage of people with high need achievement. Thus, high achievers set ambitious short-term and long-term goals that challenge them and that provide great personal satisfaction when achieved.
6. Tolerance for Ambiguity:
Imperfection in information is always possible and manager is required to take decisions with incomplete or unclear information. But entrepreneurs even face more ambiguity since they may be doing certain things for the first time and they are risking their livelihood. Thus, entrepreneurs should be comfortable and capable of making decisions based on incomplete or little information. Practically, it is a critical trait for entrepreneurs who face a great deal of uncertainty at the time of starting new enterprise.
7. Locus of Control:
General idea that individuals not luck or fate control their own lives. Entrepreneurs work with impression that they are pulling their own strings. Thus, entrepreneurs tend to believe that they have a high degree of control over their lives. Side by side they oppose to believe their lives are governed by luck, fate or other external sources. Since, they feel in control of their lives they should be able to strike out on their own and assess the future prospects by their own calculations.
The Characteristics of an Entrepreneur
The success of a small enterprise is, to a great extent, attributed to the success of the entrepreneur. If one observes around himself, he will find that most large scale industrialists have developed from small scale.
If one analyses them carefully, one will land on the following common factors passed by all of them:
1. Hard Work – Willingness to work hard is the key of success of an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur with tedious efforts, sweat filled hours and perseverance can revive the business even if it (business) has reached to a point of no return of failure. A successful entrepreneur should work hard endlessly. Especially in the starting duration and same should form his habit for future as well.
2. High Desire – An entrepreneur must have a strong desire for high achievement in his goal. It may motivate him to surmount the obstacles, suppress anxieties, repair misfortunes and devise expedients.
3. Foresightness – An entrepreneur must have a good foresight about his business environment, its future prospect, market trend and customer demand. In a nut shell, it’ can be said that an entrepreneur must visualise the likelyhood of changes to take place. It may help him in taking timely action.
4. Optimistic – They should be always optimistic for future. It may help them to bear the shock and provide more energy to face the future challenges.
5. Independence – They should always take their own decisions; they should never depend on others. They should be prepared to face the challenges and should not be guided by others. They must be independent in the matter of their business.
6. Innovative – The entrepreneurs should initiate research and innovate activities to produce goods to suit the demand of the customers.
7. Best Organiser – A production is grouping of so many activities / processes together. It is the ability of the entrepreneurs which bring all resources required for starting up an enterprise together and then to produce the suitable goods.
Characteristics of Entrepreneurs – Mental Ability, Clear Objectives, Business Secrecy, Human relations Ability, Communication Ability and Technical Knowledge
The characteristics of an entrepreneur that contribute to success are the result of his achievement motivation. A successful entrepreneur must be a person with technical competence, initiative, good judgement, intelligence, leadership qualities, self-confidence, energy, attitude, creativeness, fairness, honesty, tactfulness and emotional stability.
1. Mental Ability:
Mental ability consists of intelligence and creative thinking. An entrepreneur must be reasonably intelligent, and should have creative thinking and must be able to engage in the analysis of various problems and situations in order to deal with them. The entrepreneur should anticipate changes and must be able to study the various situations under which decisions have to be made.
2. Clear Objectives:
An entrepreneur should have a clear objective as to the exact nature of the business, the nature of the goods to be produced and subsidiary activities to be undertaken. A successful entrepreneur may have the objective to establish the product, to make profit or to render social service.
3. Business Secrecy:
An entrepreneur must be able to guard business secrets. Leakage of business secrets to trade competitions is a serious matter which should be carefully guarded against by an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur should be able to make a proper selection of his assistants.
4. Human Relation Ability:
The most important personality factors contributing to the success of an entrepreneur are emotional stability, personal relations, consideration and tactfulness. An entrepreneur must maintain good relation with his customers if he is to establish relations that will encourage them to continue to patronise his business.
He must also maintain good relations with his employees if he is to motivate them to perform their jobs at a high level of efficiency. An entrepreneur who maintains good human relation with customers, employees, suppliers, creditors and the community is much more likely to succeed in his business than the individual who does not practice good human relations.
5. Communication Ability:
Communication ability is the ability to communicate effectively. Good communication also means that both the sender and the receiver understand each other and are being understood. An entrepreneur who can effectively communicate with customers, employees, suppliers and creditors will be more likely to succeed than the entrepreneur who does not.
6. Technical Knowledge:
An entrepreneur must have a reasonable level of technical knowledge. Technical knowledge is the one ability that most people are able to acquire if they try hard enough.
An entrepreneur who has a high level of administrative ability, mental ability, human relations ability, communication ability, and technical knowledge stands a much better chance of success than his counterpart who possesses low levels of these basic qualities. Brilliant men with first class degrees from university shy away from becoming entrepreneurs because the one thing they cannot be taught is coping with human emotions.
Robert D. Hisrich has identified a few more capabilities or personal characteristics that an entrepreneur should possess. According to him, the entrepreneur must have an adequate commitment, motivation, and skills to start and build a business. The entrepreneur must determine if the management team has the necessary complementary skills necessary to succeed.
Some key characteristics of successful entrepreneur are:
i. Motivator – An entrepreneur must build a team, keep it motivated, and provide an environment for individual growth and career development.
ii. Self-confidence – Entrepreneurs must have belief in themselves and the ability to achieve their goals.
iii. Long-term involvement – An entrepreneur must be committed to the project with a time horizon of five to seven years. No ninety-day wonders are allowed.
iv. High energy level – Success of an entrepreneur demands the ability to working hours for sustained periods of time.
v. Persistent problem-solver – An entrepreneur must have an intense desire to complete a task or solve a problem. Creativity is an essential ingredient.
vi. Initiative – An entrepreneur must have initiative, accepting personal responsibility for actions, and above all make good use of resources.
vii. Goal setter – An entrepreneur must be able to set challenging but realistic goals.
viii. Moderate risk-taker – An entrepreneur must be a moderate risk-taker and learn from any failures.
These personal traits go a long way in making an entrepreneur a successful man/woman. But, however, no entrepreneur possesses total strengths. In such cases, he acquires and/or associates and thus strengthens his enterprise.
i. Building value propositions for customer groups
ii. Dealing with competitors as business partners
iii. Tracking and analysing customer database for trends
iv. Setting up strong front-end solutions units
Potential Pitfalls are:
i. The absence of product specific sales teams
ii. Managing culturally diverse alliance partners
iii. Focusing on volumes rather than profits
iv. Keeping up the pace of new product launches.
Characteristics of an Entrepreneur – Risk Bearer, Provider of Resources, Innovator, High Achiever, Optimistic Outlook, Leader and a Few Other Characteristics
“An entrepreneur is a person who organises and create innovation and proper arrangement of risk and uncertain time period.”
The following characteristics of an entrepreneur are as follows:
1. An Individual or Group of Individuals:
An entrepreneur is an individual who conceives an idea of a new product or service, then finds some way of raising capital in form of a business to produce the products or service.
Frank H. Night says, “A specialised group of persons who bear risk and meet the uncertainty.”
2. Risk Bearer:
The entrepreneur is a person who bears risk in uncertainty period of business and takes all positive decision about risk.
According to Laurence Lamond, “Propensity for risk taking is the realistic character of entrepreneur.”
Mereditch and Nelson also say that, “Entrepreneurs are calculated as risk takers.”
3. Provider of Resources:
According to Peter F. Drucker, “Until every plant is weed and every mineral is just another rock.” Thus, without effort of an entrepreneur all resources such as land, raw material, natural resources are useless and only entrepreneur can give a useful shape to them and give all essential resources for production i.e., capital, labour, land and plant.
4. Establishes New Undertakings:
According to Udai Pareek and Nadkarni, “They initiate new economic functions and undertake and establish it.” Thus, entrepreneur establishes new undertakings and contribute their incredible role in the developmental process of the country alongwith providing employment to the people. Entrepreneur always gives scope for new changes and improvement in business.
5. Innovator:
Entrepreneurs always encourage new changes and improvement in business.
According to Peter F. Drucker, “They create something new, something different, they change values.”
According to him, innovation may occur in the following forms:
(i) Introduction of new goods
(ii) Introduction of new methods of production
(iii) Introducing a new market.
(iv) Conquest of a new source of supply of raw material.
(v) Carrying out of the form of organisation of any industry.
The entrepreneur exploits the inventions commercially and thus produces new and better goods which give him profit and satisfaction.
6. High Achiever:
Entrepreneurs always believe in hard work and determined attitude resulting in high achievement.
According to Mc Clelland, “Explicitly introduces the need for achievement motivation as a psychological motive and implicitly emphasise the need for achievement as the most directly relevant factor for explaining economic behaviour.” Thus an Entrepreneur is the one who achieves all determined goals with hard work and his desire for high achievement.
7. Exploitation of Opportunities:
Mc Grath, states that “The entrepreneurs are comfortable with ambiguity and they can bring clarity by piecing together previous unrelated messages and signals”. There are very few persons who are inventors and entrepreneurs at the same time. Such persons have an edge over those who are only inventors or entrepreneurs.
8. Optimistic Outlook:
An entrepreneur is always full with optimistic outlook towards challenges. He approaches his task with a hope of success and an optimistic attitude. He attempts any task with the hope that he will succeed rather than with a fear of failure. Such a hope of success enhances his confidence and drives him towards success.
9. Managerial Entrepreneur:
A successful entrepreneur also acts as a manager. Therefore he has to perform several managerial activities. Broadly, these managerial functions are as follows – Planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling others.
10. An Institution:
Entrepreneur is an institution because it is an emerging factor of various institutes in society. Entrepreneur gives inspiration and motivation to other persons of the society, so that they may establish business or ventures successfully.
11. Professional Class:
In modern era entrepreneur has become as entrepreneurial class. According to traditional approach “Entrepreneur are Born But Not Made.” But, now a days, that concept has changed. Commercial knowledge, training facilities and achievement of several incentives are playing a vital role in developing entrepreneurs.
12. Leader:
Entrepreneur is propounder of commercial world. He provides effective and efficient leadership to business and industry and migrate the society towards new dimension. According to Schumpeter, “function of entrepreneur is to improve or make revolution in production pattern on the basis of any invention.”
In the initial stage of development, entrepreneurs were limited to some specific area but as development process pick up speed they become more innovative and started their work with traditional entrepreneurship along with modern entrepreneurship. In the modern entrepreneurship concept multiple entrepreneurship, joint entrepreneurship and group entrepreneurship has become an important part of successful entrepreneurship.