Every year, in the U.S., we see several thousands of new businesses opening. Even last year, despite the pandemic and the nationwide lockdown, 33,789 businesses opened their doors to customers:
When you decide to open a business, you enter a very competitive space. And your ability to withstand this competition depends on many factors, including your personal qualities.
So, which personality traits do you need to have to be a successful business owner?
Here are our top five picks.
1. Goal-Oriented
The importance of our first personal quality is clear as day – you need to be goal-oriented, almost to the point of being stubborn. Focus on the goals means believing in your idea and using all the resources available at hand to bring it to life.
Can you become more goal-oriented?
Luckily, this is the quality you are not born with and can acquire as a result of your actions. Dr. Michelle Millis Chappel, a psychology professor, recommends starting everything with the end result in mind. In other words, ask yourself, where you would want yourself and your business to be in one, five, and ten years.
You can also plan every goal with the SMART model. According to it, each goal should have the following criteria:
-
- Specific – you should focus on a particular aspect of improvement.
- Measurable – the goal has metrics that define the goal’s success.
- Assignable – there should be a qualified specialist working on this goal.
- Realistic – you should have the resources to achieve the goal.
- Time-oriented – there should be a specific deadline for the goal.
If you apply this model to each of your business goals, no matter how big or small, it will help you become a more goal-oriented and resourceful person. Besides, you’ll develop exceptional time management skills.
2. Self-Reliant
One more quality that every successful entrepreneur should have is self-motivation and self-reliance.
Starting a new business is an exciting but challenging endeavor, and not everyone is lucky to have dedicated helpers who will support you from the start. In fact, many successful businesses, like Tesla and Apple, once had no support from the public whatsoever.
It’s crucial for an entrepreneur to be self-reliant and not expect help from anyone, especially considering how competitive the business world is. But what do you need to become more self-motivated?
Self-reliance is deeply rooted in the ability to accept yourself, make your own decisions, and take responsibility for them. Working on accepting your strengths and weaknesses, drawing lessons from your choices, and developing a set of personal values will help you become more self-reliant.
3. Open-Minded
When you start a business, you get a myriad of growth opportunities. But if you are resistant to change and stuck in your own ways, your business will hardly succeed.
That’s why every successful entrepreneur should be open-minded. If you can keep yourself open to change, it will become easier for you to notice new growth opportunities and see their potential. Besides, you’ll also become more accepting and learn how to appreciate failure.
Can you learn how to be open-minded?
Yes, and the best way to do it is through learning foreign languages. This activity can open you to cultural concepts you’ve never heard of before, fuel your curiosity, and naturally make you more open-minded.
If you don’t have much time to dedicate to a foreign language, start small. For example, you can begin by learning basic Spanish words and phrases, which will allow you to express your main needs in this language and start a conversation.
How often should you have foreign language lessons to get results?
Given that you run your own business, which is quite time-consuming, up to 15 minutes a day would be enough to learn a foreign language slowly but surely.
4. Resilient
Business owners have a lot on their plate, which inevitably leads to stress and anxiety. Entrepreneurs sometimes have to tackle a lot of responsibilities at once, which is the pressure that’s hard to withstand if you’re not resilient enough.
Resilience means being able to endure and recover from difficult conditions fast. It doesn’t mean that if you’re resilient, you are completely immune to stress. It means you have a great coping mechanism to deal with it.
How to build up resilience?
First and foremost, you have to believe in your abilities and trust yourself. This skill is difficult to learn, but it’s achievable. You can do some journaling to describe stressful situations in detail, understand what triggered you, and then work out a coping mechanism to not let the same happen in the future.
5. Disciplined
Lastly, a successful business owner should have exceptional organizational skills. And, without being disciplined, you won’t be able to organize business processes properly.
If you’re a disciplined leader, you’ll also serve as an example to your staff. Self-discipline makes you an authoritative role model, as it makes your team see that you’re demanding of yourself as much as you’re demanding of them.
What do you need to become more disciplined?
Doing sports is always a great solution. Research has proven that sport forms self-control, and without it, athletes cannot achieve success.
If you don’t have time for long hours at the gym, give yourself 15-20 minutes in the morning to do a basic exercise routine. Over time, it will become a habit, and you’ll notice how much this routine disciplines you and makes you more goal-oriented.
Wrapping Up
Are all great entrepreneurs born that way?
Lucky for all of us, no. Our life is in our hands, and we can turn it around by changing ourselves. It’s possible to become goal-oriented, self-reliant, open-minded, resilient, and disciplined through a set of actions performed on a daily basis. And if you’re committed to it, you’ll soon notice the results of your hard work in the growing success of your business.