Starting a business is not as difficult as it seems. Although, that does not mean it is an easy venture also. You need to imbibe certain traits to thrive as a business owner. Every business owner prays for growth, development, and an increase in revenue. No matter how small the business, you want it to scale to the highest level, which is a great desire.
Success is not something that jumps at you. You have to work for it. To work for it, you need the skills and traits to increase productivity and grow your business. There are so many traits a business owner must have but these 5 Traits are the major ones.
These traits include:
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Be a goal-setter & goal-getter
โIf you donโt design your life plan, chances are youโll fall into someone elseโs plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.โ โ Jim Rohn
Every small business owner must be a goal-setter and goal-getter. Setting goals is highly important for any business to grow. Setting goals has to be intentional and every goal you set should be SMART. Let us look at what SMART Goals entail:
Specific: It should be straight to the point, while it is good to be well detailed when setting your goal, there is no need to put in irrelevant jargon.
Measurable: Set goals that you can measure the success of.
Achievable: Though we want to set the bars high, your goals should be attainable. Do not go over the board
Relevant: The goals should be relevant to your businessโ growth. It should relate to the vision and mission of your business.
Time-Bound- Every goal should have a time frame attached to it so you can achieve the best.
An example of a SMART goal is โto increase sales by 25% before the end of December 2021โ. A business plan is one way to set goals for your business. This document gives direction to the business per time and also helps shareholders and investors to understand the overall direction of the business.
Accountability
โAccountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.” ~ Bob Proctor
Be accountable for everything in your business. Everything means Everything
Your finances, time, staff, and every other thing that concerns your business. Make sure you complete your tasks even though you are the owner of the business. Accountability starts with you before it moves to other people working for you.
One of the things business owners tend to shy away from is the financial aspect, you should be accountable for your profit and losses. The money meant for the business should not be mixed with your funds, and there should be an account for this too.
One of the first things we do for business owners that attend our clarity consulting sessions is to separate their finance from that of the business. We get them to pay themselves a fixed salary. They have shown proven results all the time. The death of most small businesses is caused by mismanagement of business finance.
Confidence
A business owner was asked to pitch his business to investors, he started with :
err mmm, the thing isโฆ.. myโฆ.. ohโฆ my business is one thatโฆ. errrmmmmmโฆ..
Guess what the investors did?
They asked him to leave. You have to own your business. If you used to be a shy person then for the sake of your business, you have to come out of that shell because you can not sell your business if you are not confident in the business. Be confident! Let your confidence be contagious that it passes down to others who work for you.
Remind yourself that it is MY BUSINESS and I have to make it GROW.
Optimism & self โ motivation
Yes! You should be true to yourself but that should not remove your optimism. You should be ready to motivate yourself.
Do not wait for someone to tell you that YOU CAN before you tell yourself that YOU CAN. Be a positive-thinker, always look for the way out. Instead of looking at the cup half full or half empty, why not look at how to make it full!
Be Optimistic!
Discouragements will come, there will be losses. Take a look at businessmen and women thriving in the world today. They all had their share of failures but they did not stop because of that. They motivated themselves until they reached their goals.
Idowu Koyenikan said: โWhenever I am in a difficult situation where there seems to be no way out, I think about all the times I have been in such situations and say to myself, “I did it before, so I can do it again.โ
Be willing to take risk
โIf you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.โ
โ Neil Gaiman
It is okay to be afraid of taking certain risks, but as a business owner, you have to be willing to take risks. Ensure they have calculated risks as no one understands or knows your business as you do. You are the risk-taker and bearer of the business. Write about the risks, ask yourself questions like:
Is it worth it?
If it works out, what will happen?
If it does not work out what will happen?
How will this risk affect my business?
Weigh the pros and cons.
You still have to take risks. No matter the information you have about the pros and cons, sometimes you just have to go all in and make a decision against the information you have.
Whatโs the most significant risk you have taken?
Bonus: Yes, we have a bonus trait for you which sort of sums up everything in a way. A business owner should be willing to learn. Learn by having a mentor, read blogs just like you are doing presently, not just any blog but one that will help your business grow, have a coach, acquire the necessary skills needed for your businessโฆ. You are starting a remote school business, look for training for e-learning business owners or teachers. You have to be very vast and knowledgeable and you can not acquire that by sitting on the sidelines or feeling like you know everything already because you do notโฆ nobody does.
In Conclusion
Evaluate yourself :
What are the traits that I already have?
Which one do I need to work on?
Which one do I need to cultivate?
Feeling like we left out an important trait, send us a comment, and let’s look at it together.
