Assessing Capabilities

Another basic ingredient of entrepreneurial success is a good understanding of the characteristics of successful individuals. You not only need cognitive skills that allow you to recognize worthwhile opportunities and take advantage of them, but also key personality traits of passion, commitment, and resilience. Do you have these characteristics? Do you know what it will take to be successful? You need to understand that the risks of new business failure are high; most start-ups do not succeed. You also need to be aware of your motivation – is your goal primarily financial wealth, or are you primarily interested in the personal fulfillment that you will achieve through your entrepreneurial journey?

Knowing the basics of financial and market planning and how to write a good business plan are important. You should consider getting help from people who have proven skills in these areas. You will need to be good at pitching your business plan in order to get funding support, so you need to develop those kinds of skills. If your business involves a new type of product, then you have to have a proof of concept. As soon as possible, you need to demonstrate some credibility in terms of what you have to offer – for example, securing an important customer or set of customers that will demonstrate that you have something valuable. That will allow you to get further financing to continue growing the business.

Finally, a key part of the company’s success will be based on the people factor, on leadership and team building. You need to recognize that a good grasp of organizational behavior issues and methods is at least as important as – if not more important than – a good grasp of financial and marketing issues and tools.