About Me

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The business bit: I have had 25 years experience in the IT sector encompassing equipment finance to computer recycling. The coaching bit: is about delivering business mentoring and personal performance coaching. My clients range from senior executives to the unemployed and I delight in working with them all to build excellence and promote growth. My specialisms are working with business leaders and entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses and enjoy themselves in the process, and helping individuals to realise their full potential. I also work with young people to build confidence and life skills so they can grasp life's opportunities and make the right life choices.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

SO...What IS an Entrepreneur?




What makes a great entrepreneur?    For starters, most famous entrepreneurs make their own luck. Oprah Winfrey, a famous entrepreneur,  recently said “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity” while talking with Simon Cowell about how he became so successful.

And what is an entrepreneur anyway?  The entrepreneur definition in Webster’s Dictionary is “one who organises, manages and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” 

So let’s look at the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.  Some sources offer loads of different entrepreneurial characteristics,  from being creative to being able to describe situations with numbers, however let ‘s keep it simple for now.  Setting aside making your own luck, the common traits needed for becoming an entrepreneur include:

Self Belief
Entrepreneurs find their need for status is met through achievement rather than how big their house is or how many holidays they take each year.  They believe in trying things out, following their ideas and their self-belief builds through their experiences.  They are also able to deal with things not going to plan and can assume responsibility for their own failures and successes.  

Confidence
Entrepreneurs who feel in control of the situation will be persistent in the pursuit of their goals.  Confidence is bred from a positive attitude towards a challenge.

Determination and Persistence
Stories of famous entrepreneurs show they never give up.  They also get going, they don’t sit around, rather they have a sense of urgency to get up and do something...
"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."
- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's

Desire for Challenge
This entrepreneur characteristic is about grabbing opportunities.
"An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it.”
- Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries
Although most people think entrepreneurs are huge risk-takers, invariably they have assessed the situation and they are taking on the challenge not just the outright risk.

Leadership
Good entrepreneurs lead.   They assume responsibility, direct and organise.  As they need to be creative while they are doing this, their objective is not to wield power, but to drive forward.

Decision making
This is the balancing act, the juggling characteristic of the entrepreneur.  The bit that helps them to identify the relationship between parts and the whole, the bit that helps them conceptualise order, set goals and make the choices.

Vision
Without this there is no entrepreneur......
"Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming."
- Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Enterprises