Generally speaking, working as an employee provides stability. You work your 40 hours per week, you receive a weekly or biweekly paycheck. For most blue and white collar workers, this is a reasonably stable income, despite the ups and downs of the corporation that you work for. You do not have to worry about balancing the budget, hiring & firing, marketing for more clients/customers, human resources, legal concerns and adjusting the business structure in this volatile economy.
When I think of an entrepreneur, I think of a small business owner or one who has built his empire from a humble beginning. There are a multitude of disciplines that one must possess to be an entrepreneur. One of the most important qualities of a business owner is to be financially disciplined. A business owner must be able to be a CEO, CFO, CIO and COO of his business as the ultimate responsibility and liability rests with the business owner, no matter who you have working under your direction to assist with any of the above titles/positions. The owner usually possesses all of the titles above in a small business, but despite the size and scale of a larger business, the owner must direct and oversee his Financial Officer/Manager or his Operations Officer/Manager.
Most extremely successful entrepreneurs are married to their business. They are willing to
work endless hours as needed, essentially living and breathing the business. This is why you must have a passion for what you do. If you look at some of the most well-known extremely successful business entrepreneurs of the world, such as Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Conrad Hilton (Hilton Hotels), Dave Thomas (Wendy’s) and Colonel Sanders (KFC), they all had one thing in common when building and developing their business. They worked endless and tireless hours in their business, including nights and weekends. They did not clock in at 9am and clock out at 5pm.
You must be able to make the right decisions quickly. Like a Quarterback in a football game has to be quick and decisive in order to score for forward movement, as an entrepreneur, you must always be aware of you immediate surrounding that effect your business. Those surroundings that impact your business include your competition, your employees, the economic trends, the customer trends, cost of goods, etc. The title of this article is “What does it take to be an Entrepreneur?”, but the qualities and requirements outlined in this article are the ingredients for a “Successful Entrepreneur”. A successful entrepreneur is fully aware of the surrounding and conditions that are affecting his business and sees the trends ahead and most importantly, makes the right decisions and adjustments necessary to navigate the business through tough obstacles.
Are you cut out to be an entrepreneur? Do you have the dedication, strength and perseverance, no matter what the economic conditions are that are effecting your business? Do you have the competitive spirit that is so much a part of almost any industry? Survival of the fittest is the active phrase in this economic time and it all boils down to effectively managing your cash flow with a conservative expense budget.
If you have all or most of the aforementioned qualities, then you can be a “successful” entrepreneur, even in this current recession. With the greatest risk and the hardest work with the right marketing, management and decisions, comes great success. As an entrepreneur, you are the master of your own domain!
This was a guest post written by Chad B. Butler.
Author Bio: Mr. Butler owns a business brokerage firm specializing in the sales, mergers and acquisitions of businesses along with business consulting services in the state of Florida. He has owned several businesses and has been an entrepreneur for over 18 years. One of his accolades is the acquisition of a small landscape business with 7 employees and aggressively marketed and grew the business to 70 employees with 25 trucks. His current profession and venture is the creation of a business brokerage and consulting firm working with all business types throughout Florida, but specializing in the landscape industry. He enjoys the risk and reward of entrepreneurialism and learning the dynamics of new business industries. In his spare time, he enjoys writing, traveling and fine dining.