Do YOU Have What it Takes to be an Entrepreneur? Part I

Entrepreneurship requires a passionate desire and work ethic to write your own ticket and/or to bring a product to market.

Regardless of how great your idea or passion, it’s vital to acknowledge that entrepreneurship is fundamentally about taking risk, so the first thing to assess is your risk tolerance.

According to the Small Business Administration‘s 2009 Frequently Asked Questions, 7 out of 10 new small businesses (<500 employees) last at least 2 years but only about 1/2 of new businesses are still in business after 5 years.  The first question, then, is are you willing to wager your financial stability, security, and possibly your credit rating?

The statistics are only a reality check – don’t let them discourage you.  While risk tolerance is a big factor, having enough of a fire in your belly can go a long way toward minimizing the fear factor.  The Harvard Business Review offers a quick quiz to help you identify if you have the gut-level fit for taking the plunge.  To sum up the drive vs fear issue, my online colleague, GL Hoffman, said something that is very telling, “When people ask me whether they should become an entrepreneur, I tell them, if you have to ask, then I’m leaning toward answering, no.“ Case in point, during a succession planning meeting (when I was a Training Director in a fortune 500 pharmaceutical company) the HR Director asked me what I wanted to be doing 5 and 10 years in the future.  I quickly stated the 5 year plan but fell silent about the 10 year plan because it did not involve staying with the company.  I was already certain that I wanted my own training business.  And in 1997, as a single mother with no other form of support, I quit my job and started Emp-Higher Performance Development, Inc. Was I afraid?  A little, but I had a tremendous passion for the training business (and still do!) a great credit rating, clarity about my personal development needs, and a plan to boot-strap my business. Thirteen years later, I haven’t looked back or been sorry for even a moment.

Yes, there are a lot of other traits, competencies and skills that differentiate entrepreneurs who make it  from  those who don’t – a topic that merits its own post so I’ll detail those in part II.  Since I just mentioned GL Hoffman, it occurs to me that as a serial entrepreneur, a book that he recently published is an excellent and inexpensive reality check for those considering entrepreneurship or for entrepreneurs interested in increasing their probability for more success. The book, Start-up: 100 tips to get your business going is packed with tried and true success factors, is a quick read and handy reference. Most interesting to me was that despite our very different business models, his tips still rang true.  I found myself nodding and mumbling, “yep” during many of the passages – particularly tips 9, 12, 15, 16, 18, 38, 47, 48 and 50 – and that was only the first half of the book!  So, I recommended that you read it, ask yourself if you could see yourself actively doing the best practices that he suggests… and if not, why not?

What other questions or advice do you have about identifying who is cut out for the entrepreneurial life?