Are you a Wantrepreneur or an Entrepreneur?
The major difference between a wantrepreneur and an entrepreneur is action. Wantrepreneurs are the dreamers, the ones who do not want to quit their day job out of fear, whereas an entrepreneur turns a dream into reality, they are the ones who aren’t afraid to take risks to achieve their end goal. Our tip to becoming a successful entrepreneur would be to stop treating your dream like a hobby. Be hungry when it comes to achieving your goals.
So, with this in mind, what makes you a successful entrepreneur? As Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, so nicely put it, “Starting your own business isn’t just a job – it’s a way of life.” With thorough research we have found that success as an entrepreneur can be identified with 5 C’s:
1: Courage
As an entrepreneur, there are many challenges you may face in the initial stages of your new venture. Without courage it will be difficult to know where to begin when trying to solve the obstacles you may face; thus, we believe that courage is the basis of entrepreneurship.
You will inevitably face tough decisions as a businessman. Whether that be a strategic direction to take or what staff you would need to lay off. Courage is allowing yourself to make the right decision at the right time.
2: Confidence
Whether it is confidence within oneself or confidence in the product/service, both are needed to become a successful entrepreneur. If you do not believe in yourself and the product you are selling, you cannot expect customers to believe in it.
Without confidence, you can’t muster the energy required to persistently work towards your mission. You should talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself. The negatives may creep in on a difficult day, however, you need to be able to shut the negative thoughts out and tell yourself that you can achieve what you have set out to achieve.
Remind yourself each day that your end goal is in near sight, this in all will help you to become more confident
Remember that you can’t expect an investor to believe in your ideas if you don’t even believe in yourself.
“A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be?” – Richard Branson
3: Collaboration
This is the part where you recruit the right members to form part of your business. Employees are one of the key factors to a businesses success, however, implementation of effective collaboration may be one of the most difficult principles.
It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch, so much so that a single bad recruit could possibly ruin the entire team’s motivation. As an entrepreneur, you need to carefully pick out the proper employees that fit the company culture you would want to create. You should also allow for speedy feedback opportunities with staff and build the correct processes to improve and maximise collaboration.
4: Capital
As an entrepreneur, you know you cannot get very far if you do not have the cash flow backing your idea. Many ventures fail due to the lack of funds, not necessarily because of their idea not being viable in the marketplace.
However, there is a con too to having too much capital, as this could lead to reckless spending and poor monetary decisions.
Your main goal should be to build a sustainable business; thus, you should not allow your optimism to underestimate the amount of capital you require.
5: Consciousness
As an entrepreneur, you need to remain conscious of where you were before, where you are today and what you have learnt from those experiences. That in all will help shape your tomorrow and provide you with a clearer vision on what steps to take for the future. You need to always be open to learning. Through trial and error, you will find your business growing.
If you remain conscious about the obstacles you may be facing now, you will be able to understand the next challenges you may face and the risks that are associated with them. You can only succeed and overcome these obstacles through proper planning, reflecting and pre-empting.
All-in-all, you need to be constantly learning as an entrepreneur. You won’t know everything, no one does, but through experience, you will be able to understand how to make a success of what was once just an idea.
“One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.”- Richard Branson.
The choice is yours whether you are a wantrepreneur or an entrepreneur. Remember, action speaks louder than words. Take action today to be successful!
