Do What It Takes!

It takes a lot of courage to start your own business. To have a successful business - to stay in for the long term -you need more than courage. Owning a small business takes a mixture of determination, self motivation, and hard work.

Determination: Do you love what you do? Do you have a burning desire to turn what you love into a successful business? Or do you continually have doubts? It's okay to doubt yourself from time to time. Running your own business has its difficulties. Ultimately, you must have the courage to rise above those doubts and do what it takes.

Self Motivation: Owning your own business means that you will be the one making the decisions and leading your company in the right direction. You need to be the one to generate the energy and enthusiasm. You are responsible for all aspects of your business, from marketing your goods or services, to bookkeeping, and everything in-between. If you are not disciplined, if you don't do the work, the work doesn't get done.

Hard Work: Are you willing to work long hours to keep your business on track? Sometimes you will need to make sacrifices of your time to reach long-term rewards. You will need to get out of your comfort zone on many occasions. Are you willing to explore new ways of doing things and learn unfamiliar topics?

You don't need to be born an entrepreneur. Anyone who has the desire and is willing to learn can function like one. Many successful entrepreneurs have similar characteristics. Some traits that seem to be basic to successful business owners are:

Vision
Tolerance for failure
Strong management and organizational skills
Strong integrity/Highly reliable
Strong drive to achieve
Problem solving skills
Personal initiative
Persistence
Independent
Goal-oriented behavior
Creative
Commitment
Calculated risk taker

After pondering these characteristics, are there some that don't describe you? These may be areas of weakness that you can work on. If many of these characteristics do depict you, chances are you have the makings of a successful entrepreneur.

Christine Myers,Virtual Assistant Services.net, Inc
www.VirtualAssistantServices.net
CMyers@VirtualAssistantServices.net