If you are considering starting your own business, you may be asking yourself “Am I an entrepreneur?” 

The idea of working on your own can be daunting. After all, you don’t have the comfort of that paycheck at the end of the month and if things are not going as planned, you may not have anything to fall back on. 

Listed below are some common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.  If you can recognize these traits in yourself then you are on the way to running your own business.   

Do you know your strengths and weaknesses?

Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses  -Marilyn vos Savant

Being aware of what you are good at and being able to admit where your weaknesses lie is a real attribute of successful entrepreneurs.  Focusing on what you do well is one way to ensure success, but how do you deal with the tasks you are not so good at? 

If your weakness is merely a lack of knowledge, a training course can be the answer.  If your weakness is due to a lack of skill, you may want to consider outsourcing. 

In business there is a very helpful tool called the SWOT analysis.  SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.  Taking a look at your own SWOT can be extremely helpful.  Why?  We each have our own strengths.  When you’re able to focus your time and energy on your strengths success is right around the corner and it is a much more enjoyable path to success.  So what do you do about the weaknesses?  Acknowledge them, and then find a way to get them taken care of. 

For example, if you’re an excellent sales person and it takes you a day to balance your checkbook then find someone to help you with the accounting tasks and spend your time selling and doing what you do best.

Consider the training habits of world class athletes.  In order to be the best, they train very specifically and focus on their strengths.  For example, Lance Armstrong the seven time winner of the Tour deFrance, trained specifically for the tour.  He didn’t train or compete in any other race.  Lance, and his teammates focused on their unique strengths and put them together to win the tour year after year.

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