Overview:
 

The Guide
Before Creating a Business Plan
The Founder Resume in the Business Plan
Illustrate the Communication Skills of the Founder
Mentoring
Real Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur Personality and Social Competence
What Sets An Entrepreneur Apart And What Is The Wrong Image?
Motivation For The Startup
Heads Or Tails
Conclusion

 

Character Traits of Exceptional Entrepreneurs – The Guide

Before you write a business plan, you should consider the move into entrepreneurship very carefully. There is one crucial question at the beginning of every start-up project: Do I have the personal qualities to make my business idea real?

Important criteria include the extent, to which you see yourself in the future role of businessperson and entrepreneur. Thinking through all these points well can also provide valuable starting material for the business plan.

Things to consider:

– Do I have the necessary know-how in technical matters?
– Is my commercial and business knowledge sufficient?
– Do I need prior knowledge of the industry based on practical experience? The practical experience should also include management responsibility and project management.
– How do I assess my sales skills?
– How good am I at networking and customer acquisition?
– How much patience, time and effort am I willing to invest at the expense of my private life?
– How well do I deal with defeats and setbacks?
– Are my physical and mental health and not least financial status at risk if there are high levels of stress and lack of income?
– How much risk am I willing to take without a secure, regular income?
– How rational and solution-oriented is your thinking in difficult and unplanned situations?
– How independent and organized am I? Can I create work structures and maintain and execute tasks according to my objectives?
The so-called SWOT analysis provides valuable information and assesses the strengths, weaknesses, potentials and risks in the context of the self-check of entrepreneurial qualities. We use this diagram when we create business plans, but you can use the SWOT matrix to see if you have the character of a successful businessman too.

 

Before Creating a Business Plan: Pros and Cons of a Startup

Every aspiring entrepreneur should weigh the pros and cons and draw the logical conclusions from this when launching a startup. If not, even the best business plan won’t help. There are many advantages of “being your own boss” instead of just an employee:

– Freedom of choice;
– Freedom to set your own hours;
– Freedom to determine your own pay and
– Freedom to work in an environment that you can personally identify with and thus find a more fulfilling (work) life that “makes sense” for you.
On the other hand, you have to be more tolerant of risk and to be ready to live with uncertainty and financial difficulties. All these things should be noted in the sketch of the startup mission statement in the business plan. Also, a founder must deal with a considerable amount of overtime and irregular work and vacation times. You always bear the responsibility be it for the success or failure of the enterprise. As an employee, you have a foreseeable, regular income backed by pension and benefits, but you have less freedom in terms of working hours or the choice of the working environment.
 

 

The Founder Resume in the Business Plan: Entrepreneur Spirit as a Character Trait

Certain traits are of great advantage to successful entrepreneurship. These include:

– Autonomy
– Self-organized
– Patience and perseverance
– High frustration tolerance
– Ability to manage crises
– Flexibility
– And of course professional expertise.

Business management knowledge is provided increasingly in the context of higher education, however, personal characteristics also play a major role. This issue should be clarified in the business plan.

Whoever is reading your business plan needs to think: Here is a “doer” type. He aims to achieve his goals, works toward them in the right order and does not shy away from trouble. The ability to build a network of potential business partners and customers, and above all to maintain it, is a key element of the entrepreneur personality. A table identifying each potential and existing partner belongs to every good business plan.

 

Illustrate the Communication Skills of the Founder in the Business Plan

The chances of success are affected both by communication and social skills. The business plan must show a person is willing to lead other people and able to deal responsibly and decisively:

– Team management; the ability to coordinate several parallel activities
– The courage to break new ground; to tackle different and often unpredictable activities;
– A certain degree of perfectionism;
– The ability to convince others of their views and visions
– Willingness to be a role model for others; a great deal of hard work, diligence, determination and willingness to learn; the will to succeed;
– The identification of priorities, and creative crisis management.
Another key element of the entrepreneur personality is the “bounce back” type. The business plan should not include too much information about defeats or endured crises. Investors in Germany do not want to finance business plans of a founder who has gone under too often in the past. The ability to understand people is an important factor in the business plan that will come up during the bank/financing interview. You should make it clear how the tasks can be effectively distributed to the different employees of the company and how you will bring a team together so that there will be maximum benefit for the company.

You should be fully aware that you will sometimes have to make unpleasant decisions (e.g. redundancies or reshuffles) for the sake of the company. Free time and your private life should take a back seat especially in the initial phase of the startup, but ultimately you need to find a work-life balance – you can’t always be in shape.

 

Mentoring – Support From Experienced Business Plan Consultants

It’s always a good idea to get help writing a business plan to have your model checked by a professional for weaknesses. The next step after the issue of the founder’s personality is creating a team of consultants, possibly including the approach to one of the numerous startup lobbies.

Get business plan help and advice. Different individuals within your social environment can play different roles, such as:

– Who will give you professional help, for example in business matters or for the correction / completion of your business plan?
– Who will offer you personal support if your plans don’t work out and you have to deal with setbacks?
– There is also the issue of hiring representatives or temps when personnel capacities are exhausted due to overtime or illness.

While friends and family can offer personal support, we recommend getting experienced and competent consultants as mentors from outside, ideally someone who’s good with startups and business plans.

This coach could review the business plan regarding feasibility and suitability, draw from his trove of practical experience and knowledge and give the entrepreneur valuable first-hand tips. In addition, the “seniors” often have a wide contact network and can connect the newbie with key decision makers, clients or business partners. This assistance is invaluable. The experience that such “next generation” mentors can offer is a groundbreaking catalyst for startups on the road to success.
 

 

Real Entrepreneurs: Other Success Factors

Now that the issues of the character of a successful businessman and creating a startup lobby have been clarified, let’s move on to other important success factors. Industry knowledge and the recognition of a lucrative niche are essential for business success. It is necessary to go your own way, not trudge along roads taken by countless other entrepreneurs. USPs are a key prerequisite if you want to attract clients.

Knowledge is a cornerstone of your own successful business, but practical experience is a decisive factor and must accompany your theoretical background in every event (business, in-depth commercial facts, law, marketing, management skills, and industry-specific expertise). You won’t learn to swim without getting in the water – an obvious metaphor in this context. Only those who are regularly exposed to training “on the open sea” will stay afloat. These people are always aware of the new tendencies and trends. You have to be up-to-date where technical, economic and industry developments are concerned and never stop learning. To this end, support is available through membership in associations, through subscriptions to specialized newspapers and newsletters, participation in seminars, congresses and conferences, lectures and fairs and valuable input in the form of sustainable business plan consultation.

A startup with a small team is specific in that all different kinds of tasks are concentrated in a few hands. You should possess certain commercial skills, including knowledge of accounting, profit-and-loss balance, tax law, dunning and industry-specific laws even if you plan on delegating these tasks to someone else (sooner) or later.

 

Entrepreneur Personality and Social Competence

You will learn about dealing with personnel and management responsibility from courses or literature on the subject only to a limited extent. You learn about motivating your staff only from practical experience. The management style of modern companies would ideally be influenced by the fact that the staff must identify with the activity of the enterprise. One of the most important factors for the management style are defined and well-tuned communication skills.

Since neither an authoritarian, nor a democratic or even an “anarchic” management style are promising in their pure form, it is up to the entrepreneur to determine what kind of staff or team leadership would be appropriate and goal-oriented depending on the situation and the specific context. The legitimacy of this leadership role is always in the decision-making responsibility the entrepreneur takes.

This prominent role in the team should not bring you to neglect the motivation, needs and potential of your employees. Being interested in the people you work with is important for successful teamwork and forms the basis for further development and future success of the company. Trusting employees to provide you with challenges and giving them decision-making power is more motivating than “top-down” relationships. This “management by objectives” involves and benefits all participants. It is also recommendable to reflect the role of other “partners”, such as suppliers, clients, business partners, consultants, advertising agencies, the public, etc. This will show your appreciation. The human factor is a key component of the success of the company and this should be adequately reflected upon receiving business plan consulting services.

 

What Sets An Entrepreneur Apart And What Is The Wrong Image?

The qualities an entrepreneur needs to have can also be demonstrated through so-called “negative patterns”. What an entrepreneur should not have is weak motivation to take responsibility for all the consequences of the founding. Furthermore, it is important that the candidate doesn’t lose sight of his goals despite difficult times. If personal health problems are incompatible with the increased pressure entrepreneurship brings (particularly in the start-up phase), one would probably do better to avoid corporate responsibility. It is crucial not to overestimate your own knowledge and suitability to entrepreneurship.

In contrast, a solid and practical education and a stable social environment of family and friends are the foundation of the enterprise project. It can be hard to gain a firm foothold as a young professional right after university. Longer experience is a decisive advantage. Other characters of a successful businessman include enjoying making decisions; conscientious perseverance; a good dose of self-confidence and self-trust; a very high degree of motivation and faith in the success of his business ideas; the ability to be solution-oriented in crises and setbacks; the willingness to fully accept the consequences of his actions; social skills in dealing with the people of his environment both professionally and personally in partnership, family and a circle of friends, high performance and willingness to sacrifice leisure and family time particularly in the early stages of the startup, willingness to take risks; ability to influence people’s decisions; clear, logical thinking, situation analysis skills and knowledge of the necessary steps to be taken, courage to go ahead with new ideas; a structured way of working, setting priorities correctly and not least highly creative in different contexts.

 

Motivation For The Startup

Among the basic reasons to take the path to self-employment are often the desire for a higher income, more freedom, greater flexibility of working hours, the will to self-realization and the prospect of dealing with things that one really cares and is inspired and motivated by. If specific implementation should result from certain notions, then it is advisable to get business plan help and turn to business plan professionals for advice.
 

 

Heads Or Tails – The Issue of Work Ethic And Capital

Before starting your own business, there is another important issue to deal with – the financial and intellectual status of the new entrepreneur. Does his education fulfill the specific requirements? Is additional education needed to obtain or develop the necessary expertise? One should ask oneself whether his knowledge is up to date or whether it needs to be brought up to date in some way.

Knowledge in the commercial and business management area is a key prerequisite for the project. Certain prior experience in selling services or products is a profitable advantage in the truest sense of the word. What practical knowledge can the future founder offer in the contexts of personal responsibility and project coordination? The entrepreneur’s job is often a one and a half full-time job with long working hours, including weekends. This fact should also be considered when making the founding decision. The mental attunement to an exceptionally high volume of work is often “the weak point”, at which the startup either succeeds or fails. The startup project is exposed to no small risk if the family or the partner are not willing to bear the extent of these additional burdens and to ensure the necessary support.

If you do not have any people around to provide personal support in difficult times, the tremendous workload can become overwhelming at times. Your partner should be prepared and able to help you look after the children or cover costs of living. Founders are exposed to high stress levels in the initial phase. You should be capable of making solution-oriented decisions and dealing with pressure from inside and outside as rationally as possible.

If you are currently an employee who is considering the move to self-employment, the following factors are crucial: What is the actual added value of the startup compared to the current employment situation? What is the situation with further education and growth opportunities? Is the startup founder able to provide the needed funds and to what extent is this the case? Which sources of financing are available? Is the necessary equipment to set up an enterprise available or can its purchase be financed?

 

Entrepreneur Personality: Conclusion

In conclusion, the following basic prerequisites of a startup are valid and must be taken into consideration before you create your business plan or contract a professional business plan writer to this end: Industry knowledge and expertise, experience, commercial skills, personal traits such as a great sense of responsibility and entrepreneurial spirit, unique features of the business idea, a solid financial base, the necessary equipment, social skills and especially a stable social network that can help you withstand any storm.

Do you recognize yourself in this description? Are you the entrepreneur type? We’d be happy to help you create your business plan (it’s not even that expensive: read more about the cost of our business plan writing service) and facilitate your efforts on the road to self-employment and independence.

 

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