In today's current business climate, the entrepreneurial mindset is more critical to business success than ever. It's been far too easy to allow Coronavirus, the presidential election campaigns, and other current events to distract and derail your best business-building intentions. Learning from others who have cultivated an entrepreneurial mindset to stay the course and thrive can help you push through, especially amid chaos.
The power of an entrepreneurial mindset exists in not allowing external circumstances to unsettle or disrupt your internal state and focus. It's about developing a specific skill set that enables you to identify and maximize business opportunities while overcoming setbacks to put you on a successful trajectory.
Does that seem easier said than done? Learn how to shift your thoughts and entrepreneurial mindset to achieve unstoppable growth, leadership, and impact.
What Does It Mean to Be Entrepreneurial?
Being entrepreneurial means identifying a need in the marketplace and developing a solution for the need. It is also knowing your chosen industry inside and out and using the knowledge to create and leverage new opportunities. Someone entrepreneurial will not allow failures to stop them. Instead, they use them as learning experiences that contribute to personal and business growth.
What Are Five Entrepreneurial Qualities?
The good news about entrepreneurial qualities is that you can learn them, even if you weren't born with them. Being entrepreneurial may not come naturally to you. Still, if you can recognize and commit to developing the qualities, you can get on the fast-track to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
The personal development process requires taking the time to be introspective. Carefully examine your weaknesses and strengths and make personal changes to match the top entrepreneurial qualities you want to possess.
Here are five to get you started:
#1: Self-Discipline
The first and possibly most vital entrepreneurial quality is self-discipline. Without self-discipline, it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve long-lasting success. Disciplining yourself means doing what you know you should do, whether you feel like it or not. It requires self-control, responsibility, and action. It may not always be fun to have self-discipline, but it's critical to getting results in life and business.
#2: Integrity
As an entrepreneur, your character is one of the most valuable assets you possess. Developing a reputation as a person of integrity and honesty is how to earn respect and trust of others in your life, including business partners, employees, investors, and customers. Refuse to compromise your integrity because this characteristic means everything to your business.
To be successful, you must base your business on trust. Your word must be your bond. When you have integrity, you will have people who trust you and your motives. Because of this, they will be willing to work with and for you, lend you money, give you credit, and invest in your products and services.
#3: Persistence
Persistence is a quality that goes hand-in-hand with all successes in life and business. To be persistent is to focus on pushing through, even in the face of failures, adversity, and great disappointment. You stay the course, even when it seems like it would be easier to jump ship.
Developing this quality requires you to prepare your mind in advance. You must accept that hardships and obstacles will come, but you will be ready to tackle them head-on. You will have the courage to persist when it is hard. It's all about keeping your eye on the prize. You let your goals propel you forward and never lose sight of your plan and purpose. You may see many people give up along the way, but you have already decided in advance that you will persevere no matter what.
#4: A Clear Sense of Direction
Do you have a clear path ahead of you? Or are you so preoccupied with putting out fires that you aren't sure where you are going? Lacking a clear sense of direction is a common problem for struggling entrepreneurs. The marketplace is always changing. As a result, you may feel like you are just trying to get by day-by-day.
Strive to develop a concrete action plan that provides clear, attainable targets for each part of your business. Lead by example. Show your employees how to identify the direction and take steps each day to work toward the goal. They need you to point them in the right direction and keep everyone on the same page as you move forward together.
#5: Action-Oriented
Being action-oriented is an essential quality of a successful entrepreneur. It might sound harsh, but an entrepreneur is nothing more than a wannabe unless he or she takes action. Indecisiveness can be a business killer. One of the most famous entrepreneurial mindset quotes is from the great Walt Disney. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
What happens when you make a mistake? Self-correct, learn from the error, and take a different action. The key is doing something. Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you they have had many failures, but they learned from them. They didn't get stuck in analysis paralysis. Being action-oriented helps you try new things—some work out, and some do not, but at least you are moving forward.
What Are the 4 Types of Entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is the process involving the development, launch, and operation of a business. People have various visions for business types they want to build. Some focus only on money-making. Others focus more on contributing to social good than profits.
If you are developing an entrepreneurial mindset, you likely have a business now or plan to start a new business. What type of entrepreneurial organization interests you?
Here are four common types of entrepreneurship:
#1: Small Business
Most businesses in the United States are small businesses. According to Oberlo, there are currently 33.2 million small businesses in the United States. Small business owners create 64% of new jobs in the country. Often, a small business owner's goal is to pay the bills and make enough profit to meet their families' needs. Because they are usually unable to attract venture capital, small businesses depend on friends, family, and small business loans.
#2: Scalable Startup
When you think of Silicon Valley and venture capitalists, you think of scalable startups. This type of entrepreneurship is for business owners who have an innovative business idea that can change the world. They aren't afraid of taking risks to reach their goals. They seek investments from venture capitalists—private equity investors who provide capital to businesses with high growth potential in exchange for equity. The focus on a scalable and repeatable business model means they must get plenty of venture capital to fuel the expansion.
#3: Large Company
Large companies are a type of entrepreneurship that focuses on growth through new product and service development. To stay relevant and profitable, these companies must keep in tune with new technologies, competitor analysis, and customers' evolving preferences. Large company owners tend to break into new markets by acquiring other companies or developing new products and services.
#4: Social
The social entrepreneurship style focuses on creating services and products that solve social problems or meet social needs. Rather than having the primary goal of profitability, a social business's goal is to make the world better through societal improvements. A social entrepreneur may operate the business as a for-profit, nonprofit, or hybrid of the two.
Why Does Having an Entrepreneurial Mindset Matter?
What is the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset? Thinking like an entrepreneur helps you move your business in the right direction. You aren't just going through the motions. You strive to keep your purpose and objectives at the forefront of your mind.
This is especially important when you encounter challenges or obstacles. Without the right mindset, it's easy to let obstacles become roadblocks and barriers to your success. An entrepreneurial mindset pushes you to find creative solutions to problems. Giving up isn't an option. Instead, you consider every obstacle to be a challenge from which you can learn and grow.
How Do You Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset?
You may not be a natural-born entrepreneur. But that doesn't mean you can't develop an entrepreneurial mindset. It's never too late to make personal changes and mind shifts to become the person or entrepreneur you want to be. If you have a business dream, your mindset will prove to be just as important, if not more important, than other skill sets you develop.
Developing an entrepreneurial mindset involves:
- Identifying the qualities you want to possess
- Understanding how they can make you a better entrepreneur
- Practicing your new way of thinking every single day
What Are the Characteristics of the Entrepreneurial Mindset?
Understanding the entrepreneurial mindset becomes easier when you have specific examples. Virginia Commonwealth University shared "6 Traits of People with the Entrepreneurial Mindset." These characteristics include:
- Creative thinking
- Action taking
- Good listening skills
- Seeing the big picture
- Learning from experience
- Wanting to make an impact
Make these characteristics part of your mindset. Then you can begin to see your business in a new way that facilitates growth and success. It will take consistent application and practice, but the results will be worth it.
What Are the 12 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs?
When you consider successful entrepreneurs, you might think of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Oprah Winfrey. However, it's essential to keep in mind that success is relative. Clarify your definition of success. That'll help you determine which entrepreneurial mindset works for you.
Inc.com shared the "12 Characteristics of the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs"
- Clarity of purpose
- Belief in themselves
- Good at finding needs and niches
- Ability to focus on the most important things first
- Possess a contribution culture
- An open mind
- Incredible networks
- Self-care and personal investment on all levels
- Continually challenge themselves
- Believe in technology
- Build resilience
- A millionaire mindset, embracing abundance and opportunity
Are you feeling inspired to develop and nurture your entrepreneurial mindset? We have the info to get you on the right track. We've put some of our top advice in this free video mini-series. Let us walk you through the process of growing your business to seven figures or more. You will find the practical steps you need to make that all-important mind shift that will level-up your business.
