Compensating for Your Entrepreneurial Style--or Lack of Style

By Glenn Beach
Posted Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I recently took an entrepreneurial quiz which evaluated my answers and informed me I would do best as a hired hand! So why am I a successful home business owner? Because I've learned to fill the holes in my entrepreneurial style, and compensate for my deficiencies.

Let's start with a list of qualities that might benefit someone working for him/herself:

1. Ability to see the big picture and plan accordingly;

2. Self-discipline;

3. Ability to use time wisely;

4. At minimum, a moderate drive to achieve;

5. Adaptability;

6. Autonomy;

7. Decisiveness;

8. A feeling of control over your own destiny;

9. Having (energy) drive and enterprise;

10. Motivation to grow;

11. Sense of intuition;

12. Ability to spot opportunities;

13. Perseverance;

14. Problem-solving abilities;

15. Risk-tolerance;

16. Self-confidence;

17. Social skills

As an example, let's look at John Doe. John has an excellent nose for a good opportunity; he drives his wife crazy with always turning everything into a new business idea. He's not afraid to make a decision and take the risk. He has a huge drive to achieve; he wants to be rich! John is confident that he can accomplish everything he sets out to do.

Then the reality of the rest of John sets in. He's not real good in the follow-through; as a matter of fact, he starts one business only to come up with another, and yet another, idea over and over. He writes up proposal after proposal, and always stumbles over the concrete details, such as turning goals and visions into action plans, and projecting budgets. He starts and stops, never stopping long enough to evaluate and plan ahead for the success of the next venture.

John could benefit from postponing his next decision until he hones his problem-solving skills a bit. He needs to understand where he's gone wrong and plan for success the next time. John also could put his vision for his work and his life down on paper, and learn to use this vision to help choose opportunities that are in sync with his financial and career goals.

John is confusing working hard with getting ahead. He needs to continually evaluate the tasks he is engaged in to determine if he is, indeed, using his time wisely.

And lastly, John would learn a lot from finding a business opportunity that would combine teamwork, successful strategies and skill building to encourage him to apply his abundant perseverance to ONE business until he succeeds.

John can look at this list and see how one strength could compensate for another weakness. If he wasn't very decisive, he could be spared many a bad quick decision, and strong problem solving skills could bring an eventual understanding of the right path for HIM. What he lacked in self-confidence could be made up for with social skills that enabled him to work well with a mentor or a knowledgeable team. Lack of enterprise or drive could mean he isn't cut out for over-the-counter or door-to-door retail sales. But he might shine in the backroom day-in- day-out details of getting a job done, or in website-based business.

Oh yeah...and John could also listen to his wife, and just give it all a rest at least one day a week...

About the Author
Glenn Beach is a self-employed sub-contractor and a home business entrepreneur in Nova Scotia, Canada
begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com