The Entrepreneurs and Business Development
Do you have the Entrepreneurial Spirit to start/develop a business

What makes an Entrepreneur tick?
So you have a great idea, a prototype or even early stage production - can you develop your business?
Here are eight factors that are important - do you have them?
Stamina
Working hard and very long hours are standard... and some. You set the example particularly if you have employees.
Vision
You work hard because you know where you are going but so must everyone else - staff, bank, investors. Your vision must be encapsulated in a written statement and be real. It is the basis for everyone's inspiration.
Can do
You believe it and everyone else will. An entrepreneur is always an optimist.
Listen and Learn
You listen to everyone particularly those with experience, even life experience and especially to your staff. This latter point is firstly important because you find out what is going on but secondly and more importantly your staff will feel valued and in return you get self-respect, responsibility and motivation. Listening is a great skill and funnily most people think they have it - ask your closest friends and your staff. Of course depending upon the atmosphere or culture you have created you may just get the answer you want.
Credit where credit is due
If someone has done a good job make sure you tell them and it doesn't matter where they are in your organisation, they could be an associate and not someone directly connected to the business. If the credit is not yours don't take it - ever!
Get inside their heads
Spend time understanding the people that matter - clients, staff, investors and speak to them in the light of that understanding. This will pay off in spades. Note this is listening again!
Raising the bar
Always look for ways to improve - your standards, your performance, your abilities to listen. This can have a frustrating effect but you will not succeed unless you are always pushing the bar.
Casting
Know yourself. Locate your weaknesses and find staff, advisors that can make up for them. In most cases this is likely to be behavioural which you cannot change to any real degree. Recognise this, find the solution and move on. Find out about yourself by asking close friends and colleagues to be brutally honest (don't take it personally) and combine this with some proven comprehensive but relevant psychometrics.

On top of this you need to be joined up, agile, fearless and smart.
Joined up
This means being able to link actions and implications across a wide range of events. This is critical in an age of specialisaion. It also means seeing the wood for the trees - being able to step back and see the bigger picture.
Agile
This means you have to multi-task seeing the need to change priorities, a change in market conditions or the needs of the people you are working with.
Fearless
See opportunities and having the balls to go after them. Entrepreneurs do this whilst those in the safe corporate world will dither. This is always a risk but that's what entrepreneurs do.
Smart
Don't confuse this with intelligent. Intelligent people are not necessarily agile or fearless. Will they put out fires quickly, will they understand that cash control is the be all and end all and when it comes down to it and more important than the business plan. Will they have the balls to pick up the phone and chase sales or late payment from clients. Are they willing to lose face by changing direction quickly - agile.

With thanks to Chris Ingram, London Business School.

Keith
Keith Irving
iStadia