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Stephanie Winans

Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting

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3 Attributes That Make A Successful Entrepreneur

January 12, 2016 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Attributes of entrepreneurs
Photo credit: wocintechchat/Flickr

I was asked on a panel recently about the most important attributes of an entrepreneur. When I think about the people who succeed at building their own businesses—not the anomaly, front of Time magazine entrepreneur but the everyday successful entrepreneurs—there are three attributes that come to mind.

Drive. Strategic thinking. Passion. And you need all three working in concert. So what happens when you’re missing one of these?

Without strategic thinking, you’re the crazy one going on and on about your idea but getting nowhere. You don’t look at the big picture and struggle to push through ideation to execution. You get stuck by making poor decisions. People probably duck into doorways when they see you coming.

Without passion you can’t sell your business to anyone—to end users, to talent for hire, to advertisers, to investors. We all fall in love with a story, and if you can’t tell it, then you’ve lost your audience and your business, too.

Without drive you just won’t survive. Have you heard the old adage, “Entrepreneurs are the crazy people who work 100 hours a week so they don’t have to work 40 hours for someone else”? Entrepreneurs and the talent who support them in #startuplife work their tails off. If you aren’t intrinsically motivated, you’re probably better suited for a 9-5 job at an established company.

Drive and passion typically come along with a good idea: it’s why people quit their day jobs to pursue their own businesses. It’s the strategy part that you have to watch out for. Finding a mentor early on can help ensure you aren’t wearing blinders and that you’re creating a plan that maximizes your chance for success.

What would you add to the attribute list?

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: entrepreneurs, startups

The 1 Question Entrepreneurs Live and Die By

December 22, 2015 by Stephanie Winans Leave a Comment

Entrepreneurs Post-it

Entrepreneurs face many questions each day, but there is one question that is as important post-launch as it is the moment the new business idea is conceived.

The Question in Ideation: How will I make money?

So you’ve encountered a real world problem and you have an idea on how to solve it. How do you know that your new business idea is a business and not a hobby? The answer to the question “How will I make money?” will tell you everything you need to know. If you’re building a for-profit business, define how you’ll generate revenue and a path to profitability. If it’s a not-for-profit you’re developing, outline how you’ll get funding. If you can’t answer this question clearly, then you need to re-evaluate your idea.

Having a clear path to revenue at the beginning of your ideation phase will keep you from making the wrong decisions and from wasting time and money on inconsequential things that won’t impact the business.

The Question in Daily Operations: How will this affect how I make money?

The “How will I make money?” question morphs to ““How will this affect how I make money?” once your business is operational. Asking yourself how a decision at hand affects your revenue streams will ensure you’re making choices that have the long-term health of the business in mind. With new startup Founders and CEOs making hundreds of decisions a day, it’s easy for this focus to get lost.

I have a post-it on my computer as a reminder. If post-its aren’t your thing, I’ve heard reverse forehead tattoos work, too.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: business strategy, entrepreneurs, revenue, startups

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