25 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

Do you have what it takes to get through hard times? Here are the traits that help home-based business owners thrive.
BY James Stephenson

1. Do what you enjoy
What you get out of your business in the form of personal satisfaction, financial gain, stability and enjoyment will be the sum of what you put into your business. So if you don't enjoy what you're doing chances are you won't succeed.

2. Take what you do seriously
You cannot expect to be effective and successful in business unless you truly believe in your business and in the goods and services that you sell. The number of people working from home, and making very good annual incomes, has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years.

3. Plan everything
Planning every aspect of your home business is not only a must, but also builds habits that every home business owner should develop, implement, and maintain. The act of business planning is so important because it requires you to analyze each business situation, research and compile data, and make conclusions based mainly on the facts as revealed through the research.

4. Manage money wisely
The lifeblood of any business enterprise is cash flow. You need it to buy inventory, pay for services, promote and market your business, repair and replace tools and equipment, and pay yourself so that you can continue to work. The money you spend on inventory, supplies, wages and other items required to keep your business operating. (expenses)

5. Ask for the sale
A home business entrepreneur must always remember that marketing, advertising, or promotional activities are completely worthless, if you do not actively ask people to buy what you are selling.

6. Remember it's all about the customer
Everything you do in business must be customer focused, including your policies, warranties, payment options, operating hours, presentations, advertising and promotional campaigns and website. In addition, you must know who your customers are inside out and upside down.

7. Become a shameless self-promoter (without becoming obnoxious)
One of the greatest myths about personal or business success is that eventually your business, personal abilities, products or services will get discovered and be embraced by the masses that will beat a path to your door to buy what you are selling. But how can this happen if no one knows who you are, what you sell and why they should be buying?

Self-promotion is one of the most beneficial, yet most underutilized, marketing tools that the majority of home business owners have at their immediate disposal.

8. Project a positive business image
You have but a passing moment to make a positive and memorable impression on people with whom you intend to do business. Home business owners must go out of their way and make a conscious effort to always project the most professional business image possible.

9. Get to know your customers
One of the biggest features and often the most significant competitive edge the home based entrepreneur has over the larger competitors is the he can offer personalized attention. The home business owner can actually answer phone calls, get to know customers, provide personal attention and win over repeat business by doing so. It's a researched fact that most business (80 percent) will come from repeat customers rather than new customers.

10. Level the playing field with technology
Make sure you're keeping up with the high-tech world as it suits your needs. One of the most amazing aspects of the internet is that a one or two person business operating from a basement can have a superior website to a $50 million company, and nobody knows the difference.

11. Build a top-notch business team
No one person can build a successful business alone. Your business team may include family members, friends, suppliers, business alliances, employees, sub-contractors, industry and business associations, local government and the community. Of course the most important team members will be your customers or clients.

12. Become known as an expert
When you have a problem that needs to be solved, you naturally seek an expert to help solve your problem. Becoming known as an expert is another style of prospecting for new business, just in reverse. Instead of finding new and qualified people to sell to, these people seek you out for your expertise.

13. Create a competitive advantage
A home business must have a clearly defined unique selling proposition. How do you separate your business from your competition? Will it be better service, a longer warranty, better selection, longer business hours, more flexible payment options, lowest price, personalized service, better customer service, better return and exchange policies or a combination of several of these?

14. Invest in yourself
Top entrepreneurs buy and read business and marketing books, magazines, reports, journals, newsletters, websites and industry publications, knowing that these resources will improve their understanding of business and marketing functions and skills. They join business associations and clubs, and they network with other skilled business people to learn their secrets of success and help define their own goals and objectives. They do this because they know that education is an ongoing process.

15. Be accessible
Making it easy for people to do business with you means that you must be accessible and knowledgeable about your products and services. You must be able to provide customers with what they want, when they want it.

16. Build a rock-solid reputation
A good reputation is unquestionably one of the home business owner's most tangible and marketable assets. You can't simply buy a good reputation; it's something that you earn by honoring your promises. If you promise to have the merchandise in the customer's hands by Wednesday, you have no excuse not to have it there. If you offer to repair something, you need to make good on your offer. Consistency in what you offer is the other key factor. Without trust, you won't have a good reputation.

17. Sell benefits
Your advertising, sales presentations, printed marketing materials, product packaging, website, newsletters, trade show exhibit and signage are vital. Every time and every medium used to communicate with your target audience must always be selling the benefits associated with owning your product or using your service.

18. Get involved
Always go out of your way to get involved in the community that supports your business such as pitching in to help local charities or the food bank, becoming involved in organizing community events, and getting involved in local politics. It's a fact that people like to do business with people they know, like and respect, and with people who do things to help them as members of the community.

19. Grab attention
Every promotional activity you engage in, must put money back in your pocket so that you can continue to grab more attention and grow your business.

20. Master the art of negotiations
The ability to negotiate effectively is unquestionably a skill that every home business owner must make every effort to master.  Remember that mastering the art of negotiation means that your skills are so finely tuned that you can always orchestrate a win-win situation which means that everyone involved feels they have won, which is really the basis for building long-term and profitable business relationships.

21. Design Your workspace for success
Carefully plan and design your home office workspace to ensure maximum personal performance and productivity and, if necessary, to project professionalism for visiting clients. A den, spare bedroom, basement or converted garage are all ideal candidates for your new home office.

22. Get and stay organized
The key to staying organized is about having systems in place to do things. Therefore, you want to establish a routine by which you can accomplish as much as possible in a given workday. Small things such as creating a to-do list at the end of each business day, or for the week, will help keep you on top of important tasks to tackle.

23. Take time off
Create the schedule as soon as you have made the commitment to start a home business. All work and no play makes you burn out very fast and grumpy customer service is not what people want.

24. Limit the number of hats you wear.
The ability to multitask, in fact, is a common trait shared by successful entrepreneurs. Most highly successful entrepreneurs will tell you that from the time they started out, they knew what they were good at and what tasks to delegate to others.

25. Follow-up constantly 
Constant and consistent follow-up enables you to turn prospects into customers, increase the value of each sale and buying frequency from existing customers, and build stronger business relationships with suppliers and your core business team.

James Stephenson is an experienced home based consultant with more than 15 years of business and marketing experience. He is the author of several popular books, including Entrepreneur magazine's Ultimate Startup Directory and Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide, both available from Entrepreneur Press.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/200730#ixzz2YmwSA0yS