Do You Have What It Takes?
Posted on May 30, 2010 by Elaine Lockard, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Are you starting a home-based business? Do you have what it takes to be successful? Find out in this article.
When starting a home-based business, or any small business, there are factors within yourself you must consider, and consider truthfully, if you want to succeed. Per the Small Business Administration, here are five questions to ask yourself to determine your strengths and weaknesses to see if you have what it takes.
1. Are you a self-starter? Do you begin projects on your own or do you operate best by having someone else tell you what, when and how to do a project? Remember, you are going to be working for yourself, no one else. If you don’t do it, it does not get done. You have to be able to find the what, when and how within yourself to succeed.
2. Do you like meeting people and developing relationships? You’re going to be meeting clients, customers and other business people. You have to be able to deal with different personalities and situations. For example, how would you handle a customer complaint? Being in business is about obtaining and retaining customers. If you lack interpersonal skills, your might lose your customer and your business might suffer.
3. Are you good at making decisions? It’s your business; the buck stops with you. Yes, you can always ask advice but you still have to make the final call.
4. Do you have the physical and emotional stamina to work twelve hours or more a day, six or seven days a week? When starting out, it’s all on your shoulders to get everything done until you can afford to hire someone to help. Do you physically have the endurance? Do you have the drive or motivation to keep going?
5. Are you organized? Do you have a business plan? In any project, you need to have a structure, a plan on how to proceed from point A to B to C and so on. So, once you have a plan, can you follow it or do you tend to go off in multiple directions at once? Being unorganized with no concept of where you are or any vision of where you are going, will get you nowhere fast except possible bankruptcy.
