How to Assess Your Personality before Starting a Business

Original content shared on LinkedIn by me.

Why does your personality sound so important to your business? Does it really affect your business? If it affects your business, how?

From time immemorial, people have been involved in a variety of businesses as this is one of the earliest forms of interaction between people from different places. However, the mode of doing business has changed over time and the personality of the business owner has now become so important to setting up a business.

Your personality consists of those features that you have that make you unique. These features are distinct and every human possesses them, but the features differ from one person to another. Personality is often inborn but it is also sometimes influenced by the environment that the individual was raised.

The personality of a business owner has so much influence on the business itself. It can be said to determine the business acumen of the individual. Business acumen is the quality of being shrewd, sharp and acute in the business sense. These qualities determine the success of a business as they can make or mar the whole business process.
These are the qualities of an individual’s personality that are required for business success:

• Passion for business
Successful business owners are people that have a passion for what they do. They do not go into business just for the sake of the financial gain but because of the passion for the business and this will aid the progress of their business.

• Readiness to sacrifice for the cause of the business
Everybody sacrifices one thing or the other at a point in time. Hence, the readiness to sacrifice pleasure and certain hobbies for your business is as important as any other thing. Your failure to make certain sacrifices may be detrimental to the success of your business.

• Interpersonal skill
You are going to be relating to your customers or clients every now and then, thus, you have to be well equipped with this skill. Some of the important interpersonal skills are negotiating skill, communication skill and so on.

• Leadership skill
While leadership can be classified as an interpersonal skill, it is so important that it should be explained differently. Your employees and other people (e.g supplier) that you work with need to be led, and you, as the owner of the business, are in the best position to lead others. Giving instructions, telling others what to do, receiving ideas and complaints from your staffs and so on are some of the things that you will do with your leadership skill.

• Resilience
Businesses fail from time to time, and only business owners that can stand the test of time are going to succeed while those that are not resilient and persistent will fail. Challenges will come, your ability to face it head on is very important.

• Previous business experience
Well, having previous business experience in related or unrelated business can be very important in determining how well a business will go. Your previous work experience will be a pointer to what your new business adventure will likely be. If your previous business experience was unsuccessful, endeavor to ruminate over those things you did wrong and make sure you avoid same mistakes in this new adventure.

• Good business ethics
Your ability to strictly treat the business as the business will be a major factor in determining the durability and strength of your business. A lot of business owners have destroyed their business with their lack of business ethics. Business is business, and it should always be treated as such.

• Risk-taking ability
Every business has certain risks that must be taken for the goal of the business to be achieved. If you are too afraid to take the risk, your business may never grow. However, business owners are not expected to take just any risk, but rather well-informed risk. In taking informed risk, all necessary calculations have been done, and this will reduce the possibility of things going too wrong. Though problems may still arise after taking informed risk, the outcome will be minimum.

• Resources management
Since you are going to be in charge of your business, you are expected to manage all resources, especially financial resources, which will be made use of. Lack of good management skill has been the problem most businesses have. Some business owners, especially small business owners, do not keep track of their expenditures on relevant and irrelevant things. It is when their businesses finally crumble that they do realize their mistakes.

• Quick decision-making ability
The fact remains that you will have a lot of decisions to make as long as you are the one in charge of your business. So how good you are at making timely and good decisions will affect your business.

You should sincerely consider the ones you possess out of all these qualities and take note of the ones that you do not have. The ones you have are what we call your strengths while those you lack are your weaknesses.
Since nobody is perfect, there is a need for you to compensate for those qualities that you lack. Do any of the under listed things to compensate for your weaknesses:

• Learn new skills that can improve the qualities you lack
If the qualities that you lack can be learned, then it is advisable for you to take your time to learn then. This may affect the time you will start the business as well as your finances, but it is going to be of long-term benefit.

• Find a mentor or motivator
This is very necessary if what you lack is previous work experience. Find someone who is within the same line of business you are venturing into to mentor you. Not only will the person give advice, he will also share his previous work-related experiences with you.

• Hire or partner with someone who has the qualities you lack
Hiring or partnering with someone who has those qualities you lack is another thing to do when trying to compensate for your weaknesses.

All in all, your personality as a business owner is of utmost importance to the viability of your business.