Are you an entrepreneur?

I know you think you are an entrepreneur but tell me have you taken any of the thousands of online quizes on entrepreneurial temperament, skills qoutient..

Whether you have or you havent, indulge me and do it one more time and belief me when i tell you, its good for you.

This personal inventory will enable you to spot where you may need extra support, training, or help as you move into the business. What areas are they?

1. Am I a risk taker?
2. Am I a problem solver, a positive thinker who enjoys constant new challenges? Or do I prefer a more predictable life? Do I see life’s difficulties as stepping-stones, or as stumbling blocks?
3. What are my major strengths and weaknesses?
4. Am I comfortable working alone for long periods of time, or would I rather be part of a team?
5. Would I be uncomfortable not knowing what my income will be from one year to the next, from one month to the next?
6. Can I live with uncertainty? Or would a life with a lot of ups and downs bother me?
7. Am I a positive person, with a lot of tenacity? Or do I get discouraged easily?
8. Do I like people? Do people like me? Am I easy to get along with?
9. Do I enjoy interacting with people, and helping them? Am I outgoing?
10. Do people like to confide in me and ask my advice?
11. Am I a self-starter, comfortable with working on my own without any supervision?
12. Would I mind working long hours, including evenings and weekends,to make my business successful?
13. How well do I handle pressure and stress? At work, what generates the most stress for me?
14. Would I enjoy the challenge of solving clients’ financial problems? Am I always looking for better ways to do things?
15. Am I a good listener? Do I enjoy listening, or am I more concerned with expressing my own ideas?
16. Am I sensitive to the needs and moods of other people? Do I read people well?
17. Am I comfortable and skilled at supervising others?
18. Can I ask colleagues for help when I don’t know the answer to a problem?
19. Do I enjoy constantly studying and learning new things, or do I find
    it a burden?
20. When I’m working, do I often get lost in details and lose sight of the
    big picture?
21. Do I instinctively focus on the most critical tasks needed to make
    any project succeed?
22. Am I comfortable being in the limelight, and constantly promoting
    myself?
23. Do I have a commonsense, practical, down-to-earth personality?
24. Do I have sales skills? If not, how can I learn them?
25. How much do I know about actually running a business?

On your Mark! Ready! Set! Goooo!... not quite

You are at starting line:

You are the starting line and you are thinking when will the gun go off so I can get going? Hold your horses, I know you believe you are ready, but I will ask you to indulge me just for about an hour or two and answer this questions.
I have done this exercise about twenty times not really with the intention of going into business but because it guide me as am deciding on a course of action for my life.

I promise you your thinking, your mindset and attitude will be changed after this exercise. These questions aren’t new to you; you might have encountered them a thousand times in different forms but just one more time.

So let’s get started.

What is my primary aim? Take time to visualise and write down your vision for your life 10-20 years from now

• What do I value most
• What kind of life do I want
• Who do I wish to be
  

Why are you starting the business? The purpose of this question is to tie in the business with your personal vision. If in your vision you started you see yourself owning a chain of retail stores then your reason for starting the business would easily fit. But in situation where your ten year plan includes active participation in the stock market and saving plans for your children’s education so that you can retire early to a farm. Or you want to actively participate in volunteer work. Whatever business you start has to meet a personal need as well as a market need.

Skills and Interests Inventory? Jot down the skills that already exist in your talent bank. What do you like to do with your time? What technical skills have you learned or developed? Do you have hobbies or interests that are marketable? It might help to create a personal resume that lists your professional and personal experiences as well as your expertise.

What would make you quit? You might not think this is important at the start of your venture but it necessary that you consider the factors that you think will make you quit. Careful consideration of these factors usually lead to discovery of what mistakes to avoid and also what is actually important to the entrepreneur.

What do you think you will need to be successful? Again this exercise is important as it helps one determine clearly the current understanding of the business they want to go into and also in a situation where it turns out you need more information its easier to now go out and look for something specific..

What need does this business meet in society around you? Sure you have determined what this business is going to do for your life if you succeed, but you do realise the only way you start to make money is to meet a need in the market, society around you, what do people need, is someone else providing it and why do think you will do a better job?

Now let’s look at your business idea and what you have done so far?

• You researched your idea
• You figured out how much it will cost
• You know where you get the finances, as a matter of fact you already talked to the financiers
• You have a business plan ready; business is registered, your systems in place and marketing and customer service plans are ready
• You started courting your first customers

Well hang out the shingles my friend you are ready to start……………..but remember it a long race not a hundred metre dash so don’t wind yourself too early… proceed slowly your business will pick up momentum as it naturally react to the market needs.

The one piece of advice you cant sell without

Yea so I haven’t really taken time to sit and put together an article yet………. I have had a hectic two weeks during which the company I work for as Marketing and Corporate Communication Officer took part in the African Banking Conference…….(will tell you my learnings from that) and we launched a new service product…( I will be sharing my learning from this also).

For now here is another link I just found to an interesting eBook… …….http://www.raintoday.com/ebooklink.cfm
The writers focus on selling professional services with the audience being both novices and seasoned pros. But having read the book I think this are insights that we can use in other forms of businesses too……. e.g. the ebook first chapter is “its all about Trust”…….. in every business its all about creating relationships and this requires trust.

In the business world from the formation to the acquiring of other business and even termination of a business, the thing that will always stand out is the role Trust plays.

You want start a business, does your potential partner trust you?
You selling services or products, can the person you are selling to trust you to deliver high quality?
You are buying a service; can the person trust you will pay on time?
Do you trust your suppliers to be honest and on time?
Your employees can they trust you to be fair?

Have a read, and look at the possible applications of this principles.

Starting out

Here is a very useful link i found for all who want to know how much it cost sto start a business in kenya and what processes are involved in setting up. http://www.doingbusiness.org/ExploreTopics/StartingBusiness/Details.aspx?economyid=101

This site has information on other countries also .. so wherever your kenyan psyke takes you, you have some information on costs involved in setting up. That is the legal costs