What Do You Need to Be a Successful Entrepreneur?

What separates the entrepreneurial failures from the successes? If anyone could definitively answer this question, they would become very rich themselves, but there are certain factors that make success more likely. If you are considering entrepreneurship, think about whether you have the qualities below.

Learning From Failure

Can you start to think of failure as a badge of honor? Every successful person fails on the road to wherever they eventually end up because they tend to try many different things and persist instead of becoming discouraged. Failure is an opportunity to figure out what you did wrong and make a better effort next time.

Luck

One of many reasons that you shouldn’t be too discouraged by failure is because there are certain problems every entrepreneur has, and as you will quickly learn, luck is a factor in every success story. This is somewhat but not entirely out of your control. You can think in terms of how to position yourself for both bad luck and good luck, ensuring that you have contingency plans for the former and that you’re ready to move quickly and take advantage of the situation in the case of the latter.

Problem-Solving Skills

You’ll need to be able to problem solve effectively, even when you don’t have all the time or information that you need in some cases. Sometimes, this will mean needing to take in and analyze the details about a particular department in your company that you don’t know much about and understand how the problem might be addressed. Your staff may also be able to advise you, but it’s always a good idea to know exactly what is happening within your own company. One issue that can come up if you have a fleet is compliance issues, including hours of service rules. An electronic logging device is one way for your fleet to stay compliant with rules about rest breaks, sleeper berths and more. You can read more about how an ELD can help with HOS compliance. Even if your expertise lies elsewhere, you need to be able to understood issues such as these and how to address them.

Your Network

The old adage that it’s not what you know but who you know that matters is not really accurate, but if you’re not much of a people person, you’re probably going to struggle more to get where you want to be. Relationships matter in business, and building a professional network with the people at the beginning of your career is critical as they are often the same people you will encounter again and again throughout your life. Making the most of your network to find opportunities and employees and simply to learn more about how other business owners are handling various challenges will substantially increase your likelihood of success.

Experience

Last but by far from least, experience in the industry is a big factor for success among many entrepreneurs. This might come as a surprise to some people, who may think of entrepreneurs as young hotshots. In fact, many are middle-aged or even older. Young people can certainly excel in starting a business as well, but a couple of decades in the industry is definitely a positive.