Six Traits You'll Need To Make Your Own Business Successful

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Fundera reports that women-owned businesses generate nearly two trillion dollars of income each year, and that nearly 40 percent of US businesses are female-owned. They also state that women of color make up the majority of new female-owned businesses opened in recent years and that there are 114 percent more female entrepreneurs today than there were 20 years ago. Those are some pretty awe-inspiring statistics that might have you thinking that it’s time to finally move your business idea from your vision board and into Excel/SquareSpace/Etsy…wherever it needs to go to get started. Before starting any new journey, it is important to know about some of the road bumps you’ll face along the way. These shouldn’t be reasons not to start a business, as anything worth having has its challenges. However, knowing about them can prepare you to face them.

The women who make up the above-referenced statistics overcame a lot. Research out of Columbia Business School states that female-led businesses are still receiving less venture capitalist funding than male-led ones. That being said, when they do, they perform just as well as male-owned businesses. So what does it take to attract that money, and then make it work for your business? Because it’s clear that, once women have it, they do great things with it. Harvard Business School actually took an in-depth look at the personality traits that prevail in entrepreneurs who succeed, and we break them down below.

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A greater purpose than money

If you’re just in it for the money, you may not get as far as others. The Harvard Business School showed that entrepreneurs who start a business for reasons not related to money tend to go further. Some of their reasons might include flexibility of schedule that allows them to spend more time with family and friends, or security for one’s family, which is technically financial but not about the acquisition of superficial belongings. Other reasons might include the ability to change the landscape in an industry – if you don’t like the way things are done, you create a new way. For some, the reason is personal fulfillment and knowing they went after their dreams.

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Focusing on what you can control

Having a locus of control (LOC) proved to be a big determining factor of success. A locus of control – and most importantly an internal locus of control – is a belief that you influence the events of your life more than outside factors do. It’s the idea that your actions/behaviors/attitude will be the strongest driving force behind how your life goes. It is the opposite of, say, a victim mentality in which one believes that when things don’t go their way, outside forces are usually to blame. It is the opposite of the belief that one’s life is out of their own control, and external factors (the world is unfair, people don’t like me, etc.) have pre-determined how their life will go.

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Risk tolerance

It might come as no surprise that entrepreneurs tend to have a higher risk tolerance than those who work for somebody else. A high risk tolerance specifically tends to be important in starting a business, more than it is later in one’s business. The entrepreneurial path is one of high risk/high reward. When someone chooses to leave the stability and predictability of a corporate or wage job, they do so not because entrepreneurship is certain to work out or because they have any sort of guarantee. They do it because, in spite of the major risks (like loss of all capital funds), they believe the potential reward is worth it. Going into starting your own business requires the understanding and acceptance of the associated risks.

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Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy also proved to be important to an entrepreneur’s success. Self-efficacy means to believe in your capabilities to execute on goals and do what it takes to make a vision a reality. It means that you believe you have the skills, knowledge, and drive to do what it takes to be a success and to finish what you start. One can have risk tolerance and a purpose larger than money, but without self-efficacy, it will be difficult for them to move their ambitions forward. In some cases, if you’re lacking self-efficacy, the fix can be as simple as taking further education and acquiring the skills and knowledge that you need.

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Need for achievement

This next one can be a blessing and a curse but appears to be an integral part of the successful entrepreneur’s mindset: a need for achievement. If you think of a world in which your goals don’t work out, how do you feel? Do you feel that you’ll find a way to be happy anyways? Or is that outcome not even a possibility your mind will allow for? Successful entrepreneurs tend to land in that second category: they would not be satisfied with a life that did not include great career achievements. Those who are drawn to the entrepreneurial life typically are because they become fed up with the lack of upward mobility available to them in corporate life. They cannot tolerate any sort of limitations on their achievements. A life without great career achievements would be…a failure. This outlook isn’t right or wrong – it depends on the individual. Many people would say their life was a huge success if they managed to be happy, to travel often, and to have fulfilling personal relationships. Great career success doesn’t have to be a part of it for them, and that’s okay, too. But for successful entrepreneurs, that typically isn’t “enough.”

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Optimism

The idea that extremely powerful and successful people are a little bit out of touch with reality is a common one. It does take some degree of “delusion” to believe that one will beat the odds when the odds are tremendously stacked against them. We don’t think that any current celebrity is delusional, but if a friend tells us they believe they can be famous, we may quietly think they’re delusional. Good. They have to be. If people only decided to do something when the odds were stacked in their favor, then we wouldn’t have many great people who’ve done incredible things. And that brings us to our final trait found in successful entrepreneurs: optimism. Actually, extreme optimism. The researchers at Harvard Business School describe this as “Having unrealistic beliefs in positive outcomes.” The important thing that the researchers encourage entrepreneurs to think of is this: combine that optimism with as much knowledge, skills, and drive as possible. You can’t get anything done with just optimism, or just skills. But the combination of both is powerful. So know when friends and family tell you that you’re “crazy” or “unrealistic” about your dreams, you should take it as a compliment. All the greats are!