Self assessment
Becoming an entrepreneur is a big decision for any person, particularly if it means leaving behind a steady income. This self-assessment overview will help guide you through the process of deciding if you are ready to start your own business and whether entrepreneurship is right for you.
Being an entrepreneur can be inspiring:
And entrepreneurs typically feel fulfilled in life.
But…being an entrepreneur can be very challenging.
Questions to consider:
Ideas & Innovation
- Do you have an innovative idea that you see a significant market need for?
- Are you innovative in finding solutions to problems and challenges?
- Do you enjoy competition?
- Will people buy what you are selling?
Motivation and Perseverance
- Are you truly self motivated?
- Are you truly self motivated?
- Do you remain optimistic even in unpleasant situations?
- Do you thrive under pressure?
- Do you view failure as part of business and part of life that provides learning opportunities?
- Do you recover from set-backs by taking a different approach and trying again?
- Can you effectively manage yourself and your time?
- Are you willing to work long, demanding hours?
Self-learning & Building blocks
- Strategy: do you understand or can you learn fundamentals of business strategy?
- Operations: do you understand, in a nutshell, how to get things done efficiently? Can you manage people to perform core business functions?
- Finance: do you understand or can you learn basic financial process, metrics and tools?
- Sales & Marketing: will you be able to identify customers, core market needs and then sell your products or services?
More importantly, if you cannot answer yes to one or more of the questions above, do you have a plan for overcoming this? Will you go out and learn this yourself or will you hire a specialized team to guide you through the process? Anything can work, but you must be purposeful and strategic in your approach to these problems.
Working Environment
- Can you effectively manage yourself and your time?
- Are you willing to work long, demanding hours?
- Do you thrive under pressure?
- Can you work alone for long periods of time?
Leadership
- Can you create and inspire a shared vision?
- Can you generate a sense of urgency around your vision and inspire others to act?
- Can you model the way? Can you really walk the talk?
- Can you enable others to act? Can you trust others to do their jobs?
- Can you build a winning team?
- Can you encourage the heart? Can you recognize when your team needs you to step in and when they need you to back off?
- Does your leadership style leave people wanting to work harder or finding it harder to work?
Work/Life Balance
- Will your family and friends understand that sometimes your business must come first?
- Are you willing to sacrifice your free time to deal with the priorities of your business?
- Are you willing to make short-term sacrifices to possibly gain long-term rewards?
Top-shelf Resources
Get Ready to be an entrepreneur with the SBA’s resource guide.
Create a plan with Startup Nation’s guide to getting a business started.
Online Self – Assessments
- Small Business Readiness Assessment Tool
This tool from the Small Business Adminstration is designed to help you better understand your readiness for starting a small business. - Entrepreneur Self Test
This entrepreneur test was designed to help an individual identify and understand his/her entrepreneurial potential. - Entrepreneur Self-assessment
This test assesses your character qualities, problem-solving methods, motivations, relational skills, business knowledge and support system known to be critical in successful entrepreneurship. - The Entrepreneur Test
This interactive quiz will help you assess your personal traits as well as your entrepreneurial and business skills.
