Knowing your business personality can help you choose the ideal startup for you and whether you are suited for it or not.
There is no secret recipe for you to become a successful entrepreneur. While most people who start their hands at entrepreneurship or open a business fail in the beginning, usually with persistence, you can achieve success.
However, all businesses start with an idea and if you are mad persistent about not letting that idea go down the flush, there are several introductory steps you can take before tackling on your entrepreneurship goals head on; such as, making a business plan, assessment of market opportunities and the like.
Also, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses before starting on a businesses (as such a SWOT test is highly recommended), but in this post, I want to talk about the different traits different types of entrepreneurs have and the pros and cons of each of those traits, as well as how they affect a business in its daily operation.
Related Post: 70+ Mistakes Almost All Entrepreneurs Make With Their Startups And How To Avoid Them (Read it Online or Download it)
The Common Thing Among Entrepreneurs
While “entrepreneurship” and “entrepreneur” are words rather famously thrown around in the business community, very few understand its true meaning and definition.
The word “entrepreneur” has a French origin, from the word “entreprendre” which means “to undertake”.
The most basic meaning of the word entrepreneur is “one who undertakes an endeavour”.
While most entrepreneurs have certain key different traits which affect a business in wildly different ways, it has been noted that most successful entrepreneurs have some traits in common, such as, creativity, dedication in their endeavours, determination in their pursuits, flexibility in their operation, leadership, self confidence and passion in their work.
Tying all these together, the entrepreneur needs to be rather knowledgeable in whatever he is doing. This knowledge should not only be that which is received only from books, but also that, which is received through experience.
For entrepreneurs eager to expand their knowledge beyond traditional learning, Thinkific provides an excellent platform to explore courses tailored to your business needs. Whether you’re an Artist looking to enhance your creative enterprise or an Analyst keen on solving complex business problems, Thinkific offers courses that can help sharpen your skills and deepen your expertise.
The thing is that these traits are common in almost each and every entrepreneur, except that it varies in certain degrees in respect of each.
And, the surprising thing is that the business that a successful entrepreneur undertakes shall have the requirement of these traits in such proportions as is available to the entrepreneur, if he is careful before beginning his business and undertakes a SWOT test (SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats and this is one of the golden tests businesses should undertake).
Why Do All These Traits Matter?
For one simple reason.
Suppose you are high in creativity and low in leadership.
And, you want to open a private security firm. Well, chances are high you will land on your ass broke.
Reason is, if you want to run a business like that, you need huge leadership skills….. which is why, if you don’t take care and analyse your strengths and weaknesses and their effects in the business you want to undertake, you are gonna lose – plain and simple.
Understanding your entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses is crucial, and tools like HubSpot can help you leverage your unique traits for business success. Whether you’re an Idealist needing to manage innovative projects or a Hero leading your team through challenges, HubSpot’s CRM platform offers the flexibility and insights to align your strategies with your entrepreneurial type.
- Must Read: 70+ Damaging Startup Mistakes You’d Want To Avoid
- Free Download- Exclusive Infographic on 51 Startup Mistakes that Will Destroy Your Startup (Based on the above post)
Types of Entrepreneurs
In order to make your startup succeed, you first need to identify your personality type and make sure that your startup is true to your character. If you can identify your strong traits, it can act as a compass for your business.
The Idealist
These guys are all around you.
See those top-notch startups, which are growing at a mad freaking rate?
Chances are those are owned by these types of entrepreneurs.
Idealists are among the most creative and innovative kind-of entrepreneurs. They love innovation and making new stuff and challenging the status quo of everything around them. They like to build, create new stuff and pursue his entrepreneurship goals through innovation.
I guess Elon Musk would fit in this category rather comfily. You know, privatising the space industry, like seriously?
While everybody thought something like this would be impossible, Elon challenged the existing status quo and I’d say lived up to the true spirit of the idealist entrepreneurship category by doing the impossible – commercialising space flight.
Anyhow, he’s not the only one on the top of my head. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are rather similar kind of entrepreneurs who always want to innovate and make something completely unfamiliar and different.
The Optimizers
Optimists….. highly positive…. get it? get it?
Optimizers are those guys who are extremely optimistic about their goals and business plans. They are the ones who see the glass as “half full” and would rather fill the entire glass.
They derive personal satisfaction from their entrepreneuristic mindset that is to own and grow their businesses.
Elon fits into this category as well… and yeah, these guys are 2nd most popular among all types of entrepreneurs.
Optimizers, with their goal-oriented approach, will find HubSpot’s sales management tool incredibly beneficial. It’s designed to keep you optimistic about your sales funnel, offering a clear view of your business achievements and what’s next on the horizon. HubSpot ensures that your optimism is backed by actionable insights, helping you to fill that glass to the brim.
Hard Workers
Warren Buffett fits the bill rather perfectly here. While delivering a speech at a University, when he was asked by a student as to what his secret to success was, he answered that – he read 500 pages everyday and that anybody could do it, but nobody would.
These “hard worker” category of entrepreneurs enjoy working extremely long hours and do not complain about it. They like to challenge themselves day in and day out, in order to attain their goals.
While you positively need to work extremely hard for your startup, especially right at its birth, chances are you can’t work at the level these guys put in for their startups.
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Advisors
You will usually find these guys in the service sectors and in consultancy firms. They love to provide services to customers and use that as USPs in their businesses. This business personality type pushes the entrepreneurs to provide a high level of assistance to their customers, that is both deep and consistent.
Whatever their business may be, it soon becomes customer oriented and involves providing assistance to customers at a certain price.
I would guess that the founders of McKinsey, Bain and Company are these kind of entrepreneurs.
Advisors who excel in providing top-notch service to their clients will appreciate the capabilities of HubSpot. Its advanced email marketing, automation, and CRM tools along with customer service functionalities enable you to maintain that high level of assistance your customers expect, ensuring every interaction is personalized and impactful.
Artists
These entrepreneurs have immense creativity and use it to form those kind of startups that require a good deal of creativity for succeeding, such as creating a music business or forming an advertising agency.
These entrepreneurs choose businesses which are centered around their strong points and exploit that to earn high revenue.
However, as with all businesses, there is bound to be some negative criticism. If you are an artistic entrepreneur, chances are that you are usually very sensitive when your creativity skills are criticized. Therefore try to keep your emotions in check, when and if customer feedback is negative.
Visionaries
Usually no entrepreneur starts a business without a vision in mind. The entrepreneurs who form a startup, usually visualize a dream and creates the startup to materialize the dream into reality.
These type of entrepreneurs are usually thinkers and long-term thinkers. They have a long sighted vision, which allows them to understand the business world around them better, which in turn helps them avoid pitfalls and hurdles.
However if you are one of these kind of people, note that sometimes you might face problems with execution, especially when you are starting out, because at this time, you have no idea what you even do not know. So, you may face hurdles and may even get opposite results, but whatever may be, just don’t give up.
Visionaries thinking ahead about their customer’s journey will find Freshsales by Freshworks to be an indispensable ally. With its AI-based lead scoring, visual deal pipeline, and intuitive sales processes, Freshsales helps you align your visionary ideas with practical sales strategies, ensuring your long-term goals are grounded in solid customer insights.
Heroes
These guys have wills of steel and are pretty much the best leaders in town. They have the innate quality to inspire others and can lead their business through difficult challenges. These kind of guys usually have the ability to assemble large companies.
However, a point of advice for all those heroes out there –
Don’t overpromise or use forceful tactics to get your way. While these may work for the immediate moment, you risk losing out in the big picture.
The guys who form private security firms usually fit this kind of category. Elon Musk has some of the negative sides herein.
Ben Horrowitz, the author of the bestseller “The Hard Thing About Hard Things“, shares several of the traits found in heroes.
Heroes, with their leadership qualities, will benefit from integrating a project management tool like Monday.com or Notion into their workflow. This tool empowers you to lead your team efficiently, track project progress, and overcome any business challenge with ease. Its collaborative features ensure that your heroic leadership translates into tangible team successes.
Analysts
These guys are kings at problem solving and excel at businesses wound up in complications. They are able to find the root cause of the problem at no cost and very little time compared to others and also may seek out the solution.
However, they tend to over analyse a situation, resulting in analysis paralysis.
Again, the biggest problem with these guys is in the execution of a problem. No plan, however great is pretty much useless without a proper execution.
If you are one of these guys, may be you need a tried and tested guide to boosting productivity that’s specially crafted for people like you.
Improvers
These guys are the ones who invented the phrase “Never Settle” (not literally). They usually form startups to improve the world or their immediate surroundings or if they feel a niche is left relatively unexplored. They usually like to work in morally correct manners and possess high integrity (bleh… boring!).
Anyhow, they have a tendency to be overly critical of employees and clients and try to be perfectionists.
In my opinion, this type of entrepreneurs are rather weak and get eaten by the bigger fishes in the pond.
Word to the wise: suck up to your integrity. Nothing’s fair in love and war.
Sustainers
Usually, this is another word for those who are not all in to their businesses. They seek to maintain a work-life balance, which is usually an impossible task if you have huge goals or if your startup has just been born, because that’s when it is the most vulnerable.
These guys do not want their startup to grow too large and try to keep it tight. Let’s move on and not waste more words on this type of entrepreneurs!
Fireballs
The most energetic person in the room, who feels that everything is possible. Their startups are usually filled with life, energy and passion. The startups have a “get it done” attitude which is further supported by the community of people they pool in.
They reek of energy and usually customers and people associated to the business gets drawn in by the optimism shown by the firm.
However, if you are a fireball, note that you may have a tendency to over-commit and act too impulsively. So, learn something from the analysts, will you?
Fireballs, known for their boundless energy, might find their inboxes just as overflowing as their schedules. SaneBox can help manage your emails by filtering out unimportant messages, allowing you to focus on what truly matters. It’s like having an assistant who understands your fiery pace and keeps you on track without dampening your spark.
- Also, your fireball trait may be greatly hampered by procrastination. While, there’s nothing one can do to end procrastination, there are plenty of things to lessen it, such as using anti-procrastination apps and meditating (it reduced my procrastinating habit to a great extent) or using strategies to combat procrastination, such as making a rule that your phone is not allowed in the room where you work etc. (Those links contain materials for further reading.)
Superstars
Kind of similar to the fireballs – these guys lead with charisma; are high on charm and energy. These kind of entrepreneurs have a personality which works in their favour as well as that of their business.
If you are one of these kind of guys, always build your business around your own brand, because it is you, which draws in the customers.
However, make sure not to make your workplace a workaholic black hole, as that can suck out the creativity from your startup.
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Wrapping it Up
Try to ask yourself, what type of personality do you have? Do you like making new things? Do you like working for hours on end or do you like leading people?
Then ask what sort of business is my personality suited for?
These questions can help decide the success of your startup from day #1. What type of startup you own starts with you.
So, just as a practice, comment what type of entrepreneur you are and let it roll!
For any queries or help with your startup, feel free to book a free consultation with us. You may also check out our list of services if you need any help with your business efforts.
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