The modern world doesn’t have a lot of experiences more exciting than starting and growing a business of your own. Once you’re out on your own, operating without the safety net of a boss or a bigger corporate structure, you’re free on a level very few people ever experience. Like all freedoms, however, it’s easy to go wrong if you’re not careful.
LINK is an experienced business brokerage with a global network of entrepreneurs and new investors. We work with buyers and sellers at every step of the process, from consultation to closing. Some of our most successful buyers have certain traits in common that come in handy while they’re growing their new businesses.
Communication
No matter how big or small your business happens to be, nobody works alone. That makes open, effective communication a crucial skill for entrepreneurs. Being able to formulate a vision and successfully transmit it to investors, employees and customers often makes the difference between success and failure for an entrepreneur. This is especially true during the lean early years when the business is operating on thin margins.
Diligence
When you’re in business for yourself, there’s no longer any boss standing over you to make you do your work. The other side of this coin, of course, is that nobody can make you work harder than yourself. Diligence is the trait of getting up and moving, even when nobody is telling you to do it. It’s the skill of breaking down a goal into tasks and working your way through them all until the work is done. Arguably nobody needs this trait more than an entrepreneur, who usually starts out doing basically everything the company needs alone.
Organisation
Doing all that work can feel like more than one person can bear, and it often is for people with chaotic work habits. Learning how to organise a workload may be the difference between effectively managing a young company and wasting crucial hours in the day. Successful entrepreneurs almost always have some kind of sensible flow to the work they do, they often schedule their tasks in advance and in some logical order, and their time is treated like the finite resource it is. Entrepreneurs who have trouble imposing an orderly structure on their work habits might even find it worth the expense to hire an assistant or consultant to handle organisation and scheduling early on.
Enthusiasm
Nothing beats the enthusiasm of an entrepreneur with a great idea. It’s the force that drives you through the unavoidable drudgery of paperwork, and it lights a fire under both your investors and your employees to bring out their best. In a company that depends on you and your vision to survive, your enthusiasm about where you want to be is what makes the enterprise thrive.
Networking
Any small business can dramatically increase its reach with a good network of partners. A web development firm, for example, might be limited to designing databases and writing code, if those are the two skills its owner happens to have. Partner with a digital design firm and a few freelance copywriters and that small development company has now become a full-service powerhouse for digital branding clients and internet retailers all over the world. The ability to build a cooperative network may be one of the key skills in the modern economy, and it will be a rare entrepreneur who can’t do it well.
LINK is part of many small and medium businesses’ networks. With an international network, and more than 20 years of experience, we have the knowledge and connections to help guide you to your next move. If you’re thinking about getting started in a new market, or if you’re an experienced entrepreneur who’s looking for something new, give us a call at 0800 546 528 to speak with a broker in an industry you’re interested in today; we have offices throughout NZ.
