Do you have the characteristics of an online business entrepreneur?

When you think of top business entrepreneurs, who comes to mind?

• Sir Richard Branson?
• Steve Jobs?
• Bill Gates?
• Oprah?
• Anita Roddick?
• Martha Stewart?
• Walt Disney?

Those people are pretty incredible. Think about the skills they have. What do you think sets those people apart?

What is an entrepreneur?

They will typically have a talent for seeing opportunities and turning those opportunities into profitable businesses. They might be visionary. They might dream big and have big ideas.

Contrary to popular opinion, entrepreneurs are NOT wild risk takers – they take calculated risks and have the ability to appropriately evaluate risk.

An entrepreneur is someone who starts a new business venture. Although not everyone who starts a new business venture is an entrepreneur. You see the distinction?

There are some skills and traits that have been researched as to what it takes to run a successful small business. But what about the skills and traits needed to be an online entrepreneur? Depending on where you look, there are a range of different skill sets that deemed to be ‘the’ entrepreneurial skills, but I’m seeing is not an entirely consistent set of skills or traits.

So I have put together a set of skills that I believe are vital if you want to embark on a successful online career from home. Depending on where you look, the ones that seem to pop up include:

• Communication skills
• Perseverance
• Desire and willingness to take initiative
• Self-reliance
• Self-confidence
• Competitiveness
• A strong need to achieve
• Ability to display flexibility

I believe the top behaviours for online business entrepreneurs are:

Take what you do seriously – just because you are not working in a ‘traditional’ office building or retail store doesn’t mean you should be any less serious about what you’re doing. The number of people who now work full time from home has grown significantly in the last few years, and it is no less important than a traditional job. So do it justice and take it seriously if you want to succeed.

Do something you enjoy – your business will be far more likely to succeed if you are doing something that you have an interest in and gives you enjoyment.

Become known as an expert – this won’t happen overnight and will come with time as you master your niche. The more you become known as the expert in your field, the more people will seek you out.

Always provide a call to action – you need to ask for the sale or the sign up.

Become a self-promoter – for some of us this will be hard but it is necessary. Don’t be obnoxious though! Thankfully social media makes it relatively easy to self promote. It will get easier the more you do it.

Project a positive image – be professional in your websites and your writing. Don’t litter your pages with advertising, that just makes your pages look spammy. Always write well and use spelling and grammar checks, and never use bad language on your sites.

Invest in yourself – this means always continuing to improve your knowledge. Read blogs and magazines, join networks and learn as much as you can.

Be accessible – make it easy for people to do business with you. That means being available to contact through your website, and always engaging with people who leave comments.

Build a good reputation – be consistent, and do what you say will do. If you say that you will promote a new deal every Friday, then make sure you do that.

Sell the benefits of your product or service – there has to be a benefit to your product or service, it can’t just be about pushing products.

Design your workspace – your workspace should maximise personal performance and productivity. We can’t all have a private study at home, but if you do, this is preferable to setting up in the lounge room or your bedroom.

Be organised – have systems and routines in place that support you. This could include creating a to do list at the end of every day or week, and a calendar including business activities, family and personal activities.

Take regular breaks – just as if you were in a 9 to 5 job you need to take some breaks including a lunch break. And switch off. You can’t work around the clock just because you’re at home and it’s YOUR business you’re managing. You will burn out if you do this.

I have deliberately called these behaviours rather than skills, because I think we can train ourselves to exhibit behaviours and continually hone them into skills if they don’t come naturally to us.

Interestingly enough, some attributes that are considered least necessary include having a need for power, strong desire for money.  What are your thoughts on that?

Anyone can become an online entrepreneur

I’m going to say something that may shock you – I don’t think you have to be particularly ‘entrepreneurial’ in the sense of when we think about the attributes of the famous entrepreneurs we read about, to be successful in the online world. I think you need to be dedicated, ready to learn a lot, and work hard. Not everyone can be (or needs to be) like Mark Zuckerberg to make it.

Resilience is imperative. You won’t be successful overnight. You need to keep working at it, constantly building, learning and growing.

You don’t need to be the next Elon Musk to have a successful and profitable online business. Online business entrepreneurs are just regular people who work hard.

How can you become an online entrepreneur?

It is easier than you may think.  Anybody can become an online entrepreneur, you just need to know how.

There are some simple and free ways that you can access training to become an online entrepreneur.  Click here to find out more about an excellent online entrepreneur course. There are free modules available to get you started. By the end you will be well on your way to being a home entrepreneur.

What are you waiting for?

Leave me a comment or question below and I’m happy to help.