Our Small Business Management Course covers the essentials to getting a start-up off the ground — from developing ideas and concepts, to conducting market research, and eventually writing a business plan — but it doesn’t cover whether or not you embody what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

What makes an entrepreneur is a question that’s often asked and answered, sometimes insightfully, sometimes not — just Google it and 127,000 results are returned.

Is it in the Personality?

We could list a number of personality traits or attributes we think you need to have to be a successful entrepreneur (be outgoing, accountable, able to measure and reward success, and so on), but we’re not going to.

Truthfully, what makes one person, and not another, successful in their endeavours is not an exact science; there’s no winning formula to success — if there was, we’d have bottled it and sold that instead! — and it would be disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

Just that you’re reading this post and considering a course in small business management, however, shows you’re open to new ideas — and the ideas of others — and that’s the hallmark of a good leader.

Leadership

That’s really all an entrepreneur is: a good leader. Whether you’re a sole trader, employ one other person, or employ a number of staff, if you can’t set goals, develop strategies to achieve them, and follow those strategies to ultimately realise your goal — in effect, lead — your success will be limited, at best.

But you’re already doing all of this right now, you’re already leading: You’ve set yourself a goal — to start a new business; you’re developing a strategy to achieve it — taking a small business management course; and you’re following that strategy to realise your goal — completing the content in the course.

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So don’t ask yourself if you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur; ask yourself if you have what it takes to lead — through the good and the bad. If you answer “yes” then you’re on the right path, now you’ve just got to follow it.