Position your Company for Success: 5-part Series.
Part 1: Self-Assessment
 
By Adam Mauldin
Intern with MyTown Monthly magazine
 
When thinking about owning and operating your own business, it is popular to think of the successful shop serving goods that everyone wants. People crowding the aisles clamoring for more of your products, and difficulty keeping enough inventory on the shelves. The register filled with cash and customers throwing money at you. It’s a pleasure to balance your books and you are more successful than you ever thought possible. Business is good and you are good at it!
 
Ah, what a great daydream! Now, how to turn those dreams into reality? This first installment of the five part series, “Position Your Company for Success,” focuses on self-assessment.  Ask yourself these questions and know the answers before you design the letter head for your new company or sign a lease for your business location.
 
·         Why do you want to own a business?
·         What are your personal traits?
·         Can you handle stress?
·         Do you mind working alone?
 
In order to decide whether or not going into business for yourself is a good idea, know your personality, goals, competencies, and values. If your business ideas are at odds with your competencies, goals, and values, you might discover great difficulty in positioning your company for success.  You may decide that you are determined, extroverted, and energetic.  Or, you might find that you cave under pressure, are introverted, and tire easily.  Whatever the responses, you must be truthful with yourself and know who you are.  After answering the questions above, you can continue your self-assessment by reading the chapter, “Assessing Your Entrepreneurial Profile: Do You Have What It Takes?” in the book, The Ultimate Small Business Guide. A Resource for Startups and Growing Businesses.  
 
Are you in it for the money? If starting your own business is to get rich quick, small business ownership may not be the path for you.  Monetary gains do not grant satisfaction, but rather can only make a person dissatisfied, according to Frederick Herzberg who proposed the Dual Structure Theory of Motivation in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  In other words, if you hate your job and suddenly get a raise and are now paid well for this job, you will not like the job, but you will tolerate it. 
 
Common personality traits of successful entrepreneurs, according to The Ultimate Small Business Guide, are:
 
·         Extroverted and confident
·         Able to communicate effectively
·         Sociable and able to lead
·         Able to handle failure
·         Creative and Imaginative
·         Hardworking, committed, and determined
·         Individualist
 
Although, these traits are not necessarily indicative of success, they are common among successful business owners. If your personality differs a bit, don’t worry. What is important is that you know who you are; every strength and weakness, and can learn how to compensate for these weaknesses. 
Through the course of the self assessment, find your competencies – the things you’re good at. This may include experience that you have had related to the field or industry you want to enter, education, and life experiences. You do not have to have technical expertise in the area that you wish to do business in because the technical aspects of creating a good or service, and the business aspects of providing the good or service are not one in the same.  However, it never hurts to know the processes associated with the creation of your good or service.
 
Diving into the world of small business is frightening and can be humbling. But, it’s important that you don’t lose the dream!  The dream is the reason you’re reading this series and why you have begun to research ways in which you can reach success in business ownership. However, it is important that you complete your research and proceed with caution before you commit large amounts of capital to your idea. If you do not thoroughly analyze yourself and your idea in the planning stages or your business, then your dream of owning your own business can quickly become a nightmare. And, if you decide after completing a self-assessment that owning a small business is not for you, then you haven’t lost any money. If anything, you have learned a bit about yourself and will be better off for it.
 
Personality Quizzes:
Entrepreneurial Personality Test - 60 questions, 15 - 20 minutes
Is Entrepreneurship for Me? - short quiz for surface analysis
Deciding Which Assessments are Right for You - learn about the different asssessments available, and decide which one is right for you.
 
Helpful Websites:
Small Business Administration: www.SBA.gov
Service Corps of Retired Executives: www.SCORE.org
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: www.USChamber.com
 
Works Cited:
Hingston, Peter. Starting Your Business (Small Business Guides). New York: DK ADULT, 2001. Print.
 
Publishing, Perseus. The Ultimate Small Business Guide. A Resource for Startups and Growing Businesses (Ultimate Business Library). New York: Basic Books, 2004. Print.