Many people dream that one day they could own a company. This dream seems to be particularly wide-spread on Taiwan, because there are so many small to medium enterprises here. Being an executive search consultant, I interview hundreds of senior managers every year. Many of them say that their career goal is to start a business. Quite a few have tried to be a partner in a start-up company at one stage of their career and failed. These have realized that being an entrepreneur is one of the toughest jobs around. It takes expertise, courage, passion and a tremendous amount of energy. They were hopeful, but not fully ready to take the challenges of setting up an enterprise. This four-part series will give you tips on the qualities that you need to master to maximize your chances of becoming the boss of a successful company – either your own, or that of others.

Before you take the big jump and invest your own money into a business venture, you can test your entrepreneurial talents as an employee working for others. Entrepreneurs are willing to take risks. Successful entrepreneurs only take risks that they have calculated carefully. As a matter of fact, it is not only safe to practice entrepreneurship as much as you want while you are an employee – it is the very best way to get noticed and promoted. As you practice being an entrepreneur, you may find your way to the top without ever having to spend any of your own money. In the best case, you will have the choice between leading an organization that belongs to others and an organization that belongs to you. In the worst case, you will discover the reasons why you are not fully ready yet, you will avoid a damaging failure, and you will continue to sharpen your skills. So, why not try?

To strengthen your entrepreneurial skills while you are an employee, the first thing that you must do is think of yourself as a business owner. Take a close look at your job function. You get certain requests from other people, you work to produce solutions that will satisfy these requests, and you deliver the solutions to other people. Your working time and the resources that you use to do your job generate certain costs for the company. The solutions that you produce also generate certain benefits or financial income for the company. If you are a manager, you lead a team of people. There, you have all the key components of an enterprise: your individual function, or your department is like a small company providing services to other people inside the bigger company where you work. Whenever you deliver results to others, you have the chance to turn them into satisfied customers who will want to use your services again. You can forecast the costs and benefits of your work, just like you would budget a company’s expenses and revenue. Your company’s financial department is like your bank. When you hire staffs for your department, imagine that you are staffing your own company. When you cooperate with other people or other departments, think that you are forming a partnership or a strategic alliance. If your mini business is more successful than its competitors, you will be promoted in the organization. Promotions will make your mini enterprise prosper. As it grows, your mini organization will look more and more like the whole organization. Eventually, it could be the whole organization.

Here is a list of key individual characteristics that make entrepreneurs succeed.

Personal attributes
Successful entrepreneurs have a strong need to achieve. They want to be the best in their field of expertise. They are committed to producing excellent results every time. They strive to improve each time. It keeps them motivated to work long hours. They are willing to sacrifice their personal time for the business. They do not doubt that they will succeed. They have the courage to accomplish things that others think impossible. They can not only work under pressure, but also make good decisions in stressful situations. They are emotionally stable. They allow themselves to relax from time to time to let their creative energies flow naturally. They can use their sense of humor to defuse tension at appropriate times. They focus on the positive things that happen in their life.

Business development skills
To be successful, an entrepreneur must have acquired a specific know-how and he must be able to use it to fill a niche in the market. Successful entrepreneurs keep on top of trends. They can foresee the next phase in the development of their industry. They never stop learning, so that they can always find innovative solutions to help their customers solve their problems. They participate in business associations such as chambers of commerce where they can gain information and benchmark their ideas. No matter what is their original field of expertise, entrepreneurs spend most of their time doing sales and marketing. They can state what they want clearly. They also can perceive accurately what other people expect from them.  They are willing to serve their customers, but they do not hesitate to negotiate for what they want in return.

Management skills
Successful entrepreneurs can do many things by themselves. Many small business owners must singlehandedly take care of most managerial functions: marketing, sales, production, R&D, finance and human resources. The more competencies they have developed in these areas before they start their business, the more they can save on external help and the more they can understand problems when they happen. They must be able to secure the other resources that they need from their partners and from the market. They respect money, so they will not waste it. They are willing to take risks, but they will only take risks that they have calculated carefully.

People skills
Successful entrepreneurs like to work with and manage people. They know that they will not be able to retire unless other people can replace them satisfactorily. One of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face is to find good people with potential capable to support the growth of their business. This is particularly true in a market like Taiwan where the industries that present the best opportunities for growth such as computer products or telecommunication are very short of skilled people. To build their teams, successful entrepreneurs go the extra mile to sell their company to prospective employees. They respect their employees. They provide personalized training and work closely with their team to build loyalty. Occasionally, they will volunteer to perform tasks that are outside their job perimeters to support their subordinates and demonstrate the strength of their methods to the team. Eventually, their biggest achievement will be to develop reliable managers who can take over most of their work.

Eric Dieny is President of EMS Consulting executive search firm, Chairman of the Consulting Services Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, and a former co-Chairman of the China Business Committee and the Labor Affairs Committee of the same Chamber.

A version of this article was published in the China Post --  the leading English newspaper in Taiwan, on July 30-31 and August 6-7, 1999.

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