7 Surprising Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs – Guide to Successful Startup

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What traits are of a successful business?

Are there some traits that these super successful businesses have in common and possibly something we can learn from to create our very own business empire?

The short answer.

Yes!

As a matter of fact, there are some surprising easy-to-follow traits of super-successful business startup entrepreneurs that we can easily learn and copy to create our very own success.

Editor’s Recommendation: Best Books to Read for Startup Entrepreneurs

How Many Small Businesses and Startups Survive 10 Years According to Statistics?

Building your own business is hard and according to Forbes and SmallBizTrends, most small businesses will not survive for 10 years.

  • 80% of small businesses survive their first year.
  • 70% of small businesses survive in their second year.
  • 50% of small businesses survive after five years in business.
  • 30% of small business owners survive in their 10th year in business.

Surprised?

Here is an example of the number of companies that will be celebrating their 10th anniversary.

how many startups survive 10 years in business by incomebuddies.com
No. of Startup Survived After 10 Years

Less than 10% of all startups will survive after 10 years.

  • 20 out of 100 small businesses will not survive their first year.
  • 44 out of 100 small businesses will not survive their second year.
  • 72 out of 100 small businesses will not survive their fifth year.
  • 92 out of 100 small businesses will not survive their tenth year.

Basically, after 10 years, only 8 in 100 small businesses or startups will survive.

A milestone I believe you will celebrate in the future.

Editor’s Recommendation: Are you a Leader or a Boss?

7 Key Traits That Links To A Successful Business

1. Leadership

Yes, great leadership in the business is one of the key traits that make or break the success of the business.

You as the owner and founder of the business need to decide what guidelines your leadership team needs to follow

  • What are your core values?
  • What is your company’s vision?
  • What is the mission statement for your company?

You are the one who will create the path for your staff to follow. Your staff includes everyone, from the top management to the intern you just hired for the semester.

Your people needs to know what they are working for and most importantly why do they wants to work in your company and not in your competitor’s.

Your leadership and vision will shape your leadership team towards your goal. They are your hands and legs when managing your company.

If you want to be successful. remember to give sound direction and establish a strong foundation to the company.

Books to read on leadership!

Read ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek. Simon is one of the best business coaches of the century who has guided thousands of CEO in the business journey. This book doesn’t only tells you the importance of Starting with Why it also guides the reader in finding their ‘Why’ in the business.

“I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”

Elon Musk

2. Business Culture

Business culture is basically the collective reflection of the behavior of its leaders. Which in turn will affect the culture of its employees in how and what they do each day in the company.

You are the captain of the ship who will drive the direction of where and how the business culture will be.

When we say about Google, what comes to your mind?

If I guess correctly, words such as refreshing, creativity, free food and an overall a pleasant working environment are some of the few things that comes into your mind.

Strange but why?

Google is one of the best employer according to Forbes. 

Google gives such a positive vibe on its working environment because the founders created a Business culture where creativity is encouraged and employees are well taken care off, thus it is refreshing and highly sought after.

Which in turn makes it into a highly successful company and overtake Yahoo as the world’s no.1 search engine.

A great business culture not only makes your employees feel happy and ‘Tap dance’ to work, it make your business successful as well.

Books to read on cultivating positive business culture!

Read ‘Leaders Eat Last’ by Simon Sinek. Simon is one of the best business coach of the century who have guide thousands of CEO in they business journey. This book shows you the way on how to create a business culture that will make your employees ‘Tap Dance’ or at least enjoy work that little more.

“My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society. As a world, we’re doing a better job of that. My goal is for Google to lead, not follow that.”

Larry Page

3. Systems and Structure

With the help of a good business culture, you shall be able to create a solid system and company structure that will allow you to succeed.

To grow your company you will need a system to produce predictable results and a structure that will ensures consistency in productivity and efficiency in adapting to changes.

A lack of structure is like a sand castle which will not be able to withstand the impact of the wind or waves from the sea, and will eventually become a pile of sand.

When a business has no structure or system in place,

  • It will not be able to survive financial crises.
  • It will not defend itself from the attack from a competitor.
  • It will not be able to adapt to the change and eventually be phased out in the industry.

On contradictory, companies such as Amazon.com.

Jeff Bezos have created a strong foundation for his company. A company with efficient system and solid structure where he is able to grow his company into the current empire making him the riches man alive according to Forbes.

The system and structure can be in the form of leadership, accountability, policies, and business culture. A solid structure backed by an effective system can lead to the success of the business.

Learning about business success?

Check out our articles on the most insightful 3 simple steps to get things done and be successful.

“You know if you make a customer unhappy, they won’t tell five friends, they’ll tell 5,000 friends. So we are at a point now where we have all of the things we need to build an important and lasting company, and if we don’t, it will be shame on us.”

Jeff Bezos

4. Developing Talents

In order to create a great system and structure of the company, you need to develop its talents.

The value of an employee is on the skills it is able to provide for the company.

Success of a company depends on the people working in it.

In order to get the best talent to work for your company, one of the most important aspect is to develop your own pool of talent which have join your company and are in pursue of the same dream.

Having a commitment to train and educate your own people who have the same goal as you does not only makes them able to serve your company better with more relevant skill, it is also much cheaper than hiring and training a new person.

Apple is one such company and developing a pool of highly qualified talents has made Apple become one of the most valued companies in the world.

Developing talents is an investment in your brand and future. “Striving To Be The Best” is the factor of success.

Resources that can help you!

Self-development is one of the best investments in yourself and reading is the cheapest and easiest way to do so. Check out some of the Best Books you should read to help develop yourself into an even better self.

“You can build your own things that other people can use. And once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Steve Jobs

5. Work Environment

If a successful business has a look, it is the environment that people are working in.

Business owners always like to ask, “what is that one easy thing that I can do to improve my business?”

Our answer: “clean the place, give it a fresh coat of paint and fix that toilet.”

Superficial as it may sounds, the looks of the company and the office reflect on the people working in it. If your workspace looks like it has been abandoned for centuries with the wallpaper peeling down and light flickering, I seriously doubt anyone wants to work in the place. Let alone working effectively.

Your office and your working environment should always communicate your company’s brand identity.

The environment should look professional and appealing, and every piece of equipment should work as how it should. Lastly, people working in the environment should dress for work or in attire that reflects the company’s culture.

Improving the working environment allows people to be more productive, creative, and most importantly, excited about coming to work.

And one of the top companies that have one of the best environments is the tasty fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger as reported by CNBC.

Building great environment?

A great environment makes a great employee, and great employees make a great company. Check out these amazing powerful Quotes you may want to place in your office or your management team’s office.

“Since 1948, we have maintained a simple philosophy — serve only the highest quality product, prepare it in a clean and sparkling environment and serve it in a warm and friendly manner.”

In-N-Out Burger

6. Brand Identity

In the world of business, if you want to succeed, you cannot be like the 99 other companies that are doing the same thing as you.

You have to differentiate yourself from others.

Brand Identity is what you need.

In regards to Brand Identity, most businesses are one of these three categories:

  • “Invisible” brand identity
  • “Common” brand identity
  • “Wow” brand identity

‘Invisible’ are the ones who don’t even have an identity. The business is created just because you want to be rich, there is no vision, no mission, and no other purpose. it is just a self-centered reason for the creation of the company.

‘Common’ are businesses that don’t feel like they are any more special than their counterparts down the street. The service, the quality, and the logo just feel mediocre, nothing special at all. There is no ‘Wow’ factor.

‘Wow’ are businesses you want to create, they are businesses with strong brand identities that send the “wow” meter flying. This is the level of brand identity that leads to success.

I give you the words ‘Priceless‘ and ‘Travel‘ which company comes into your mind that is related to these 2 words?

My guess is, ‘Master Card’, they have the Wow factor in their brand identity that has made them so successful.

From their websites, the color and exceptional customer service touch that Brand Identity of success.

Trying to build a Brand identity?

One of the best ways is to learn from the best mentors and reading is the cheapest and easiest way to do so. Check out some of the Best Books you should read to help in your startup entrepreneur’s success.

“There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.”

MasterCard

7. Financial Literacy

It is true that numbers are boring and on rare occasions cause some people to have headaches and may even have heartaches.

But knowing your financial numbers is one of the most important skills you have to learn in business.

I know what you are thinking, and maybe even sweating inside with the thoughts of massive amount of numbers.

Good news is, you don’t have to be an accountant, the accountant can do the difficult part of the calculations.

You just need to know how to read and understand financial reports.

Your financial reports tell you about,

  • The health of your company helps you to make the best possible business decision.
  • Your cash flow and will be able to plan your budgeting in different parts of your business.

Even when you are just a one-man team, financial literacy lets you know whether are you earning money or losing them.

Your cash is your resource for your business and it will help you to fuel its operation, and not keeping track of your finance will mean you will not be celebrating your 10th year anniversary for your business anytime soon.

All successful businesses learn and master particular skills in financial planning for the business, so that businesses may grow and succeed.

Be financially literate?

Want to learn about how you should read financial statements? One of the best ways is to learn is by reading, or you can learn from some of the best courses provided by Udemy, learning finance fundamentals for business.

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”

Warren Buffett

Bonus Exercise

To help you in validating your business idea, we have created a simple checklist for you.

With a simple grading system of 1 to 3 scale (1 means “need improvement” and 3 as “perfect world-class standard”), each trait listed below helps you to assess the viability of any business… yours included.

Using this approach, a score of 3 for each characteristic will yield a perfect score of 21, and a score of 19 and above means you will have a higher chance of success than 90% of others.

Business Success Checklist By IncomeBuddies.com

Traits To startup Success

  • Leadership
  • Business Culture
  • System and Structure
  • Developing Talents
  • Work Environments
  • Brand Identity
  • Financial Literacy

Just reading about the traits of successful business startups will not make you successful, you will have to follow through and act. Remember your road to success is in your hands.

There are also some amazing traits of a wealthy individual that you may want to learn and be successful.

Check out our latest blog post

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Founder & Financial Writer at Income Buddies | Website | Posts by Author

Antony C. is a dividend investor with over 15+ years of investing experience. He’s also the book author of “Start Small, Dream Big“, certified PMP® holder and founder of IncomeBuddies.com (IB). At IB, he share his personal journey and expertise on growing passive income through dividend investing and building online business. Antony has been featured in global news outlet including Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq and Non Fiction Author Association (NFAA).

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