You are an Entrepreneur
Life is too short to spend it working on someone else’s dream!
A farm is a Business
A farm is a business – this means you are an entrepreneur!
An entrepreneur is a person who creates a business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures.
Table of Contents
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t
so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
– Warren G. Tracy’s student
Motivation
Motivation is the primary attribute. It powers all other attributes.
Imagine the result of lining up to a set of difficult tasks as if you really could not be bothered.
Consider the difference if you see them as critical to your goals and the sooner and better they are achieved, the happier you will be and the nicer your future will be.
They have place and purpose in your future and that of your business.
“Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
– Vince Lombardi
Discipline
To be a successful entrepreneur you need self-discipline. This will allow you to set and keep deadlines, to get the work done and to go the extra mile to make it a success.
Frugality and Prudence
This is possibly the least favourite of the attributes.
When you are starting a business or resurrecting one, it is important to be careful with time and money. Often Frugality and Prudence are at odds. There is a time to spend money on equipment and people and a time to hold off.
Never forget Murphy’s Economics – the cost of NOT having something.
This is a classic manager’s dilemma.
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
– Mark Twain
Optimism
Positivity like optimism is necessary to keep going, expecting success.
If your view is not optimistic, it is either the wrong path or you are the wrong guy. Listen to your heart, not other people – small people do not have the heart to continue and are afraid of success and likely are jealous of your success.
Self-Confidence
Do not confuse confidence with over-confidence. Self-confidence is mandatory.
Over-confidence lacks prudence. Self-confidence must be tempered with prudence. Decisions are important to the future of the business and must be considered.
Decide in haste and repent at leisure, but have the self confidence to follow up on decisions that FEEL RIGHT.
This does not mean to procrastinate over their making. This skill comes with practice and experience.
Good Communication Skills
Good communication skills allow you st say what you want to say – clearly without causing offense.
If your message is ambiguous, confusion follows. When your employees, customers and suppliers clearly understand you, positive results follow.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
– Warren Buffett
Humility, Honesty and Integrity
Reputation is important, but trust is critical.
If people are uncertain of your motives, they are not likely to wish to deal with you. The deal here may mean a commercial arrangement or simply a relationship.
No deal equals no future – simple.
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
– John C. Maxwell
Leadership
As you progress, you will need people to assist you. There is only so much time in the day.
To manage these people to want to help you, good leadership is essential. Sell the dream to those who have none. Once your dream is theirs, your purpose becomes theirs, your future is shared.
Flexibility
Flexibility is necessary – you do not get it right all of the time.
To know the rare times when things can be better than your vision means that you need to be open to change. Think it through and determine the best path – then follow it! Your gut feeling is your best guide here.
Ability to Set Boundaries
Set Boundaries – they are a prerequisite for respect. This may be with customers, suppliers and employees. If you are a walk-over there is no respect and your business will suffer.
Do not be afraid to sack a customer if they overstep the mark – they generally are low value and occupy a lot of resources to maintain – the 80/20 rule applies here.
Be Systems Based
Maintain systems for all policies and procedures. Define the best way and time to do something and do it that way – unless you or an employee work out a better way. In that case test the new way and if it is truly better adopt it immediately.
This will allow you to work more ON your business than IN it.
Good Record-Keeping Skills
Keep records for everything, not just financial – you never know when you need a history of something.
Believe me, it can be incredibly frustrating when you come up with an idea and have no method of validating it and only twelve month’s data will prove it. Take the guess work out of the future.
Make your record keeping part of the procedures.
Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you!
– Will Riker, Star Trek
Prior to devoting my time to Properly Organic and Designer Acres, I served as a contracted super tech in the bleeding edge of satellite imagery, business management and accounting software, then telecommunication software bringing SMS and Mobile Application Protocol into Australia. I then decided to return to the land. I quickly discovered that apart the shape of the bales and the colour of the tractors little had changed.