The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Entrepreneurial in spirit you may say. My mother chose to start her own business rather than return to work after I was born. I guess the thought of leaving me with the nanny while she was slaving away in corporate America was a little less than appealing. I began working in her office at the ripe age of nine playing secretary and steadily gained more responsibilities within her company as I grew older, thus the entrepreneurial spirit was planted, nurtured and grown over the decades since. The personal considerations that I saw in my mother, during the success of her business venture far outweighed the lost vacations and the long hours spent at the office. As an entrepreneur she showed great passion, endless drive, and the ability to excercise her creative mindset to make her business the successful enterprise it was.

Passion
An entrepreneur must be passionate about his/her business. The entrepreneur that begins a venture that they are less than passionate about will ultimately fail. Your passion is your energy, the fire that fuels your business. According to Nelson Bolles, "One of the marks of successful entrepreneurs is their enthusiasm about their businesses.When you're passionate about what you do, [prospective clients] would rather give their business to you than to your competitor." Let your passion fuel your business. You, the entrepreneur, are the greatest representation of your business. If you are passionate, bursting with positive energy, and excited about your business, your customers will feed off of your energy and become excited about your business as well. Passion plays more of a role in your business than you would think. It is part of what makes the field of Entrepreneurship so exciting and a refreshing twist.

Entrepreneurial Drive
Realizing your passion and choosing to start a venture in a field you are passionate about is a great start, but sustaining the quest for excellence is quite another. This is where Entrepreneurial Drive comes into play. Successful entrepreneurs, including Richard Branson, saw something in the world that needed to change, acted upon it and in return was extremely successfull. Branson successfully launched Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile and various other ventures primarily because he saw a need or something that needed to change and he acted upon it. Steven Berglas explains, " (entrepreneurs)don't question their motivation; don't wonder whether or not they are taking risks; don't ask themselves, 'Will this work?'Instead, they just act--passionately, indefatigably, in pursuit of a goal." The drive that many successful entrepreneurs poses pushes them to not only make great changes in the many wrongs of society, but also to create business ventures that are worthy of great accolade.

Creative Thinking
The opportunity to think independently and openly outside of the realm of normal day in day out tasks is yet another benefit/characteristic of the Entrepreneur. Small business owners often operate on limited resources, thus initiatives such as guerilla marketing play a large role in the success of their business. Thinking outside of the box to make the best use of your resources is essential to maintaining a successful business. For example, a bakery is in great need of additional marketing assistance, but their resources to do so are slim. Across town a local independent magazine is throwing a bridal party for area brides to be, complete with a giveaway drawing package. The bakery reads about the party and negotiates additional ad space in the magazine in exchange for donating a cake for the raffle package at the bridal show. Thinking outside the normal methods of business, both companies received services they needed without exchanging a dime. Think creatively, entrepreneurship/small business ownership is your opportunity to exercise your creative freedom.

Whether or not the Entrepreneurial Spirit is something you are born with, something that is instilled within you, or something that you may have picked up during school, it is the greatest opportunity that you have been given. Satisfaction may only come from launching the venture you have been dreaming about, as the passion is stirring within. If the saying is true, "Failure is just another learning experience." Go for it, what do you really have to loose.