Although much fuss is made of entrepreneurial wunderkinds such as Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Bill Gates (Microsoft) who were young and/or high school drop-outs but still made millions as CEOs of legendary companies, the majority of today’s successful entrepreneurs do not fit into this mold.
According to the professional social network, LinkedIn – which has over 100 million public member profiles – two thirds of new companies today are founded by entrepreneurs over the age of 30, who have business school degrees from Stanford, Harvard and MIT, among others. And only two percent of all entrepreneurs start multiple companies.
Angel investors often make their investment choices based on whether or not they believe the entrepreneur can successfully sell a unique product and service. They look for certain winning qualities that will convince them to invest in one person rather than another. These include:
* Restlessness – there is a high degree of mobility among successful entrepreneurs prior to starting their businesses. They tend to only stay in jobs for two and a half years, compared to the national average of 4.4 years.
* Strong Communication Skills – entrepreneurs need to be able to sell their product or service to their investors, management team, board members, etc.
* Passion – successful entrepreneurs have a genuine love and passion for their company and the industry within which it operates.
* Focus – business founders who do well show a high level of focus and commitment to their company’s core mission.
* Leadership – sounds like a no brainer, but not all entrepreneurs make good leaders. Most successful business people have the ability to inspire and motivate their management team, and are great delegators.
* Stamina – New entrepreneurs work very long hours for long periods of time and face many set backs and challenges. They need the physical and mental strength and energy to cope with this.
* Resilience – the ability to bounce back from failure and learn from mistakes is a key characteristic of the successful entrepreneur.
* Realism and Objectivity – Even though most successful entrepreneurs are optimists at heart, they have realistic outlooks and can assess challenges and obstacles objectively.
* Financial aptitude – being good with numbers is a hallmark of a good businessperson. They are economically practical, good with budgets and aware of their costs at all times.
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