Free Small Business Templates and Tools
Here's a collection of business tools featuring dozens of templates, books, worksheets, tools, software, checklists, videos, manuals, spreadsheets, and much more. All free to download, no strings attached.
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Here's a Quiz to Help You Assess Your Entrepreneurship Skills
(Manager & Entrepreneur Test)
The first question you should answer when you are thinking of starting a business is "Am I the type?" You will be the most important employee in your business. It is more important that you rate yourself objectively as the business manager than how you rate any prospective employee.
Appraise your strengths and your weaknesses. As a prospective operator of your own business, acknowledge that you are weak in certain areas and cover the deficiencies by either retraining yourself or hiring someone with the necessary skill. The questions in this test indicate to what extent you have the personal traits important to a business manager.
Checklist for Starting a Business: Essential Ingredients for Success
If you are thinking about going into business, it is imperative that you watch this video first! it will take you by the hand and walk you through each and every phase of starting a business. It features all the essential aspects you must consider BEFORE you start a business. This will allow you to predict problems before they happen and keep you from losing your shirt on dog business ideas. Ignore it at your own peril!
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Instructions: Read each question in this entrepreneur quiz and click on one of the suggested answers. Respond by marking the answer that most accurately describes your behavior, feeling or attitude as it actually is, not as you would like it to be, or think it should. You must be absolutely honest with yourself in order to get a valid score.
Score 100
Excellent. A perfect score. You are a born entrepreneur. If you are not presently running your own business you should definitely start one -- the sooner the better. You are on the way to fame and fortune.
Score 91 - 99
Very good. You definitely have what it takes to succeed in a business of your own. Don't hesitate, your way to business success is wide open.
Score 72 - 90
Good. You have the qualities of a successful entrepreneur with some weak spots. Read the interpretation below to identify your deficiencies. You should be able to cover these deficiencies by either retraining yourself or hiring someone with the necessary skills.
Score 40 - 71
So so. The prospects of your success in a business of your own are questionable. You have some deficiencies that might out-shadow some good traits you have. If you still want to go on with it, be sure to call up all the persistence you can get. You are going to face some tough adversities on the way.
Score 40 and below.
Unsatisfactory. Forget your dreams of being your own boss, it's not for you. You'd better keep your present job. Why bother with all the risks and hustles of starting a business.
What Traits and Characteristics Make a Successful entrepreneur
Numerous studies have been made of entrepreneurs and business managers over the years. Many look at traits and characteristics that appear common to most people who start their own businesses. Other studies focus on characteristics that seem to appear frequently in successful owner-managers.
First, consider those characteristics that seem to distinguish the entrepreneur person who opens a business from the person who works for someone else. These studies investigated successful and unsuccessful owners, some of whom went bankrupt several times. Some were successful only after the second or third try. The characteristics they share might almost be said to predispose a person into trying to start a business. Of course, not all of these characteristics appear in every small business owner-manager, but the following seem to be most predominate.
People who start their own business may be members of different political parties, feel differently about religion, economics and other issues. They are like everyone else. The difference is they usually feel and express themselves more strongly. This is consistent. If you are going to risk your money and time in your own business you must have a strong feeling that you will be successful.
These strong feelings may also cause problems. If you want to start your own business you probably have mixed feelings about authority. You know the manager must have authority to get things done, but you're not comfortable working under someone. This may also have been your attitude in a scholastic, family or other authority structure.
If you want to open your own business you are likely to have a strong "Need for Achievement". This "Need for Achievement" is a psychologist's term for motivation and is usually measured by tests. It can be an important factor in success. The person who wouldn't think of starting a business, might call you a plunger, a gambler, a high risk taker. Yet you probably don't feel that about yourself.
Studies have shown that very often the small business owner doesn't differ from anyone else in risk avoidance or aversion when measured on tests. At first thought this seems unreasonable since logic tells us that it is risky to open your own business. A management expert once explained this apparent contradiction very simply. "When a person starts and manages his own business he doesn't see risks; he sees only factors that he can control to his advantage." If you possess these traits to some degree or other it doesn't mean you will be successful, only that you will very likely start your own business. Some of these characteristics in excess may actually hamper you if you are not careful. By the way, if you are planning to start a business and need money, one option is to seek free grants money by applying for government grants and loans form the US federal government.
Characteristics of Successful Small Business Entrepreneurs
The characteristics that appear most frequently among "successful" small business managers include drive, thinking ability, competence in human relations, communications skills and technical knowledge.
Drive, as defined in the study, is composed of responsibility, vigor, initiative, persistence and health.
Thinking ability consists of original, creative, critical, and analytical thinking.
Competency in human relations means emotional stability, sociability, good personal relations, consideration, cheerfulness, cooperation. and tactfulness.
Communications skills include verbal comprehension, and oral and written communications.
Technical knowledge is the manager's comprehension of the physical process of producing goods or services, and the ability to use the information purposefully.
Motivation or drive has long been considered as having an important effect on performance. Psychologists now claim you can increase the motivation and the personal capacities that will improve your effectiveness and increase your chances for success. Much of the development of such achievement motivation depends on setting the right kind of goals for yourself.
Here's a collection of free books in the "how to start a business" series that may give you some ideas as to what business to start:
Now Free! 300 Business Guides To Help you Succeed In Business >>>>Agriculture Assisted living Auto repair Bakery Bar Beauty salon Bed and breakfast Bookkeeping Boutique Bowling alley Carpet cleaning Car wash Catering Cattle farming Charity Cleaning Coffee shop Computer repair Construction Consulting Convenience-store Cupcake Daycare Dental Dog daycare Ecommerce Electrical Embroidery Engineering Farm Fashion Film Financial advisor Fitness center Flower-shop Food Food truck Franchise Frozen yogurt Furniture store Gas station Goat farming Grocery store Gym Hairdressing Hair salon Ice cream Insurance agency Interior design Internet Internet cafe IT Jewelry Landscaping Laundromat Laundry Law firm Magazine Manufacturing Microbrewery Motel-hotel Music Nightclub Nonprofit Nursery Online-retail Photography Pizza Plumbing Poultry farming Preschool Printing Private investigator Pub Real-estate Resort Restaurant Retail School Security company Service Software Spa Sports-bar Startup Supermarket Travel agency Trucking Vegetable-farming Website
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