The ten traits of wealthy entrepreneurs. What are they and do you have them? Score yourself here

June 5, 2013 By Laura Humphreys Leave a Comment

financial freedom imageOver the past two years I have interviewed over forty successful entrepreneurs.  My criteria for an interview subject is that they must have built and sold at least one successful business.  Many of them have been serial entrepreneurs – having created more than one business and learned many lessons along the way.

As I’ve talked to these people it has become apparent that they all share certain traits that ultimately lead to their success.  If you want to succeed at your business (of course you do), you could do worse than focus on developing the traits exhibited by the rich and free.  Work out which ones you have in abundance and work on the ones you don’t.

Take a look at the traits listed below and grade yourself on a score of 1 to 5, where 1 means ‘not at all’ and 5 means ‘totally got it nailed’, against each of the traits. Don’t feel you have to be close to a 5 score to be successful. This is a reality check to identify the areas you will need to work on as you grow your business.

10 Traits of wealthy entrepreneurs:

  1.  Vision. Rate the clarity of the vision you have for your business when it is complete and you’ve created financial freedom from it.

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Self-belief. Rate your confidence in your ability to build a business that will generate great wealth and freedom for you.

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

  

  1. Passion. Rate your passion for your business

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Being goal-orientated. Rate the clarity of the goals you have set for your business

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Planning. Rate your current plan for a business that will feed you wealth

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Being action-focussed. Rate your ability to take action as needed.

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Determination. How do you rate your determination to succeed?

1                      2                      3                      4                      5                     

 

  1. Willingness to fail. How would you rate your willingness to learn from failures?

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Being wealth positive. How would you rate your willingness to be very wealthy?

 1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

  1. Giving back. Rate your desire to make a difference through your business

1                      2                      3                      4                      5

 

Review your scores for each of the 10 traits. In which areas do you already feel strong? Which areas do you need to work on?   And what plan can you put in place to lift your game in your weaker areas?

In my book, Liber8 Your Business, I go into more detail about these traits and show you how to develop your strength in the areas you need to.  To be notified of the book launch just click here http://liber8yourbusiness.com/

 

From the desk of Liber8me. Small business mentors and publisher of Liber8 Your Business: The revolutionary business planning technique that will set every business owner free.

Pre-register for a copy of Liber8 Your Business here: http://liber8yourbusiness.com/

Find out about working with Laura here: http://www.liber8me.com/one-on-one-mentoring-programme/

Filed Under: All articles, Book excerpts, Daily small business mentoring tips, Traits of the Rich & Free Tagged With: business, Business advice, Business blogs, Business book, business coach, business coaching, business mentor, Business mentoring, business owners, business planning, business planning tools, entrepreneur, Exit strategies, Exit strategy, goal setting, How to write a business plan, Planning an exit strategy, small business mentor, success

Business Mentor Tip #68 – Develop a freedom mindset

June 7, 2012 By Laura Humphreys Leave a Comment

To build wealth and freedom from your business, you need a certain mindset.  You must have the willingness and ability to see yourself totally free from the need to work for a living.  And you have to believe that your business is your major wealth creation tool and your ticket to the life of your dreams.

I call this way of thinking “A Freedom Mindset”. From my interviews with many wealthy entrepreneurs I discovered ten traits they all had in common which create the foundation for the Freedom Mindset:

  1. Vision.  Successful business people have a really clear picture of their business when it’s ‘complete’, they can see where it is all heading.
  2. Belief. However big and daring their goal, they believe that they can do it.
  3. Passion.  Starting each day with a fire in your belly and feeling passionate about what you do is another factor that unites the business elite.
  4. Goals. Successful business people are goal setters.  They have the willingness to look out to the future, to see the vision and then set goals along the way to make sure they get there.
  5. Plan. But of course goals without a plan are just goals, so another trait that comes through when you talk to wealthy entrepreneurs that is that they had a plan for their business. They see the vision of ultimate success, they set some really clear goals and then they put a plan in place of how they will get there
  6. Action. A plan is just a plan until you put it into action.  The best plan in the world will not succeed unless someone implements it.  Another trait of really successful people is that they are action-orientated people. They are people who will actually follow through on the plan that they’ve created for themselves.
  7. Determination. Wealthy entrepreneurs don’t give up when the going gets tough. They keep going no matter what.
  8. Failure. Things will go wrong.  The ability to learn from the failure, to take the learning, pick yourself up and carry on – that is a key trait to being a successful business person.
  9. Wealth positive not money negative.  The business elite are not frightened to build a business that makes them phenomenally wealthy.
  10. Giving back.  To share and make a difference on the planet is what drives the difference between the average business owner-operator and those that go forward and create phenomenal wealth.

From the desk of Liber8me.  Business mentors and experts in small business exit strategies.  Based in Wellington, New Zealand.

Filed Under: All articles, Business success, Daily small business mentoring tips, Entrepreneurship, Top Tips, Traits of the Rich & Free Tagged With: business, Business advice, Business blogs, business coach, business coaching, business mentor, Business mentoring, business owners, Business partnerships, business planning, business planning tools, Exit strategies, Exit strategy, Starting a business

What does financial freedom mean to you?

June 5, 2012 By Laura Humphreys Leave a Comment

Here’s another excerpt from my very nearly finished book:

I’ll quickly tell you this story about my father. He died at age 73.  Which seems far too young these days, when most of us hope to live well into our eighties. The good news was that he retired not long after his fiftieth birthday, so he’d had 23 years of freedom before he died.Thanks to the sale of his photocopier sales business he had a grand old time after retirement. Not a flashy life but a very fulfilling one.  He and my mother travelled first class around the world to places they’d always wanted to see.  When my first child was born and we were living in New Zealand, he flew my family first class back to England so he could see his grandson. The ability to do that is really cool, don’t you think?

A story was told at his funeral that I’d never heard before and it sums up the beauty of financial freedom for me.  Apparently one day my mum got a call from a Veterans Association in England wanting to talk to my dad. When she told them he was out, they said “We just want to thank him for the £10,000.”   “What £10,000?” she asked.  “Oh, didn’t he tell you?” they replied. “We’ve just received a cheque from your husband for £10,000.”  So when my dad came home later she asked him what on earth he was doing sending £10,000 to the Veterans Association. He looked at her and said, “I saw their ad in the paper, trying to raise funds to send a party of veterans to a memorial in France where a bunch of their colleagues had died at war.  So I rang them and asked them how much they needed.  They said they needed £10,000 and I gave them the whole lot.” My mum said, “Why on earth did you do that?”  To which he replied, “After everything they’ve done for our country they shouldn’t have to beg.”

To me, thanks to the lessons from my father, finanical freedom means the ability to make a difference to others without having to worry about paying the bills.

What does it mean to you?

 

From the desk of Liber8me. Business mentors and experts in small business exit strategies.  Based in Wellington, New Zealand.

Filed Under: All articles, Business success, Laura's rants, Traits of the Rich & Free Tagged With: Branding, business, Business blogs, business coach, business coaching, business mentor, Business mentoring, business owners, business planning, entrepreneur, Exit strategies, Financial Freedom, Small business, small business mentor, Wealth creation

Business should be a force for good. Thoughts from Sir Richard Branson

October 24, 2011 By Laura Humphreys Leave a Comment

Sir Richard Branson has long been a hero of mine and so it was a great pleasure to see him live in Melbourne at the 21st Century Financial Education Summit last night.  What a lovely man and how humble and approachable.  He spoke about  many facets of his life and business career and always with an undertone of hope and expectation that every small business owner can achieve the great things he has.  With a little luck, a lot of determination and the vision to see their dreams unfold.  Here are some key themes that resonated with me from his 60 minutes on stage:

  • Lead with your heart.  Do what exites you and what you feel passionate about. 
  • Get out and give it a try.  Take on a challenge and give it your best shot.
  • A business is really just a group of people.  A great leader will  motivate people to achieve great things.  Motivate people, praise people, inspire people… don’t criticise people.  Treat everyone well, from the switchboard operator (he hastened to add that such roles don’t exist anymore but we get his point) to the senior executives. 
  • Small is beautiful.  Keep your business structured in a way that allows for smaller teams as it grows, so that people don’t lose themselves.
  • Learn to delegate, hire people better than yourself.   And once delegated, don’t second guess them.  Give them freedom, don’t expect them to do things the way you would.
  • Put your people first, your customers second and your shareholders third.  If your people are happy and proud, your business will thrive and the rest will follow. People leave companies out of frustration not for money.
  • Business should be a force for good.   My favourite of Sir Peter’s messages.  As entrepreneurs we know how to solve problems and as such are in a better position right now that politicians to make the changes that need to be made.  If businesses focus on making a difference we have all the resources we need to solve the world’s problem.

Check out www.virginunite.com to see the good Sir Richard is making in the world. 

Richard Branson truly is a man of vision and boldness.  His Virgin Galactic Airlines project to see everyday folk (well those with $200,000 to spend on a ticket anyway!) experience space travel is testimony to his attitude to life.

As he himself summed up, “in life it is more fun to say yes than to say no!”

Thank you Sir Richard for a truly inspirational appearance at the Melbourne event, for vision, your passion and your contribution to our world.  And also for wearing an All Blacks shirt to a conference audience of 2,000 Australians!  A man of courage and humour indeed.

Filed Under: All articles, Business success, Entrepreneurship, Gurus, Leadership, Traits of the Rich & Free Tagged With: business, Business advice, Business blogs, business coach, business coaching, business mentor, Business mentoring, business owners, Business partnerships, entrepreneur, mentors, Owner operator, Planning an exit strategy, selling a business, Small business, Starting a business, Talks
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