What Do You Need to Succeed as a Business Owner?
It sure doesn’t hurt if you’re driven and ambitious. Being smart and naturally talented is helpful too. What about being passionate, collaborative, decisive, and self-aware? How about having the guts to take risks and the ability to be a brilliant communicator, inspiring leader, and effective delegator?
There are certainly a lot of personality traits and skills that can help improve your chances of starting and running a profitable business. But there’s one characteristic of successful small business owners that stands out more than the others: tenacity.
What Does It Mean to be Tenacious?
Defined by Oxford Languages as “the quality or fact of being very determined,” it can be argued that tenacity is the most important quality a person needs to make it as a business owner. Being tenacious means to be courageous, to have a spirit of resolution, and to have the mental and moral strength to persist. Each of these components are essential to have as a business owner.
More than smarts, passion, and skills, you need to be determined and to continue — no matter what — through both the good times and the bad.
Along with being tenacious, you’ll also need to be resourceful. This just means being able to find the things (and people) that you need. Ultimately, these two characteristic traits work together. If you are tenacious (determined), then you’ll work relentlessly until you obtain what you need to keep moving your business forward.
How Does Tenacity Translate into Success?
There was once a woman who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a registered nurse practitioner. When she decided to leave her stable, well-paying position with the VA to start her own business, she encountered a lot of resistance from others. Everyone seemed to think she was crazy and, much to her dismay, didn’t hesitate to share those opinions with her.
But in a display of tenacity, she left her job anyway, ignoring the naysayers, and created a T-shirt for an event that was widely received and purchased. She kept creating custom T-shirts and working to expand her growing company by adding other clothing and accessory items. Now, several years later, her company — the one no one believed would go anywhere — is a multi-million-dollar company that sells much more than just T-shirts (it sells dresses, skirts, accessories, purses, athletic wear, and more now too).
Remaining determined in the face of negativity and a lack of support paid off in the end. She stuck to her vision, believed in herself when very few others did, and didn’t give up. One small step at a time, she kept inching forward, day by day. Now she’s smiling on her way to the bank and living her dream.
A Final Word From Tuesday Brooks Founder of AJOY
When it comes to my own personal story, like many other new business owners, I also started out with little knowledge, hardly any money to capitalize my business (I admittedly bootstrapped), and a lack of forethought when it came to who would handle my back office and other responsibilities. But I was determined to succeed. I took a business management course, created a business plan, and gained experience by supporting others and continuing to push forward. I even reinvented the whole concept of my business at one point. It was a gradual process that involved a lot of learning. But I never wavered from the idea of becoming a successful business owner. I didn’t want to give up and go work for someone else, so I never did and look where I am today — the owner of a profitable company who enjoys teaching other small business owners how to avoid the pitfalls (8 Lies Small Business Owners Tell Themselves) that could potentially get in their way.
You can do it too. Stay tenacious and enjoy the journey. Until next time!