10 Qualities a Startup Founder Should Have

From thousands of startups launched each day only 10% of them become successful and remaining 90% die within first two years of their launch. In this article I would be trying to explore the qualities which should be present in the startup founder to make his/her startup successful.

1. Know his stuff: – Startup founder should have the skills which he/she is planning to offer to his clients. If your venture is related to web design services, then as a founder you should know how to design a professional website. The Startups which depends completely on their employees have high probability of Failure as compared to others.

2. Love his work: – Many founders lose their interest and focus after some time and start looking for other options. The main reason behind this is not getting the desired results as expected. Your startup should be related to work which you always love to do so that you can’t lose your Focus easily.

3. Have a Vision: – You should have vision in your mind where you want to take your business after few years. Businesses without any Goal to achieve can’t grow. You have to set both long-term and short-term goals which will motivate you and help you to grow.

4. Ability to Manage Cash Flow: – Cash Flow is like Blood for your Business. You need Funds to keep your startup alive so you should know how to convince investors to generate funds and to manage the available funds in most efficient way.

5. Enjoys meeting with People: – A successful startup founder should know how to develop networks online and offline. He should enjoy doing interaction with his target audience. More relations you are going to develop, the more revenues you will generate.

6.Time Management Skills: – As a founder, you have lot to do in very less time and it could be very difficult because there is nobody to monitor you.  Divide your tasks on basis of their priorities and allocate fix amount of time to them. Remember a minute spent in organizing things means an hour saved.

7. Strong enough to take Risks: – We all know the “No Risk, No Gain” Principle. If you are founder then you have to take risks at various phases of your venture and you have to be strong enough to do this. Always remain ready to learn from your Failures and then try again. Thomas Edison once said “I did not fail I found 2000 ways not to make a light bulb”

8. Ability to Sale and Negotiate: – Selling here does not mean selling product to customer but it means the ability to persuade people and getting them to do what you want them to do. The other skill you should have is skill to negotiate. You have to negotiate with your clients, business partners etc many times to get great deals.

9.Long learner: – When technology is changing every day you should be always ready to learn new things and keep your skills up to date to satisfy your customer requirements.

10. Patience: – Patience is the key to success and we all know that Every Business needs time to attract customers and to generate revenues. Put your ideas in to action and wait to see results. If you are looking for quick overnight success then launching a startup is not good option for you.

Rudo Malequin works as Internet Marketing Executive for Fortepromo which creates customized promotional products for startups that help them to promote their brand in market.