Gauge Your Entrepreneurial Readiness – With an Entrepreneur Test

What does an entrepreneur test look like? How do you measure whether you’re ready to start your own business? With the number of idled or displaced workers in the broad economy today, many are wondering if it’s time to invest in their own business start-up.

Those are just two of the questions that online business opportunity seekers are asking themselves as they research the home-based business and alternative or part-time career categories for answers.

If your present career or work situation has been impacted by the job slowdown, you may be seriously considering a leap into an entrepreneurial enterprise of your own. For many, especially if you require something with low start-up costs, the most popular and accessible business models are:

Affiliate marketing

Network marketing

Freelancing/independent contracting

The Internet offers the online entrepreneur a vast array of profitable niches to concentrate on. Most successful home business marketers that I’ve personally observed often combine different revenue streams in a blended approach to diversify their income sources. That often means overlapping any or all of the 3 home business models listed above.

Those who have relied on steady employment working for some other person or company often have to consider if they are really prepared to start their own business. That’s where a career assessment test or entrepreneur test can help. An alternative or parallel career option enjoys unprecedented popularity today because the Internet has reduced or eliminated the traditional barriers of entry to an entrepreneur’s career.

I recently took a free, online entrepreneur test to see what it entails. I can tell you this. Research reveals that there are 16 dimensions or characteristics that are important for starting a business. These entrepreneurial traits fall into three general categories: Personality, Skills and Motivation. As an example, you are asked to self-assess your…

Personality:

• Action-oriented: Your go-getting ability. Your tendency to “do” rather than sit around and think.
• Persistence: Your determination to meet your goals.
• Risk Tolerance: Your willingness to expose yourself to possible loss. Your attraction to, or comfort level with, risk.

Skills:

• Leadership: Your ability to guide and inspire others to work toward a common goal.
• Networking: How well you build and maintain relationships.
• Persuasion: Your ability to influence others.

Motivation:

• Ambition: Your desire to achieve success.
• Autonomy: Your desire to make your own decisions and control your own destiny.
• Financial Motivation: How important money and financial freedom are to you.

After having completed the questionnaire of this particular free, online entrepreneur test I took, I was confronted with the ratings system they use for determining my entrepreneurial acumen -based on my answers. I happened to be rated a pretty average “silver”. That means I fell below the gold and platinum levels. That translates to being in the 25th to 50th percentile of strongly possessing (or not), the proven character traits that successful entrepreneurs exhibit.

Well, considering I’m already putting the entrepreneur/online marketer lifestyle to test, it remains to be seen how much I will have to continue brushing-up on those 3 major business owner aptitudes.

What’s fun and actually kind of revealing is that based on your individual test results, it will identify your 5 greatest strengths and 5 most obvious weaknesses. The program states it is useful to consider your strengths–the tools and talents you already have in place–which will serve you in the pursuit of starting your own business.

Test scores come with helpful tips to get the most out of your individual personality traits so you can leverage those strengths to your best advantage.

Likewise, it goes on to suggest ways you can improve those areas that you tested low or sub-par in with recommended tips. Of course as can be expected of anything offered “free” on the internet, there always comes: “And now a word from our sponsors”. So there’s ample opportunity to opt-in to the advertised and featured educational resources that appear multiple times as you continue moving through the test program.

The advertising on the entrepreneur test I took is “opt-in” only and at no time exceeded the limits or bounds of correct internet etiquette we would expect. You just have to take careful notice where to click to proceed with the test uninterrupted, if that’s your choice.

So was it worth the time to take this entrepreneur test? Yes. For me, it actually identified areas that I already suspected needed improvement. I think it’s helpful to be able to recognize and perhaps be reminded of character traits that still could use some further development which you may now focus on.

If you dream of being your own boss and wonder if the entrepreneur lifestyle is right for you, gauging your strengths/challenges in the areas of personality, motivation and skills can be a helpful start. When you see that an online business career “leap” is really something that can be organized into a series of small, incremental steps, it might just be enough to push you over the edge.

Article by Ken Mueller