Measure Your Entrepreneurial Readiness: With an Entrepreneur Test

How is an entrepreneur test? How do you measure if you are ready to start your own business? With the number of workers idled or displaced in today’s economy, many wonder if it’s time to invest in starting their own business.

Those are just two of the questions online business opportunity seekers ask themselves as they search for answers in the categories of home-based businesses and part-time or alternative careers.

If your current career or employment situation has been affected by the slowdown in work, you may be seriously considering making the leap into your own business venture. For many, especially if you need something with low start-up costs, the most popular and accessible business models are:

affiliate marketing

marketing online

Freelancing/Independent Hiring

The Internet offers the online entrepreneur a wide range of profitable niches to focus on. Most successful home business sellers that I have personally observed often combine different streams of income in a blended approach to diversify their sources of income. That often means overlapping any or all of the 3 home-based business models listed above.

Those who have depended on steady employment working for another person or company often have to consider whether they are really ready to start their own business. That’s where a career assessment test or an entrepreneur test can help. An alternative or parallel career option is enjoying unprecedented popularity today because the Internet has lowered or eliminated the traditional barriers to 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 in 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: His ability to achieve. Your tendency to “do” rather than sit and think.

• Persistence: Your determination to achieve your goals.

• Risk tolerance: Your willingness to expose yourself to possible losses. Your attraction 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 succeed.

• Autonomy: Your desire to make your own decisions and control your own destiny.

• Financial Motivation: How important money and financial freedom are to you.

Having completed the questionnaire for this particular free online entrepreneur test I took, I was confronted with the scoring system they use to determine my business acumen, based on my answers. I went on to be rated a fairly 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 having) the proven character traits that successful entrepreneurs exhibit.

Well, considering I’m already putting the online entrepreneur/marketer lifestyle to the test, it remains to be seen how long I’ll need to keep brushing up on those top 3 business owner skills.

What’s fun and really eye-opening is that based on your individual test results, you’ll identify your 5 biggest strengths and 5 most obvious weaknesses. The program states that it is helpful to consider your strengths, the tools and talents you already have, which will serve you well in your quest to start your own business.

The test scores come with helpful tips for making the most of your individual personality traits so you can play those strengths to your best advantage.

Similarly, it goes on to suggest ways you can improve those areas where you scored low or below average with recommended tips. Of course, as can be expected of anything “free” on the Internet, there always comes: “And now a word from our sponsors.” Therefore, there is ample opportunity to subscribe to the advertised and featured educational resources that appear multiple times as you progress through the trial program.

The advertising in the entrepreneur test I took is “opt-in” only and at no point did it exceed the limits or bounds of proper internet etiquette that we would expect. You just have to watch carefully where to click to continue the test without interruption, if that is your choice.

So, was it worth the time to take this entrepreneur test? Yes. To me, he actually identified areas that I already suspected needed improvement. I think it’s helpful to be able to recognize and perhaps remember character traits that might still need further development that you can now focus on.

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