To start a business and run it successfully, a range of essential entrepreneurial personality characteristics and business and technical skills are necessary.

You want your own business, but before you get started you need to focus on what you can offer and also to understand yourself - your strengths and limitations.

A research review found that many researchers use the data from an article by Geoffrey A Timmons published in The Harvard Business Review.  In a study of entrepreneurs he came up with nine entrepreneurial qualities:

1.      A high level of drive and energy

2.      Enough self-confidence to take carefully calculated, moderate risk

3.      Readiness to learn from your own mistakes and failures

4.      A clear idea of money as a way of keeping score and as a means of generating more money

5.      The ability to get other people to work with you and for you productively

6.      High but realistic, achievable goals

7.      Belief that you can control your own destiny

8.      A long-term vision of the future of your business

9.      Intense competitive urge, with self-imposed standards