15 Qualities of A Good Businessman You Should know
Imagine you got asked to outline 15 qualities of a good businessman. What would they be?
More than ever, thousands of businesses get registered, but the number of good businessmen is few.
You heard, right? There’s no sentiment behind that statement. It’s what it is. Especially in a time like this, where establishing and running a business are challenging. There’s heightened competition in the business world, emanating from the high level of technological advancement across different industries.
But a good businessman has some high-powered qualities that help him stay above all these challenges, as he is committed to achieving his business mission and goals. Below are some of these characteristics you should learn and cultivate to be successful in business:
15 Qualities of A Good Businessman
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Be confident
Many think setting up a business starts with an idea. But every good businessman understands that an idea you don’t have confidence in will hardly succeed. Because you won’t give it a shot, let alone achieve success with it.
As a businessman, you must be confident in yourself and the vision of your business. When you’re convinced about your product, that’s only when you can get others to join you in owning your vision with courage.
Moreover, you need the courage to seek business partnership opportunities and raise funds for your business. Be it from friends, family members, venture capitalists, angel investors, or otherwise.
2. Openness
Starting a business and running a successful business involves lots of learning. That’s why good businessmen keep their ears and eyes open to possibilities.
Being open and not rigid increases your chances of experiencing business success. Now you may wonder, to what exactly does a good businessman open himself?
The simple answer is a lot of things. And part of them includes customer feedback, suggestions from team members or subordinates, management consultants, business friends, or otherwise.
3. Credibility
As one aspiring to be a good businessman or person, you need to learn the importance of credibility in business. Because it’s what binds your customers to your company or business organization in your niche market or industry.
Would you prefer to patronize a company that already showed that you can always trust their service or products to another you rarely trust?
Certainly, no!
The same applies to your customers as a business owner. They want you to give them a reason to trust you to buy from you– and then come back again. And that’s what being credible is all about– being trustable.
And the way to show this quality as a businessman is to be consistent in keeping your promises. Coupled with being transparent in your communication with your customers and your team.
4. Humility
Often, people feel being humble is a sign of weakness. But in reality, the reverse is the case. It positions you as a leader that’s approachable and accessible.
Interestingly, it’s one of the skills and qualities of a businessman many people think shouldn’t be found among business leaders in the corporate world. But that could mean a twisted understanding of what humility truly means.
Humility has no business with trying to please everyone or licking people’s boots. Instead, it’s treating people with respect, whether they’re your superiors or subordinates. And that’s one of the 15 qualities every good businessman possesses.
They treat their team members with respect and motivate them to do so to another. And in turn, that strengthens teamwork between them.
Professional qualities of a good businessman
5. Business dexterity
Business dexterity here is about knowing your business better than your competitors. That way, you can know your customers, market trends, and other indexes that can impact your business positively or negatively.
In other words, you don’t want to start a business that you know little or nothing about.
Many who do that learn the hard way. It’s like the story of a man who knew little about the poultry business. He had a friend who had a poultry farm that was doing fine, and because of that, he felt it was lucrative to start.
This man invested money in buying lots of chicks to train to maturity. But sooner than he expected, his stock died in bulk. Until he sought help from his friend.
Bottom line: as one who wants to be a good businessperson, you need to learn everything you need to know about your business. That way, you better prepare yourself for success in it.
6. An active listener
Communication and relationships are paramount to the success of a business. No wonder every good businessman is a good communicator, not because he can speak so well with lots of vocabulary.
Instead, he knows how to listen actively. Therefore, as a business owner, you must be a good listener to understand what your customers say about your products or services. And to hear the concerns or challenges of your team.
7. Positivity
Managing a business is full of ups and downs. And at times, you feel like giving up. But what keeps a good businessman going is positivity.
The advantages of positive thinking are not only limited to your personal life; it extends to your business life. Every successful business owner today went through hurdles. But they were able to summon their mental toughness through positive thinking.
You see why you should do the same in your business.
8. Respect for time
“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine,” says Mike Murdock. What a lovely quote! It tells you that what anyone would become in the future depends on how such a fellow is utilizing time today.
And every good businessman knows that their business succeeds through effectively using the resource called time alongside other assets.
You now see that as a business owner, you need to be deliberate about what you and your team do with productive time at work. Because this can impact your business positively or negatively.
9. Decisiveness
While making decisions is important, it’s one of the challenges most entrepreneurs face. The process of making effective decisions can be daunting.
But you must learn how to do that if you want to become a good businessperson. That’s why you should know and master the 8 steps in the decision-making process for effective management.
10. Research ability
Tell me one thing you can do without doing any research. Most likely, you’d say, eating.
Indeed, you may not need research to have a tasty pizza served in front of you. But you require a little research to know the best place to order one before you can eat it.
That tells you the importance of research in our daily lives as humans. Interestingly, it is more paramount to any business than you think. No wonder every successful businessman has the quality of being able to research things.
Traits of a businessman
11. Empathetic
Empathy as a quality of a good businessman is close to humility, as considered above. It helps you put yourself in the shoes of others.
When you’re empathetic as a business owner, you relate with your customers and workers’ feelings or pain. It can also help you walk into a negotiation room and create win-win situations for the parties involved.
And that’s what a good businessman does. Nothing gives him fulfillment more than that. Helping others to achieve their goals while they achieve theirs (and business goals) in the process.
12. Strong Work ethic
Work ethic is the manner and attitude with which you go about your business. How one treats time, pays attention to goals, and minimizes distractions tell a lot about the work culture of a person or a group.
A good businessman knows the importance of cultivating and maintaining an efficient work ethic in his team so that no slackness gets permitted during working hours. Achieving that requires high discipline and organizational skills.
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Tenacity
Entrepreneurs are risk-takers. And it takes one who’s tenacious to take risks. “Maintain that motivation to go from A to B and to keep your focus on that target without any weakening. That is called tenacity; stamina in your motivation,” says Arsène Wenger
That’s one of the attributes of business owners. They make many tough decisions essential to their business organizations’ success, even though they appear drastic.
14. Financial management
Many small business owners have gone out of business, not because of a lack of money. But due to their inability to handle and manage money. However, every good businessman treats business and personal finance differently, yet wisely.
Thus, as a business owner, you must cultivate this quality and ability to manage finance effectively. And that involves creating and managing a series of budgets for investment and expenditures to meet your personal finance and business goals.
15. Adaptability
While adaptability is somewhat related to being open, it has to do with being flexible and ready to look for a way forward in any situation.
It’s a quality of good businessmen that helps them to respond effectively to changing situations in business. It could be new technology development, asset change, or other business factors or resources.
The better you’re adaptable, the more you can motivate your team members to stay productive regardless of any unexpected change.
A Final thought on 15 Qualities of A Good Businessman
The traits of a businessman are many, but in this article we’ve looked at 15 qualities of a good businessman. However, note that characters discussed above are in no order of significance.
As a result, it is pertinent to cultivate all to achieve maximum results in your entrepreneurial journey and business.
