By Elizabeth L. Boineau

While facilitating a roundtable recently at a local conference, I learned everyone at my table was or wanted to be a small business owner. What struck me were their high levels of energy, zeal, excitement and enthusiasm, which shone through brilliantly even in the dim ballroom haze.

Each one had an interesting story about how they came to form their own business or what was leading them there. U.S. Small Business Administration figures show that 99.7% of all employer firms are small businesses, which employ half of all private-sector employees and represent 45% of the nation’s private payroll.

Also of note is that the small business segment has generated 60% to 80% of new private jobs over the last decade. Since 19.5 million of the 26.8 million small businesses of record in 2006 had no employees, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Advocacy, it stands to reason that more than half are home-based.

So it seems like lots of us are starting our own businesses or want to do so, but is this the time to take that somewhat daunting plunge? How do you know if you have what it takes to win the love and devotion of a new client and customer base?

Not everyone is cut out to start his or her own business, but recognizing the traits that may help you to be successful may be a good way to assess your own affinity for
succeeding as an entrepreneur.

So let’s start with some questions:

• Are you happy and fulfilled in your current position and with your current employer?

• Do you have ideas for making things better that seem to go unheard but that are sometimes implemented later with no credit given for your role?

• Are you a self-starter?

• Do you create your own accountability?

• Are you highly disciplined?

• Do you strive to make things happen, overcome the odds and demonstrate results?

• Does it bother you to be told no? Do you feel you have the power to turn a no into a yes later?

• Do you end each day with a shorter to-do list than you started with?

• Are you highly organized and good at multitasking?

• Do you understand the basic principles of accounting and financial recordkeeping?

• Do you know how to market your business with savvy and/or are you willing to pay to bring in those who know marketing communications?

• Do you have experience that exceeds that of most of your peers — through paid and/or volunteer endeavors?

• Can you negotiate, barter and/or sell/market/persuade effectively?

• Do you have a great network of business colleagues and friends?

• When you stumble, do you fall with grace, quickly pick yourself up and keep moving?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, chances are fair you already are or will be a successful entrepreneur. A factor that seems to help with success is an ability to dream of the possibilities and to create something tangible from them. Entrepreneurs are famous for neither giving up nor losing the can-do attitude. That enthusiasm and an energetic spirit have fueled and will fuel the fire of many a small-business success story yet to come. And no telling where it stops. If you dream it and believe you can do it (and passed the test with lots of affirmative answers), then I challenge you to go for it, since there’s nothing quite like living the dream every day.

Elizabeth L. Boineau runs E. Boineau & Co., a marketing communications and PR firm based in Charleston. E-mail her at eboineau@eboineauandco.com.

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