Hi Cuong: I'm just curious if you have, based on your experience, what are some important qualities an entrepreneur/pho restaurateur may/should have in order to have the best chance for success. I think this list can be important to those new to this, plus maybe I do possess at least some of these characteristics ? ?
Anyone else who wants to chime in with their opinions too?
Whatever anyone says, the list has to include a little bit, sometime a lot, of LUCK. Obviously you don't want to depend purely on luck though. Otherwise it's just gambling.
Disagreed. Not a little bit, but a lot of luck, by doing enough stuff to ensure they chance upon luck as often as possible. After that, keep on learning and doing enough to make their own luck happen too. This is no joke.
Not a pho restaurant owner and don't plan on being one soon, but based on my observations, here are a few
- Be focused on achieve established goals
- Be willing to take educated guesses/risks
- Can make good decision QUICKLY
- Know how to work with people
- Respect employees
- Know own shortcomings and open to rectify them
That's all for now.
There are some good characteristics mentioned by others. I'll contribute to the answer this way. While we can list a ton of qualities that can help an entrepreneur have the best chance for success, I think there are only a few very critical qualities or characteristics that an entrepreneur MUST have for successful pho restaurants. These are based on my work with numerous owners and potential owners in the past 10 years. They are, not in any particular order:
- Extreme willingness and curiosity to learn, to update knowledge, and to know what you don't know
- Super focus on business goals and how to obtain it
- Ability to independently assess a problem and make solid, fast decision; or get help outside help
- Have well understanding human psychology and a passion to serve people
- Have clear understanding of Vietnamese food
- Strong command of the business' financials and accounting
- Know how to receive criticism (both positive and negative) and take action to improve
- Have more than enough money to open
It's clear that all of these are acquired knowledge and skills, and as such, anyone can learn them. The exception is the last one, finance, which obviously is not something as easily acquired.
Lastly and most importantly: if you're going to be an entrepreneur, then you must behave like an entrepreneur, be willing to take risks and take chances, at the same time creating your own luck and minimizing or mitigating those risks at the same time. If an entrepreneur has this last one then the rest of the list would naturally follow by definition.
@chuynh
Totally agree with your last statement. From my experience I think many individuals wanting to open their own businesses but do not act like an entrepreneur. They retain too much of the behavior and mindset of a consumer, and make business decision from a consumer point of view.
It's part of the learning process, to cross the fence from being a consumer to becoming a seller. Many people can do it naturally and very well, while others may never break out of the consumer mindsets. Most consumers want to be safe and not take risks, which is the opposite of being an entrepreneur running a pho restaurant. An important portion of my consulting process is to work with the prospect owner to break out of the consumer behaviors and to develop on becoming a successful restaurant owner.
