6.3: Entrepreneurial Traits and Key Motivational Factors

An entrepreneur is someone who starts, owns and operates a business. It is difficult to generalize about the kind of people attracted to the idea of starting their own business because entrepreneurs are increasingly diverse. An interesting portrait of Canadian entrepreneurs emerged from a 2019 BDC survey of 1,025 Canadian business owners. Among the findings:^[1]

• Twenty-eight percent were women, up from 11% 40 years ago.
• Newcomers to Canada were twice as likely to start a business as their Canadian-born counterparts.
• The number of Canadians under 35 who started a business increased by 80% between 2014 and 2018.

Key Traits

While entrepreneurs do require many skills and abilities, they may not have all the skills they need to run a business successfully.  In these cases, an entrepreneur might hire a consultant, a contract employee, or a full-time employee to support the business tasks for which the entrepreneur lacks skills or may not have the time to focus on. For example, as an entrepreneur, if accounting is your weakness, you might hire an accountant, payroll service, or bookkeeper. If sales or marketing are not skills you have developed, you might hire a salesperson or contract a marketing company to help you build marketing campaigns. While hiring consultants, services, or employees does cost money, you can rest assured that it is being done accurately, and the investment should pay off.

Some of the key traits found in entrepreneurs include the following.

• Passion. Work ethic and passion fuel each other. Passion drives the motivation to stay disciplined, while a strong work ethic keeps progress steady. The reward is the priceless satisfaction entrepreneurs feel when their hard work pays off. ^[2]
• Risk tolerance. Taking risks helps businesses stand out, especially in crowded markets. Even when risks don’t pay off, the lessons learned can guide future decisions. Bill Gates once said, “To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.” His boldest move—leaving Harvard to start Microsoft—was driven by a vision of making personal computing accessible to everyone. At a time when computers were massive and exclusive, Gates imagined a future with a computer on every desk and in every home. That bold risk reshaped the world. ^[3]
• Persistence. Successful entrepreneurs don’t fear failure—they learn from it. Mistakes and setbacks are part of the journey, but persistence, curiosity, and a willingness to adapt are what drive progress. Growth comes not from avoiding failure, but from using it to move forward.^[4]
• Innovation. Innovation isn’t innate—it’s a mindset that can be developed. Many top startups succeed by reimagining existing products to meet evolving market needs. In today’s competitive landscape, creativity is essential. Entrepreneurs who challenge conventional solutions often uncover the ideas that set their businesses apart.^[5]

There are three characteristics of entrepreneurial activity:

• Innovation: Coming up with new ideas, pivoting and adapting when a consumer or economic environment changes.
• Operating a business: You will need to understand the functional areas of business, how to analyze the internal and external environments, make decisions, and more.
• Risk-taking: Entrepreneurs need to be able to deal with risk. There are no guarantees that the business will be successful or remain successful. You will need to learn how to mitigate risks.

Motivational Factors

Some common motivational factors have been identified by many entrepreneurs. For instance, entrepreneurs are often motivated by much more than money, and most start their business to become their own boss. In BDC’s survey, when asked why they became an entrepreneur, the most popular answer, cited by 70%, was independence, autonomy, and flexibility. About one in two mentioned passion or self-fulfillment, and one-third cited financial reasons.^[6] Refer to Figure 6.1 below to view survey results for motivational factors that influence entrepreneurial success.

“The 2019 BDC survey of business owners sheds additional light on what makes Canadian entrepreneurs tick. Three in four said they had to deal with financial insecurity, significant stress, and a lack of benefits. Yet, 90% were professionally satisfied.”^[7]

Media Attributions

“Figure 6.1: Motivational factors influencing entrepreneurial success (2019)” from How to Become an Entrepreneur, © Business Development Bank of Canada, is used in this OER with permission from the Business Development Bank of Canada.

Image descriptions

Figure 6.1

A horizontal bar chart of the different factors influencing entrepreneurs’ success, with corresponding percentages indicating the proportion of respondents who cited that factor. The factors listed from top to bottom are: “Independence, autonomy, flexibility” at 70%, “Passion or self-fulfillment” at 53%, “Financial reasons” at 34%, “Interesting work and responsibilities” at 31%, “Positive contribution to society” at 20%, “Opportunity to act on a great idea” at 19%, “Family” at 4%, and “No reason in particular” at 3%. A percentage scale runs along the bottom from 0% to 100%. The following source is noted at the bottom of the chart: BDC, Survey on the Factors Influencing Entrepreneurs’ Success (Montreal: BDC, May 2019). Base: All respondents who provided an answer (n=877).

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