Entrepreneurship Development

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UNDERTAKE SELF-ASSESSMENT TEST TO

DISCOVR YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAITS.

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Entrepreneur Self Assessment: 9 Professional Tools and Tests

The road of entrepreneurship can be difficult at times, to say the least. Every successful
entrepreneur has asked themselves at one point or another, “Did I make a mistake? Should I
even be trying to start my own business?”
Now there is a personality assessment that will tell you the answer!
Alright, just kidding. It isn’t quite that easy. But there are a number of fascinating personality
tools that can help you answer that question.
Taking one of these entrepreneur self assessments can do a lot more than help you choose a
career path. They can help you identify strengths and weaknesses, hire the right people, and
build better teams. As you gain self-knowledge, you will have more insight into how you can
perform at your best, plus how you can help others excel, too.
Entrepreneur Self Assessments: What You Need to Know
If you're starting or leading a company, it's beneficial to know yourself inside and out. Even
though you've been with yourself your whole life, it's hard to pinpoint your qualities. Assessing
yourself with professional self assessment tools can:
 Help you understand how you work best, so you can make appropriate changes.
 Help your employees understand what motivates and drives you.
 Help you recognize when you're in over your head and need help.
 Help you choose who to hire to recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
 See holes and spots where you need help.
There are tons of different assessments. We've explained nine in this post, but there are many
others that might suit you better. We recommend taking a few, and also encouraging partners,
employees, and even family members to take them, too. The more everyone understands each
other, the better off you'll be!
 1. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator :-

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality, is one of the
better-known instruments. About 1.5 million people take this tool each year, says Jennifer Selby
Long of The Selby Group.  Long has administered and interpreted more than 2,000 tests in her
18-year management consulting practice and is also a past president of the Association for
Psychological Type International.
“The MBTI indicates your likely patterns in gathering information, making decisions, managing
your energy, and interacting with the outside world,” says Long.   “If you learn about your
unconscious blind spots, energizers, and energy drainers, you can use this knowledge to gain an
edge over your competitors.”
But be warned: MBTI is just one evaluative instrument. “The danger of using just one tool and
getting just one opinion is that a person’s hard-wired personality is just one dimension of what a
successful entrepreneur would be,” advises Malcolm Munro of Total Career Mastery. “It’s a
good starting point, but without some advice around the results, it might mean some potential
superstar entrepreneurs may not pursue the career, and wannabes jump in and quickly fail.”
Munro’s advice? Seek a professional to help understand the 93-question MBTI self assessment
from an entrepreneurial standpoint.

2. Prevue HR Systems:-

Prevue HR Systems measures abilities such as learning speed plus interests, motivations, and
personality, says Nathaniel Barr, the company’s marketing coordinator. Companies such as
Honda and 3M have used Prevue to find and hire employees.
When it comes to budding entrepreneurs, the Prevue entrepreneur assessment “can give you an
idea of how you’ll respond, engage, and handle the stress of starting a business,” says Barr. 
And as staffing your company becomes critical to growth, incorporating an assessment into
your hiring process can lead to smarter hiring decisions.
The Prevue team also believes its assessment may just improve the odds of a startup securing
venture capital.  “We’re finding that one of the biggest challenges of entrepreneurs/start-ups is
getting venture capital or angel investors. Typically the area that receives the biggest scrutiny
from a VC is the team. If you can prove to a VC that you have objectively evaluated your team
in terms of their capabilities and fit, you’re more likely to receive funding,” Barr explains.
 3. The Entrepreneur Equation:-

The Entrepreneur Equationis a New York Times bestselling book that provides “a bevy of
exercises and assessments to help you assess your personality vis-à-vis entrepreneurship, as
well as your mindset, timing and the particular opportunity,” says author Carol Roth.  She has
also put together an interactive online quiz to see how your personality compares with the
popular profile of today's successful entrepreneurs.
Why are personality tests so important to an aspiring entrepreneur? “Sometimes it’s hard for
someone to see the forest through the trees.  [Self assessments] help individuals get in touch
with what their core competencies are and how those may overlap with what’s needed to take
on running a business,” says Roth.
And while personality is involved in your success, it’s not the only defining factor. Timing
always plays a role, she says. “You may be averse to financial risk currently, but that’s
something you may be able to overcome if you saved up enough prior to opening a business.
Not all the characteristics are static.”

4. The StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment:-

The StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment by New York Times bestselling author Tom Rath—who

leads Gallup’s workplace research and leadership consulting—identifies your top five talents
and provides strategies to apply your strengths. When you purchase the hardcover book, a
bound envelope gives you an access code to take the self assessment online.
Jason McClain, founder and CEO of McClain Concepts, has built and sold over a dozen
companies. He studied the book and discovered his strengths were “spot-on.”  Turns out that
McClain’s strengths include Activator, Ideation, Strategic, Command, and Positivity, which
undoubtedly helped him build his companies.
Yet McClain knows that others have contributed to his success, so he uses StrengthsFinder 2.0
as part of his hiring strategy by requiring candidates to take the assessment. He believes “hiring
people with different strengths creates a company with the ultimate corporate strength.”

5. The PAVF Assessment:-

The PAVF entrepreneur self assessment, a proprietary personality tool administered by Career
Coaching International, describes “how you are wired,” says Tim Ragan, a principal at CCI. 
Each letter stands for one of four personality types or groupings; P = Producer, A = Analyzer,
V= Visionary and F = Friend.  Ragan highlights the fact that PAVF results incorporate work
related terminology.  “We use terms such as ’producer‘ and ’visionary,’ which most people
understand. Other tests use more esoteric descriptors such as ‘sensing’ and ‘judging.’”
Another benefit of PAVF is the straightforward results: a lay person can interpret how they fit
in with their co-workers. Ragan observes, “It‘s not just about your personality, but how your
personality meshes with the rest of the team and company.”
Ragan also cautions against using one test to determine one’s fate.  “It’s an approximation…
It’s useful for starting good conversations about how people like/want to work, and why they
may be having issues with their careers, bosses, work teams.”  He reminds entrepreneurs that
there isn’t one “right” personality for a small business owner.

6. Teamability:-

Teamability focuses on roles and measures how people will connect with others. “Team spirit is
no longer a mystery,” says CEO Dr. Janice Presser, who created the product with Dr. Jack
Gerber at The Gabriel Institute.
Their proprietary self assessment reveals “how people will perform when working with others
to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and achieve common goals,” Dr. Presser notes.
“Teamability reports are positive. They will tell you the way in which you will best contribute.”
Survey-based tests don’t always directly measure what happens when someone is involved in a
team activity. “This is why Teamability offers a valuable perspective on individual work
style preferences, job satisfaction, and also on the structure and development of teams.  It gives
specific, actionable information to managers, helping them align job responsibilities with a
person's best mode of team contribution.” The basic Teamability course is online and is free,
including an individual report
.
7. Professional Dynametric Programs:-

Professional Dynametric Programs (PDP) is the primary tool used by the strategic consultants at
Vision Alignment to coach executives in leadership development, communication style and
hiring practices. According to Patty Azar, chief strategy officer of Vision Alignment, “This
survey not only tells them who they are, but also how they must act to drive success. It shows
them the impact of not being their authentic selves and the toll it can take professionally and
personally.”
Azar echoes the sentiment of the other consultants.  “No decision should be made based on only
one tool.” Azar also cautions against entrepreneur self assessments which empathize your short-
comings in an effort to get you to try to overcome them. “People should build and work based
upon their strengths – NOT based upon overcoming their weaknesses.”
 8. The FourSight Thinking Profile:-

The FourSight Thinking Profile deals with your problem-solving and innovation style, says
Susan Robertson, an innovation consultant and principal of Ideas To Go.  Robertson says there
are 4 phases  necessary for successful problem-solving: Clarify the problem, Ideate potential
solutions, Develop the chosen idea, and Implement the action — and each of us has a
preference for one  or more of these phases. “Understanding your preferences will help you
avoid the pitfalls of potentially spending too much time and attention on the phases you prefer
and short-changing the other necessary elements that may not come naturally to you.”
Robertson stresses how best to use self assessments and interpret the results. “My philosophy
would be that you should use them as tools to help guide you in how you approach
entrepreneurship, so that you do it as effectively as possible and so you're aware when you may
need to confer with someone who has different strengths. You should never let these
assessments dictate what you can or cannot do.”

9. Smart Work Assessments' Self-Employment Profile:-

Smart Work Assessments’ Self-Employment Profile is a personality assessment that provides

insight on how your characteristics influence your success in an entrepreneurial career, says
Douglas Garner, partner at Smart Work.  It includes a complete self assessment of the key
characteristics that most influence entrepreneurial success and then recommends your unique
self-employed career strategy.
Some of the distinguishing characteristics highly correlated with entrepreneurial success
include: one’s inherent need for structure and systems, interest in learning, managing rejection,
and prospecting.  The Smart Work Self-Employment Profile “recommends your unique self-
employed career strategy and development plan by ranking inherent characteristics against the
requirements of the four major self-employed career options: agent/representative,
consulting/contract, small business and franchises.”  For example, if you are a person who
craves and thrives in a structured environment, owning a franchise may be a good fit. On the
other hand, if structure feels stifling and constricting to you, then operating a franchise will feel
limiting and frustrating to you.
Self Assessments for Entrepreneurs
Personality self assessments may not be a crystal ball, but they do provide profound insights
into who you are as an entrepreneur and as a person. The results from assessments will equip
you with tools to grow, strengths to develop, and direction when considering a change in your
career path.  And best yet, they can even help you answer that nagging question, “Is
entrepreneurship right for me?”