The Importance of Entrepreneurial Assessment in a Business Plan and LLC Formation

Do you have what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur? That’s certainly a salient question for anyone looking to launch their own business, to enlist partners, or to bring in potential investors. Naturally, anyone involved wants some assurance of skill, competence, and leadership ability. And yet, such things are difficult to prove, save through real-world experience.

There is one way to gauge potential, and that’s by taking an entrepreneurial assessment. You can find free quizzes online, or you can sign up to take a more robust assessment from a business coach or startup incubator.

The goal of an entrepreneurial assessment is to evaluate the natural inclination you have toward successful business ownership and also to provide you with an opportunity to reflect on your own entrepreneurial style, strengths, and weaknesses.

Entrepreneurial assessment can be valuable for building your own confidence, but it can also help you develop a strong business plan and even pursue LLC formation. For anyone planning on forming an LLC in California, taking an entrepreneurial assessment can be a critical first step.

What Will an Entrepreneurial Assessment Tell You?

Entrepreneurial assessments can vary in exactly what they evaluate, but as a general rule, you’ll learn things like:

• What is your natural tendency toward creativity and innovation?
• What’s your relationship to risk-taking and risk management?
• What’s your approach to solving problems and making decisions?
• Are you gifted in time management and prioritization?
• What is your comfort level in navigating uncertainty and change?
• Do you have a clear plan for your business and a plan to achieve it?
• Are you self-motivated, and are you gifted at motivating others?
• Do you have the financial knowledge needed to get a successful business off the ground?

The bottom line: Taking a good entrepreneurial assessment may guide and direct you in taking an honest self-inventory, allowing you to enter business ownership clear-eyed.

What are the Benefits of an Entrepreneurial Assessment?

There are plenty of specific advantages to taking an entrepreneurial assessment. Some of the primary ones include:

• You’ll have a clearer sense of your strengths, which can be an asset as you seek to “sell” yourself to potential partners, investors, employees, and clients.
• You’ll also know your weaknesses, which can help you determine what kind of additional training you need (or how to hire employees who can compensate for the areas where you lack).
• You may be better prepared to avoid common pitfalls and missteps, such as moving ahead without properly considering your options for financing or legal incorporation.
• By having a clearer understanding of your leadership style, you’ll be able to communicate more clearly with your team, hopefully generating shared understanding and empathy.

Practical Ways to Use Your Entrepreneurial Assessment

The data you obtain from your entrepreneurial assessment can be used in several practical contexts; two primary uses are in creating your business plan and forming your LLC (should that be the type of legal structure you choose for your company).

Using an Entrepreneurial Assessment in Your Business Plan

A business plan is a document that sets forth your business goals and outlines the strategy you’ll employ to achieve those goals. This document is often provided to lenders or investors who are trying to size up your company, but it can also have a lot of utility internally, keeping you grounded in a sense of mission.

The information you glean from an entrepreneurial assessment can be invaluable as you shape your business plan. It can tell you:

• What type of management structure is best suited to your leadership style?
• Which strengths you can lean into as you seek to achieve your business goals?
• What level of outside guidance might you need to remain financially on track?
• How best to position your company’s value to attract interest and generate trust.

Using an Entrepreneurial Assessment in LLC Formulation

Additionally, an entrepreneurial assessment can be a useful resource as you seek to form an LLC.

An LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is the most popular legal structure for new business startups and, indeed, for small businesses in general. The benefits of the LLC are numerous and include personal liability protections, tax flexibility, ease of setup, and more.

Taking an entrepreneurial assessment can help you prepare to set up your LLC in a number of ways, in particular:

• By helping you identify the best allocation of managerial responsibilities to suit your leadership style, something you’ll need to stipulate in your LLC’s Operating Agreement.
• By helping you come to terms with your own level of risk aversion, something that the LLC format can potentially mitigate.

Take Stock of Your Entrepreneurial Potential

Self-knowledge can be difficult to come by, but for budding entrepreneurs, it can also be incredibly illuminating. A good step toward improving your self-knowledge is to complete an entrepreneurial assessment and then use the data you obtained to flesh out your business plan and your LLC Operating Agreement.

Author Bio

Amanda E. Clark is a contributing writer to LLC University. She is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and holds degrees in Journalism, Political Science, and English. She became a professional writer in 2008 and has led marketing and advertising initiatives for several Fortune 500 companies. She has appeared as a subject matter expert on panels about content and social media marketing. She regularly leads seminars and training sessions on trends and tactics in professional writing.