Self Assessment

Introduction & Contact Information

This self-assessment has been created to help you to assess your entrepreneurial capacity and identify potential difficult aspects for you as you start your business. You will receive scores regarding personal, business, and lifestyle readiness.

The purpose of a personal assessment is to help you see more clearly the habits you possess and to compare these to the core traits of entrepreneurs. Remember, this is a starting point for you to identify the skills you might need to improve upon as you begin your small business venture.

Running a small business requires you to be a jack-of-all-trades. It is important to know early on which skills you have and those you will have to learn or delegate to others. The skills covered in this section can be acquired if you work at it. When answering the questions, consider past and present activities, including community, religious or professional organizations, work, family, or hobbies. Chances are you routinely use many business skills without knowing it.

The lifestyle assessment looks at the effects that starting and running a small business will have on not only your life, but your loved ones as well. Lifestyle preference encompasses what you value as a human being – who you are, the priorities in your life that guide your decisions and determine what motivates you. You will need to study these lifestyle issues in order to create a compatible work and personal life fit.

This is for your information only. The Nevada SBDC will not receive, review or share your score with anyone.

This form will be auto emailed to you once completed. You can forward this to a Nevada SBDC Business advisor to discuss. The Nevada SBDC does not monitor this form.

Please email admin@nevadasbdc.org or call 800-240-7094 to request a business advisor.

Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes

Personal Assessment

The purpose of a personal assessment is to help you see more clearly the habits you possess and to compare these to the core traits of entrepreneurs. Remember, this is a starting point for you to identify the skills you might need to improve upon as you begin your small business venture.

A score between 25 and 40 points indicates you are well on your way to having the right mix of personal skills to weather the challenges of starting a small business. You enjoy setting your own goals and achieving them, and you are comfortable with taking some risks. On those statements you selected strongly disagree or disagree, consider ways to enhance these skills. Your ability to identify your weak areas and seek out ways to improve upon them speaks to how successful you will ultimately be in your entrepreneurial venture.

A score below 25 indicates you may not have the right mix of personal skills yet to overcome the challenges of starting a small business. You may lack confidence in certain areas, but with training and experience you could develop these skills and abilities. Identify individuals that can help you learn more about these areas and seek their mentorship or advice to help you improve your abilities.

A score between 25 and 40 points show you may already possess basic business knowledge and skills. Review the areas where you chose strongly disagree or disagree and concentrate on learning the skills in these areas.

A score below 25 points indicates you probably need to polish some existing skills and learn some new business skills. Take some time to narrow the specific areas of business in which you need to develop by looking at the areas where you chose strongly disagree or disagree. Utilize upcoming trainings provided by our statewide small business resources like Nevada SBDC, SCORE, and more or request access to our video library of previous trainings at https://nsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events?reset=1.

A score between 25 and 40 indicates you may have a good tolerance for the impacts that running a small business will have on your life. Your score reveals that you are flexible enough to take on the challenges and uncertainties of beginning a new business. Be sure to pay particular attention to the statements where you chose strongly disagree or disagree and keep these in mind when choosing what type of business is best for you.

A score below 25 does not automatically disqualify you from pursuing your own venture. This simply reveals some of the realities of your life and gives you the parameters within which you must make business decisions. Look at the statements where you chose strongly disagree or disagree and you may be able to draw some conclusions about how time, money, family, and health factor into your ideal lifestyle.

This form will be auto emailed to you once completed. You can forward this to a Nevada SBDC Business advisor to discuss. The Nevada SBDC does not monitor this form. This assessment will not determine the success of your business, but help you assess your strengths and areas of improvement.