Most entrepreneurs will say that passion is at the very core of sustaining every new business.

Although we couldn’t agree more that passion, motivation and will are some of the most pivotal characteristics for keeping a business alive, first-time entrepreneurs should have five additional significant characteristics in order to get a startup company on its feet and sustain it.

1. Abundant Patience

In the early stages of your business, it’s highly unlikely that everyone is going to know what you’re doing and be very open and supportive of it. With a little bit of luck, your business idea is going to reach fame in no time. However, you have to become friends with the time that’s passing by. Patience is key to sustaining your startup. Take some time to stop and smell the roses. Just because your company isn’t evolving at the speed of lightning doesn’t mean it’s failing.

If you’re trying to build a brand that’s going to provide solutions to people’s everyday problems, and you’re trying to implement this solution into their lives, you have to accept the fact that it will take some time. Your future fans and clients will probably take a while to embrace your new company, and in order to stand the test of time, you’re going to need a lot of patience.

2. Precise Focus

While it’s important to remain focused on your business goals and work on pushing your startup in the front rows of the industry, you should be focused primarily on customers. In other words, become customer obsessed. However, don’t become so obsessed that you’ll go about changing your brand and doing whatever it takes to please every single person. Stick to your vision, but keep your followers and clients in mind at all times.

3. Persuasive Communication Skills

The truth is that communication can either make or break your business, in several different ways. You may have a super vision, an authentic idea, and a business model that’s going to hold up no matter what, but if you’re not a good communicator as an entrepreneur and don’t know how to portray your company to others, nobody is going to want to hear about your startup. You need to be able to practice communication and do it regularly. Whether it’s inside your company, communicating with your employee or partner, or outside the company, pitching your ideas to third parties, you’re going to have to learn to use words to get into people’s minds.

4. Envisioning

Now, you might be thinking, who starts a company without having a vision? Most entrepreneurs have some kind of a vision, but we’re talking about the kind that’s going to push you through the hardest of times because you can see so far, there’s no stopping until you get there. In order to sustain a startup, you need to have a vision, not just for the present or foreseeable future, but for the next 20 years. Once you reach your first set milestone, you shouldn’t just sit around and wait to see where the road will take you. Your vision should be your guide throughout the entire process, and once you reach each milestone, you’re going to find it all familiar because you’ve envisioned it from the very beginning.

5. Cautious Management

No matter what you start off with, you should be very careful when it comes to your assets. Startups are a gamble to a certain degree, but great leaders know how to spend and when to invest their money. They don’t waste a dime, and they know when they should invest millions when necessary. Get educated when it comes to finances and startups in order to avoid making bad financial decisions that will drive your business to the ground.

We consider these five characteristics predictors of future success. They might not always determine the outcome of your startup, as there are various factors to take into consideration that might influence the sustainability of your business, and that might not always be in your control. However, these five traits are important to have in order to control the situations and aspects of your business that shouldn’t be left up to fate.