As economies around the world continue to bounce back from the Covid 19 pandemic, many budding entrepreneurs are taking the plunge and following their dreams of starting and running their own business. Sadly, many will not be successful. So what does it take these days to start and continue to be successful in business? There is a wide divergence of opinion on what are the key skills, these are a few of the most important:
Financial literacy
Initially, in order to start a business and keep that business running you will need to have some rudimentary financial skills. You don’t need to have the advanced skills of a financial adviser, but you will need to know the basics. Ultimately you may hire someone with better skills than you to fulfil this role in the company but initially you will need to do this yourself.
Marketing skills
Irrespective of the type of business you are starting you’re going to have to do a lot of marketing. You will need to do this to gain clients or customers and keep your business growing. In addition to growing your customer base, you need marketing skills to hire employees and grow your team.
Knowledge of technology
Staying on top of the latest tech trends these days can feel nearly impossible. But if you want to start a business, it’s worth taking the extra time to get to know new technology as it hits the market. Initially your most important tools will be your computer and your smart phone but as your business grows you will need to be aware of which of the latest technologies can be applied to different areas. These will improve efficiency, speed up growth and cut costs.
Communication skills
Good communication is important in all walks of life, but strong communication skills are an absolute must for entrepreneurs. When you start a business, you’ll be communicating with employees, clients, customers and vendors. You must be able to communicate clearly and concisely, no matter what medium you’re using: email, phone, video chatting, etc.
Keeping a positive attitude
There will be plenty of times when you aren’t profiting the way you have in the past or the way you think you should or when a variety of other things seem not to be going your way. There will be times when you need to make difficult decisions, like letting staff go or raising prices. Through all these challenges you will need to keep a positive attitude to enable you to rise above it and keep moving forwards.
Effective Delegation
In the beginning, you will likely be doing everything yourself, but as you scale your business, you will not be able to continue doing it all alone. You’re going to have to start hiring employees. A good entrepreneur is able to know when to stop micromanaging everything and start working through other people to achieve their vision. To do this effectively, you need to be able to recognise the skills of different employees and delegate the appropriate level of responsibility to them.
Leadership Skills
Delegation alone is not enough to effectively work through other people; you also require strong leadership skills. Being a good leader always means encouraging your employees to do their best. You should strike the right balance between motivating and critiquing when necessary.
Time Management
The most important resource we all have is time. When starting a new business it often feels like you don’t have nearly enough of this valuable commodity, when faced with a seemingly endless to-do list. To manage this challenge good time management skills are key. The more effectively you manage your time, the more opportunities you’ll have to grow your business. Your time is valuable, and the more effectively you use it the more your business will benefit.
Negotiation Skills
Negotiation goes hand in hand with communication. Whether you’re talking to someone over the phone, or over email, you should always be prepared for a negotiation. It will also help you when someone else unexpectedly starts a negotiation with you. If a customer or client phones up and is unhappy about a situation or price, a good negotiating skillset gives you the confidence to stand your ground.
Vision
Finally, perhaps the most important attribute of an entrepreneur is being a Visionary. By that we mean the ability to create a clear, strong vision of what you want to achieve. How this is communicated is not as important as the clarity. It provides to the business owner with the clarity of purpose to keep pushing on through adversity and acts in much the same way as a compass, forever steering and driving them forwards. Coupled with good communication skills, it also enables the entrepreneur to inspire others to put their weight behind the plan.
