All the high net worth individuals in the world are where they are because they developed a certain skill set, which in turn helped them to reach their goals. Mere knowledge of your niche area won’t help you become a successful entrepreneur. While you need patience to run a business, you also need to focus on developing some critical skills which not only help you run your business but also can help you solve any problems that might arise in your entrepreneurial journey.
Here is a list of 5 skills you should start developing if you aspire to become a successful entrepreneur.
1) Creativity
As an entrepreneur, you will face new problems every day and for entrepreneurs, creativity isn’t just about coming up with new ideas, it is about being able to adapt to new situations quickly and finding solutions for problems as and when they arise. You will also have to constantly improve and upgrade your products and services to stay alive in the market. Therefore, creativity is the most essential skill an entrepreneur should possess.
The brand Apple is synonymous with creativity, thanks to the genius Steve Jobs. When the iPhone initially launched, critics came up with a 100 reasons as to why it would fail and it almost did. With his creativity, Steve Jobs kept upgrading the product and today, it is the best selling smartphone in the world. Steve Jobs’ creativity was the driving force behind Apple’s product design and marketing.
2) Communication
Every entrepreneur needs to be an effective communicator. It is essential for entrepreneurs to be able to communicate with employees, customers, investors, peers and mentors. One simply cannot manage a great team or provide a great customer service if one is not an effective communicator. Irrespective of whether a person runs a startup or a Fortune 500 company, communication is the key skill that he must develop.
Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson who himself is a student of communication, calls it “an art”.
3) Salesmanship
As an entrepreneur you should be able to sell sand in the desert.
Salesmanship is one such skill without which, it is nearly impossible to succeed as an entrepreneur. The soft skill of sales goes hand- in -hand with communication and is key to run a successful business. An entrepreneur should be able to sell the business idea to investors, their products and services to customers.
Salesmanship plays a key role in building trust between the company and the customer.
Mark Cuban, an American businessman, investor and the owner of National Basketball Association often emphasises that salesmanship is the skill that made him millions. When asked what he would do if he lost it all, he replied saying that he would pick up a sales job and was pretty sure that this could make him a multi-millionaire again.
4) Money Management
If you cannot manage money, you cannot manage a business. Period!
Financial management is the most important responsibility of an entrepreneur, especially in the startup stage. Knowing your cash flow can make planning and budgeting for financial needs easier. This is a key skill to develop if you are aiming to be a successful entrepreneur.
Elon Musk, the 46 year old CEO of SpaceX and Tesla often states that he does not spend his $ 20 billion fortune on lavish vacations or expensive hobbies. Instead, he invests his profits back into his business for its development.
5) Ability to find and manage people
Having great people on your team will make life much easier for you. It gives you access to new strengths while building a company culture of which people would want to be a part. Hiring the right people is key to building a successful company. Along with hiring the right people, an entrepreneur should be able to manage them efficiently. He should be able to assign the right kind of tasks to people considering their strengths and weaknesses.
The world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos follows a three question method of hiring people for his company.
- Will you admire this person?
- Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering?
- Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?
Only when he is satisfied with these answers, will that person work for him.
Being an entrepreneur is a complicated task and your success as an entrepreneur is the result of the small actions taken over a period of time.
If you notice you are lacking a skill or two, focus on nurturing those skills today so you might be able to enjoy success tomorrow.