If you are thinking of starting your own business, you need to first work on yourself to improve your chances of finding entrepreneurial success.
There are a lot of skills you need to learn and develop to become a successful entrepreneur. These entrepreneurship skills can be divided into two groups: hard skills and soft skills.
Hard skills refer to your technical skills, such as speaking a foreign language or typing proficiency. Meanwhile, soft skills are more abstract and also known as people skills or interpersonal skills.
It was hard, but we managed to make a list of the five hard and soft entrepreneur skills you need to find business success.
Communication
Communication skills are a must-have for any aspiring entrepreneur. Just as no man is an island, no entrepreneur goes through their journey alone.
You need to learn how to communicate effectively with the people you would work with, from customers and suppliers to stakeholders and employees. Clear communication is necessary to build a transparent work culture and to form good relationships.
Moreover, effective communication skills serve as a foundation for other important entrepreneur skills, including networking, customer support, marketing, and leadership.
In building your communication skills, make sure to always remember that communication is a two-way street. You not only need to learn how to convey your thoughts properly but also how to listen to what others are telling you.
Basic Financial Literacy
This may be a bit of a cheat answer as basic financial literacy encompasses quite a few skills. Still, it’s a given that no entrepreneur should be caught without even the most basic finance skills.
After all, before you can manage an entire business and its assets, you first need to be able to manage your finances. You need to learn how to create a reasonable budgeting plan and stick to it. The success and failure of your business can depend on it.
Aside from budgeting skills, you also need to know how to do the following:
- Read and prepare financial statements, such as balance sheets, cash flow statements, and income statements
- Understand tax documents and requirements
- Understand common financial terms
Time Management
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur you need to be able to stay on top of all aspects of your business. This is especially true when you’re just starting out and only have a small team. Since you end up performing multiple roles, you need to manage your time effectively and economically.
You need to know which tasks to prioritize, how much time to allocate for different tasks, and whom to delegate the task to maximum efficiency. You also need to learn how to work efficiently and be punctual to any deadlines or meetings.
Lastly, it’s important to find a balance between resting and working hard. All work and no play (or rest) can take its toll on your and your employees’ productivity.
Ability to Learn and Grow
As an entrepreneur, it is crucial to always have a growth mindset. You must understand that all of your skills and knowledge aren’t fixed — you can always learn more and improve on what you know and what you can do.
The road to becoming a great entrepreneur is a winding one and filled with many challenges and difficulties. Failure is all too common. When you do fail or hit a roadblock, your ability to learn from your mistakes and grow from the experience will help you become a better entrepreneur.
Technical or Digital Skills
Look, we’re living in the digital world — there’s almost no profession that does not require even a modicum of technical or digital skills. The pandemic only highlighted its importance and fast-tracked the world’s shift to doing almost everything digitally.
For entrepreneurs, the most basic ones you should learn include:
- Computer literacy and data entry
- Using project management tools
- Writing and sending emails
- Using social media
- Building or maintaining a website or blog
- Using spreadsheets, presentation, and word processing programs
Advanced digital skills would come in handy as well. These skills are particularly helpful during your start-up stage when budget constraints would likely require you to do everything yourself.
Some advanced digital skills worth developing are:
- Digital marketing
- Web design and development
- Content creation
The Bottom Line
Mastering these five entrepreneur skills will give you a headstart but they are far from all that you need. The basic skills we listed are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are so many more skills to learn and develop in your business journey.
Entrepreneurial success will not come easy — but that is what will make it so much sweeter.
Sources:
https://www.cleverism.com/10-hard-and-soft-skills-to-start-your-own-business/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/18-super-important-skills-entrepreneurs-business-owners-utpal-sinha
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/080615/5-skills-every-entrepreneur-needs.asp
https://decisioninc.com/7-skills-every-entrepreneur-needs-to-adopt-today/
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/entrepreneurial-skills
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/hard-skills-vs-soft-skills-2063780
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/time-management-skills-2063776
https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/what-are-digital-skills/
