Have you ever wondered what separates successful business owners from less successful ones? The answer to the question is skills. Skill is a term that primarily includes the knowledge, competencies, and abilities to perform specific tasks. We are not born with skills, they may be a product of our knowledge, experiences, and efforts. They are acquired over the lifetime of an individual. A business skill is the ability to carry out a business task effectively with efficiency within a given time, material, money, managing power or other kinds of resources. An entrepreneur refers to someone who creates, constructs, or operates their own business. Since there are several risks and so much at stake when it comes to starting and growing a successful business, there are some important skills that an entrepreneur usually needs to be prepared for that journey. Below, I highlight five such attributes.

1. THE GOLDEN: ADAPTABILITY, AND RESILIENCE

When Charles Darwin said “survival of the fittest,” instead of the toughest or the smartest life-forms, he was referring to those that were most capable of adapting to fit their environmental conditions. Adaptability refers to making smart changes when challenges rise. It is a skill that allows entrepreneurs to navigate through new situations and the inevitable bumps and curves in the journey of making the business grow. Your adaptability also highlights your ability to be resourceful. It displays your leadership skills, determination, analytical skills, and perseverance. . Resilience is the ability ‘to bounce back up!.’ It is ability to absorb the difficulties of any business since it seldom goes exactly the way the business was originally planned. This skill enables the entrepreneur to find the light at the end of the tunnel not matter how difficult the journey was.

2. MANAGING PEOPLE

One way to build a successful business is to leverage employees, vendors, and other resources. Managing others can be a challenge for some. It requires you to be open and committed to improving and developing your leadership skills and characteristics. Some entrepreneurs can adapt their leadership styles to various personalities in the workplace, implementing feedback from their environment to achieve goals where as others might find hard to do that. An entrepreneur might also need to be skilled at hiring employees who are the right fit for their business. Being flexible with your management techniques according to the personality types, aspirations, and aptitudes of the employees you are managing, can enhance their motivation and cultivate their inner potentials. Furthermore, training them can result to boosting their skill sets and turning them into company assets. Understanding employees’ strengths, weaknesses, experiences, and skills, can orient you to accurately delegate jobs to those who are likely to do them well within the given period. Every entrepreneur may benefit from being an effective communicator which includes one-on-one and in-person conversations, group conversations, written communication, and email or online messages.

3. FINANCE MANAGEMENT

Finance management is an important skill that an entrepreneur may leverage over time. As an entrepreneur you may learn the skills or the art of selling anything and everything. Effective financial management is one of the cogs that keep the machine running. It can lead to a business functioning optimally, making it profitable and efficient. This will also allow you to borrow money more easily as sharing your budget with your banker will help in the loan approval processes. Proper bookkeeping also helps in providing financial planning information for investors. Financial management also includes knowing how to handle cash flow and credit, buying insurance, and reporting and paying taxes. Sometimes you may be required to stop, pause, and plan on a quarterly basis to figure out the direction the company needs to head towards.

4. CREATIVITY

Entrepreneurs create. Their minds revolve around innovative ideas and opportunities for innovation. They put the continuous and conscious effort required to look for niches and undertake the risks in entering them. As an entrepreneur, you may strive to create more opportunities in industry, providing more employment options and have a positive impact on per capital income, revenue generation, lifestyle, etc. Creating new ideas that have competitive advantages; think out of the box to develop your product; thinking the unthinkable in matters of problem solving and finding similar patterns in different areas; all lead to dynamic changes strong enough to convert a budding business into a booming business. Lack of creativity, however, might easily drag your business into a stagnant state.

5. MARKETING OPERATIONS

Marketing is an important process for entrepreneurs as no venture can become established and grow without a customer market. The core of marketing is the process of acquiring and retaining customers. Entrepreneurs needs to create the offer (design the product and set the price), take the offer to the market (through distribution), and simultaneously, tell the market about the offer (communications). As an entrepreneur you have to identify different customer needs. It can be through keyword research, focused groups, or social listening. The second step is gaining the market’s acceptance or building brand awareness. This is the process by which the product or service’s distinctiveness and value become clear to the customer. There are several advertising techniques at your disposal such as counting on to feel-good moments in your advertising campaigns or utilising the bandwagon effect.

Though it`s desirable for a business owner to be good at all the above skills, yet it can be hard for most to be skilled at all. However, it can be of immense help if an entrepreneur is aware of his strengths and weakness, as that may help them to manage their weakness and leverage their strengths.

To know more about how i can help you.