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5‌ ‌Simple‌ ‌Skills‌ ‌You‌ ‌Need‌ ‌as‌ ‌an‌ ‌Entrepreneur‌ ‌

Simple Skills You Need as an Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur is like running a family. You must attend to every problem that crops up in the business daily. Some of these problems are tough, and that explains why you must develop entrepreneurial skills to keep your business afloat.

Many experts will tell you that up to 90% of startups fail within the first five years of their setup. The majority of these failures result from a lack of business skills.

So, before you start a business, ensure you have the following five skills.

1. Communication Skills

Communication is the backbone of every business. No business can succeed without putting in place communication channels. Even with these channels, you still must cultivate communication skills such as active listening, assertiveness, clarity, and the ability to articulate issues.

You must have excellent verbal and written communication skills to convince your potential employees to buy into your products or services. These skills will also be necessary for you to win tenders, and to carry out effective marketing.

Writing skills are necessary for sending emails, internal memos, writing contracts, etc. If you own a big company, then all your employees need these communication skills. So, it’s your responsibility to ensure they get the right training in communication skills.

2. Finance and Management Skills

Even if you were to employ an accountant or a finance manager, you also need to have some working knowledge of finance or accounting.

You need to understand and interpret financial reports so you can know where your business is heading. Without such knowledge, your employees will defraud you.

Apart from that, you also need some management skills. Take your time to learn things like how to create a Gantt chart in PowerPoint so you can manage your projects effectively.

3. Branding (business and personal)

Branding skills are essential, whether you want to promote yourself as an expert or to boost your business image. It is through branding that that image of your business will remain imprinted in the memories of your potential clients.

Branding is a skill that has to be learned. It starts with having a professionally designed website with a well-designed logo. A website is the best tool to let your customers know more about your company.

Today, it isn’t challenging to own a website, and even if you don’t have web development skills, you can rely on a free content management system such as WordPress. Alternatively, you can hire a web designing expert to help you out if you need something more trendy and attractive.

Branding also touches on your presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. For you to use these channels effectively, you must have branding skills.

4. Sales

All businesses are formed to make profits from sales. Whether you are selling products or services, you need the selling skills to attract buyers. You need to set up, finance, and train a sales team to equip them with the skills required to help them in their mandate.

Sales also touch on the website. You need to have a call to action button on your website that can help your visitor take action after viewing what you have on offer.

5. Creativity

As you start your business, you must remember you’ll be competing against other companies, some of which are already established. It isn’t easy to penetrate the market if you are not creative. It would be best if you found new ways of solving people’s problems cost-effectively and efficiently.

Your true mettle will get tested when you set yourself up against the tangible and intangible problems you have decided to solve. Your enterprise’s success will depend on your creativity, perseverance, and resilience in the face of the challenges that will be thrown your way.

Final Words

It is not too late to earn these skills. With the internet’s availability, you can even take online classes to develop your skills and learn new ones. Luckily, some of these online classes are free. If not, you can hire an expert to train you on these skills. But don’t forget your employees, there are also some skills they will need to learn to increase their productivity. Be ready to spend on their training for the betterment of your business.

Written by Regina Thomas

Regina Thomas is a Southern California native who spends her time as a freelance writer and loves cooking at home when she can find the time. Regina loves reading, music, hanging with her friends and family along with her Golden Retriever, Sadie. She loves adventure and living every day to the fullest.

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