While the debate rages on as to whether
entrepreneurs are born or made, one
thing can’t be disputed: polishing certain
skills can help you be a better
entrepreneur. Whether you’re already
great at the following skills or could use
a few pointers,
these are the areas you
should focus on for success.
1. Communication. When you’re a
solopreneur, you may think
communication is less of an issue, since
you don’t have staff to interact with. But
you’ve still got to maintain clear lines of
communication with your customers via
email and phone, as well as ensure that
the message you send through your
website and social-media profiles is the
one you want.
Related: Leaders Can Achieve 'Personal
Mastery' With These Simple Steps
If you do have staff, communication is
even more important. After all, poor
communication skills can lead to
decreased productivity with your staff, as
well as low morale and opportunity for
them to make more mistakes if they don’t
understand your instructions.
Tips for improvement: Even if you’re not
a skilled communicator, paying attention
to how people react to you can clue you
in to how well (or not) you’re reaching
them. Getting puzzled looks whenever
you speak? Ask the person you’re talking
to if what you said makes sense, and
give them the opportunity to ask for
clarification.
2. Branding (personal and
business). Whether you’re striving to
brand your business or looking to
establish yourself as an expert in your
industry, knowing how to do so online is
essential to your success.
Branding starts with being active on
social media, and is shaped through
content publication, whether on or off
your website. Be aware, though, that poor
content can lead to negative branding.
It’s important to know how to deliver
content and resources that your target
audience wants and will find valuable.
Tips for improvement: Not a born writer,
or feel like social media is too difficult?
Take it in bite-sized portions. Start by
writing one blog post a week, or hire a
writer to do it for you. Ramp up as you
gain confidence, and you’ll boost your
following and web traffic. These articles
provide fantastic resources, as well: “ 5
Ways to Build Your Brand in Short Chunks
of Time” and “The Definitive Guide to
Marketing Your Business Online .”
3. Sales. You may not identify with
salespeople, but the fact is, if you run a
business, you’re involved in sales. You
might have a sales team that handles all
of your company’s sales, but every time
you deliver your elevator pitch about your
business, negotiate with a vendor, or
even just persuade anyone to do
anything, you’re tapping into sales skills.
Tips for improvement: There are plenty of
strategies for selling without selling.
Think about conversations you have with
potential customers. The ones that
resulted in a sale probably weren’t really
hard pitches to get them to buy from you.
They probably centered around helping
the potential customer find a solution to a
problem.
Related: No Matter What You're Selling,
This Strategy Should Do the Trick
If you focus on helping, rather than
selling, you’ll feel more confident about
the sales process, and make more sales,
too.
4. Strategy. It’s easy to think about the
“right-now” aspect of your business,
because the results are easy to see. But
what about the bigger picture, long-term
challenges and goals? How often are you
thinking about those?
Without a constant eye on your business’
strategy and skilled assessment of that
strategy relative to the industry and your
competition, you can’t hope to grow it
over time and remain competitive in the
marketplace.
Tips for improvement: Dedicate time to
simply dreaming about what you want for
your business. Where would you like to
take it? What’s your vision for it? Now,
how can you get there from here?
Set your goals, then develop an
actionable plan to make them a reality.
Then, don’t forget about those goals.
Keep them front and center to everything
you do.
5. Finance. While you don’t need to be a
CPA to run a successful business, you
should still have a decent understanding
of your finances, profit margins, cash
flow and funding. The more comfortable
you are with all of these numbers, the
more confident you’ll be, and the better
decisions you’ll make.
If you have an accountant to handle all
the number crunching, that’s great, but
don’t use them as a crutch to keep you
from digging in and really understanding
where your money’s going. It’s your duty
to rein in costs, optimize efficiency and
find ways to grow revenue.
Tips for improvement: Start by spending
some time in your accounting system.
You can learn a lot about your profit and
loss, average client revenue and
expenses from reports. A tool that helps
you visualize your revenue and costs is
especially helpful
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