A common misconception about entrepreneurial skills is that they cannot be learned and that people are born with them. However, time has shown this to be wrong. Entrepreneurial skills can be learned and taught. To become successful as an entrepreneur, you must master a few skills these include communication, selling, persistence, efficiency, commitment to work, persuasion, and self-confidence.
The question now is how to improve entrepreneurial skills in order to run a successful and long-lasting business. There is no hard and fast rule to learning entrepreneurial skills, one can learn through video lectures, online classes, practicing the skill, and taking real-world actions. By far, the best way to learn entrepreneurial skills is to launch a small business. If you can’t afford to do that, you can work in a startup or business that allows you to make decisions.
You must be aware of the necessary skills, then you will be able to improve them. Therefore, in this piece of writing, we will focus both on the skills and effective ways to improve the required skills.
10 Most important Entrepreneurial Skills
Though many skills are required to become an entrepreneur, a few of them are the most important. These competencies include;
● People skills
● Mastery over your Money
● Ability to sell
● Life-long learner
● T-Shape individual
● Take a different path
● Communication skills
● Persistency
● Managing finances
● Risk-taker
● Goal-seeking
● Opportunity seeking
Once you know what skills are required for Entrepreneurship, the next step would be working on improving them effectively. These are not easy-to-learn skills, it requires hard work, determination, consistency, passion, and practice. There is a common phrase that says ‘’ Practice makes perfect’’. The more you practice, the more you learn and master it. Therefore, one of the most effective ways to improve an entrepreneurial skill is practice, practice, and practice.
Ways to improve these entrepreneurial skills
People skills
Among all, the most essential skill for entrepreneurs is having people skills. This is simply how well you interact and communicate with others. It is also known as interpersonal skills. It includes the ability to listen, accept differences, show empathy, add value, make others feel important and problems solving. A few of the most important traits include;
1. Leadership
2. Empathy
3. Networking -adding value, consistent relationship
4. Open to feedback
5. Charm
Something as simple as being an organizer for a fundraiser or a team leader at a church retreat. These small leadership roles give you experience and confidence in your abilities. Again, starting a business will allow you to practice your people skills which include decision-making, leadership skills, empathy skills, and networking skills.
Master your Money
One of the most critical aspects of Entrepreneurship is money and how you handle your finances. As an entrepreneur, you must be good with your finances. It isn’t necessary to have a degree in finance, one can learn to manage finances through their daily routine or outsource it. You can start by keeping track of your spending, making a budget, being realistic with your spending and savings, paying your bills on time, and start making small investments. Through these small steps, you can learn to master your money which will help you on the path of entrepreneurship where you have to handle finances for a business. Aside from expenses and income, you should be aware of two other aspects of business.
● Taxation
● Cash flow
As an entrepreneur, you must know the tax system so you can take advantage of it and pay less in taxes. Monitoring your cash flow is also vital. Again, you can use the internet to learn about money or can do an internship in any organization.
Life long learner
Life Long learners are those who initiate self-learning after leaving formal education. They believe human beings are born to learn, and they learn throughout their lives regardless of age, or any other limitations set by formal institutes. As an entrepreneur, you must be curious to find out things on your own and solve problems. The question is how can you practice learning and enhance your skills. If you are passionate about learning something there are multiple sources including;
● Internet
● Libraries
● Discussion groups
● Mentorship
● attending workshops/seminars
● Competitions especially business relevant
● working in startups
Don’t be afraid of failure. It will teach you thousands of things and will make you courageous.
Ability to sell
‘’Ability to sell’’ is the backbone of entrepreneurship and you must be able to sell without the fear of being rejected. Dan Lok (The Asian Dragon) says,
. ‘’ there is a huge relationship between being good at what you do and being able to sell and get paid. Some of the highest-paid people in the world are not best at what they do, they are the best at selling what they do.’’ The Selling skill includes storytelling, effectively presenting, working in teams, negotiating, positioning value, and understanding the needs of the customers.
The Selling skill can be improved through;
- Attend sales training
- Practice public speaking.
- Asking questions.
- Become a lifelong learner
- Listen in on sales calls.
If you do not have this skill, it will be very hard to survive, since entrepreneurship is all about selling yourself, your idea, your product, your service, and your talent.
T-Shape individual
A T-shape individual is someone who has specialized in one area but has the desire and ability to make an impact across different disciplines. Let’s take an example, someone who might be excellent in public speaking, but also has skills in management, finances, and Human resources.
As an entrepreneur, you must understand other areas to manage your business besides mastering one skill or area. Such as understanding the tax system, finance management, brand strategy, marketing, designing, and social media management. T-shaped skills revolve around experience, expertise, execution and exploration. To learn T-shaped skills you must explore areas, take action, and learn through experience.
Take a different path
Taking a different path is also a skill, as not everyone has the guts to go different ways exploring new areas. Entrepreneurship is all about creativity, innovation, and finding new solutions to problems. Now you might be thinking how can we learn this skill? It’s very simple, intentionally try something new in your daily routine. You can do the following things for practice;
● Make a new friend every day,
● Reading a unique book,
● watching a movie in a different language,
● talking to an expert outside of your field
● or it could be anything that doesn’t go with your usual routine task.
Don’t consider these things minor, small steps can make a huge difference in your life. Once you start practicing something new every day, you will open doors of success for yourself.
Start a business
Starting a business is the most effective way to learn entrepreneurship skills. There is nothing like real-world experience. It will provide exposure and real hands-on experience in every skill. Though it takes time to start a business with proper planning, organization, and research, you can do it. Also, you can start a side hustle to gather experience. Often people start with an online business by going on different e-commerce platforms. Few opportunities such as affiliate marketing and drop shipping don’t need to set up a business, rather with minimum investment one can start a business, and also improve their entrepreneurial skills.
You can go on the internet, search for businesses from home, or online platforms that allow you to market their products without actually buying them, and provide you commission. It allows you to explore emerging online businesses, audience choice, marketing techniques, social media influence on business, communication skills, and most importantly enhance your selling skills.
Stick with Challenges
A famous saying by Albert Einstein,’’ It’s not that I am smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.’’ Following this quote, learn to stick with challenges. Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks, challenges, and problems, and only those people who are consistent get success in their work. No matter what type of business you start, you need to work hard with compassion and integrity.
One of the major problems with entrepreneurship is people are imaginative and do not think realistically. Anyone can be successful and become a billionaire within a short span. In reality, entrepreneurship is the hardest for which you have to sacrifice your sleep, family time, hanging out with friends, and other entertaining activities in your life. In the initial stages, it kills you with challenges, however, if you do not give up and stick with your plan you will be successful one day and enjoy all the luxuries famous entrepreneurs do.
Manage your finances
You must understand that it is the requirement of entrepreneurship that you have relevant knowledge of finances, and know how to manage finances in unpredictable situations. To solve your financial problems and convert them into benefits, you must develop the following skills:
● Understanding of Cash flow
● Analyzing financial data
● Be able to forecast expenses and future earnings
● Apply advanced mathematics
● Known how of calculations
● Money Market/exchange rates
● Commercial and business awareness
Besides, you must have critical thinking skills, analytical, problem solving, and negotiating skills. All of them are important to influence customers, vendors, government, partners, and anyone involved in your business.
Practice communication skill
In addition to the above-mentioned skills and ways of improvement, practicing your communication skills will help you in everything including your marketing and selling skills, managing people, leadership, and talking to your customers.
Effective communication skills are not about public speaking or talking to a gathering, you can be introverted, shy, and have effective communication skills when it comes to your work. Let’s take the example of Elon Musk, he knows to whom he has to communicate, and how. Though in front of a larger audience, camera he admits that he feels shy. He uses social media as a tool to communicate with the audience, and he knows its importance. Therefore, you must know the tools that you can use to effectively communicate with people.
Adaptability – Acceptance of Change
Adaptability to change is an attribute of entrepreneurs, and it leads to a big change in life. As an entrepreneur, learn to adapt to the changing environment such as the use of technology in business. If you keep using traditional ways of doing business, you won’t get success. The world is changing fast and requires entrepreneurs to adapt to the changing environment.
In many cultures, it is difficult to adapt to change as they don’t allow it. For example, technology brings social changes, and often people find it hard to accept the change. However, if you want to be successful, you must have to consider all the incoming changes and implement them into your business.
Takeaways
All the above-mentioned skills and methodology to improve them are not hard and fast rules. Depending on your ability to learn, and grasp a skill you can use other ways to improve your entrepreneurial skills. These are to help you figure out what’s important to step into the business world. You can also practice friendliness, confidence, and creativity, meet other entrepreneurs or join communities that thrive on innovation. Or you can make a book list to read, practice resilience or make to-do lists to track your daily routine and change accordingly.
Whatever way you choose to improve your entrepreneurial skill, make sure it’s effective and makes a real change in your thought process, behavior, lifestyle and how you see real-world problems. The key entrepreneurial skill is your ability to learn, practice, and apply it to your professional and personal life.
At the end of the day, all that matters is your skill, ability, and passion for doing something and inspiring people around you with your work.
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