As an entrepreneur, there are ten essential skills that are required to get your new business off the ground. Find out how to grow, scale and improve your business with these skills in this guide.
As an entrepreneur, there are many skills needed to get your new business off the ground, from leadership skills to customer relationship skills and everything in between.
Keep reading to find out our top 10 skills required to start up and run a successful business.
The Top 10 Skills Needed To Start Up A Business:
- Optimism
- Passion and drive
- Leadership skills
- Marketing skills
- Communication skills
- Listening skills
- Sales and customer relationship skills
- People management skills
- Organisation skills
- Finance skills
1. Optimism
When starting your own business, you have to be an optimist. This means that you have the confidence in yourself and the business to do well in the future.
Research has shown that positive people work harder, mainly because they can clearly see the goal they’re working towards and in turn, increase productivity.
Optimism also helps you to develop entrepreneurial resilience during times of hardship.
2. Passion And Drive
Passion is one of those intangible things that drives an entrepreneur, gets them through the tough times, and ultimately dictates the success of any start-up.
If you really want to get your business off the ground, you will be living and breathing your business, so you have to make sure you’re investing in something you will be passionate about.
Building a positive work culture can directly influence team performance.
3. Leadership Skills
Leadership skills are an essential set of skills needed by entrepreneurs when starting a business.
A good entrepreneur will not only lead others but also listen to their team and take time to understand how each member needs to be led in order to help them grow and reach their full potential.
There are a number of different leadership styles that work well in different environments such as democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire leadership.
Some people are born leaders and leadership skills will come as second nature. But for a lot of people, this isn’t the case. Why not take a look at these book recommendations on leadership and self improvement, a perfect read for new leaders.
4. Marketing Skills
Marketing is a fundamental skill for getting your business off the ground and for any future growth. Think of marketing as the heart of your business - for it to survive, it must have marketing, and the stronger the marketing gets, the healthier the business will be.
Without marketing, your business could have the most ground-breaking product to suit your customer's needs, but you won’t have any way of connecting your brand to your target audience.
As a business owner, you need to know your market, what your potential customers need and when, where they are, how much they are prepared to pay, and the best method of communicating your brand to them.
Make sure you develop a clear marketing strategy as part of your overall business plan.
If you need some assistance in this field, Tramshed Tech hold a number of marketing workshops throughout the year to teach new business owners everything from creating content, to evaluating performance and everything in between. We have also a number of marketing workshops on our YouTube Channel that can be super helpful for any business.
There are also many excellent marketing books available that are worth a read. Our favourite has to be Anti-Sell by Cardiff-based author and SEO expert Steve Morgan. One of the biggest challenges that freelancers face is the sales process and in this multi-award-winning book, Steve Morgan offers a sales playbook for freelancers, small businesses owners on how to increase client numbers minus the irritating sales tactics.
5. Communication Skills
It goes without saying that one of the most important skills needed by entrepreneurs when running a successful business is communication skills.
Whether you’re selling products to potential customers, convincing investors of your amazing idea, or enticing a top candidate to join your company, communication skills are vital to the success of your company.
For more information on the importance of communication skills in the workplace, check out this blog.
6. Listening Skills
Listening skills are an incredibly important business skill for entrepreneurs. If you don’t listen, you won’t learn.
Whether you're communicating with your customers, staff, family, or friends, listening is a crucial skill to have as an entrepreneur.
It is especially important to listen to your staff as they will be more open, motivated, and positive if they feel they are being listened to.
A good entrepreneur will not only lead others but also listen to their team and take time to understand how each member needs to be led to help them grow and reach their full potential.
7. Sales And Customer Service Skills
With so much competition in the world today, customer experience is one of the main differentiating factors between you and your competitors.
According to research done by Hubspot research, 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service.
Great customer service skills are therefore extremely important to any business as they bring with them customer loyalty, good word-of-mouth, increased consumer spending, and increased purchase frequency.
8. People Management & HR Skills
Every company is made up of a variety of different people, and it is undoubtedly a challenge for any leader to manage these differences and align them with the whole team.
This is why people management skills are so important. The key is to pay attention to the five pillars of good people management: communication, teamwork, motivation, knowledge, training and development.
Having a positive work culture can really influence team performance. If you’re in the process of building a team and want everyone to work to the same goal, this webinar event by Tramshed Tech is for you!
9. Organisation Skills
A key business skill needed by entrepreneurs is organisation skills.
You should know your end goal and how you plan on getting there before you even start and ultimately help the business establish structure.
An organised workplace will encourage your workers to be focused, and motivated and should reduce work-related stress, meaning improved productivity and generating more business!
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Keeping things organised is important to reduce workplace stress and improve productivity.
10. Finance Skills
Now, we’re not saying you have to be an expert in algebra, but having basic finance skills will help you manage your cash flow.
‘Cash is king’ in business so if numeracy is something you struggle with, then we recommend reading business finance books, such as ‘how to understand business finance’ which takes you through the set-up and initial trading of a business.
You may also want to employ someone to help with the finer points.
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Written by Kate, for Tramshed Tech.
