Did you and your friends make a plan to start your own business too? I thought so. With the looks of it, it does sound dreamy! But, on closer inspection, looking past the glorious hues, it is harder to ignore the challenges that come with it. Everything looks like rainbows and unicorns until you have a cash crunch and things take an awful turn.
What you and I see on SharkTank is just one part of the story. The entrepreneur’s hard work, dedication, and sleepless nights spent working on their vision, and maintaining the same confidence in their business that they started with, is not one bit easy. And, it looks and feels easy now because of the hours they spent perfecting their business.
Many of us think about starting a business because of its larger-than-life appeal and because it looks glamorous from the outside. A group of passionate people working tirelessly on the projects they are passionate about. With their fancy cars, exotic vacations, luxurious lifestyle, and flexible work schedules, everyone wants to be them.
You need a strong ‘why’ behind your business. A ‘why’ strong enough to hold your business and vision in times of turbulence and emergency. This ‘why’ is like a map for your business that will guide you through many dark paths and take you on the right path. | Skills You Need to Become a Successful Entrepreneur
If you are still on the fence and assessing if you have the skills to become a successful entrepreneur, below are the skills that will come in handy when you take off on your business journey.
Business Management Skills
No matter your profession, having business management skills is a must for an entrepreneur. From managing your limited resources, managing teams of people, and client relationships, and dealing with ups and downs - your plate is always full . Entrepreneurship is mostly juggling between different tasks and keeping the company afloat. So there’s no way around management skills. Hiring other people to take care of this for you, isn’t enough either, the reason being they can’t match your passion and vision. Learning on the go is another way, you can go about it. Taking mentorship, or opting for a degree is another way.
Communication Skills & Emotional Intelligence
Half of our everyday problems can be solved with proper communication. The same also applies to your business. Many times you will have to communicate with your clients, your audience, customers, employees, and other stakeholders, having good communication skills will make or break your business.
Many times in your career as an entrepreneur, some situations may or may not be up your alley, in those times your reaction to those situations will matter the most. Active listening, empathy, and emotional intelligence will serve as your weapons and armor. So learning good communication skills and emotional intelligence are the best things you can do for your business.
Critical & Creative Thinking
Being an entrepreneur means you need to take full advantage of your brain. Using both the left and right brain for creativity and critical thinking is important. At most times you will be required to analyze the data and make strategic business decisions while at other times you will need to put your creative hat on to make creative and innovative decisions to steadfast your company to growth.
Marketing
Competition is at its highest in this day and age. Every business has an ‘n’ number of competitors and the only way you can stand out is by marketing. No matter how great your product is, if you fail to stand out and create a demand for your products then you may not get the success you are looking for. The only thing that will help you in all this marketing.
Sales Skills
Every good salesperson can become an entrepreneur, not the other way around. As an entrepreneur, you are the representative of your company and business, being able to sell your services or products is out of the question, is already a given. Negotiating deals, and maintaining relationships with customers and clients alike comes with your territory and you should be well versed in them. So start with sales and everything else will follow.
*******************
Entrepreneurs need to be all-rounders, as on the journey many obstacles await you. No matter how prepared you are, there are some challenges you will face in your journey, that no one can prepare you for. Mostly entrepreneurship is the probability of success and failure, and in the end, only the ones who persevere survive.
(Author:- Karishma is a content writer at Techdoquest. She gives youthful and refreshing perspectives on whatever she writes about.)