Many people grow up wanting to be a fireman, a nurse or an airline pilot but I am sure very few at that age say they want to found the next Virgin Group, revolutionise the hand held device market, or put a desktop computer in every home on the planet! To accomplish those things you need some truly great ideas in addition to having specific entrepreneurial skills.
Leadership
Although an online business often consists only of the owner, the industry itself is constantly courting new leaders. A leader is a successful entrepreneur who can assist others in achieving success. For this reason, anyone who embodies the principles of leadership can become an effective online influencer who teaches, guides and leads fellow entrepreneurs on the road to success.
Motivation
This is a big issue for many people. Make sure you know what your goals are. Even people who are incredibly confident and very thick skinned will struggle if they lose the motivation.
Self motivation, personal pride and happiness are all tied up in the realisation of our goals, so whenever you have a bad day remember what it is about your goal that will make you happy. Keep that image in your mind or stick a picture on the fridge, anything that will remind you of why it is that you do the things you do.
Marketing
When you run “My Own Business Ltd” then each and every project that you work on is with someone new. You have no global brand backing you up and opening doors for you. It is all down to you. Therefore you need to take a much larger appreciation and understanding of the role of marketing your brand and driving sales.
Self Discipline
Self discipline is an essential characteristic of entrepreneurs because when you are self employed, if you don’t provide excellent value to your customers, you don’t earn money. If you don’t earn money then you don’t get paid – so make sure you use your time effectively.
Clients won’t come back to you if you miss deadlines, and keeping a good reputation is your own responsibility – not like in the corporate world where there is often someone else to hide behind or blame!
Personal Development
Personal development is not something that can be scoffed at. In order to get better at something you have to take the time, invest in yourself and learn.
As a business grows, so do the challenges that an entrepreneur will face. Having the right mindset to embrace and overcome those obstacles when they occur is more than half the battle.
The right mindset will also change your perspective on situations and increase the amount of value you can bring to others.
Work ethic
Many people dream of the 4 hour work week. Few will actually realise it. Even those who have billions of dollars work more to accumulate more. It is an entrepreneurial skill in itself to have the desire to want more, to do better and to strive for further success!
If you are not willing to work longer hours than almost anyone else you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you will never make it to the top!
Creativity
Having the ability to see a solution to a problem is paramount to success as an entrepreneur. The very dynamics of a small business mean that there are not hordes of colleagues with specialties in certain areas to turn to when a problem arises. An entrepreneur needs to be creative and think of ways to solve a problem using the resources available to them. One of the greatest assets that an entrepreneur has is their network.
Relationship Capital
With a below par economy it is now tougher than ever as a new business or firm to strike new relationships and bring in new customers from the cold. Today’s buyers are savvy and they are less interested in being trapped by old fashioned sales techniques and manipulation and more interested in deciding whether or not they trust you and your company to deliver on your promises.
In the new economy one of the greatest entrepreneurial skills you can have is knowing how to capture relationship capital, fast, preserving and growing it or you’re going to get left behind.
Flexibility
It is so easy to focus solely on results and walk down a solitary path. The problem with this is that if that path leads to a dead end you’re quite literally stuck.
Small business and entrepreneurs have the ability to be able to turn on a six pence while their larger rivals flounder and have turning circles of steam liners.
People change, environments change, policies change and as an entrepreneur you need to be able to embrace that change or you’ll go the way of the Dinosaur.
Leverage Information
The internet, email, video, social media, books, news broadcasts; an entrepreneur is bombarded with information on a daily basis about the right way to do things and the most glaringly obvious ways to do it wrong. You can watch videos teaching how to change a leaking tap to how to write a novel in minutes.
An entrepreneur must be able to sort through this information downpour, tune into only the most relevant sources and act upon it in a timely fashion.
Time Management
The one thing that is constant throughout life is time. It can’t be changed, manipulated or created. That is why one of the key skills of an entrepreneur is knowing how to master time efficiently.
Create goals and objectives with specific timelines aligned to them. Construct a daily method of operation and stick to it. Use checklists or set reminders on mobile phones. Do whatever it takes to make sure that time is not wasted!
As an entrepreneur time is quite literally money. Time wasted is like throwing money down the drain so make sure you are using time and not the other way around.
When you break it down each and every one of us possess entrepreneurial skills but only a select few will be able to go through life, look back and say “I am happy with the result that I got!”
This is not the defacto list of entrepreneurial skills but with your help we can make it better. Leave a comment below telling everyone what you feel is the most important entrepreneurial skill!
Read more: People Change. Why Don’t You?