Do you dream of owning your own business, but you aren’t sure if you have what it takes?
You’re not alone!
Starting your own business is easy…it’s literally a process of fewer than ten steps to get your business set up and running. A simple Google search will likely take you to the Small Business Administration where they have the process laid out for you step by step.
They walk you through the need to conduct market research and familiarize yourself with your market, writing your business plan, funding your business, picking your business location, choosing a business structure, and even choosing your business name, how to register your business and get federal and state tax IDs.
What they don’t mention is the skills you need to be successful at running that business once you have it set up!
Let’s dig into what you really need to know to successfully run your own business!
Be Proactive
Starting and running your own business requires you to be proactive…meaning, you must be willing to go out and get what you want!
No one is ever going to give you success.
If you want to be successful in business, you need to be willing to work for it!
If you want to be successful in business, you need to be willing to work for it!
This seems like a no-brainer, but you would be shocked how many people have GREAT ideas for businesses that could be highly successful and then do nothing with it.
Sometimes this is because they don’t know what to do next after they come up with the idea and they may lack education or understanding. This can be paralyzing!
But there is no need to be paralyzed. Sit down in front of your computer and start Googling. Everything is ‘figuroutable’ if you have the drive to proactively seek out answers.
Delegation
Many first-time business owners experience anxiety when it comes to turning over duties as the business grows.
As your business grows, eventually you will not be able to do it all…and you shouldn’t!
Delegating requires that you give up some control for the good of the business.
If you are one of those people that really struggle with the need to control every aspect of your life…and by extension, your business, this can create a real obstacle to your ability to grow your business.
Delegating is essential to growth!
A new business is like a baby. Anyone who has had a baby can tell you how protective they feel about their baby! You feed it, care for it, nurture it, and delight in all of the baby’s accomplishments.
But eventually, the baby grows up and takes on an independent life of its own, and in order for the baby to live as an independent, thriving, and functional adult, you have to give up control over your baby.
The same is true for your business! In order for your business to grow and reach its potential, you will have to give up control by delegating responsibility to other people.
This may be freelancers or independent contractors at first, but eventually, you will need to hire employees to manage parts of your business for you so you can focus on running the business.
Delegating the right things is as essential as delegating itself.
The best things to delegate are the things you struggle with. This allows your weakness to be replaced by someone else’s strength, which is awesome!
Finding the right team will maximize profitability and allow you to grow your business into a thriving enterprise.
Thought Leadership
Being a thought leader means setting the new standard outside the mainstream box by offering a new perspective, or redefining the standards in your niche.
It’s not about following the traditional thoughts and practices, it’s about leading the crowd with your thoughts and practices.
This doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel.
Standard practices make sense for things, like accounting, tried and true marketing methods, and steps to grow a successful business.
Being a thought leader allows you to stand out from the competition and embrace your uniqueness!
Being a thought leader allows you to stand out from the competition and embrace your uniqueness!
It is what makes you different, and what will draw people in.
So be authentic, be yourself, and share what makes you unique from all the others.
Basic Communication Skills
Follow up, follow up, follow up.
Whether this is responding to comments on social media, replying to messages and answering questions, or checking in with past, present, and potential clients. To be successful, you need to be a good communicator!
I recently subscribed to a mailing list for an author and blogger that offers a course on personal finance and mindset. I had just finished reading her book and I had enjoyed it so much I wanted to see what other content she had to offer. A day or so later I received a very personal email from her asking me some very relevant questions, so I responded.
The next day, I got a response to my email continuing the conversation!
Even though I am not able to enroll in her money mindset course, she still took time to talk to me and connect with me in a meaningful way…and I thoroughly appreciated it! When I am ready, I will be enrolling in her course because she took the time to get to know me and have an actual conversation with me.
It is just that simple! Invest time into communicating with people and you will win them over!
Financial Literacy
A basic understanding of finance is an essential life skill, but this is even more true in business.
You don’t need a degree in accounting or finance, but you do need to understand the basic concepts of cash flow, liabilities, assets, expenses, and capital.
Owning a business comes down to numbers, and those numbers are used to measure the success of your business.
Financial reports are a staple of business ownership.
Ultimately, owning a business comes down to numbers, and those numbers are used to measure the success of your business.
This will affect your ability to grow and expand, it affects your ability to get a bank to loan you money, and it affects whether or not you can attract investors.
Understanding whether or not your business is profitable, and what changes to make in order to be profitable, are the brass tacks of business, that you must understand well enough to speak with your accountant or financial advisor about it.
When you’re starting out, and you don’t have a lot of money or expenses, you need to invest time in learning about key financial reports like your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, and how they all work together. Finance and accounting don’t become any simpler as your business grows, so start your business finance education while your business is small!
Leadership
For most people, starting a business just involves one person. You.
But as you grow your business, you will need to hire people. Maybe not full-time employees, but you will definitely be contracting with people for services.
No matter whether you are a business of one, or a business of 100, you are going to be at the helm, guiding the business.
It is your vision, your dream, and ultimately, it is your success or failure.
This requires you to be a leader…and that requires a certain skill set.
If you aren’t comfortable at the helm, giving direction, and creating a vision for the people working with you, it is an obstacle to growth, profitability, and success.
Working to develop the necessary leadership skills is vital to the long-term viability of your business!
There are many books written on Business Management, and they all contain entire chapters on leadership skills. Being organized and managing the day-to-day operations are really important, but those things don’t replace the need for someone to create a vision with specific goals and guide the entire organization based on that vision and those goals.
If you struggle with imposter syndrome trying to be a leader in your business, you are not alone. Many people struggle with this skill. Reading books on leadership is a good place to start, but the best way to become a leader in your business is through doing it! Give yourself space to practice and look for opportunities to lead.
Even if it is incredibly uncomfortable at first, keep working to develop this skill early on so as your business grows, you will already be a pro, confidently standing at the helm of the business.
Emotional Intelligence
This is the ability to perceive, manage, and regulate emotion.
This is often overlooked as an essential skill.
But if you want to develop a loyal and lasting customer base and a successful business, you need emotional intelligence.
If you want loyal business partners that will stick with you through the long haul, you need emotional intelligence.
This is how you build and develop relationships with people.
You don’t have to be an emotional intelligence Jedi…but you definitely need to have a working understanding of this skill and make efforts to continually improve.
Whether you provide a product, do coaching, work in B2B, event planning…or a million other industries…you need to have relationships with everyone involved in your business from your accountant to your vendors, to your employees, and your customers. Business is all about relationships.
The best companies have executives that are connected and personally concerned with all their stakeholders.
There was a time that a CEO could remain completely aloof, never even learn the name of his secretary that had worked for him for twenty years, and still run a disgustingly profitable company. But that world does not exist any longer!
The best companies have executives that are connected and personally concerned with all their stakeholders.
I work for a multi-billion dollar international company, but my CEO knows my name and has written me personal letters expressing concern for my family and his desire to ensure we are taken care of. I know without a doubt that I matter as a person to him, and I am not just a person filling a business role in the company. That is the sole reason I still work for his company! I could find a job that pays more and is more in line with things I am interested in doing, but I would be hard-pressed to find a company with leadership that is as family-oriented and personally concerned with the lives of their employees as my company is.
There is no perfect company and no perfect job. But having the emotional intelligence to connect with people in a meaningful way, deal with conflict diplomatically and unemotionally, and figuring out what matters to the people you work with and then using that as a way to connect with them is invaluable and creates loyalty in ways that CANNOT be matched.
Sales
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, or how talented and driven you are if you can’t sell your product.
Getting in front of the right audience is a must…in every industry, in every niche, no matter what.
This is where a lot of great businesses go to die.
Learning some basic marketing skills will go a long way, and there are so many marketing options in today’s world of social media. Learning how to market to your audience is essential for any type of success.
Doing market research, learning how to leverage social media, and reading books like Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, are simple and effective ways to learn how to inexpensively get in front of the right audience.
Now, if you are reading this list and thinking to yourself that you struggle with all of them, and you have no idea where to start, I have great news!
You don’t have to master all of these at once!
Just pick one! Maybe there is one you already have some basic skills with or are really interested in.
Then go look for resources to learn more.
You can read books, take digital courses, take a college course, meet with a friend who is really good at the things you want to be good at to ask for advice or resources, or join an online community or a group that meets in your community.
It is all about your mindset!
People (including me) often want to do something and think “I have no idea how to do that”
But most will stop right there.
A growth mindset, above and beyond everything else, is the key to success.
A person with an entrepreneurial mindset will think “I have no idea how to do that”, and then they will go out and figure out how to do it. They will learn all about it and practice it over and over until they master it.
If there is something you need to learn or a skill you need to develop, you can figure it out…if you are willing to do the work and put in the time.
If you are struggling with a mindset problem, I recommend you put all of this to the side and start your entrepreneurial journey by reading Mindset by Carol Dweck. This book is life-changing!
A growth mindset, above and beyond everything else, is the key to success.
So get into a growth mindset, and remove the blocks standing between you and your ability to progress.
Then, once you are working on your mindset, pick one skill on the list that you need to develop, or one thing you need to learn and get to work.
If owning your own business is your dream, you absolutely have the ability to learn every single thing you need to in order to make it a reality, if you are willing to do the work and invest the time necessary to succeed!
