Growing a business from idea to startup to successful SME starts with making a decision to go for it. This can feel like you are standing on the edge of a tall diving board debating whether to take the plunge.
Critical Skills for Startup Founders to Hone
If you're contemplating jumping in the water or you already took the plunge and are trying to figure out how to swim, mastering these 10 essential entrepreneurial skills will help you keep your head above water.
1. Perseverance
Every startup will experience some form of roadblock, rejection, mistakes, failure, and slow progress. These experiences do not determine the fate of your business, but how you react and deal with them can.
The ability to persevere through harder times with resilience, optimism, and determination is arguably the most important skill to have as an entrepreneur, and it will ensure that you can keep your eye on growing your business no matter what scenario is thrown your way.
2. People Skills
It doesn't matter what type of business you will have or what industry or sector you're in—well-developed people skills will always be critical for success.
Whether you're working with a team, corresponding with customers, or acquiring investors, knowing how to effectively network and relate to people will prove to be an essential part of running your business.
3. Passion
If you don't love your product, your business, and your role as a founder, you won't have the same drive to reach success.
Passion is the only essential skill that cannot be taught. It's a key ingredient that will not only help lead to success, but it will make your startup journey much more enjoyable.
When we refer to passion, we're not saying you need to be head over heels with your business every minute of every day. There will likely be weeks where you feel deflated. What is important is that overall you have a huge desire to turn your once great idea into a viable business.
4. Positioning
Learning how to communicate clearly, effectively, and creatively is what will set you apart as a brand or the next big investment opportunity. If you don't know how to communicate what sets your brand apart from the competition and why there is a need for your product in the market, you'll find it difficult to win over new customers, investors, and potential new hires.
5. Time Management
This skill cannot be emphasized enough. Learning how to effectively manage your time will keep you working toward your goals and not becoming easily swallowed up by day-to-day operations.
Time management can be a tricky skill to master when it feels like you have a million things to do, but it will provide you with work-life balance which will lead to you being happier, more focused, and rejuvenated to give your best ideas and efforts toward your business.
6. Sales
Sales never end as an entrepreneur. You are constantly selling yourself and your business to everyone you meet whether it is a formal networking event, investor pitch, or you strike up a conversation with someone in public.
As a startup business owner, you are the first salesperson at your company, and you must acquire sales skills to initially get your business off the ground.
7. Ability to Learn
Entrepreneurs are constantly learning. You may have advanced technical expertise, but do you have any experience with marketing or accounting?
In the early stages of growing your startup, you may need to acquire new skills to run your business.
Once you reach a certain level of success, you'll be able to recruit team members with skill sets and expertise that will be an asset to your startup’s growth. Even once you've grown your team, you'll regularly run into knowledge gaps you need to close to lead your business in the right direction.
8. Teamwork and Leadership
The skill of working well in a team and leadership are typically referenced separately. However, with entrepreneurship, we feel these two skills are so closely linked that they should be placed together.
At a large corporation, there is a substantial division between team members (employees) and leadership (management). At a newly-formed startup business, teamwork exists daily between business owners and their employees as there are very few people to accomplish many goals.
Strong leadership skills are essential at any stage of growth but don’t forget that having strong teamwork in place will not only make you a better leader, but it will form a healthy work environment that will be most effective at achieving your goals.
9. Critical Thinking
Critical thinking skills are synonymous with entrepreneurial skills – they are required to develop business strategy, problem solve, rethink the effectiveness of projects, and look at situations from varying perspectives.
Critical thinking skills are also necessary for strategic planning and knowing when change should occur to improve your business.
10. Finance Management
Having financial skills does not mean you need to be an accountant. Financial management in this context means that you know how to create a startup budget and understand startup business taxes.
When it comes down to it, no matter how many skills a founder has, if they don't have any in the realm of finance management, the business will likely wind up in trouble.
Proven Ways to Develop Entrepreneurial Skills
After reading this list of essential skills, you may realize that there are a few that you may need to work on. Not to worry. Founders rarely have all the necessary skills to grow their startups.
Here are 5 recommended ways to refine your entrepreneurial skills:
- Network with other entrepreneurs and industry professionals: Learn what your peers and industry professionals are doing. This can provide great insights.
- Find a startup mentor: A fantastic way to develop the skills you need is to connect with a startup mentor.
- Learn from a variety of sources: There are many books, articles, webinars, TED Talks, and magazines that are rich in reliable and educational information. You may also consider registering for a course.
- Attend industry or skill-based events: Find out about upcoming conferences, seminars, or online events that can refine your knowledge and skills.
- Research the benefits of joining a startup accelerator: Startup accelerators are great organizations that help entrepreneurs develop a wide range of skills to help their businesses become successful.
Skill-Building is Core to Growing Your Business
When you begin running a business, you may have more advanced entrepreneurial skills than you think.
However, sometimes when you’re into the day-to-day operations of your startup, it can be easy for the essential skills to be forgotten.
Try to revisit this list of essential skills regularly and evaluate in which areas you are excelling and others where you could improve.
The key is to remember that no one is perfect, even seasoned entrepreneurs. The idea is to always practice these skills until they become natural in your daily routine.
