The Five Skills of the Entrepreneur

[nivvie]

Every successful entrepreneur has a well grounded selling ability. They’re able to sell themselves, their products, their businesses and the apple core they left on their desk last Wednesday. There really is nothing like the drive and determination of the skilled entrepreneur, who is a force to be reckoned with when negotiating a sale. In order to reach the top of your game, you’ll need to practice selling, constantly improving your technique until it’s second nature, and you’re confident doing so. This art of persuasion can be learned and developed, so don’t worry if you don’t feel confident from the outset. We’ve all had encounters with dodgy, inexperienced salesmen. They focus too much on your money and not enough on convincing you that you want to make the purchase, and ultimately they fail. With the level of competition amongst freelancers and entrepreneurs so high, honing your sales skills will put you ahead of the pack.



The ability to communicate effectively is another tool in the arsenal of the entrepreneur. You need to create a clear channel of communication between you and your clients, so that they feel you are approachable and someone they desire to work with. If you seem hostile or unapproachable, then you can kiss goodbye to your clients right away — never mind your concerns about return business. Effective communication is vital as it ensures that you and your clients are on the same page with issues, eliminating embarrassing misunderstandings and problematic situations over the course of your projects. By being able to communicate with their clients effectively, the successful entrepreneur befriends the client, and makes their own life easier through the client’s acceptance of their suggestions and ideas.



Entrepreneurship is all about risk taking. If you aren’t one to take risks, you’ve either got to learn fast or pack up and leave. High risk means high reward, and sometimes you will need to bundle your eggs into a single basket in order to turn a profit and improve the standing of your business. Granted, you won’t succeed every time, but with each failure you learn and improve your decision making skills, enabling you to take more calculated risks in future, thus providing you with a long term betterment. Clients like nothing more than confidence. If you know what you’re doing, your clients will trust your ability and part with their money. The trick is, you don’t really need to know what you’re doing a hundred percent of the time, as long as you present yourself as doing so. Being confident when taking risks will suggest to clients that you have a deeper understanding of your market than your competition does, and will pay dividends. Success doesn’t come easy to the entrepreneur, it must be earned. There’s no better way to prove your worth than by taking risks in your work.



We all have tough days, bad weeks and slow months. It’s all part and parcel of being a member of the modern workforce. How we deal with these situations is what defines us as the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is determined, persistent and won’t let difficulties stop them from achieving their goals. It’s vitally important that when you encounter a challenge, you’ve got the ability to sit back, think about it, and work on overcoming the issue. Determination resonates throughout all successful entrepreneurs and is, however regrettably, an integral skill required in order to make it in the current market. If something you’re working on fails to come together as expected, wipe your desk clean and get working on it again. There’s no substitute for motivation and graft.



The ability to strategize is important for the entrepreneur. Whilst anyone can analyze the state of a business today, it takes a level of skill to forecast the state of affairs one month, three months, or a year down the line. Being able to make these forecasts, and implement strategies, targets and goals is an invaluable skill, which will lead straight to success. Not only will strategic planning provide you with goals and targets to improve your drive and motivation, but it will allow you to regularly assess your progress and make sure that you’re making good ground, in order to end up where you want to be. The SWOT analysis tool is used by many successful entrepreneurs. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These four things are the foundations of any strategy and plan. By identifying and working on these four areas, an entrepreneur can become the best in their field.

[three4twodesign]

Great advice!

[nivvie]

Reply to @three4twodesign: Thanks for your feedback!

[nivvie]

This is certainly an important guide that I find myself coming back to in order to remember my own rules.