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To be successful in your startup is not just about coming up with a great idea or a product to sell. While both an idea and a product contribute to the success, a lot of entrepreneurial success depends on the execution of business. It is not a hidden secret these core skills contribute to a long-term success of your new venture. You may already have developed these skills or you are on your path to learn.
In this article, I will share ten skills that are essential for every entrepreneur to learn, in order to be successful in launching their startup business.
1. Leadership
You can find hundreds of definitions of leadership. What I mean by leadership is to have a vision, an empathy, and ability to communicate at an emotional level. Vision is to bring people together toward a common goal, empathy to understand what your customers and your team are feeling and how the vision relates to them, and EQ to be able to connect with them, build trust, and bring them along.
2. Motivation
Entrepreneurship is very lonely until you succeed. You will need to find motivation every morning when you wake up and keep your grit through the day. Find your motivation to keep going. This is the reason why wise people say that your motivation should be deeper than making millions of dollars.
3. Decision Making
Your business will challenge you at every step to make decisions, often with limited information. Logical thinking will tell you to go and find the unknowns or get more information before making a decision. This is where it is different for entrepreneurs, right or wrong, decisiveness is critical. You may make wrong decisions but it is better than not making one.
4. Ideas with business objectives
Ideas are captivating and fascinating, especially if they are our own ideas. As an entrepreneur, you must learn to come up with lots of ideas and test them against your main business objectives. You will need to learn how to forget about ideas that do not directly support your main business.
5. Planning
Nike’s slogan of just-do-it sounds very attractive because it is close to our natural instincts but we have evolved a big frontal cortex for planning. By planning, I don’t mean that you develop a 100 pages long business plan, by planning I mean that you think about all the potential outcomes of every decision and have a line of action for every possibility that you could think of.
6. Multitasking
Starting up a business is chaotic, with too many things needed to be done any given time. Learning how to switch your brain from one task to another is critical in getting things done. As an entrepreneur, you should learn the skill of staying focused with lots of interruptions but at the same time, switch your attention quickly when needed.
7. Risk Acceptance and Mitigation
You may have heard about Jack Canfield’s famous saying, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear”. Everything you fear is a risk. Understanding risks you are taking and have a mitigation plan is critical in taking calculated risks. Calculated risks would ensure a greater chance of success. However, there will be times when a risk you are about to take may not have any mitigation plan. Learning when to take a risk without a clear mitigation strategy is not for fainthearted.
8. Problem-solving
Entrepreneurs need to develop the skills to come up with solutions to problems on a daily basis. As an entrepreneur, you should learn how to solve problems by quickly learning about them and stay calm during the process. It is like working in an emergency ward of a busy hospital.
9. Negotiation
We tend to take negotiation as an organic development but good negotiators think through all possible scenarios ahead of the time. Understanding clearly the value of what you are offering from the perspective of the other party is the key get the maximum value out of a deal. You will need to learn how to set aside emotions and focus on a win-win.
10. Listening
In the excitement of what you are trying to achieve, it easy to forget about listening. Entrepreneurs must master the art of listening. It is essential to be able to listen and comprehend the actual meaning of what people are and aren’t saying. Listening can also help entrepreneurs in understanding their team members better.