In last edition we discussed the importance of skills like focus on customers, managing people well and very useful ability to keep an eye on both long term vision and everyday tasks to get there.
Knowledge and experience that you gain both formally and informally is priceless as you progress in entrepreneurial journey. Let’s look at some skills that you can look at along the way.
- Learnability – You do not have to have all the answers. Yet your willingness and ability to pick up new skills along the way is crucial. You should be able to identify emerging trends or atleast adapt to them quickly. Be endlessly flexible to stay ahead of the game. Re-skill yourself constantly.
At some stage of your business, you will be able to hire experts for critical functions. Till then you will have to learn to juggle. You should be able to assess your strengths and blind spots so you can effectively delegate and hire people complimenting your skills.
- Ability to accept the failures and continuous course correction – It’s okay to fail. Well, that’s refreshing and relieving! What is not okay is to let the failures define you for rest of your life. You are allowed to pause, look at the setbacks, pick up the learning, see what needs to be done and carry on. Keep moving.
Also, to be productive at building business, you need to have learnings and experiences for yourself outside of it. Don’t let your work take away your happiness and fun.
- Raising money, Managing money, Spending money – That shouldn’t be your only objective! If that is then you would be doing different things. All actions with the motive of attractive investors and angels and then one day get out with billions (or whatever!) in your bank accounts.
For rest of us this would mean getting smart at all aspects of money. You will be managing a lot of it. It starts with initial capital, then more to keep going. Keep going till you start making some. Managing and keeping expenses in check along the way. Hiring or not, outsourcing or not, many decisions will start depending on this one thing – money. You will be making every day decisions about how to get the money, when to get the money, where your money should be going and many more. You will appreciate that it does make sense that as an entrepreneur you do have a tight grip on this one.
- Building working relationship with other entrepreneurs –
A very famous quote says that it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to build and run a business too. Your business might face some challenges as you take off and grow.
There are people around you who are happy to mentor budding entrepreneurs. Work with them. They get it where are you coming from. They can share a totally different perspective from their experience. Marketing ideas of another business owner can trigger new ideas in your mind too. Collaborations are known to bring out the best in everyone. You can learn from other people’s success stories and their failures too. They can be reality checks for your ideas
This network also partners with you to understand your struggles and give you insights as to what else is happening. All those conversations and energy pushes you forward in your work. You can and will create your own success stories by inspiring others and learning from others.
Entrepreneurship is a mindset. You are just not building your business but also building yourself. Who are you as a person and what values you bring in your business will also define your story.
