Often it is said that aspiring entrepreneurs need to learn as much as they can about every aspect of business.
I would like to expand on this and unpack some crucial skills entrepreneurs need to develop in order to be truly successful:
* Become a generalist. While there is a drive toward specialisation in every area of our lives, the person who commands armies is called a General. Being a generalist allows you to have a lot of flexibility as a businessowner. It means you have to know the fundamentals of how business works, as well as how all the independent parts work together to create success.
* Know the numbers – yours and everyone else’s. Numbers can be a great motivational force in your business and your life. Numbers are the language of business, so you’ll need to become fluent in them and familiarise yourself with a number of different formulas and key benchmarks if you want your business to be successful.
Key numbers to know includes the size of your target market, the number of companies currently competing in your space, the types of revenues these companies are generating and the profit margins they are running.
Also, remember in any start-up, expenses are usually 30-35 per cent more than expected and revenues are always less than planned. Adjust accordingly and be prepared to alter your plans if the numbers don’t add up.
* Treat your day job like an apprenticeship to becoming an entrepreneur. Your best ally in your current position is time. Use it to leverage your knowledge of what works (and what doesn’t), and learn as much as you can about what drives sales and profits, because those are lessons you can use at some point in the future.
What can you learn in your current position that will help you down the road? What don’t you know about your current company’s operations that you could learn in terms of sales, marketing or accounting that could broaden your understanding of business generally?
* Work more jobs. Would you open a restaurant for the first time without ever working in a restaurant? Maybe you wouldn’t, but we have had clients who did. And the results weren’t pretty. To avoid this fate, find ways to work in the type of business you are thinking of starting.
Besides, who do you think would bring more experience to their particular enterprise: the person who only worked one job in one industry, or the person who worked number of jobs in a variety of industries?
* Learn the value of systems. Systems are the key to creating better and more profitable businesses. Until you can learn to systemise fundamental processes, you’ll forever be reinventing the wheel – be it in your current job or in your business.
This can take any form – from a script for answering phones to your overall sales and marketing processes. While these are vital to understand and key to success, it’s also important to become familiar with complex and technical systems like phone systems, IT and Internet configurations.
* Become a good salesman. In business, nothing happens until a sale is made. If you are the owner of the company, you will be expected to generate sales. Sure, you can hire out this function but my experience has shown me that at least, initially, your customers are going to want to first buy from you, before they buy from your staff.
* Learn the rules. You can’t play a good game if you don’t know the rules or the objective of your game. So get some grounding in the legal aspects of business, forming your own business, local tax regulations and licensing requirements.
While there are a number of other things you need to learn to succeed in business, these seven are a good place to start.
There are few truly new things under the sun, so build on the intellectual capital of those who have gone before you.
Elsa Groenewald is a Franchisee of ActionCOACH. She is a certified Business Coach who has successfully assisted business owners to significantly grow their profits and their entrepreneurial skills. To find out more about Business Coaching or to receive a free consultation you may contact Elsa on 082 321 7704.
You are invited to send your business related questions or any topics you would like to see covered in the monthly articles to elsagroenewald@actioncoach.com.
