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To be a good entrepreneur is not easy but you can learn it step by step. Growing a business requires a sound strategy based on inherent business sense and skills. A great entrepreneur must be able to effectively communicate, sell, focus, learn and strategize.
Communication
Every entrepreneur needs to be an effective communicator. Whether a person is a solo entrepreneur or runs a Fortune 500 company, they need to understand how to communicate effectively to all stakeholders and potential stakeholders that touch the business.
Sales
The soft skill of sales goes hand-in-hand with the communication necessary to be successful. As an entrepreneur, this person needs to be able to sell anything and everything. An entrepreneur needs to sell the business idea to potential investors, the product or service to customers, and themselves to employees.
Focus
The path to successful entrepreneurship is riddled with ups and downs. There are the highs of successes and the despair of setbacks. A successful entrepreneur needs to be able to focus so they can stay the course when the going gets tough.
Ability to Learn
The ability to learn is one of the most important skills to have in life, let alone in entrepreneurship. If someone is building a business, however, the ability to learn is required for success.
Business Strategy
While a successful entrepreneur has, by definition, built a successful company, the skill of business strategy is actually the fifth most important skill that an entrepreneur needs. Often, entrepreneurs achieve success in their businesses through their own sheer strength of will.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur doesn’t just happen overnight; but you’ll find the following characteristics are typical in the majority of businessmen and women that have navigated their way to the top:
Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer
No matter how many knock-backs and refusals successful entrepreneurs receive, they are always prepared to dust themselves down and find an alternative route to the summit. It’s this kind of tenacity which is required to take a business idea from the realms of the mind and transform it into a profitable business.
Learn from the best
Even the very best entrepreneurs of our time worked with other experts in their industry before going it alone. Finding a suitable mentor is a great way to learn more about your sector as a whole and, more importantly, the various facets of running your very own business. Your mentor may even have made mistakes in business themselves, but equally that makes them the perfect person to learn from, giving you the chance to understand where they went wrong.
Stay hungry and ambitious
Running a successful business is not an ego trip for successful entrepreneurs. It’s their desire to grow and provide a better product or service for their customers that keeps them hungry and ambitious. The moment that an entrepreneur stops wanting to learn new things is the moment that complacency sets in, allowing others to overtake you and leave you behind. Which leads us nicely into…
Never stand still; evolve with the times
Any successful entrepreneur requires business agility, with the ability to learn and adapt to new methods, processes or technology that can make their business stronger and more efficient. Market needs have always been dynamic: both the business and consumer worlds are ever-changing and what worked years, even months ago might not work tomorrow.
Nurture long-term business relationships
There are no two ways about it, business relationships matter. Almost always businesses will prefer to work with companies they like and trust. Your ability to nurture long-term working relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs within your industry will be one of the key factors in the long-term success of the business. Most entrepreneurs would agree it’s far easier to secure work from repeat customers than it is investing time and money into securing new customers.
Inspire those around you
Even the richest, most experienced entrepreneurs cannot be good at everything! All entrepreneurs require a team of people around them that complement their skills. The real skill is not only hiring the best possible team to support you, it’s about hiring people who share your vision and passion. By inspiring and investing in your team, not only will they succeed but the business itself will too.
Trust your gut instinct, not just your spreadsheet!
Sometimes entrepreneurs can be found guilty of being wedded to their spreadsheets and the data. However, in the real world of business it’s never quite as black and white as that! In some cases, your gut instinct and heart are still your very best guide for decision-making. Ultimately, no-one knows as much about your business as you do!
