Running a business successfully is a passion for many of us. And so, we go ahead and embark on our plan of starting a business. But very often businesses fail as translating our passion or dream into reality thereby making a successful business model is a difficult task.
To develop a small business into a vast successful enterprise requires not only passion but something more too. Unfortunately, more than half of newly started businesses fail. It is mainly due to the reason that you who have started the business is unable to translate your passion into real time business skills. One thing you should keep in mind is that success requires not only hard work but also resilience besides expertise in that field. You can succeed only when you fully understand your business model and thus become proficient in that business skill.
Starting a small business and running it successfully requires much more expertise than you would expect. It demands of you to become a jack-of-all-trades. Here it is vital to know at the starting point as to skills you possess and those extra skills that need to be learnt a little later or delegate to your other team members . As far as skills that you lack are concerned, you can master these skills slowly over a span of time by yourself. On the contrary you can hire some employees who are experts in those specific areas. In addition, you can also opt for getting the help of a professional business advisor.
Let’s look at some few skills to run a business successfully:-
Skills required to run a business successfully.
Delegation Skills
These skills involve assigning tasks or responsibility to your teammates in such a way that the work gets completed easily without much hassle. The ideal position here for you would be to supervise and meanwhile your staff carries out the different tasks assigned to them, i.e., all the routine activities of your business. Your delegation skill requires you to achieve the right balance among effective controls and managing people to complete their job work effectively. The key point is the knowledge of making your business work for you.
Communication Skills
Communication skill is an important and integral part of life, but it is often taken for granted. You may be having great ideas in your mind, but you can make other people understand them only if you communicate effectively. So, we see that effective communication skill is a prerequisite for running a business successfully. Good communication skill will make it easier for your employees to deliver what you exactly want. When you are going to hire a new employee, the communication skills come in handy in selecting the right person. At the time of your meeting with your stakeholders, you can convince them only if you communicate well. You also need to have clarity in your expectations and to be sensitive while dealing with problems. The vital point is to know as to how to effectively communicate your vision with conviction and passion.
Negotiation Skills
Almost each one of you negotiates daily without even being slightly aware of it. But formal negotiation is what that can be learned only through practice and experience. If you negotiate frequently informally, you are bound to be more skilled in negotiation than people who have not been in any formal or informal negotiation. People who are good at it are more likely to know exactly what to say, when to say or when to make concessions. The key point is to have the knowledge as to how to cultivate a win-win approach in negotiations with all our parties keeping in mind that you also need to achieve simultaneously the most favorable result possible for yourself.
Strategic Planning
Developing a strategy is the key to running a business successfully. Strategic planning involves the process of building your company’s strategy or direction and making decisions based on the strategy allocation of resources of people and capital. In strategy planning, the key is to project and predict the company’s future performance in a 3-to-5-year framework which must be supported by a well-developed business plan.
Leadership Skills
Leadership is the most important skill. It is the ability of getting things done by the people. As critical management skill, leadership is the ability to motivate people to work towards a common goal and to influence people to assemble, charge, mobilize, and motivate teams. It is also the key to build sustainable long-term relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and investors.
Also Read: Leadership Theories every manager should know
Financial literacy
For running a business successfully, you will be experiencing financial growth at some point. For this, you don’t need to know financial planning skills to start or run any business, but you will need some basic knowledge of financial management.
When the business grows, even if you hire a professional who has a better knowledge on handling finances, you must know about the basic principles about management of finances while handling this aspect of business. The ability to budget and the financial performance of your organization is important. Further, you must be able to figure out the areas which are affecting your business revenue.
Effective marketing skills
Whatever may be the nature of business you have you must be able to market your product or services. Forrunning a business successfully, you must have effective marketing skills so that your customer base keeps growing. The ability to convince someone that they will require your services or products is quite a special skill.
Apart from growing your business, the employer requires marketing skills to hire more employees and growing your team. For those people who have just started with business, marketing your business is quite a challenging task. But if a person employs right marketing business techniques along with a well thought out business plan then they will be able to sell their services or products to anyone.
Having a positive attitude even when things are messy.
In business, you will be going to face tough times where you might feel things are not going the way you want it to be. These situations can be such as when you are not earning many profits or any profits at all or while taking difficult decisions like letting your staff go or cutting down prices. In these difficult times, it is essential to stay calm and have a positive attitude towards it. The ability to stay strong while in pressure is important. You can do the following things to have a positive attitude like:-
- Meditation
- Talking it out
- Ensuring right sleep
- Listening to relaxing music
- Taking time to think over things and having a business plan
Cash flow Management Skills
Cash flow is one of the most pressing concerns of medium to small businesses when they are starting out. Cash flow, in simple words, is the movement of your money in and out of your business. It is the lifeline to all thriving businesses and is the main indicator of business health. The effect of low cash flow can be devastating to any business. If cash flow is mismanaged it can be totally unforgiving. One of the skills to run a business is to monitor, control, protect and put cash to work.
Different types of technical and working communication skills.
The different types of technical and working communication skills are:-
| Technical Skills | Working communication Skills |
| Professional Skills | Leadership skills |
| Industry Knowledge | Listening, negotiating |
| Working Experience | Being accountable |
A combination of all the above-mentioned skills is quite important if you want your business to bloom in this era. For staying strong in business, it is quite essential to have a strong knowledge of financial management. Also, another important skill to run a business is to have an efficient marketing of the products or services of your business. Utilization of the latest technology is important in running a business successfully. Ensure to have perfect communication skills and the ability to handle high pressure situations. Delegating your employees and guiding their way is another important aspect. Time management is the key to a flourishing business. Lastly, whenever there is a chance to negotiate for the good of your business, you should go for it. Keeping all this in mind and formulating a proper business plan will help you grow your business exponentially.
