Starting your own business is usually very easy, but when it comes to running it things tend to get a little more complicated. In our experience as business coaches, in fact, while everybody can be a business owner, not everyone has what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur.
The difference between a mere business owner and a successful entrepreneur is very easy to catch, however.
Down the road, those who succeed are those who develop and leverage five entrepreneurial skills without which a small business cannot grow.
Now before you keep reading – note that the next two paragraphs you’ll be reading are (i) a spoiler alert and (ii) a shameless plug. Ready?
Okay – spoiler alert (you can’t say we didn’t warn you, uh?) those five entrepreneurial skills are key to building a business that works for you and runs without you, AND they directly relate to you because skills are something very personal. Said differently, whether or not you decide to act is on you, and this article will give you a push if you’re on the acting side of things.
Shameless plug: this article is part of a series of articles we wrote on entrepreneurship. Even better though, it also relates to the awesome Entrepreneurship 101 Course that we’ve created to give aspiring and active entrepreneurs just like you a kick in the butt a boost when it comes to revenue-building.
The course (we actually call it a Module) will provide you with over three hours of self-coaching videos (made by a business coach) and a page 100+ workbook you’ll be able to use to transform your earning potential. Perfect if you’re working on getting your business to the next level – give it a look and see for yourself!
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Back to you though – let’s move on with our entrepreneurial skills discussion, starting with one big (big big big) clarification we wanted to make.
We are often asked whether you need any qualifications to be an entrepreneur, you see? And, well, as far as we are concerned, the answer is very clear: No!
You don’t need any qualifications to be an entrepreneur
No, you don’t need any qualifications to be an entrepreneur, and you definitely don’t need an MBA either, so don’t lose your time with degrees.
You need common entrepreneurial sense and strong skills, however, and you need to work on improving your way of thinking and doing things.
If your end goal is to build a business that can run without you and work for you, what you need is to shift from being a business owner to being an entrepreneur. And, to do that, what you need the most is a very specific set of entrepreneurial skills that will directly influence your ability to move on in your business project, and to turn your business into a paying and life-changing entrepreneurial adventure.
As we wrote in another article, entrepreneurs are a rather special breed of people who decide to take their destiny into their own hands, and who dedicate themselves to solving problems in a viable and sustainable way.
Said differently? You – as a business owner – need to adopt a very particular mindset. And, to get there, you ought to coach yourself to start thinking very differently and move on, grow as an entrepreneur, grow your business, and scale it so that it can work for you rather than the other way around.
Long things short? There you go.
Entrepreneurial skillset 101:
- There are no particular qualifications to be an entrepreneur
- You need to acquire very specific entrepreneurial skills however
- You definitely don’t need an MBA to be an entrepreneur but you can coach yourself
- Make your business work for you, not the other way around
What does it take to be an entrepreneur?
“What does it take to be an entrepreneur” is the second question someone asked in the intro question, and we will only answer it with a few lines here because we have already covered this point in our other articles.
Simply put, and as we just said, being a successful entrepreneur takes a lot more than simply being a business owner.
While everybody can start a business and run it by working eighty hours a week fifty weeks a year, successful entrepreneurs know that the point of being in business is to have a business that works for you – not the other way around.
To get there, they work on building and scaling their operations so that things can happen without them (automation, delegation). And that accordingly makes them a lot more successful than those who focus on working hard just to make a living. Preparation is what it takes to get there, really.
In the end, business owners usually own a business that ends up being a glorified 9-5 job – with problems on top, let’s be clear. But entrepreneurs think differently.
They know how to take and mitigate risks (instead of avoiding them).
They leverage people’s superpowers (instead of just managing them).
They learn to persevere (when others give up).
And they reinforce their mindset with entrepreneurial skills we are now going to look at.
Overall, what it takes to be an entrepreneur is this:
- A capacity to build a business that works for you, not just a job that keeps you busy.
- A capacity to handle risks, rather than just avoiding them.
- A capacity to leverage people’s superpower, rather than just managing them.
- A capacity to persevere, not just complain and give up.
- A capacity to acquire a specific mindset, and very specific skills.
As you probably guessed, we’re now going to look at those very specific skills!
The skills needed to be an entrepreneur are varied, but long things short (yes, again), there are five entrepreneurial skills to master absolutely on top of the classical technical skills of an entrepreneur.
Oh. And we’ll add a bonus skill in the conclusion. Look for it.
Going beyond the classical technical skills of an entrepreneur
Of course, the basic technical skills of an entrepreneur are at the core of the business.
In the main, they relate to your expertise and to what you know how to do day after day. For instance if you run a bakery, an interior design studio or a digital marketing agency then your core expertise is very likely to be baking, interior design and digital marketing.
To these core technical skills of an entrepreneur, you can then add additional technical know-how, such as accounting, using the tools and softwares you needed to deliver for your clients, so forth and so on.
Having said that, these skills are the typical skills small businesses rely on day after day, and they won’t help you scale your business exponentially and sustainably.
Why is that?
Well, make an educated guess here.
So?
That’s easy. Your basic technical skills won’t help you scale because they won’t give you an unfair advantage.
The unfair advantage you need to acquire to get your business to the next level goes beyond technicality.
It must give you a reliable big picture everybody else lacks. And it must focus on transferable entrepreneurial skills – which can be defined as capacity-building skills that may be used in a variety of situations to get the business further.
Classical technical skills of an entrepreneur
- The basic technical skills needed to do what you do (core expertise)
- The basic technical skills needed to run a business (office work)
- Issue: those don’t give you the unfair advantage you need to scale your business
5 entrepreneurial skills to develop in priority
So the point is to develop skills that will eventually give your business an unfair advantage against the competition, and we suggest that you start right there:
- Master your business skills.
- Master your entrepreneur thinking skills
- Master your entrepreneurial leadership skills
- Master your social skills
- Master your implementation & coordination skills
Priority #1: Master your business skills
Of the five most important skills needed to be an entrepreneur, the first – mastering your business skills – is possibly the least obvious to many people.
Let’s face it, many small businesses are created because an opportunity showed itself, but it doesn’t mean that every business owner was born a deal-maker and a super-efficient seller, right?
Heck, no.
Truth be told, your ability to spot a good opportunity and turn it into a buck-making deal will undeniably give you an edge. Still, not everybody has that skill, and many entrepreneurs struggle with running their business because selling doesn’t come naturally to them. At all.
In fact, most business owners will need to start by learning how to create a product or service that actually sells.
Then they’ll have to learn how to talk about their products or services.
They will also have to learn how to talk about money (and be confident talking about it), about planning and developing the business, so forth, and so on.
These points are big, everybody has to face them sooner than later, and you really can’t skip them if you want to give yourself a chance.
In case that sounds like a topic that you’d like to work on, note that our Entrepreneurship 101 Course and its three hours of video cover it, together with all the Entrepreneurship basics you should know about. Use it as a guide!
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In the meantime, let us summarize things this way: sharpening your business skills is super-duper-damn-important. Excuse our French.
Work on your opportunity-finding skills. Work on your pitching skills. Work on your negotiation skills. Work on your business strategy-building skills. You won’t be able to last without mastering them.
4 business skills to master:
- Work on your business opportunity-finding skills
- Work on your pitching skills
- Work on your negotiation skills
- Work on your business strategy-building skills
Priority #2: Master your entrepreneur thinking skills
Next comes the absolute necessity to master your entrepreneurial thinking skills. And that starts with realizing that you simply can’t think like a typical employee.
Hey, guys, wait. What do you mean?
Uh? What do you mean, “what do we mean?”?
Oh dude, you really need to work on your thinking skills, uh?
Look, it’s simple. Employees have a job but you don’t. You have a business.
Employees are scared of taking risks, but you can’t be. You need to learn how to take and mitigate risks.
Employees see their income as due, but you can’t do that either. You get what you get.
Employees will never increase their income significantly, but you can! Work for it.
Apologies for the repetitive style here, but this point really has the potential to turn your small business into a powerful scaled business that works for you. Mastering your entrepreneurial thinking means being clear and fine with that.
3 entrepreneur thinking skills to master:
- Risk mitigation skills – seek acceptable risk, stop hiding
- Income improvement skills – what you get is what you get
- Realization skills – be aware of what can’t work anymore (job vs business, etc)
Priority #3: Master your entrepreneurial leadership skills
The third priority is to master your entrepreneurial leadership skills, which include your visionary thinking skills, your storytelling skills, and your adaptive leadership skills.
And, no, that’s definitely not BS.
Visionary thinking skills.
Visionary thinking skills are one of the skills needed to be an entrepreneur for at least two reasons.
One – your business must focus on solving problems and creating value for your clients, and to that extent having a visionary mind will help you spot those opportunities. In fact, how visionary is your business so far from a problem-solving and offer perspective?
Two, visionary thinking is important because it gives you a very rare ability to look forward, think forward, and build forward.
Think analytically, think pragmatically, but don’t forget to think about people’s emotions and needs as well: that’s where you’ll be able to think in a visionary way.
Again, your role as an entrepreneur is to solve problems in a viable and sustainable way, so thinking in a long-term and visionary way is key.
Storytelling skills.
Storytelling is another aspect of your must-have entrepreneurial leadership skills.
Why is that?
Well, guess?
Think about it this way: when was the last time someone tried to sell you something you didn’t want, with a blunt and intrusive style?
A century ago, people tried to sell you encyclopedias and it was irritating – No, I don’t need the world’s #1 Science Encyclopedia, go away…
Nowadays companies cold-call you to sell you new windows – No, my home doesn’t have windows, leave me alone.
Or they try to sell you better mobile phone contracts – No, I don’t want a better phone deal, leave me alone. Wait, what? Are you saying you are screwing me with my current deal?
Now don’t get us wrong – this type of hard-selling will work with some people if you’re ready to keep trying again (and again, and again). But that type of marketing is time and capital-intensive so there are alternatives.
The opposite to doing that is to rely on storytelling to get people on board (that’s called onboarding, and we talk about it extensively in the Entrepreneurship 101 Module, by the way).
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People love stories, and therefore using stories is the most efficient way to tell them about how what you sell is going to change their life.
In reality, if your business is built around an issue you care about or, even better, are passionate about, then the job isn’t that difficult. How do you think aspiring entrepreneurs manage to bring people around their new business or startup if not through communicating their passion?
So? Build a story around your business, and make it appealing to your audience. Make sure it resonates with the client, and when it does keep telling your story!
Adaptive leadership skills.
Adaptive leadership is the third type of leadership skill you’ll need to master as an entrepreneur.
Long things short (still), adaptive leadership is a question of thinking about the picture (we call that being able to stand on the table) while adapting your thought to the reality you perceive.
For instance, if you can’t sell your product to this or that community, then your adaptive leadership skills will help you bypass limitations by adjusting your approach, based on the expectations of the market actors.
If this person cannot be approached, maybe that one can. If that idea doesn’t resonate with a particular audience, maybe this one will because… you get the drill.
Leading isn’t a question of forcing things on people. It is a question of adapting to them so that your agenda keeps moving ahead. And that’s definitely one of the skills needed to be an effective and successful entrepreneur.
3 entrepreneurial leadership skills to master:
- Visionary thinking skills (think ahead!)
- Storytelling skills (stories help influence people)
- Adaptive leadership skills (whatever it takes to move your agenda forward)
Priority #4: Master your social skills
The fourth key skill needed to shift from being a business owner to being a successful entrepreneur relates to people.
You don’t have a choice here – you must master your social skills so as to be able to talk and do business with people, whatever their character and attitude.
Social skills can prove very handy when it comes to teamwork for instance, whether you have teammates in mind, or partners and investors. It’s also extremely relevant in terms of finding clients, obviously.
Different people will have different ways of speaking and selling their ideas, so your social skills will also be useful to pass your own message, and to avoid feeling offended by the way people talk to you or reject you.
For instance, some are hard sellers and will try to influence others very openly, hence they are likely to accept being sold directly too. In contrast, others will need their space and will not react positively to being pushed, in which case you will need another communication method if you want your interactions to be constructive and conductive.
Either way, communication is one of those skills needed to be an entrepreneur, so master it as soon as you can!
3 social skills to master:
- Getting along with teams, partners
- Storytelling skills (stories help influence people)
- Adapting to how people think and interact
Priority #5: Master your implementation & coordination skills
Fifth in the series of skills needed to be an entrepreneur is implementation and coordination management. No need to elaborate too much on this, the idea is usually self-explanatory – acquiring business skills such as strategic thinking is useless if you can’t implement your strategy.
Even more importantly, you won’t get anywhere if you can’t delegate and coordinate those you delegate to.
Again, the difference between a mere business owner and a successful entrepreneur is their ability to build a business that works for them, and strategic implementation and coordination is a key skill to get anything done in that regard.
3 reasons why you need implementation and coordination skills:
- You want your business to work FOR you
- That takes strategic thinking and strategy implementation
- That also takes delegation and coordination
How to improve entrepreneurial skills?
Now that you know why entrepreneurial skills are important, let’s talk about how to improve them!
Beyond identification, the real deal is indeed to figure out how to improve your entrepreneurial skills and competencies, now and over time. As we said earlier, most business owners were not born entrepreneurs, so improvement is really possible!
Considering that an MBA is adapted to corporate careers and isn’t likely to boost your profile as an entrepreneur, the most efficient way to improve is to take your entrepreneurial education into your own hands, and to coach yourself to achieve your own goals. As to how to do that, here are a few ideas.
One, should you want to start with entrepreneur-focused tips, you could start with some calibrated reading! There are tons of entrepreneurship insights you can use on our Accelerated MBA blog – give it a try!
Two, coach yourself and take your business destiny into your own hands. Our Entrepreneurship 101 Course was designed to help you push your business to its next level.
If you want to improve your entrepreneurial skills, this course will help you think differently, get to the right mindset, feel a lot more confident talking about money. It will also give you a kick-ass introduction to value proposition development and differentiation and will get you on the right track to start thinking about how to make your business viable and sustainable.
If your goal is to build a business that works for you and without you, this is THE course you want to start with. Try it for FREE and see for yourself!
Depending on your level of advancement, you might also want to train yourself from a business plan writing perspective, from a strengths and weaknesses perspective, so forth, and so on. Either way, our toolbox for entrepreneurs has you covered, give it a look!
Take an entrepreneurial skills quiz & test your earning potential!
Last but not least, should you be interested in assessing your entrepreneurial skills & earning potential, note that the Impactified Toolbox includes one test you can use to try and assess your entrepreneurial skills, profile, and earning potential.
All it takes is a one-click registration, give it a try!
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Takeaway: 5 entrepreneurial skills needed to build a business that runs without you (+ 1 unfair advantage skill!)
To wrap up – there are 5 entrepreneurial skills that are absolutely needed to be an entrepreneur who succeeds: business skills, entrepreneurial thinking skills, leadership skills, social skills, and implementation & coordination skills.
Having said that, we mentioned one underlying (and unfair advantage) skill throughout this article: entrepreneurship goes way beyond merely being a business owner and running a business.
Make that shift in your mind and use our Entrepreneurship 101 Module to coach yourself – you will be a long way ahead of most!
In short? 5 Entrepreneurial skills + 1 unfair advantage skill to master as an entrepreneur
- Master your business skills
- Master your entrepreneur thinking skills
- Master your entrepreneurial leadership skills
- Master your social skills
- Master your implementation and coordination skills
- Create your own unfair advantage by shifting your business owner’s mindset to an entrepreneur’s mindset!
Boost your earning potential with the Entrepreneurship 101 Course!
The Entrepreneurship 101 Module gives you over three hours of self-coaching videos (by a business coach) and THE workbook you need to get your business to the next level, whether you are starting a business or scaling one!
- Week #1. Reality Check: What Being an Entrepreneur is (Really) Like
- Week #2. Playing the Smart Way
- Week #3. Mindset is Key (And You’re Probably Missing It So Far)
- Week #4. Vision: Are You Seriously Driving Blind?!
- Week #5. Positioning Traps to Avoid
- Week #6: Creating value Beyond Pricing!
- Week #7: Building on Your Strengths (And Wrapping Up!)
The only thing it takes is a decision to move on, what are you waiting for? Secure your Entrepreneurship 101 Module access now!
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