Tag: Skill

Caultivating an Entrepreneurial Skill Set

Entrepreneurship is a skill that seems elusive. No one seems to have a satisfactory answer to the question of whether an entrepreneur is born or made. Some people claim that there are people who are born with a special skill set – ambition, business sense, independence, creativity – and that this is the makings of an entrepreneur. They point to cases like Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates to make their point.

There are other successful businessmen who didn’t start out in an entrepreneurial vein, however. Many successful businessmen started in managerial positions, or even lower positions, before catching entrepreneurial fever. These people are what could be called “made” entrepreneurs.

The question then becomes whether there are certain traits that are common to all entrepreneurs, and necessary for successful entrepreneurship. The answer is yes.

First, a strong sense of independence is crucial. By default, an entrepreneur is independent. For someone to be willing to leave behind a secure position or even a promising career for the risk and uncertainty of going into business for themselves, there needs to be a fierce drive for independence. Any successful entrepreneur will value the ability to chart his or her own destiny over the value of being safe and secure in a regular job.

The ability to maintain focus is the second necessary skill for successful entrepreneurship. It’s not easy starting your own business. There are so many little things that you have to keep track of. Everything from finances to inventory to marketing to employee relations is all your responsibility.

You have to be able to keep your focus on your goal. If you can’t, then your mind will wander and your profits suffer. Business success requires focused effort. All successful entrepreneurs know this, and are able to be disciplined about matters.

The drive to succeed is the final key ingredient to successful entrepreneurship. Without this strong motivation to be successful, it will of course be very easy to lose heart and let your business simply fold.

The startup period is a difficult and critical period in the life of a business, and it can be most disheartening. There is so much work that needs doing, and there are so few clients at the outset! A big part of the entrepreneur’s challenge is to stay motivated during these bleak periods. Plus, to keep your business moving forward you also have to safeguard employee morale.

These three components are the ones that I believe are utterly critical for any person who hopes to be a successful entrepreneur. That does not mean that other qualities, such as creativity or patience or even luck, aren’t also important. But, to me, the three I have listed above are the critical ones that will mean the difference between success and failure.

How to Develop Your Ability to Synthesize Information – A Key Entrepreneurial Skill

Successful business ownership is all about gathering information, picking through it to decide what makes sense, and making sound decisions based on all available data. Synthesizing information in this way can be a difficult task to master, but a little time and practice can make you an expert in no time.

Synthesis is the final step in critical thinking — after you analyze, evaluate, and organize information from different sources, this step requires you to put it all together. Many people struggle with this step, but really all you are trying to do is select the best answer, or combination of answers, from a wide range of data. In fact, the odds are that you do this on a regular basis anyway, whether you are aware of it or not.

As you may have noticed, the internet is flooded with all sorts of conflicting information on just about any subject. Trying to find the best answer by surfing the web requires that you consider the merit of a variety of sources and choose for yourself which idea makes the most sense to you. You might find yourself coming up with an entirely different answer than those you read about…this is synthesizing.

Essentially what is happening is that by examining and evaluating a number of sources, you are identifying consistencies and relationships between and among the data. With these connections, you are better able to create a new idea that can be supported by the various knowledge you have picked up along the way. Not everyone will come up with the same solution, and your own solution may not always turn out to be right, but by starting with a wealth of data you improve the odds of missing something important.

In the context of entrepreneurship, synthesis is a critical skill for every step, from planning your business idea to growing your company. Most first-time entrepreneurs do not have a complete toolshed of basic business knowledge, much less the details of their own product, market, and competition. Gaining this knowledge is essential, but very little of it has clear right and wrong answers. In any type of business, there are hundreds of small decisions to make along the way, each of which has the potential to make or break the entire venture.

For example, a critical portion of business planning is developing your marketing plan. In order to create an effective marketing plan, it is essential to study the basic tenets of marketing, the various routes for getting your message out, and the best ways to convince your target market that your product or service is the way to go. Search for “Marketing Plan” on the internet, and you will get hundreds of results, millions of ideas and opinions, and several dozen sales messages telling you that they hold the “secret” to effectively marketing your product. The reality is that there is no right answer for every business, so you must review and analyze a multitude of information, then come up with a plan that incorporates the best of these ideas that will be most effective for your business.

The key to effective synthesis is to collect enough data to understand the fundamental concepts. Use a variety of sources and mediums to develop your knowledge base — read articles and books, talk about your ideas with those in the know, watch what happens around you. Look for opinions that differ from your own to ensure you have considered all different perspectives. The more information you have to draw from, the easier it will be to make informed, justifiable decisions to keep your startup on track and on the road to success.

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