skills or you will struggle a lot and probably not succeed in business. These skills include the
following:
1.
PERSONAL SKILLS
The first set of skills you must develop as an entrepreneur are your personal skills.
Personal skills are simply those skills that are attached to your personality, more like
habits/traits. These include- Self confidence, Self Discipline, Punctuality, Sincerity,
Integrity, Courtesy, Determination, Patience, Effectiveness, Character, Intelligence, etc.
Note that Personal skills are not learnt in school and they are not gifts from God. You
must deliberately and consciously develop them because without them you can’t go far in
business
2.
RISK TAKING SKILLS
You must develop your Risk Taking skills and abilities. You must develop the ability to
see what others don’t see and consequently take risks that others won’t ever take. This is
really what makes an entrepreneur successful – Risk Taking Skills.
3.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The next important entrepreneurial skll you need to develop is communication skill. To
be a successful business owner, you must be an effective, interesting and convincing
communicator.
4.
NEGOTIATION SKILLS
Negotiation simply means bargaining, getting the best deals. Either as a buyer or a seller,
everybody needs to negotiate. In the course of building a business, you are bound to
negotiate deals. You negotiate with customers and suppliers over goods and services
offered. So if you cannot negotiate, if you lack persuasion skills; building a business may
just be a dream to you. Negotiation or persuasion is an art that can be learned.
5.
CUSTOMER CARE SKILLS
Every entrepreneur must consciously develop customer care skills. This involves
understanding that 1. The Customer is the most important part of the business, 2. The
Customer makes “Pay Days Possible”, 3. The customer is King, 4. The customer has a
choice, 5. The customer is your greatest publicity material. Every entrepreneur must
understand the following in relation to Customer Relations: 1. Customer Sourcing, 2.
Customer Servicing, 3. Customer Management, 4. Customer Satisfaction, 5. Customer
Loyalty.
6.
LEADERSHIP AND DELEGATION SKILLS
Leadership is the process of influencing and motivating people towards achieving set
goals. Delegation on the other hand is the process of getting things done through
subordinates. – You need both skills. If things work well only when you are around, you
are not a good leader.
7.
SALES SKILLS
This is perhaps, one of the most important entrepreneurial skills of all. The reason is that
every business sells one thing or the other. If you are not selling tangible items, then you
are probably selling intangible items such as services. A man’s success in business today
turns upon his power of getting people to believe he has something they want. No matter
how good your products or services are, they won’t sell themselves, you must develop
the skills to convince people to buy them.
8.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND FINANCIAL PRUDENCE SKILLS
9.
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Managing people is very important and very difficult. You must learn how to manage
staff, suppliers, clients, potential clients etc. Tact and Diplomacy are very important in
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