Entrepreneurial Skills

What you need to know to run your own business

Have you ever thought that running your own business might be for you?

Entrepreneurship has brought great success for some, but it's not a career path for all.

hard work

stress

Can you handle them?

Emotional ups and downs

Entrepreneurial Capabilities
A great idea alone is not sufficient for business success:

The key to success is your entrepreneurial capability to produce results. evaluating our own preparedness for entrepreneurship preparing a great business plan evaluating whether the proposed business is likely to be viable.

 "What characteristics determine who will be a successful business owner?" "Why does one person take successful advantage of an opportunity while another person, who's equally knowledgeable, does not? Do entrepreneurs have a different genetic makeup? Or do they operate from a different vantage point that somehow directs their decisions for them?

Successful business owners seem to have certain traits in common. These traits fall into four categories: 1. Personal Skills. 2. Interpersonal Skills. 3. Critical and Creative Thinking Skills. 4. Practical Skills.

1. Personal Skills

The first things to look at are our personal characteristics, values, and beliefs. Do we have the inner spirit characteristic of successful entrepreneurs?

drivecommitment and persistence self determination control risk tolerance resilience vision initiative

Vision Drive and persistence

Control Risk tolerance

Initiative
Commitment

Resilience
Self determination

 When assessing our entrepreneurial personality, be aware of areas where we are completely at odds with the "average entrepreneur," as we'll need to be able to compensate for possible weaknesses in these areas.

 Perhaps the most important personal characteristic for an entrepreneur is the ability to accept your own mistakes. Not everything does work out the way you expect.

2. Interpersonal Skills
Running your own business is all about working with people. You have to communicate with and satisfy employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, investors and more. Your ability to communicate with them is critical to entrepreneurial success.

Communication skills
Listening Leadership and motivation
The types of interpersonal skills you need to be good at are:

Teamwork Personal relations Conflict resolution Negotiation Ethics

 Interpersonal skills are developed over time and some people are more gifted in this area than others. These skills can be learned and developed, and you have to be committed to changing your behaviors and reactions. The more you work with people, the better you become at deciphering the complexity of human relationships.

3. Critical and Creative Thinking

Skills
Entrepreneurs need a well-developed set of critical thinking skills to organize and administer a successful venture. As an entrepreneur, you must be able to find the necessary information to support wise decisions about a venture.

Problem solving Opportunity identification Creative thinking

Are you able to develop good solutionsable Do Are you recognize trends and are youvariety able to see situations from a to the problems you are facing? to generate plans for making your ideas of perspectives and present original ideas? practical and doable?

 Creative thinking Are you able to see situations from a variety of perspectives and present original ideas?

Problem solving Are you able to develop good solutions to the problems you are facing? Opportunity identification Do you recognize trends and are you able to generate plans for making your ideas practical and doable?

Creativity and innovation require discipline and are based on a discrete set of skills.

4. Practical Skills

The final components of entrepreneurial skills are the practical skills and knowledge you need to produce goods or services effectively, and run a company.

Planning Knowledge and organizing Goal setting Decision making

Knowledge Do you know enough about business to be successful? Business knowledge Do you have general knowledge in the main functional areas of a business (marketing, finance, operations)? Entrepreneurial knowledge Do you understand how entrepreneurs raise capital?

 Opportunity-specific knowledge Do you understand the market you are attempting to enter and what needs to be done to bring your product or service to market? Venture-specific knowledge Do you know what needs to be done to make your business successful? And do you understand the specifics of the business you want to start?

 Unlike personality traits, interpersonal skills and creative thinking, which depend to some degree on inherent capabilities and aptitudes, you can develop your practical skills to whatever level your commitment takes you.

 To gather the knowledge you need to operate a business, you can either learn from the school of hard knocks, or you can learn from others who have started companies similar to the one you are contemplating.

Tip: Getting experience at someone else's expense is a great idea. If you want to run a restaurant, consider working as a waiter, maitre d' or restaurant manager, to learn what works and what doesn't in that business.

However, if you do choose to learn more about your venture by working for another start-up, be aware of noncompete clauses in your employment contract. In some jurisdictions, these can be very restrictive, and you don't want to risk your future business by violating the rights of another entrepreneur.

"I was born poor, but poor was not born in me. And it shouldnt be born in you either. You can

make it. Whatever you may wish to do with

your future, you can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes always. Challenges breed character. Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint. You

must not disappoint.

Manny V.Pangilinan