Entrepreneurial Skills: 10 Essential Skills you Need to Succeed

When to consider yourself as an entrepreneur? How can Identify my Entrepreneurial Skills?

There is a very common question that many people that aim to be an entrepreneur ask themselves How do I know if I have what if takes? Followed by What if I don't make it?

The first question haunts every "would-be-entrepreneur". It is true that navigating on the World Wide Web we are able to find interesting articles (such as the one you are reading now), tips, ideas, tricks, inspiring quotes (look above), etc. And these kind of information helps a lot of people understand things and get inspired of course, but for people to know if they have what it takes, they have to understand all the main entrepreneurial skills needed to become a successful entrepreneur.

In today's entrepreneurial competitive business world, it is very important to set skill-building goals that will be helpful for continuos personal growth which will lead to professional success. Listed below are 10 of the most important qualities a successful entrepreneur should have, so before reading, go on and grab a pen and a paper, a coffee or tea, put yourself comfortable and let's GO!

Here are 10 Qualities of the Successful Entrepreneur:

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Communication

  This is the key, the center of everything. A business can be very innovative, popular, it be worth millions of dollars, but if there is bad communication, everything can go down, no matter how big the business is. When communication lacks purpose, clarity and impact, then it is worth nothing. There are many psychologists that believe that communication is the most important skill an entrepreneur should master. Effective communication is the core strength, it is essential to develop a good business idea, a product or service and to stand out from the rest.
  Here is a great example: Steve Jobs. - Even though there are rumors that say that he had "bad manners" he was successful not only because he was a creative genius, but also because he was a very powerful communicator. He made sure the message he wanted to send, he wanted people to understand his idea, not only to kind of get it, he was able to communicate his passion.
  

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Empathy

   

  

  This is the ability to connect with others, to understand others' situation and sympathize. Why would this be useful in the business world? Because having this skill as an entrepreneurial skills helps connect with customers, and think the way they do (be on their shoes) which helps reaching to the target audience. When customers know they are being taken care of (knowing the business cares about them), this door opens and there is a completely different connection because trust is gained. By helping customers sort their problems out rather than only focusing on making sales, will definitely create a relationship.

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Relationship Building

  As stated above the "goal" of empathy is to build a relationship with the customer and here is why: In our highly connected world, full of advertisements and brands aiming at us all the time, people do not know what to choose, there are so many options! This is why it is extremely important to develop a relationship, with all the wide range of variations, it is harder for people to make a decision. By developing good relationship and showing the customers that they are being taken care of, that the brand actually cares for them and do not only want to sell, will "make" the customer choose us over the others. If this relationship gets stronger and stronger, it is not very likely for them to "give up the brand" because there are emotions involved.

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Authenticity

  This is a vital soft skill for providing value en achieving the "top" or excellence in today's world. With social media, the new trend is to be different, to have an added value, to be special. An inauthentic label is just "one more", a brand that does not stand out will not even be looked at. It is important to connect with the target market, with the audience and show two things:
      - How the brand will be helpful to solve the problem
      - What makes the brand so special
  

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Personal Branding

  It goes hand in hand with Authenticity, as stated in the point above, being different is the new currency these days. It is an essential entrepreneurial skills if a person wants to be seen as a leader. Opportunities expand when a person has a strong personal brand because people will remember, it will go straight into people's mind. In other words, if an entrepreneur enters a niche market with a strong personal brand, the people will look and listen. Although people need to be careful, as a strong personal brand makes people pay extreme attention, it is very important to know that it is not affordable to have negative online or offline reputation.

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Persuasive Writing

  There are many people that do not give this point the importance it should have. An entrepreneur must have written communication skills, they are still importance to highlight leadership and to show others the capability he / she has to inspire others to take action. People care about what others think, without persuasive written skills, people will not stand out, their will be one from other skillful professionals. It is important to mention that moreover, email marketing writing skills, blog posts and other business proposals will be needed in order to have real contact with other people.

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Stress Management

  Yes, entrepreneurship and being a great important entrepreneur is of extreme importance and sound all really well; but stress will be part of being successful. An entrepreneur will have great moments and achievements, but he / she will also go through disappointment, struggles and stress. The key to staying above and continue walking is to manage stress. It will not only be good for the person's health and business, but it will give others the assurance that the entrepreneur is capable of self-control and is also a problem solver.

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Failure Management

  Stress may be a little bit worrying, but failure can be overwhelming. If a person has many failures, it is most likely to have a negative effect on motivation and affect the mind a long time. It is important to know that businesses can fail and fail all the time. One of the key to the success of an entrepreneur is to stand up, apply what it has been learned painfully and keep on walking so that next time, the outcome is different.

  
  

• Entrepreneurial Skills: Sharing and collaboration

  Enough with the sad outcomes, as some might know, the pillars of the new economy are: information sharing, crowdfunding and open sources. If an entrepreneur shares its work in a regular basis he or she will get closer to achieving the goals. And this is because sharing goals, progress and challenges with others, makes the mind more powerful, when a person see's the progress of something the motivation grows and this may lead to great solutions and even stronger relationships.

Entrepreneurial Skills: Sales

Last but not least. The main skill that makes the difference and to succeed in business is sales. An enterprise that is not able to sale its products or services it will not last very long in the business. It does not matter if its packaging, software developers or any other, sales it what keeps the business going and growing, which is why everyone at the company needs selling skills. In other words, selling skills are what transforms an organization into a successful one.

The Power of an Entrepreneurial Mindset - Bill Roche

Above you will find a great Ted Talk called The Power of an Entrepreneurial Mindset by Bill Roche, in where he talks about how to create a powerful entrepreneurial mindset to make the best version of yourself a reality.

Being an entrepreneur is not as easy as it sounds, but it sure is fascinating!