The Skills You Must Have To Run A Small Business
Are you bored of being an employee and yearn to become your own boss? Have you the required skills to run a small business? In this article I look at the type of skills that people need to possess to be able to successfully run a small business.
Self-belief is an important skill required to be your own boss. If you have an inner belief and self confidence that you will make the business succeed, then you will have a great chance to make it work. There will be times when during a month you only earn a small amount of money but in other months you should earn quite a lot.
Some people prefer to know exactly what their income will be each month and these people may struggle to be their own boss.
Discipline is another requirement if you are to be a success at running your own small business. It is very easy to become lazy and to watch too much television or to have an extra couple of hours in bed in the morning. Even though you may have nobody to answer to, you have to be of the character to ensure you put in the required number of hours and work.
Positive attitude.
I also think it is important to have a positive attitude. There will be periods when business is slow, this is where you may start to think in a negative way. This can lead people into becoming very stressed and even depressed.
By thinking in a positive way and by working even harder to attract more work is the only way to react in this situation. This of course is not that easy to do but in my opinion, there is not enough time in the day to get depressed.
Lastly is the ability to always try and improve your own self and to learn from any mistakes you make. We all make mistakes which is fine and natural.
There is again not enough time to beat ourselves up over these errors, all we need to do is to learn from them and to then move on. We should always be looking at ways of improving the business as well as our own knowledge. Standing still and treading water is no way to continue.
Networking Your Small Business
This industry is all about relationships and relationships are built through networking.
You will need to make small business networking your priority for the first few months of operations. This is a process that can’t be rushed. You’re not going to go to your first network event and get six clients who all need network upgrades next week. But if you do participate in a small business networking event there’s a good chance that you will come away five or six quality contacts.
Aside from the potential client contacts you make, the beauty of small business networking is that the accountant you struck up a conversation with just happens to have a neighbor whose brother is looking to network his company’s regional office. Or the dentist you were talking to has a similar business philosophy and would probably be a great client to do business with. These contacts are priceless
Once you make the contact you then have to spend time following up with meetings, proposals and sales calls. But this time is much better spent than chasing down one-shot clients. Though small business networking you make in-roads with people who are, or who can put you in touch with, the steady clients that will support your business long-term.
Don’t expect to walk out of every event with a handful of paying clients. Do expect, however, to generate a bunch of quality leads and referral sources. These referrals and leads are the crux of small business networking.
You need to have a bunch of different leads in your funnel and a lot of different contacts in your funnel at any given time. Some of these will be hotter at different stages and will be ready to move into paying client status at different stages and different dates. Small business networking keeps you in contact with these people throughout their buying phases.
Client contact and client referrals are what will lead you to long-term, steady clients – The kind of clients that will make your business a success. Getting out and attending small business networking events may appear to be unproductive socializing but the contacts you make will generate an enormous return on your invested time. Start your small business network today – you never know where it will take you.
Small Business Start Up
Computer consultants, when they contemplate small business startups, tend to focus on the technical aspects of the business. The rational is that they want to offer a decent service and must have great technical skills before anyone will be willing to pay them.
In fact, the 90/10 Rule tells us that during small business startups, 90% of your time should be spent on direct marketing activities and only 10% on building technical skills.
The type of small business startup activities to spend 90% of your time on include:
Prospecting Lead generation Going out on sales calls Preparing proposals
During the small business startup phase, you must be very attuned to the need for acquiring high quality clients. Every non-client hour that does not have to go into administrative or organizational duties should be plowed into prospecting and networking. This can ease up a bit once you start to get beyond the small business startup phase. For now, though, client generation is your priority.
The Bottom Line on Small Business Startup
For small business startups, following the 90/10 Rule is critical. Spending 90% of your time on direct marketing and business development activity versus 10% on technical skills development is a trade-off that is well worth it.
Ok so I hope this helps you get a better understanding on what it takes to start up and run your own small business.
To your great success on your small business journey, Bob@Lurnprofit.com
Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below.