What Management Skills Are Necessary to Become a Successful Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurs present in every sphere today. Their innovative ideas and the fresh outlook is changing the way business is done. They are the brains behind the business. However, not all entrepreneurs are able to write success stories as well as their peers.
According to an article published in Forbes, nine out of 10 startups fail. Whether the failure is due to lack of innovative product, wrong team hiring or poor market research; the onus eventually falls on the shoulders of the entrepreneurs. Their
skills are questioned. Therefore, it is extremely important that entrepreneurs possess certain managerial skills in order to be effective and successful in the ventures they undertake.
Prerequisite Skill - an overview
Here is a list of these pre-requisite skills.
Leadership
The foremost quality an entrepreneur must possess is that of
leadership. He or she must be confident about taking decisions and motivate the entire team to follow these decisions. As a leader, he or she is someone who should be looked upon by subordinates for guidance and opinions. An entrepreneur must command respect without being an anarchist. He must strike a balance between his command and feedback and opinion of his team.
Domain Knowledge
Knowledge about the specialized field is extremely important. An entrepreneur who is not well conversant with his own subjects is likely to face a dilemma while taking concrete decisions, lack perception of a situation, and may face insubordination by the team. A team will never respect and accept the leadership of a person who does not have basic domain knowledge required by the job. Of course, for all else entrepreneur hires a specialized professional.
Money Matters
Did you know that 29% of startups shut down shops because they fail to secure funds? Fundraising is a common problem for entrepreneurs and most of the new ventures work under tremendous fund crunch. It takes a lot more than a heck of a product to grab investor attention. Till the entrepreneurs get any backing, they have to work lean and bootstrapped. This necessitates a certain level of financial management where fund allocation is done based on priorities without any wastage or leakage. Even if the entrepreneur is not an expert, he or she must have some basic understanding of finance. This aspect of startups is so crucial that there are dedicated modules in most entrepreneurship courses in India!
Also Read: Best Entrepreneurship Management Course in India
Information Gathering and Commercial Awareness
An entrepreneur has to remain up to date on the latest happening within and outside the organization. Confident and proactive decision making, understanding of events, and prompt actions stem from effective information gathering. An entrepreneur should be aware of the business of the organization, its sector and goals. He should be well versed with rules, regulations and socio-political factors affecting the business.
Perseverance
Entrepreneurship is about persistence and firmness to execute the decisions and sticking to them. Failures are part and parcel of every job, but what distinguishes a successful entrepreneur from an unsuccessful one, is the grit and courage to go on in the face of failures.
Planning and Strategic Thinking
An entrepreneur should have the foresight and an ability to plan ahead keeping in view the goals and objectives of his organization. He should be able to take strategic decisions and assess the outcome of decisions taken. Identifying issues before anyone sees them and working proactively towards a possible solution can make a big difference. He or she should be able to identify new opportunities and turn them into big business ideas.
People Management
It is a known fact that persons in managerial positions spend more than half of their time in networking and communicating with their teams, other departments and external parties. In fact, it is an important tool for information gathering. Entrepreneurs are
managers and leaders, and they need to motivate their team, but without good communication and interpersonal skills, this can be an uphill task bordering on impossible. Therefore good interpersonal skills are extremely
important for an entrepreneur.
Solution-Centric Approach
The entrepreneur should be able to recognize new opportunities and must have a knack of turning a disadvantageous situation into an advantageous one. Entrepreneurs face various critical and demanding situations every day at work. In such times, they must act dynamically and bring out of box solutions to the table. An entrepreneur should be able to spot the issues and provide solutions with conviction.
Ability to Identify Talent
The success of an organization depends on its talent pool. An entrepreneur cannot take care of each and every aspect of the organization and therefore needs to appoint professionals to whom work can be delegated. It is extremely important that every job is allotted to a member of the team who is rightly suited for the work. Therefore entrepreneurs need to have a sense of talent and skills that are required and expected of the potential candidate.
These are some important skills that an entrepreneur must possess in order to ensure a successful run of the venture. While some skills may come naturally, others can be developed through
online entrepreneurship courses.
More Information:
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The Pros and Cons of Corporate Entrepreneurship
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