According to author and business consultant Quint Studer, successful entrepreneurs and company owners tend to have a certain, yet predictable, skill set.

These key abilities constitute his ‘top 10 powerhouse skills’ that every entrepreneur and business owner should strive to master in order to be successful.  They are summarized below:

1. Financial Know-How. Studer recommends concentrating on understanding your business’ cash flow and receivables first, and then planning accordingly.

2. Marketing Mastery. Marketing, not to be confused with advertising, includes all the decisions that take place in the process of getting your product to the consumer. Studer recommends focusing on ‘pull marketing’, in which you motivate customers to seek out your brand and work to create a loyal following, rather than it’s opposite, ‘push marketing’, where the main message is to convince clients to hire you or to buy something.

3. Salesmanship. This skill is centered on the strong belief and conviction that you have about your product or service. Being able to articulate it well and with passion is crucial. People today, don’t like to be ‘sold to’ and they don’t like a pushy salesman, but they do respond to enthusiasm and passion.

4. A Focus on Execution. While strategy and innovation matter, successful business people know when to pull the trigger to get things done. Ideas that you don’t, or can’t, implement are useless.

5. Customer Experience Excellence. Providing an excellent customer experience has never been more important. Make the experience personal, individual. As the saying goes, “Take care of your customers and they will take care of you”.

6. Culture. Attracting and keeping great talent means creating a culture where people are engaged, energized and excited about their ability to contribute and make a difference.

7. Delegation and Time Management. This ability centers around a focus of working on your business not in the business. Find tasks to delegate or outsource. Be very deliberate. Managing your time is critical to your success.

8. Problem-Solving Prowess. All businesses run into problems. Smart leaders know how to catch problems in their initial stages and can resolve them quickly.

9. Balance Networking with Real Work. While it is important and often necessary to network, it is the real work that produces results. Balance here is important.

10. Commitment to Community. An essential element of any successful leader is the ability to contribute to the community. Give back, become involved, make the world a better place.

Typically, these skills are developed over time. Great business leaders evolve by doing, failing, learning and improving. These 10 essential business skills are your road map to success.

Source: “10 Skills Every Entrepreneur and Small Business Owner Must Have,”
ExecuNet (Nov. 13, 2017)

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