It’s natural to hope that your business grows and starts to earn money quickly. But the reality is, it’s never that easy. Growing and nurturing a business takes a lot of effort and resources in terms of time, planning, capital, and commitment. Leads won’t come knocking at your (virtual) door and sales won’t come flooding in right away. You need to take practical steps to ensure success. Experience is a tough teacher, it will give you valuable lessons later. Some of us can’t afford missteps and mistakes so if we can avoid the major pitfalls – all the better.

Here are a few essential skills that will ensure you avoid the avoidable pitfalls and keep your business moving in the right direction:

1. Financial Literacy
If you want to see profits, you have to practice good financial management. Given the changing circumstances brought about by the pandemic, businesses are just starting up again and bouncing back. So, as a business owner, you’re in for some tough competition. I won’t pretend to be an expert in business finance as even experts find it a hard topic to dive into. So, these are the basic things that you need to know and teach yourself in order to have financial literacy:

a. Maintaining a positive cash flow
b. Tools you can use to manage your business finances
c. Tax benefits

2. Marketing Skills
Strong marketing is important to every business. Even if you have stellar products and excellent services, clients and customers won’t know about them unless you effectively get the message out there. As a business owner, you must constantly look for opportunities to make people aware of your brand and engage with potential clients and customers.

a. Content creation – this is a skill that can be easily learned and is relatively easy to template, but producing content consistently can be hard and especially time consuming. So, look at those who have gone before you (in your industry) and learn from their example. Adopt their best practices and use tools to get tips and insights.
b. SEO – this helps clients come to you instead of you actively looking for them. Having a basic understanding of SEO places your business in a position where you can get discovered by potential customers.
c. SEM – similar to SEO, SEM gives you the exposure you need to be “top of mind’ of potential customers and clients

3. Leadership
Leadership is not about telling people what to do while you sit back and let them do all the work. Leadership is about influencing people to see a common goal and getting them to work with you and work together to achieve a common objective. Business objectives differ to some extent – social causes, making a difference, environmental impact, etc. But one objective makes a business, a business – profit. So, a business owner’s goal should be to hire and influence people to work towards growing a business and making a profit. Use these powerful skills to master the art of powerful and positive leadership:
a. Communication
b. Empathy
c. Delegation
d. Practical thinking
e. Risk management and foresight

Did I miss anything? What are the skills you think are essential for every business owner? Share your tips with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp