The 5 Most Important Business Skills Every New Entrepreneur Needs

Launching a successful business is a major challenge. 

Depending on your niche, your funding, and your experience, you’ll be facing a huge variety of unique hurdles. 

To overcome them, you’ll need a particular set of skills. And while many of them will depend on your individual situation, there are several universal business skills that every new entrepreneur needs. Here’s the full run-down.  

Aspirational and Realistic Planning 

First off, entrepreneurs need to be good at making plans. And backup plans. And backup plans of the backup plans. 

When you’re first starting out, it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of building your business, and work on the assumption that everything will go smoothly. At this stage, it can be easy to underestimate how time-consuming tasks and administrative processes are, and then end up with scrambled timelines and workflows as a result. 

Plus, there’s always the unforeseen. Undecided backers falling through. Business permits not getting in on time. Your web designer going MIA and never finishing your site. 

Because of situations like these, entrepreneurial planning is the be-all and end-all of business success. 

That is not to say that you always need to operate with the worst-case scenario in mind. It is standard practice for entrepreneurs to line up multiple plans – an aspirational one, in case everything goes swimmingly, a realistic one, and several backups, just to be safe. 

Versatile Financial Management

Next up, aspiring entrepreneurs need solid financial planning skills. 

While you don’t need to get a degree in accounting to launch your own business, you need to be able to balance a budget, understand basic bookkeeping, and get a grip on taxes. 

While you will likely want to outsource certain tasks to a bookkeeping business or a professional accountant, having a basic understanding of all the financial aspects of your company is key. 

It will help you pinpoint the best people for the job, talk to them at eye level, and understand the reports and recommendations they deliver. Ultimately, it will also help you handle questions of liability and financial responsibility. 

Digital Marketing

Another key skill for new entrepreneurs is digital marketing. 

While you don’t need to become an expert in search engine optimization, web design, email marketing, or social media content creation, it’s crucial to understand the basic mechanisms and motivations behind each of these elements. And which of them you need to harness to promote your business. 

Even if your business is mostly offline, it’s crucial to have a minimal online presence on your business website and social media in 2024. Statistics show that 83% of people searched for stores online before visiting their physical locations. And 1 in 4 shoppers won’t visit a business if they can’t find it online. 

Spending some time getting to grips with digital marketing best-practices pays off for new entrepreneurs. It will help you gain a better understanding of your target audience and draw up an approximate plan for how to promote your business to them. 

Then, you can either get started on your digital marketing plan yourself, or find the best agency or freelancers to do it for you. 

Crucially, knowing the basics will help you find the best people for the job, and avoid potentially costly marketing mistakes. Say the freelance social media manager you’re interviewing wants to talk you into setting up a TikTok profile, even though your target audience is Gen X and above. You’ll be able to call them out on it, and find someone who can propose a truly custom-tailored approach.  

Flexible Communication 

The next essential business skill every entrepreneur needs is communication. Flexible communication, to be exact. 

To find success, business owners need to be able to talk to a massive range of people, and talk to them at eye level. Customers, of course, first and foremost. But also partners, investors, team members, administrative personnel, competitors, and freelancers. 

For efficient communication, you’ll need to be flexible and choose the right channel, the right tone, jargon, and strategy for each communication and interlocutor. 

Time to study up on the strategies of famous business magnates like Warren Buffett or even the classics by Dale Carnegie.  

Inspiring Leadership 

Finally, a crucial skill entrepreneurs need to help their business thrive is leadership. 

While it’s an incredibly broad term, simply put, you need to be able to motivate people – make them want to help your company succeed, and reach their own full potential in the process. 

Not every successful entrepreneur is a natural-born leader. But it’s possible to learn how to encourage people and kindle passion. When to offer guidance, criticism, praise, or censure. And which initiatives and ideas to encourage, and so help individual team members feel fulfilled and valued. 

At the end of the day, comparing different leadership styles and figuring out which one best matches your personality and your team is the single most valuable long-term investment you can make for your business. 

 

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This post was authored by an external contributor and does not represent Benzinga's opinions and has not been edited for content. The information contained above is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and nothing contained herein should be construed as investment advice. Benzinga does not make any recommendation to buy or sell any security or any representation about the financial condition of any company.