“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” ~ Jim Rohn
When you own a small business, you must take on many of the day-to-day responsibilities yourself – at least in the beginning.
Learning and practicing some basic skills in different areas of business will go a long way to making your business successful and resilient.
Here are 10 of the most important skills you should learn, practice and master as an entrepreneur:
1. Marketing
Your company is nothing without clients. You need marketing skills to ensure that you can attract enough clients to buy your products and services. Even if at the end you will delegate or outsource your marketing activities – you must understand and master marketing.
2. Sales
Whether it’s acquiring clients, hiring employees, bringing on investors or retaining existing talent, as a small business owner you must know how to sell. You have to know how to sell yourself, your products or services, and your ideas to employees, partners or investors.
3. Customer Service
The key to any successful business is good customer service. You can get tons of clients, but if you don’t provide excellent customer service, those clients will never stick around. This includes learning how to deal with angry customers and negative reviews properly and how to listen and respond in a timely manner. Knowing how to accept and implement feedback will allow you to go above and beyond for your loyal customers.
4. Communication
You need to communicate with your suppliers, potential investors, clients and team members. Every communication should reflect the image you are trying to project. Having effective written and verbal communication skills help you build good working relationships.
5. Negotiation
Everything in business is based on your negotiation skills. You negotiate with your clients to make a deal. You negotiate with your suppliers to make a deal in your favor. You negotiate with your partners, team members and even your community. So, learn and practice your negotiation skills.
6. Leadership
As an entrepreneur, you lead. Everyone looks up to you – your team members, employees, clients and prospects. Be a role model. Set an example. Add value to your activities, and everyone else will add value to their actions.
7. Delegation
Many entrepreneurs and small business owners feel that they must do everything themselves to keep their standards high or their expenses low. But your business will grow in proportion to how much you can let go of control and delegate. Before doing any task or activity, ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time?” If the answer is “no”, delegate it.
8. Time Management
You must prioritize time management. That’s because as an entrepreneur you own every part of your business. You must understand which tasks should come first, how much time to allocate to each task, and how and what to delegate to others to efficiently move your business forward.
9. Problem Solving
Being an entrepreneur means that problem solving is your job description. You make money by solving your clients’ problems, and you keep your business floating – by solving your own problems. Part of being a great problem solver is knowing how to evaluate each situation and look at outcomes on a holistic level, analyzing how your solutions will affect you or your business in the long term. Successful entrepreneurs always prioritize long-term solutions.
10. Networking
You must have heard this one before, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” And it’s true… as long as your business is alive, you must keep building and maintaining personal and business network. It’s called netWORKING for a reason… it’s a skill you need to learn and practice over and over again.
Now It’s YOUR Turn
For five minutes… come up with as many ideas as you can… what skills should YOU learn or practice in order to fulfill your potential as an entrepreneur?
Let's Brainstorm
Please share your ideas (all of them or just one) in the comment box below… and let’s get WOWing.
Live fully, stay awesome,
Nisandeh Neta




Top Commenters – last 30 Days
Let's Brainstorm
Please share your ideas (all of them or just one) in the comment box below… and let’s get WOWing.
Live fully, stay awesome,
Nisandeh Neta


201 comments





1. MARKETING
2. FINDING THE RIGHT TA and where they are
3. SALES: SELL LIKE A DOCTER
I learned to sell as a doctor. Before I hated sales.
Now I love is. Because with my sales pitch I do not feel a cheap seller, but I feel an expert.
Especially if I decline a client.
4. DISCIPLINE
How to follow trough if you do not want
5. LEARN TO DO YOUR CORE BUSINESS AND MAKE THAT IRRESITABLE
I used to spend time on things that were irresistable.
6. KWALIFY
Learn to kwalify new or current suppliers and or coaches.
7. COPE WITH RELATIONSHIP GOING SOUR
If it does not work out with clients or suppliers, how do you deal with it the right way?
I learned I was either too soft, which cost me a lot of money and clients. Or to hars.
You want to be professional
8. HOW TO COPE with SETT BACKS
I had a very bad setback. Do to the fact that I had the right coach to pull me trough, I could go on.
And now I can fly again. I now learn that in some cases I just need the right person to have my back, so that I do not fall too hard.
Setbacks is part of life. You it is good to know who to go to. It can be a businesscoach. The right person is not cuddeling or taking hours and hours.
The right coach is empathig and help you see the sunshine through the clouds.
The earlier you find that person the less help you need.
9. LEARN TO MAKE WRONG THINGS RIGHT AGAIN WIHT COWORKERS/ TEAM/COACHES etc.
I had great problems to makes things right again.
I have to look if things go well. If not. Talk about it. If it does not work, part as friends.
10. BEING CRITAL CLEAR IN IN EXPECTATIONS
Make the expectations you have of one another is cristal clear before you start.
Reevaluate regulary. Do not let things slide.
160 comments





Hi Melanie, love your list, but I'm really interested in how to sell like a doctor. I am one, so if I can use the mindset you have, that should be interesting. Doctors here in the Netherlands are the worst in sales, especially in comparison to the states. So please tell me 🙂
94 comments




1. silence is gold sometimes, until the time is right to give solutions
2. handle people strange habits
3. prioritise - what will make you more money
39 comments


Also very important.
From the book of Stephan R. Covey.
Seven habits of effective leadership . The 4 quadrants, you spend your time on.
1: important things, immediately to do ( problem solving right now)
2: important things, not immediately to do
3: unimportant things, that needs to be done
4: unimportant things, that don't need to be done.
You'd do 2 more often for the long range!
112 comments




Appreciate feedback, which is not necessarily negative. In my case most of the time it helps me grow to believe in myself that I can do it. E.g. I get positive feedback with my courses and all the time I was looking at other colleagues of whom I thought they were so much better.
Whether you call it self-confidence, extravert, self-believe or anything else: courage to speak in front of people, on video's, webinars and the like is certainly a skill you need.
And Gerdy is so right: finishing the tasks and projects.
Patience, diligence and discipline are also very helpful in your own business.
The 4 D's are very helpful: DO, DARE, DELEGATE, DELETE
123 comments




LOVE your 4 D Dunja!
160 comments





My number one is sales. But actually always check what one skill is holding you back, then improve that and again, check what one skill is holding you at that moment.
Plan! Often I just go with the flow of the day and I didn't do what I wanted to do...
276 comments


I heard about the Super Skills first in the Ultimate Wealth course. Do you have any other videos about it?
Skills to master:
Persuasion. Very useful to be able to bring your points across and recruit partners.
Video presentation. The ability to come across good over video and to be able to use the medium to support your message.
Search Engine Optimisation. Having a basic understanding about how the world is being indexed and to structure your own information accordingly.
Self confidence. As far as I understand it, there is no roof to self confidence and self trust. It allows us to take risks and go for opportunities.
Teaching. To bring across information and verify the other "gets" it. This is a big difference in how much impact you can have.
Acting extravert. Even if you feel introvert, being able to channel your energy into high energy allows for connection with other people.
69 comments


I read some very good additions, some of them confirm my thoughts, others enrich them or show me another perspective on the same basic Idea.
I think developing a skill that is able to look beyond tomorrow could be a helpful one. How will things evolve in the (near) future? What impact does that have on the lifes of people? What are then possible (new) needs? And what does that mean for my business?
Training that skill is super valuable in my opinion.
175 comments





1. Creativity - Some people are gifted with creativity, but at the same time it's something you can train. For example the skill of brainstorming is one technique that can help you troubleshooting, generating new product ideas or business concepts and improving existing products. Creativity makes your mind flexible and creativity is fun.
2. Making business models and plans - You should always be aware of the business model behind your company and products. Your business model helps you making the right decisions. If things don't work out the way you expected, you can use it to find out what you should change. And of course you should always make a plan and do your maths.
3. Master your core business and keep it up to date - because it's easy to get lost in peripheral activities.
4. Act fast on opportunities - but always do a quick assessment, an impulsive decision can turn out very badly.
5. Self-discipline
6. Making sacrifices
576 comments

Listening.
Saying “no”.
Hearing “no” and keep on going.
Doing whatever it takes- many of us are creative and love starting new things. But finishing them is difficult.
Dare to stand out. Money is never in the middle.
Express yourself. Dare to put it out in the world. Nobody will find you- you will need to tell “them” that you exist.
Learning. You’re never too old to learn. Learn from a mentor, a coach, peers, and your clients.
175 comments





So true, Gerdy. Thanks! Finishing is a good one 😉
111 comments




I am a lifetime learner. I believe this is what keeps us young at heart and in mind, AND it makes us grow constantly as a person and in our profession.
Here are some things I've found useful to practice and master:
1. THE ART OF LISTENING - Listening is a skill and we can all learn it and improve on it. Listening means that we learn how to listen to the other not only to the words they say, but also with our heart and see what they are NOT saying and connect with them
2. PATIENCE - I'm still working on this one, but I've certainly improved on it and what a difference does it make in my daily life. So much less stress. It might be the same chaos around me, but when I tap into my patience I can handle it much better.
3. Like Nisandeh wrote DELEGATING is so important. I wish someone had taught me that long time ago and have opened my eyes to the fact that "being a strong woman" does not mean that I should do it all on my own. I think once I realised that delegating became so much easier.
276 comments


Totally agree with the listening. As for being patient, I think it would serve me to be assertive sooner in many occasions.