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?