Dreaming is one thing, but acting on that dream is another. Being an entrepreneur is more than just having a great idea, it’s having the right set of entrepreneur skills to guide you along your chosen path. Whether you’re starting a new business venture, or trying to scale your existing company, it is essential to master key entrepreneur skills so you can improve your entrepreneurial mindset. In this post, we will explore essential skills you can develop to increase your success in the game of business. Let’s get stuck in!
Digital Literacy: Essential Online Tools
In this age, having a strong digital literacy is essential. You can grow your business exponentially using todays digital tools. Let’s explore some must-have tools you can use to improve your entrepreneur skills.
Getting Started
Getting started with digital literacy can be challenging, especially if you are not familiar with everyday tools such as Gmail. This is why we will start off by showing you some foundational tools to add to your entrepreneur skills toolkit, and then you can build up from there.
As mentioned before, one of the primary tools you will need proficiency in is an email software tool such as Gmail or outlook. I know this may be simple but trust me, a lot of people have issues using these tools efficiently. You can set-up filters on these email tools to help you better manage your workload and even schedule emails to be sent at a certain time. This means you can, if you wanted too, get all your emails checked off in the first hour of the day, obviously depending on how many emails you get per day.
After your emails are sorted, I would start to think of some management tools like Trello or Monday. I personally use Monday at the agency I work in. It is user friendly and fast to use. They offer a visual way to manage your workload to make it easier for you to stay on track with your goals. Using a management software like this will keep your team organised and productive, making sure their entrepreneur skills are effective as well.
Staying Connected
Effective communication is essential for your entrepreneur skills. Online tools like Discord or Slack will help your team communicate in groups or direct messages to help build rapport. For video communication, check out Zoom or Microsoft teams. Again, these are very simple, well-known software’s. However it’s the easy things that are most often overlooked.
Creativity & Marketing
Marketing your business will be the MOST important entrepreneur skills you can learn. You can have an average product with great market positioning and sell out. That being said, you need channels to showcase your business such as social media. Some great tools to help you showcase your business through social media are Canva and Adobe Spark. These are both excellent graphic design tools which allow you to create amazing posts in minutes. I personally prefer Canva but I shall leave you to decide.
For content creation, find your medium. If you like writing blog posts (like this one), get on WordPress and start your own blog about any topic that interests you. If you prefer speaking, start a podcast, and if you prefer video, start a YouTube channel. There are endless platforms out there for you to start telling your story and talking about topics you like in your preferred manner. It all starts with you being ready to put yourself out there!
Networking Online: Virtual Networking
If you want to showcase your entrepreneur skills, having a strong network is essential. Luckily, in this day and age, building a network can be quite simple. There are many different platforms and strategies you can use to begin building your team of misfits!
Choosing the right platform
When deciding on choosing the right platform, make sure to choose one that suits you. If your aim is to come across as professional and become recognised as an expert in your industry, I would start with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a literal hub of professional networking. You can showcase your entrepreneur skills to your personal network and also grow your network by connecting with others in the same industry.
Engagement
In order to build your network and showcase your entrepreneur skills, you must engage with your network. To do this, post on your chosen platform regularly and comment on posts. Gary Vee has a good quote when it comes to pushing content to your audience – “document, don’t create”. This way you don’t get stuck for hours conceptualising content, all you have to do is post something about your week. It’s that simple!
Value
While it’s good to document your posts, make sure you are still providing value to your network. How can your post help them? What will they gain from reading your post? I know this sounds simple but many people miss this step and it is critical for engaging your audience. So, make sure to put yourself in your readers shoes and ask yourself – “Why would I read this?”.
Adaptability: Market Dynamics
The only consistency in life is inconsistency. This statements hold true in entrepreneurship as well. Markets change and trends evolve. You must remain adaptable at all times. This means being resilient to change and flowing with it. When faced with a challenge or change in the market, you MUST see it as an opportunity of some sort rather than a disadvantage. This will shift your mindset towards looking for solutions rather than focussing on the problem at hand. This is how you begin to tap into the mindset of change and adaptability, and pretty soon, nothing will be able to take you by surprise.
Continuous Learning
This is potentially the most important aspect of building your entrepreneur skills. Did you know Bill Gates reads 50 books a year! The more you learn, the more you will earn. This only holds true for self-help and business books though, if you read 50 fiction books a year, you will not get the same level of education you get from non-fiction.
Finally, as an entrepreneur, you need a flexible schedule. As mentioned above, things change, including your plans. Don’t get demotivated because you skipped your meditation this morning, instead embrace it and carry on. Remember, consistency, not intensity.
Conclusion
So, with these entrepreneur skills you can act on your innovative idea today. You will probably fail first, but that’s okay, try and try again until you succeed, that’s what entrepreneurship is all about. Remember, success in entrepreneurship is not just about having a great idea, it’s about continuous learning and helping build others up along the way.
Thank you for your time and I hope to see you again in the next post. Also, if you’re an online entrepreneur, be sure to check out our awesome free tools designed specifically to help with your online marketing!
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