Introduction
A businessman is a person who builds and runs his own business. He is responsible for the business’s success and he takes risks for it. A businessman invests his money and time into his business and ensures that it makes a profit. Well, there are some skills that are desired in a businessman.
There are a lot of successful businessmen out there but there are more failed businessmen than successful. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 66% of business fails in their first 10 years.
When we study closely, all the successful businessmen have some things in common and unsuccessful businessmen don’t have these things.
All Successful businessmen have a set of skills that helps them to plan and run the business efficiently and successfully. Well, these skills are different from business to business but I compiled a list of 5 skills that were common in all successful businessmen. You should develop these skills if you want to be a prosperous businessman.
The skills I compiled are generic skills that will help you while running any kind of business or working for any business. Continue reading to know why you should have these skills.
1. Communication
Communication skills mean the skills to understand the message that is been conveyed by others and convey the message efficiently, successfully, and clearly. It is also about understanding the non-verbal part of the message and conveying it effectively.
A businessman needs to be an effective communicator. Whether the person is a small local business owner or runs an international business. He always needs to communicate with colleagues, employees, customers, or stakeholders. A businessman should be able to effectively convey his message to potential stakeholders and understand their message clearly to make the business’s future bright.
A good communicator is a good leader and automatically good with business. He is able to convey his message clearly and sell his business and himself efficiently. A businessman should learn all forms of communication skills whether it’s a one-on-one conversation, talking to a group of people, interacting with an audience, written messages, or emails.
2. Sales
Sales are the backbone of a business. No sales mean no business. Every business wants more and more sales for more and more profit. The biggest reason businessmen fail is they fail to generate sales and sell their products. They lack this skill of sales.
A businessman should be able to sell anything. He should be able to sell the business idea to investors, he should be able to sell products to customers, and himself to employees.
Both these soft skills of sales and communication go hand-in-hand. If a businessman is have good communication skills, he will be more able to sell his business idea and products.
When starting a business, having a low budget. It’s very likely for a businessman to be the first salesperson of a business. He should be prepared and ready to sell the product himself. Every Business person should have these two soft skills communication and sales.
3. Focus
The path to success for a businessman has many ups and downs to it. There are many small highs in business and there are many despair times in business as well. The ability and skill of a businessman to stay focused on his goal rather than quitting in despairing times hold a lot of significance for a business’s success.
One of the major issues happens when a businessman losses his emotional stability and losses focus on the goal of business which causes him to fail.
You don’t take bumps on the road as a sign that you are headed in the wrong direction. There are requirements of any journey worth taking.
Every businessman should be resilient enough to hold focus on his goal with business to make success certain. This skill also can be told as thinking with the end in mind. No matter what crisis a business goes through you should have an eye on the end goal and pivot your business towards it.
4. Time Management
Time management is another soft skill that will help you everywhere in your life. It’s certainly important for a businessman too.
Time management is all about planning your available time and controlling the time you are spending on a specific task in order to use your time more efficiently and be as productive as possible.
A businessman has a very busy day. It’s very crucial for a businessman to use this time efficiently and be more productive. He should be able to prioritize his time for tasks to give maximum output.
Having this skill enables businessmen to harvest more profit by giving more time to 20% of tasks (eg: sales) that give 80% results and less time to 80% of tasks that give 20% results. You can start time management by setting a goal for today and making a list of tasks. You can learn more about it here: 4 Tips to Improve Time Management at Work.
5. Skill of Learning
The ability to learn is one of the most essential life skills. We can’t neglect its importance in the business field.
Here is the point, learning is the key to success. If you want to be one of the top people in the field, learning is the way to go. As a businessman, as you face despairing times you shouldn’t let it go in vain. You should always learn from failure and move upward.
You should be striving to learn new skills that will help you grow your business and double your profits. Well, do the same for your employees, give them opportunities and resources to learn as their good job at work will affect your business’s graph.
Be disciplined to learn, what you should learn, and when you should learn to grow as a businessman.
You can use this 3% formula. Just reinvest 3% of your yearly income into your learning and you will see a significant increase in your income for next year.
The Great thing is that you are learning right now while reading this article. Now what you have to do is pick one of the skills above and start learning it, developing it, and practicing it. You will see a positive difference in yourself as a businessman.
PS: What skill do you think you should be learning first, which will affect the business most?
