How to Start a Small Business: Essential Hard and Soft Skills for Achieving Success

Many individuals romanticize the idea of entrepreneurship and being a business owner. This is because to them, it means being your own boss or working whenever you want and not having to stick to the regular schedule of 9-5. Unfortunately, this makes people jump into a preconceived idea of how great starting a business is without actually learning what it takes to start a business.
Starting a business will require basic hard skills such as negotiation and financial literacy, soft skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication skills, etc. Having a strong mindset will also go a long way in helping you to be resilient when hard times come - and they will come. This article will discuss everything you need to know before starting your own business. So, let’s get right to it, shall we?

Hard Skills You Need to Have Starting Your Own Business

Hard skills are the required and quantifiable knowledge and abilities needed in a job or in this case, to run a successful, profitable business venture. For an #entrepreneur# , you will need to have enough knowledge, much more than just the basic skill set required of the job. This general foundational knowledge of a wide range of hard skills will give you the ability to successfully run your business even after you can afford to hire people. It also helps you supervise the operations of your business properly , and that way, you can easily know what should be where and figure out the right steps to take at every point. Some of the essential hard skills include the following:
● Business Management: Studies have shown a direct relationship between strong managerial skills and business success. Managers are responsible for at least 70% ( https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/182792/managers-account-variance-employee-engagement.aspx ) of the changes seen in employee engagement, performance, etc. Building on your business management includes knowing how to lead meetings, communicate organizational changes and be aware of common mistakes with managers, as it is a valuable skill for every #entrepreneur#.
● Financial literacy: The goal of every business is to make money, and a huge part of making money is setting up your finances right. Financial literacy will help you know your costs and plan your business's financial year with proper budgeting and will also help you maintain a healthy cash flow. It is also vital to regularly review your financial and accounting books because the numbers don't lie, and it will give you a clear idea about the health of your business. Entrepreneurs must acquire financial management knowledge before starting a business because it will help understand costs and generate cash flow.
● Digital Marketing: Digital marketing knowledge is a must-have for any business owner out there today. More people have access to the internet today, and they rely on search engines to find products and services they need. Digital marketing can be used as a cheap marketing alternative to save costs on marketing. It can easily be scaled to match what you need at every stage in your business. You can hire people to handle these aspects of your business as they can be time-consuming and quite cumbersome, even though you, as the business owner, should be knowledgeable enough to track results and measure conversions effectively.
● Hiring Management: One individual can't perform all the duties mentioned above efficiently, and this is where delegation comes into play. As mentioned earlier, it can be difficult to let go of some aspects of your business and leave it to just anybody, and that is why you have to pay attention to hiring the right set of people with appropriate skills that will be able to carry the vision and values of your business just as you would.
● Tech Skills: Having Tech skills doesn’t mean that you have to be a tech guru; it just means that you have embraced technology as it is part of our daily lives. You can incorporate technology into your business to simplify various processes for your customers. An example is payment solutions that allow your customers to make payments to you online easily, automated appointment bookings, etc.
Important Soft Skills Business Owners Must Have
There is no doubt that hard skills are important to run a business successfully. Still, for a fine balance to exist, a business owner must also possess some soft skills, making engagement with staff, customers, investors, and business management much easier. This will ease communication and interaction in the workplace. Some examples of soft skills are discussed below:
● Goal Setting: Without a vision, your business will not grow because it has no direction. When you have a vision, you can write up daily, monthly, and yearly goals. These goals will be quantified and can be given as part KPIs (key performance indicator) in the company. A business owner that cannot set goals will only be moving in the same unproductive circle, but knowing how to set goals for yourself and your business will increase productivity and make the business vision clearer to you and your employees.
● Emotional Intelligence: This special skill is the ability to manage one's emotions. EQ is extremely important for business leaders because only EQ can bring it all together in addition to all these other soft skills. For example, a business leader with high emotional intelligence will possess empathy and social skills, which fosters better relationships and understanding among staff.
● Stress Management: A huge part of starting a business comes with unexpected challenges, including financial losses. This can create a lot of stress for you as the business owner, and having a personalized stress management system is a good place to start. Without proper stress management, you will be left with high levels of fatigue which will eventually affect other aspects of the business, like decision making.
● Self-awareness: Being self-aware simply means that you have a clear picture of who exactly you are, your capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. As a leader, you must understand these things about your personality to leverage your strengths and improve on your weaknesses.
Other Essential Business Skills
There are other business skills, apart from those discussed earlier, that you need to master if you want your business to remain successful, and they are outlined below.
● Delegation: Your entrepreneurial dream is much more than just rolling up your sleeves to get your hands dirty. It means that you are laser-focused on the bigger picture to lead your startup company to the next significant steps. But this will mean you let go of the reigns in one or two places for someone else to take over, of course, with your supervision. Delegation is usually a hard concept to grab for first-time business owners because they find it difficult to trust another person with those special duties. Still, delegation is the key to creating more time to ensure that you don't lose sight of the vision.
● Communication Skills: Effective communication will keep all the stakeholders in a business happy. It will improve the work environment for employees and make the customer experience more enjoyable. Research suggests that managers with strong communication skills interact better with team members and employees to bring out the best in them. Clear communication will also eliminate the possibility of misinterpretation of information from any angle. This is a good way to foster growth among employees in the business.
● Negotiation Skills: The ability to negotiate will increase the value of your business and add some value to you as well. Right from the start, you're spearheading some negotiations, from what percentage of the business investors will have to the salary paid to each staff. Negotiation has been identified as one of the top 10 skills needed to successfully thrive in a business space , so you should consider getting some training to hone your negotiation skills before starting a business. Although it is not one-size-fits-all, there are countless methods , including books and courses, to help you improve your negotiation skills.
● Time Management: Regardless of the type of business you want to start, it always comes with multiple tasks that seem endless. It can sometimes feel overwhelming, and you can get caught up in the planning instead of the execution without proper time management. This skill will help you prioritize your tasks and activities, and you can pay attention to the most important tasks at hand first.
● Leadership: A business is made up of employees and individuals from different backgrounds with different beliefs. The only thing that brings them together is the vision of the company and their purposes for achieving that vision. This is where your leadership will be needed to remind them of their purpose every day and increase the collective drive to achieving that vision. The strength of a leader can be seen in how many diverse personalities he can get to follow the purpose and visions of the organization. Leadership is also very important to motivate and build employees' morale even in the downward curve of the business.
● Sales: Knowing how to sell is a survival skill for every business, bringing in customers or investors. Knowing how to persuade all stakeholders in your business is principal to running a successful business. From knowing how to sell to customers and keep them happy, ensuring your internal customers (your employees), and lastly, your investors are in the loop. You must know how to sell yourself, sell your business idea and vision, and sell your products or services.
● Customer Service: Customer service is the backbone of every organization and the face of the organization. Good customer service is an essential method that businesses use to stay relevant in the minds of their customers and retain customers. It is common knowledge that the cost of acquiring one new customer is double the cost of retaining one customer. All business owners need to know how to communicate with customers to solve their problems and properly satisfy them. This is something that employees can emulate and should be trained on.
● Networking: As an #entrepreneur#, it is important that you don’t shy away from networking, as you can build long-lasting, important relationships this way. You have to constantly make the effort to strengthen your social and business relationships, as they can help you create a successful business. Plus, when you connect with people with common business interests like you, this can be a good way to improve your other skills and learn from them.
● Problem Solving: There will be moments where things might look bleak in your business – that is inevitable as even the most successful entrepreneurs’ encountered challenges. It is essential that you don’t wallow in self-pity, rather, you look for ways to solve any problems you have. A successful #entrepreneur# is one who is constantly innovative and can adapt to any situation they find themselves.

Essential Steps to Starting Your Own Business
● Seek Clarity: I mentioned in the beginning how a lot of people think that starting a business is an escape route from the daily work routine. Ask yourself these seven (7) questions to determine the real reasons you want to start a business.
■ Are you trying to escape the 9-5 work routine?
■ Do you want to pursue your passion or discover your purpose?
■ Are you seeking job security and want to gain more control of your career?
■ Do you want to make more money doing what you love?
■ Are you solving a problem worth paying for?
■ Will your product or service idea provide a solution to any problem in society?
■ Are you tired of dealing with the rat race of working in corporate America?
● Refine Your Idea/ Determine Your Niche: Once you're certain that you want to start a business for the right reasons, then you can begin to refine your ideas. Start by writing a lean business plan and clearly stating your value proposition.
● Conduct Market Survey: Now is the time to evaluate your idea properly. At this stage, you need to determine who your target audience is, who your competitors are, etc. Many business experts will tell you to conduct a SWOT analysis at this stage to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities in the market, and the threats you're likely to face.
● Employ The Right People: Ensure that you hire skilled people and will be capable of carrying the vision of your business. This is where people and hiring management comes in as you have to be able to decipher the good employees from the not so good.
● Ensure Your Business is Scalable: The goal of every business is to be profitable enough to be sold. So, you need first to identify your sources of funding and find ways to create cash flow in your business. It is also essential that your business can scale without it falling apart in the long run.

Starting a Business in Today’s Digital Age
We are presently living in the digital age where most businesses are run remotely online. You must have an online presence if you want to make it in today’s business world. Here’s a good place to start building a digital presence for your business in today’s world.
● Create Your Company Website: A website that clearly states your company’s value proposition and services is a good place to let people meet your business online. However, before you create a website, you have to register your domain name as only then can you take the next step. The website has to have descriptive and detailed pages that will not confuse your site visitors. Suppose your business is product-based, you might like to consider creating an e-commerce website where customers can directly purchase your products.
● Branding And Marketing: Branding and marketing work best together for better results. Branding is more than just your logo and colors- it is the way you present your business to the public and how you want it to be perceived. This makes your brand easily recognizable and will have a better tendency of staying in the mind of consumers. Your marketing message also goes a long way to how your business is perceived – this is why having a personal brand is important.
● Blogging: You can add a blog section to your website or write detailed blog posts and send it to sites that target your audience. Guest blogging is also another way to bring traffic to your website and invariably your business. Additionally, you can partner with influencers or get featured on popular podcasts.
● Target Audience: Before you begin marketing and branding efforts, it is important to determine your target audience. Finding your ideal customer niche will improve the results of your marketing efforts. You can use psychographics and demographics such as age and location to narrow down your target audience. You can also utilize platforms like Google analytics to give you information on the demographic of people searching for types of your products.
● Determine Search Engine Optimization ( SEO)/keyword strategy: Ideally, for your website to be useful and relevant to your consumers, you need to ensure that you have used the words they are searching for on your website. Using the right keywords makes it possible for your website to come up when people search for the type of products or services you offer. The best way you can do this is why using Google Keywords and other similar platforms to find out the keywords your target customers use when searching for your products.
● Open Social Media Pages: Promote your business on social media. Social media is an untapped market of ideal customers for you. Determine the social media platforms that are most relevant to you based on the type of content you'd like to share and the way you want to interact with your consumers. For example, Quora is a good platform to answer consumers' questions, while Instagram is more useful for showcasing your products physically. There are different social media platforms, with each having specific uses. Let’s take a look at some of them, shall we?
 LinkedIn – As a business owner, utilizing the full services that LinkedIn has to offer will do your business a lot of good. Creating a business page on LinkedIn will give your business more visibility, and if you utilize SEO practices, you will show up on searches. There are also a lot of groups available on this platform that you can join to network with fellow entrepreneurs and meet prospective customers. Also, you can host events on the platform and post regularly to give credibility to your business.
 TikTok – Most people believe TikTok is majorly for kids but this platform has become one of the most used platforms across the world. Finding different ways to market your business on this app will give your business the visibility it needs. Also, you can make use of macro and micro influencers to drive traffic to your social media accounts and website.
 Facebook – This platform offers a marketplace as well as different groups that you can join, where you can find prospective customers. Despite the emergence of new social media platforms, Facebook still has a large number of users. Not utilizing this platform will be a mistake on your part.
 Instagram – This popular platform offers a plethora of features like Reels, Stories, and others that you can use to market your business. You have to make an effort in your branding and marketing. Besides, Instagram enables you to market to your target market when placing ads.
 YouTube – No one can underestimate the impact YouTube has on the buying culture of viewers. One way to make the most out of this platform is to create informative videos to educate your audience and prospective customers. You should also utilize keyword research on this platform as that would help you know the ranking keywords that you should include in your video title and description. Besides, if you have a lot of engagements, you can monetize your YouTube channel in the long run.
 Twitter – This platform is the hub of microblogging, and you can use it as another means to market your products and educate your prospective customers. You can also follow topics and lists that are relevant to your industry, so you’ll always be up to date with what your competitors are doing. Besides, the Ad feature on Twitter also enables you to target your target audience using age, geographic location, and other variables.

Wrapping It Up
After taking all these steps to set up your business, now you can sit back and prepare for growth. This doesn't mean the work is over, but rather it is just beginning. Remember to always review your business to refine it and tweak aspects of the setup as time goes by. Also, keep in mind that starting a business is not an easy feat, so keep looking out for ways to improve and make corrections to prepare your business for the long run.
The ultimate security in life comes from being in control of your destiny starting your own business.

Media Contact
Name: Robert Moment
Email: Robert@HighEmotionalIntelligence.com
Website: www.HighEmotionalIntelligence.com
Location: Arlington
State: Virginia

About the Author

Robert Moment is a results-driven certified social + emotional intelligence coach and trainer and certified peak performance coach and author of the game changing #entrepreneur# mindset Special Report titled, “5 New Words That Will Change The Way You Think About Achieving Business Success

Robert specializes in helping entrepreneurs overcome self-limiting beliefs, fears and imposter syndrome using the power of high emotional intelligence and peak performance coaching to be your authentic self, living inspired doing what you love scaling to a 6 or 7 figure business.

Schedule your FREE 15 minute Transformation coaching call. No sales pitch. No fluff. This call will bring you clarity to your mind, and peace to your heart about life and the future of your business.
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