List of skills New Entrepreneurs needs to make their business successful

Aspiring entrepreneurs must hone skills in planning, financial management, marketing, communication, networking, delegation, leadership, focus, and resilience for success.

Many new entrepreneurs restrict themselves to a skeletal business plan, much of it designed in visionary fashion to attract investors. Few go into the nitty-gritty details, realistic timelines, or detailed resource planning. Fewer still factor in potential setbacks and backup plans for how to deal with them.

In the first stage of comprehensive business planning, aspiring entrepreneurs need to sketch out their long-term goals, then identify the mid- and short-term milestones they will need to pass in the interim to achieve them. As a next step, you need to take stock of the resources you currently have and those you need to free up or acquire to get started – in terms of budget, time, space, and assets. The third phase is critical: You need to prioritize your goals and allocate your existing resources accordingly.

When mapping out timelines, keep Hofstadter’s law in mind: A project always takes longer than expected, even when taking into account Hofstadter’s law. You can definitely sketch out a timeline for the case that everything goes smoothly. But you need to have a realistic backup for the case that you don’t get that crucial permit straight away, that a tentative investor leaves you hanging, or that a prospective client pulls out.

One element that comes with successful planning is finding the right tools to help you along the way – and which you’ll be able to scale up as your business grows.

Financial Management

Next up, another crucial skill for new entrepreneurs is general financial management. That especially means the basics of bookkeeping and accounting.

While countless entrepreneurs are inspired by Warren Buffett’s pearls of wisdom, many neglect to study up on the day-to-day financial management tasks that come with launching a business. Or to find the right tool or people to manage those tasks.

In terms of bookkeeping, you need to be able to log incoming and outgoing amounts on all your accounts, track expenses and manage invoices. Accounting builds on bookkeeping and deals with analyzing all this financial data, to draw conclusions about the overall state of your business, report to investors, and weather tax season.

Even if you decide to outsource bookkeeping, accounting or both as your business grows, some basics skills in this area will help you to select a competent bookkeeper or accountant to entrust your business finances to.

The good news is that you don’t need a degree in finance. Many new entrepreneurs choose to take a bookkeeping course online or to rely on the wide array of beginner’s accounting literature to get the essential skills down before venturing into the business world.