7 Skills To Improve If You Want To Succeed In Business
Building and running a successful business regardless of what industry takes certain skillsets.
If it was as easy as it might appear to be let me assure you it is not.
Building a successful business is more than just hard work and it’s even harder to do on your own.
You need a team of talent that knows their duties and how to execute on them like a professional.
In this episode, we are going to dive into 7 skills you need to improve on if you want to succeed in business.
7 Skills To Improve If You Want To Succeed In Business
#1 Sales and Marketing
Without sales, there is no business. Yet I see so many business owners who run from sales as if was CoronaVirus.
I especially see this in service-based businesses where the owner is typically the technician or the one doing the work.
If you want to succeed in business it’s up to you and only you to brush up on your sales and marketing skills. In order to do this, you’re going to have to work on you.
Working on you entails reading, hiring a coach, joining a mastermind, attending conferences or workshops. Also, establishing software such as CRM to help manage your leads and build a sales pipeline.
Stop running away from the number one thing that every business needs and has in common.
Sales has a negative connotation associated with it due to a few bad apples. Don’t let this influence your outlook on sales.
In my opinion, everyone is in sales. Shit, I’m trying to sell you on this notion right now.
#2 Get Familiar With Technology
I see so many business owners who resist technology. This baffles my mind. In my opinion, technology is the future of all business.
They say I don’t have time to learn the tech. I don’t need a smartphone, I’m happy with this flip phone from 1993.
These are the same people who were dead in the water when COVID shut down the economy.
You shouldn’t be learning how to set up a Zoom or Google Meet call now. This should be a skill already well established.
I’m not saying you need to be Marc Zuckerberg but you need to know the basics so you don’t look like a fool and get left in the dust by competitors like me who embrace technology.
#3 Improve Your Time Management Skills
Are you reactive or proactive?
Most owners react to everything and this is when your business runs you. For the record, you should run your business. If not, you own a job, not a business.
To do this you need to live and die by a calendar.
I believe that you should embrace technology and put everything on you Google or iCal. This is referred to as block timing.
Set aside recurring blocks of time to complete your most important tasks.
In my book, I give you the framework for a badass time study that further breaks this down and tell you where to focus your time.
I hate to break it to you but there are certain tasks that are below your pay grade, especially as an employer.
#4 Get Better at Hiring
Treat hiring as a marketing funnel. Get leads (applicants) into your funnel and filter out the ones who don’t fit or follow directions.
This process must be repeatable and each applicant must follow the same steps for consistent results.
Have the applicants jump through hiring hoops as they go through the different stages within your hiring process.
This will cut down on the time wasted reading resumé’s and interviewing applicants that aren’t a good fit for your company culture.
You do have culture, right?
#5 Improve Your Communication
This applies both internally and externally.
Internally I recommend using software such as Slack. This will cut down on the back and forth emails and speed up internal communications.
Externally, you need a CRM in place to store all of your customer’s contact information.
Not only is the imperative for sales and marketing, but it also allows you to quickly pull up their contact info so you can communicate with them.
Without a CRM you’re wasting time searching for information that should be at the fingertips of your entire team.
Also, don’t hoard information. This causes you to become the bottleneck in your organization and ultimately communication will suffer.
#6 Self Development
You can only lead your business as far as you have self-developed yourself.
If you’re resistant to change and saying things like “we’ve always done it this way” you’re the roadblock in your business growth path.
As I alluded earlier, the best way to embrace change is to re-spark imagination. I find reading one of the best forms of self-development.
Don’t give me the bullshit excuse that you don’t have enough time in the day to read. We’re all given the same 24 hours, what you choose to do with them is up to you and only you.
Watch YouTube videos, attend conferences, join masterminds with like-minded individuals.
These steps will fast track your learning and cut down on the time needed to become successful.
A word of caution… there is no magic, quick fix, pill. You gotta put in the work!
If you’re not willing to put in the work, you don’t want it bad enough.
#7 Managing Finances
You need to hire a team of advisors to help guide you.
I’m not a CPA or Attorney so this is not legal advice, this is my opinion.
At the very least you need a bookkeeper and a CPA.
As you grow, I recommend you hire a CFO
The bookkeeper keeps your books in order so that the CPA and CFO can do their jobs efficiently.
Also, bookkeepers tend to cost less per hour than CPA’s or CFO’s. Shit, our CFO won’t even touch bookkeeping tasks.
From there, your CPA keeps you legal and operating within the guidelines of the IRS.
The CFO’s main purpose should be to model out your business by building revenue projections, job trackers, custom estimate tools.
They should be an EXCEL master.
They should help you establish revenue goals and track your progress throughout the year.
When you couple these three team members you get an unstoppable financial team.
Don’t forget to visit my website and grab a copy of my book at Tomaskeenan.com
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