Business Management Skills

Taking the plunge and becoming an entrepreneur is akin to making a giant leap into the abyss. It doesn’t seem to matter if you are the most organized person out there, have a degree in logistics and are perfectly well aware of what you want to achieve. Do you know how to make God laugh? All you need to do is say that you have “a plan,” which converts to your quest to be an entrepreneur! You undoubtedly have a lot of adventure ahead of you as many of your predecessors will testify. Just remember that there is no such thing as a final plan and you will have to keep amending it, even as you find some emotional and psychological strength and have to put up with developing a business during all your waking hours.

You will need to put a lot of thought into any idea that you have, before you start a business. If you think that you can just expand your hobby and make some money from it, without really thinking if you are creating a solution to a real problem, you might be in trouble. Your business must be able to solve a real problem, have a well-thought-out and different approach, or you’re likely to be crushed by the competition. You really, really need a USP.

In today’s environment you need to be very creative and understand that you will likely have to give more than you get, especially in the early days. People are always wary about doing business with someone or some business that they do not know and are looking for social proof. Understand that customers should be treated like the gold that they are when they finally come along and you should solicit feedback as often as possible. Be prepared to go way beyond the line when providing value.

When you start out you are going to have to take on every conceivable role within your business, unless you have a considerable amount of money to back you up. During the early days you will not have the luxury of being able to outsource and must be very careful when it comes to time management. A 60 hour work week will be nothing for you and you will be looking to find additional hours in every day. Don’t be surprised if your business demands your attention seven days a week. Due to time constraints, you will soon find that each hour is worth more than money and you have to be careful that you do not spend too much time on operational issues, while devoting too little to onward development.

So long as you have come up with a realistic business model, stay on course and you will be able to document the allocated time, the return that you are currently getting and a common-sense projection for the future. Always be very honest and realistic, however and understand that you need to allocate a certain amount of time every week to annoying issues that will eat into your productivity.

Keep your feet firmly anchored on the ground, because you will go through tremendous ups and downs as your business unfolds. Don’t lose faith however, as everyone would be doing it, if it were easy!

Adam Toren, Co-Founder of Young Entrepreneur, specializes in developing the profitability of struggling businesses with a specialized and ‘bottom line’ approach. Adam, along with his brother, have created, purchased and sold a variety of companies over the years. At the moment, they own and manage a highly successful publishing company and several dedicated online enterprises.