Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Startups

10 Valuable Entrepreneurial Skills You Won’t Learn in Business School

A top business school might provide an overview of management principles and training

about how to handle challenging situations. After you enter the real corporate world, however, you need to know more than just the basics if you expect to overcome difficult situations and achieve success.

Let’s take a look at the skills you must acquire if you want to stand out:

Effective Listening

You likely learned and practiced speaking skills during your MBA program, but the skill of listening is all too often overlooked. Contrary to popular belief, speaking and listening are of equal importance when it comes to effective communication. Because many managers fail to truly listen to their team, developing the skill of listening effectively will help you rise to the top.

Business Etiquette

Corporate executives have noticed that MBAs do not immediately adhere to business etiquette upon entering the workforce. They underestimate the importance of manners, personal appearance and interpersonal etiquette which makes MBA graduates seem too casual and entitled. If you want to climb the corporate ladder, you need to develop superior interpersonal skills that fall in line with corporate business etiquette.

Career Goals

After graduating from business school, you might be ready to take on the world and achieve success as quickly as possible. If you are rushing to hit a specific benchmark, the overall quality of your work will suffer as you constantly switch jobs looking for everything to click right away.

That’s why it’s important to stay focused on your goals and realize the amount of investment in time and effort required to achieve them. During the first few months of your new job, complete every task to the best of your ability and with enthusiasm. No task is below you or not worth your time if it supports your career goals.

Computer & Internet Literacy

Nowadays nearly all work is completed on a computer or over the internet and new employees are expected to know how to use technology. Employers often discover that MBAs might know the ins and outs of Microsoft PowerPoint, but fail to grasp the advanced capabilities of Excel. Likewise, MBA graduates know their way around Facebook and email applications, but need to improve their use of LinkedIn and search engines.

Teamwork

Out of the skills on this list, working on your teamwork abilities is arguably the most important. The corporate world is very competitive which tends to turn people into self-involved and overconfident employees. Invest yourself in team projects by successfully completing all tasks assignment to you and reporting back to your other team members.

Fortunately, you can get a boost from technology to improve your teamwork skills. Take advantage of business management software to collaborate and organize the final work product. You can also suggest other sales management tools to streamline order processes. When you lead your team to complete high quality work, senior management will truly be impressed.

Patience

If you can practice patience during your first few years with a company, you’ll be better off in the long run. Many MBAs sign on as management trainees only to later complain that they are really just in a continuation of business school. Bear in mind that you are now on salary so any learning you can do on the job is a bonus.

Resilience

A common mistake made by highly talented MBAs is to switch companies as soon as things get challenging. It’s easy for MBAs to boast about a competing job offer, but much harder to deal with the challenges present at their present company. You must prove your loyalty to the organization that hired you. Loyalty in this context is not about the number of years you’ve been employed, but the contributions you are making.

Humility

It might surprise you to learn that humility is one of the most sought after attributes in recent MBA graduates. While employers review potential MBA hires to find the best and brightest, many new employees make the mistake of appearing over-confident. Resist the urge to show off and instead be respectful of senior management and listen to what they have to say. Expressing ambivalence or resistance will get you nowhere, whereas humility will help you learn and improve.

Gratitude

We should all be aware of those who contributed to our success, including professors, mentors, colleagues, and family members. It is your responsibility to express gratitude to those that have helped you and remain in contact throughout your career.

Too often, MBAs forget about the people who assisted them when they achieve a bit of success. Being grateful says volumes about your character and is directly reflected in your professional attitude.

Individual Social Responsibility

Your business program likely discussed the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, but you should also be practicing Individual Social Responsibility (ISR). Every corporate professional, as well as every citizen in general, should find ways to make their community better.

Volunteering and giving back is something you can do today so don’t put it off until your retirement. Practicing ISR comes in many forms, including: restoration of public land, education for the underprivileged and support for the elderly.

Whether you’re fresh out of college or have been in the business world for awhile–these tips will never go out of style. If you keep these tips in mind you’re likely to be a successful business man or woman for years to come.

 

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Author Bio: Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.

Marketing

How To Make Your Side-Business Thrive – Modern Marketing

When you are an entrepreneur, it doesn’t matter if you are a baby boomer, a millennial or even a generation X. We all share that one common trait, we hate working for someone else. So, we work insane hours (that make our friends look at us in awe) to get a side business off the ground.

The big problem?

Despite global markets being in a fluid state of motion, consumer budgets are growing tighter.

Even worse?

Trust has never been harder to earn from a business perspective.

So, there you have it. If you are not seeing the results you were hoping for from your business –

it’s probably because you need to start thinking outside the box.

Which is exactly what I want to help you with in this article. We include three tips to help you start off the right way straight from the word go.

Step One | The Most Important Step – Know Your Business

Here is a prime example, back in 2016 a young entrepreneur started a fitness blog. It all started on Instagram, and grew from there. But over time, the lack of vision, and the failure to launch a brand-image irreparably hurt the business.

This step may be common knowledge, but we cannot emphasize how important it is to know your business.

When you are working a full-time job, and trying to launch a business on the side – you will get distracted. You will lose focus.

Which is why the first thing you want to do is define your business. Ask yourself what is your vision? Where do you want the business to be in 5-years?

But the most important aspect of your written plan should be what problem do you solve for customers? What makes you unique over competitors, and why are potential customers interested in that?

Here is a guide to writing a simple business plan for complete beginners.

Don’t Be Afraid To Think Outside The Box – Being Different Is A Good Thing

Here is a scary fact, over 543,000 businesses are started up MONTHLY in America. That’s right people just like you, looking to escape their mundane office jobs.

But it gets worse.

More than half of these businesses fail – every month.

Now there are tons of reasons why. From a lack of work ethic, right down to an unclear vision for the business. But another reason why businesses fail more than they succeed is because they forget in the business world – you want to stick out like a sore thumb.

You want to offer a unique angle to a service or product that your competitors are offering.

Whether it be through unique, high-quality social media content. Informative blog posts and podcasts, cut-edge discounts and specials… or if you really want to be unique, why not revolutionize your marketing campaign; personalize with customers and build trust by creating your own cards.

There are so many ways that you can differentiate yourself – it is important to take the time and put some thought into it. You’re trying to be better than the other businesses out there. Don’t think you can’t come up with the next big thing. Put some real thought into it and you’ll be surprised with the results.

Failure Is The Skipping Stone To Success

The biggest mistake you can make is to harbour jealousy when it comes to entrepreneurs who have made it in life.

“We all reap the seeds that we sow”

What you may forget is these individuals in the nice cars, with the dough to show off. The businesses that are considered pioneers in the industry; there is nothing different behind their business and yours.

These were not overnight success stories. You need to be prepared to fail. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, even Gary Vaynerchuk all hit their own stumbling blocks, and look where they are now.

Whether it’s as simple as a bad review from a new client, or a huge milestone falls for the roof – stay strong, and keep working. You will make it as long as you never lose sight of the end goal.

Here are some great tips to help you cope with business failure.

Make Sure You Maximize Your Productivity Daily

We all have those days. Where we think we are working hard. We seem to be super busy. But at the end of the day, we look back and think, “How did I waste so much time today.”

The problem is.

When you are trying to work 2-jobs at once, well… wasting time is not something you can afford. We all have the same minutes, hours, and seconds in a day – it’s a simple matter of how you invest them.

A great tip is to make use of organization tools, I personally love Trello, it keeps me on my game at all times.

If you really want to maximize your after-hour work productivity to exponentially grow your business, make use of a sweet little time productivity trick known as Pomodoro. Which essentially involves removing distractions for 25-minutes at a time, and focusing solely on work.

These tips will help you excel at your job. Keep these in mind – and think of new strategies to help you along the way. Your ideas will really help you and you’ll be thankful in the long run.

 

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Author Bio:

Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.