Starting Your Own Business -
Soft Skills You Can't Do Without
See also: Writing a Business Case
According to US Business Formation Statistics (BFS), in 2023, around 5.5 million new business registration requests will be submitted in the US, which represents an increase of more than 8% versus 2022. The year 2024 shows that this trend of starting new businesses continues to gain momentum.
After reading articles about the top 100 ideas for starting a business, you're probably thinking about making a dramatic change in your career. You may even have already chosen a niche for your business, but you don't know where to start or what skills you'll need to succeed.
By focusing on your favourite activities and areas where you have brilliant knowledge and skills, you can start a successful business. However, in such a competitive environment, you'll also need soft skills to effectively communicate with others and manage tasks.
We are here to tell you why you are well-positioned to start your own profitable business. And since soft skills play a key role here, we will focus on them in this article.
Why Starting Your Own Business Is a Good Idea
In developed countries today there are many programs to promote the active development of small and medium-sized businesses. Starting your own enterprise is one of the best ways to give up a boring job and do something really profitable and exciting.
Remember that your online business starts with finding a good name for your online resource. You can use domain search at Spaceship to find and register a unique name for your business to create a strong online presence.
Use the example name of website as a source of inspiration to ultimately choose a unique name that reflects the essence of your business. Since many awesome domain names are already taken, it will be difficult to find something truly worthwhile without a special service.
So, if you want to gain financial freedom and continue your development as a professional, you should start a small business. Below we have given reasons why starting a small business may be the best option for you.
Minimum Investment in Your Training
You don't have to be a genius in any field to be successful, especially if you have an interesting and unusual hobby. Thanks to the abundance of different training courses and programs available, you can retrain in 3 to 6 months, or even less.
Low Entry Threshold
You don't need to be a millionaire to succeed in business in your favourite niche. Depending on your chosen field, you may need to invest between $500 and $5,000 to attract customers online through a website or social media profile.
Managing Just a Few People
When taking the first steps, you will likely only have a small team to help you. Knowing how to manage on your own or with just a few people on staff can help you save money and maintain control.
Web Opens Virtually Unlimited Possibilities
Today, global markets with millions of potential customers are available to any - even a novice - entrepreneur. The first step towards building a user base is to create a website.
Start by choosing the right name (domain name) for your online business to be eye-catching and stand out from the crowd. Use domain name suggestion services to choose a name that reflects the uniqueness of the business to leverage the power of the global web.
Excellent Scaling Opportunities
Although your business project is still only on paper, you have a good chance of turning this into a large thriving company. With a great business idea, you will be able to significantly extend your customer base and sell more products while expanding into new markets.
Top 10 Soft Skills Essential for Start-Up Entrepreneurs
In a fast-paced world, flexible skills are your superpowers to ensure your personal and professional success. In a time where AI and other technologies are advancing at lightning speed and telecommuting and online business have become the norm, you need personal skills to stand out from the crowd.
In simple words, soft skills are all about empathy, emotional intelligence, creativity, negotiation skills, critical thinking, leadership and stress tolerance. Below we have listed the most important soft skills that you need to start your business.
Self-Discipline
Do you fulfil every promise you make to yourself? Imagine a perfect world where all promises are kept and everything runs like clockwork.
Use the power of self-discipline to stay focused on the important things by cutting out the secondary and distractions. Set clear goals, use time management techniques and practice self-control to successfully overcome daily challenges and temptations.
Critical Thinking
The ability to evaluate and analyse information is crucial for you as a business start-up. So learn to set aside your emotions and think soberly to make informed choices and not let your mind be clouded by past experiences.
Ability to Adapt to a Changing Environment
A couple of years ago, AI was just a toy that few people noticed. However, today many businesses are using machine learning and language models to replace human resources with these tools.
Seeing new technologies as effective helpers instead of job-stealing enemies will allow you to embrace change and remain effective. By being able to adapt, you will learn how to change directions gracefully and stay relevant.
Creativity
You don't have to be an artist or musician to use creativity to your advantage. Creativity is an important skill that helps you think outside the box to successfully confront new problems and challenges encountered on every business journey.
Stress Resistance
A highly unpleasant and insidious companion to busy work days, stress is often an obstacle to the growth of your business. You've probably felt the oppressive effects of stress many times over.
When life throws up unpleasant surprises, you need to stay calm and focused on what you're doing. Build up your stress tolerance, which will become your reliable shield against difficulties to ensure your inner sense of peace.
Teamwork Skills
In the early stages of your business, you may be alone in what you do. However, as your business grows and scales, you'll need your expert skilful team members to help you.
Develop your teamwork skills by breaking the stereotype of the lone entrepreneur unlikely to succeed in this competitive environment. Even if you plan to work remotely, modern technology allows you to bridge this gap by bringing out the best of effective collaboration.
Effective Time Management
Time is much more than just one variable in your business equation. It is a valuable resource you must learn to manage as efficiently as possible.
By mastering the skill of time management, you will be able to adjust all processes so that they work for the benefit of your business. Moreover, you can find a reasonable balance between work, leisure and time for your loved ones.
Social Intelligence
Although this concept may seem new and unusual to you, social intelligence is actually about the ability to navigate the specifics of human interactions. By learning to pay attention to your interlocutor, recognising emotions, analysing interactions and practicing communication, you will significantly boost your social intelligence, which is crucial for building a successful business.
Growth Mindset
Did you know that a positive mindset opens up opportunities while a negative one breeds something bad and counterproductive? Continually learn and go beyond the standard to expand your success potential and energise your colleagues and people around you.
Problem-Solving
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you will face challenges at every turn. Read the success stories of prominent entrepreneurs and you will find that they were great problem solvers.
Your self-discipline is the foundation for you to stay calm and focused during tough times. Learn to break problems down into small components to make them manageable tasks that can be dealt with systematically and without hassle.
Wrapping Up
The fact that today new businesses are springing up like mushrooms after the rain providing a high level of competition is not a reason to give up on the idea of starting your own business. However, to succeed in your endeavour, you will need the superpowers known as soft skills.
By developing your soft skills such as self-discipline, social intelligence, stress tolerance, networking skills and others, you are investing in your entrepreneurial success. With soft skills, you will be able to successfully overcome almost any challenge, build strong teams and achieve your goals.
About the Author
Mike Nicholls is an entrepreneur and business consultant with more than 10 years’ experience helping startups. Specializing in business strategy, financial planning, and leadership development, Mike is passionate about equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge needed to turn ideas into successful businesses.