Business Skills They Didn't Teach You In College

     
                         

Success in school calls for a specific set of skills—for instance, time management, reading comprehension, and the application of learned abilities in narrowly defined contexts. In the world beyond school, however, the problems you face are rarely well defined.

One of the best things that you can do is to think of your time in school as base-building. Once you graduate, it is your job to figure out how to apply your book learning to the real world. Mastering these less common school lessons will help you make the transition in little or no time at all:

Communicating 

Entrepreneur are only as successful as their ability to explain their vision. Communicating with other people is likely the most important skill of any entrepreneur. Knowing when to communicate -- and when not to -- is the difference between the business have’s and have-nots. 

Your communication skills will be needed in every aspect of your job.  You will have to inspire your employees with your words, build confidence with your investors and explain your actions to your shareholders.

Find Your Focus

Entrepreneurs tend to have what I call EADD: Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder. They are all over the place, they have shiny object syndrome… and that’s because they’re creative! Entrepreneurs are visionaries. One thing they are often missing, however, is follow-through. If you’ve got a bakery, you’re a business coach and you also make jewelry, where is your passion? Where are you really able to dive deeply in order to see something through to its best outcome? You can certainly build more than one thriving business over your lifetime, but if you’re trying to do them all at once, you aren’t giving your all to any.

Multitasking

As an entrepreneur, you are going to be expecting to know everything, about every part, of your endeavor. In the early days, you will be the “chief cook and bottle washer." As your enterprise grows, so to will your personal tasks. 

In the early days, you will have to run the company and take care of shipping / receiving. As your business grows, your tasks will change, and you will still have a multitude of them. If you are lucky enough to get into the big leagues, you will eventually get to manage your business and your shareholders at the same time.

How to lead a team

There is a difference between being a boss and being a leader. A boss is a figurehead, where a leader is an inspirational, motivational, and respectful guide. If you don't possess leadership skills it will be impossible for you to manage your team effectively, or build a team at all. People want to work for someone who betters them, who invests in their future, and whom they aspire to be like, not someone who simply sees his or her role as a prestigious title.

Money management

The average college student worries about money, even if he or she is fully supported by his or her parents. After graduation, these worries may only increase. You will need to worry about earning a wage, paying your taxes, beginning a retirement fund, paying for health insurance, and so on. The cost of not understanding how to manage your financial life can be immense, but fortunately, a simple Google search can uncover many resources that can help you improve your financial literacy.

Contingency planning

One of the universal truths of the modern world is that no job is guaranteed. Positions are outsourced, businesses are sold or closed, and technology replaces human workers. Do not assume that your career or job will always exist. Keep your network thriving, and watch emerging trends in your field. Learn skills that augment your present abilities. Being computer literate, for example, will always add to your value. Your secondary abilities may help you survive a round of layoffs, or they may help you make the jump to a better opportunity.

Don’t take “no” for an answer.

When we start planning something really big, we can expect to encounter big resistance -- people telling us it will never work and rejecting our ideas. Stick with it! Don’t take “no” for an answer. When people tell you no, or tell you that your idea can’t be done, take note that the path you started down hit a roadblock but keep your focus and find a new way forward. Maybe your product does need work. Maybe you’re talking to the wrong market. Maybe the packaging isn’t right. None of these mean that it won’t succeed; it simply means that you have to go back to the drawing board on some aspect of your idea to find that “yes.”

Learn to say “no” for yourself.

We’ve covered how important it is for entrepreneurs to know how to say yes, take leaps of faith and be brave in their decision making, but we also need to learn how to say no. When distractions come your way, such as exciting side  projects that pull for your attention, it is important to be able to stay focused on your main goals. Say “no” so that you have more time for “yes” in the area that you most need that energy and creativity to make your goal a success.

Forget about perfection.

A lot of business owners get stuck on perfectionism. That is just not how business works. You simply need to move forward, throwing things at the wall to see what sticks and tweaking along the way. Be okay with making mistakes. Otherwise, you will be stuck in the development phase forever and you’ll never get your product or service out there. Most successful entrepreneurs have numerous failures before they finally find their ultimate success. The same goes for authors who send out their manuscript to rejection after rejection before finally getting published. Keep moving, and don’t give up!

Focus on sales.

It can be all too easy to get stuck in a romantic view of your business when you are doing what you love, forgetting about the simple fact that it also needs to be profitable. You have to have enough money to pay for a support team so you’re not doing everything from cleaning the office to balancing the books while also trying to generate new leads. You need money to have the freedom to thrive while you are focusing on getting your gifts, ideas and products out there. Point blank, you’ve got to be focused on revenue every single day.