To be considered a competitive player in today’s economy, you must possess the right set of business skills. You’ll become more efficient and effective in meeting your professional goals, such as creating a business website and opening up new opportunities.
Our article will go over the top 10 business skills you need in your toolbox to stay ahead of the curve and make impactful decisions for your business.
What are business skills
Business skills refer to various capabilities that can help you excel in the workplace. These include management, financial accounting, communication and planning skills.
Hard vs. soft skills
When talking about business skills, you need to understand the difference between hard and soft skills. Hard skills are specific abilities necessary to perform a task, such as programming, designing, writing and coding. Soft skills, on the other hand, are more abstract. They refer to task completion methods, such as organizational, problem solving and communication skills. While some people may be naturally communicative or possess other soft skills, no one’s born a Javascript programmer.
Why business skills are important
Business skills are a crucial component of starting a business, getting ahead in the workplace and increasing overall confidence.
Learning a myriad of business skills may result in:
Excellent client relationships
Profitable sales and marketing channels
Motivate employees to improve their performance
Greater attention on professional social media, like LinkedIn
10 business skills you need
The following business and entrepreneurship skills can highly benefit your professional growth.
01. Communication skills
Communication skills tie into almost every other business skill. More than half of small business owners say communication is the most important skill for success. Those owners who maintain good relationships with their employees and communicate in a clear and positive manner may see higher levels of efficiency. The same is true when communicating with suppliers, business partners, colleagues, managers or customers.
In the workplace, you need strong communication skills for one-on-one conversations, presentations and business meetings. The best communicators can empathetically listen.
Furthermore, when you understand others’ perspectives, you can accommodate their personal needs. In turn, others will have an easier time trusting your leadership.
02. Networking
Networking is the art of building and maintaining professional relationships. Your network may include past and present colleagues, college acquaintances or even friends and family.
If you’re growing a business, looking for partners or searching for new opportunities, learn how to connect with others in your field—and establish yourself as a leader in your industry. You might want to attend networking conferences, strike up conversations at work functions and connect with people on LinkedIn.
03. Team building
One person can't own all work-related tasks. To meet bigger goals, you need a team and learn to work collaboratively. Assembling the right team and managing all members effectively may influence your success.
Team building requires you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, knowing how to best motivate each of them and helping them form better relationships with each other.
04. Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to relate to, understand and accommodate both you and your colleagues’ emotions. At times, you’ve got to control your emotions to create a more positive work environment. People who possess this business skill generally have better work performance and communication skills, and can handle stress and conflict more easily.
05. Project management
Managing projects is a core component of business. Entrepreneurs, managers and team leaders learn project management for team building, decision making, strategic planning, time management and financial planning.
Thus project management is more than just another soft business skill, encompassing a variety of talents and versatility. Every business, big or small, can benefit from talented project managers.
06. Strategic planning
A vital business skill, strategic planning involves defining long term-goals and priorities, and creating plans to achieve them. You must know how to break down and analyze pain points to find solutions. Strategic planning also requires critical thinking and solid organizational skills, enforcing habits of successful people in the business world.
07. Decision making
Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that decision making is a necessary business skill, from naming a product to choosing the direction for a multi-national corporation (see how to become an entrepreneur).
Today, many owners use data analysis for important business decisions. Learn to process and understand the data at hand, forecast future trends and make decisions accordingly to become an asset to your team.
08. Time management
Time is the most precious resource we have to meet goals, come up with budgets and find the best workers for each task. But without proper time management, it’s near impossible to achieve everything you set out to do.
You need to know exactly how much time to allocate for each task to ensure you remain on track, especially in your day-to-day work. Use time management tools within your organization and add an online scheduling software to your website to manage business calendars, staff and clients.
09. Leadership skills
Running a successful business usually requires more than just one person. At some point, you may need additional people to take on specific responsibilities, but they’ll need your guidance and leadership skills.
A good leader will impart their vision to the rest of the team by relaying the company's values and principles. Some leadership traits include honesty, confidence, commitment and creativity.
10. Negotiation skills
Sharpen your negotiation tactics to give you the upper hand in almost any situation. For example, Harvard Business School’s Mike Wheeler says to be open to improvisation and plan to think on your feet. “However you happen to see yourself as a negotiator, most people you deal with likely have a different style, at least to some degree,” he adds.
Negotiation skills can help you strike better work deals, shorten timelines with suppliers and score bigger contracts.
