S8 E31 What skills are needed for an innovative entrepreneur Part 1 with Jeremy Gray

Episode 31 What skills are needed for an innovative entrepreneur? Part 1

1. Basic Financial Skills Financial skills, such as budgeting and financial statement analysis, are necessary for running a business. Creating a reasonable budget and sticking to it can be the difference between your venture’s success and failure. By learning this skill, you can avoid overspending and appropriately allocate your company’s resources.

It’s also imperative to know how to read and prepare financial statements. Aside from being required for reporting and tax purposes, these documents help you track performance, make future projections, and manage expenses. They can also be useful to investors and banks considering funding your startup because they show your business’s financial progress.

2. Networking Your network is one of your greatest assets. Networking can enable you to not only meet like-minded professionals but build your future team and keep a finger on the pulse of your industry. Your professional network can consist of:

• Co-workers • Alumni from educational institutions • Professors and teachers • Industry leaders and speakers • Clients • Friends and family members • Business professionals in your geographic area • Others in your industry with similar interests, responsibilities, and goals

Identify and reach out to people who can guide you in your entrepreneurial journey and inform your decision-making. Ask them about their business, how long they’ve been in their industry, and lessons they’ve learned from successes and failures. Perhaps they’ve started several companies and can offer valuable advice about raising funds, developing products, and building a client base. They may even be able to connect you to professionals in their networks whose work aligns with yours.

In addition to leveraging your network, expand it. You can do so by signing up for networking events or using LinkedIn to find professionals with whom you have shared connections, similar interests, and job titles.

3. The Ability to Accept and Act on Feedback To succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to be eager to receive and act on feedback. This skill requires you to stay humble and accept that your idea of the perfect version of your product may not resonate with potential customers.

One way to gather feedback is by conducting interviews with potential customers from your target market segment. These interviews

can validate your business idea and provide constructive criticism regarding your product, proposed business model, or assumptions you’ve made about users.

You may also receive feedback from investors, more experienced entrepreneurs, and friends and family. Some of it may be unsolicited. You’re not required to implement all of their advice, but it’s beneficial to consider it. Would their suggestion increase the quality, value, or user experience of your product? If the answer is yes, take steps to make those improvements.

Don’t Fool Yourself John Osher, a serial entrepreneur behind the SpinBrush toothbrush and other successful consumer products, asserts that the most important thing you can do is find and listen to the truth, no matter how hard it may be.

He points out that willful blindness to customers’ negative feedback can lead to costly mistakes.

“If an entrepreneur puts truth first, they’ll always find a way to solve the problem,” Osher says. “Putting your personal feelings and passion for the product ahead of the truth is a recipe for failure.” 4. Pattern Recognition Pattern recognition—in data, market trends, and user behavior—is an often overlooked skill for entrepreneurs. Identifying patterns in cash flow statements, for example, can enable you to make predictions about future cash flows. When observing market sales data, you can identify seasonality or other time-related trends that inform your long-term goals.