Shift from goodness to greatness

In your business are you:

• Floundering around a bit without focus?
• Enjoying some success, but it isn’t as consistent as it could be?
• Wondering where your next client is going to come from?
• A jack of all trades?

Do any of those questions sound like I’m talking directly to you?

You could be a good entrepreneur, but you need to shift into greatness to take your business to where you want it to go. This article came across my Tweet stream, “25 Skills and Classes Necessary to Become a Great Entrepreneur.”

I’ve distilled what I think are the key points for you in terms of traits and skills. Read the full article though, it has great information on classes you might want to take.

Traits

1. Passion - the best entrepreneurs have a fire inside for what they do. They can’t imagine doing anything else and it drives them to conquer any obstacle. Sit back for a moment, close your eyes, and picture how you spend your days. Does that describe you?
2. Independence - the best entrepreneurs have strong ideas and they revel in independence. But I’ll add to that – also embrace collaboration. Become inter-dependent – knowing when to strike out on your own, and when to collaborate with others for the best possible outcome.
3. Leadership – are you a leader? It’s sometimes assumed that because you’re an entrepreneur, that you’re also a leader. Your clients and colleagues look to you as an authority. If you’re not comfortable viewing yourself as a leader, I suggest you work to get there. It might mean hiring a leadership coach or investing in some other education, but it will be well worth it.

Skills

1. Learn quickly, effectively, and efficiently. This means also learning from mistakes. Great entrepreneurs are quick studies, and they absorb information. I personally follow a lot of entrepreneurial leaders on Twitter, to see what they’re up to, what they’re reading or doing. Learn from mistakes – your own and others. It’s just as important to learn what not to do from watching others.
2. Command the language of business. Would you trust or hire a person that doesn’t have excellent communication skills and comfortable use of business language? If communication skills are a weak area, join a group like Toastmasters to improve. To learn the language of business read your industry journals, follow others in your field, and become educated on business trends.
3. Leverage your time. This is a big one, and I’m just as guilty as the next person. I see it as two things for the purposes of this article. First, we’re on a shoestring sometimes, especially just starting out. I’m in the process of interviewing virtual assistants, and wish I would have done it a year ago. It’s a mindset shift to let go of the tasks we don’t do well and let someone else take them over. But it’s so critical for growth. Second, it’s getting out of the time for money mindset. It’s looking at what you offer and scaling it, so what you earn isn’t directly proportional to the time you invest. For example, after learning from others (see #1), I’ve made a business decision to make Book Yourself Solid coaching a group offering. I can serve more people and leverage my time for the best possible profit.
4. Become technology savvy, or at least get comfortable with it. Technology is a great equalizer, and the Internet alone has allowed people to dramatically shorten the earning curve. It’s imperative that you get comfortable using the technology that’s out there. If you aren’t comfortable implementing and managing it, hire it out (see #3). You may need someone to help you design a strategy right for your business, and then a separate person to help with the nuts-and-bolts-implementation. I wasted a year trying to do my website myself, big mistake! I hired it out, and it was up and running in a few weeks. (Again see #1.)