There is nothing more entertaining for me than to load up my Facebook to see articles written by wannapreneurs on how other wannapreneurs can actually lean to become real entrepreneurs. Pretty ironic if you ask me, but the reality is wannapreneurs are nothing more than struggling individuals trying to launch businesses because they can’t find employment. They unfortunately never had the opportunity to learn business principles, evolve, and then take a shot at it. Rather they were just thrown in it from a survival standpoint. While there is a lot of value in having your ass against the wall, it also doesn’t mean that you will absorb a complete understanding of what you need to do on your first venture.
Lets actually break down what business skills someone needs to have a solid foundation prior to taking on self employment or better yet entrepreneurship.
1. Financial Understanding.
While you don’t have to be a finance guru, you need to have a basic understanding of how the financial markets work as well as understand how to do something as basic as managing your own bank account. Being financially responsible and understanding how money flows is very important and vital to your survival in this society. In order for you to go into business for yourself, it is very important that you understand how people make decisions based on fear rather than logic when money is involved as well as how to ensure you don’t spend more than you have in your account. The understanding of credit can also be very useful as it will come in handy down the road.
2. Being Resourceful.
Every entrepreneur or business owner will tell you that resources are scarce and learning to become resourceful will be the reason you succeed or fail in the earlier stages. Being efficient in business is not about buying everything from the best and expecting others who have mastered the craft to do the work for you. While many will hopefully reach that level, the earlier stages involve using limited resources to generate maximum results and in some cases actually be faced with having people chip in to get the work done without pay. You have to learn the art of leverage if you are going to be in business as you will notice quickly that you can quickly go out of business if you are caught paying for everything at cost.
3. Awareness
While many claim to have awareness and claim to understand people, they lack self-awareness and how others perceive them and their business. As a result they believe that what they see of themselves is how other perceive them. Lacking consistency in their branding prevents them from earning their clients trust and often become hustlers selling themselves cheaper than the market only to land a job rather than targeting the right clients in the right manner.
4. Ability to Read and Understand Market Trends.
Market trends as it pertains to business, not stocks, is key to being able to succeed. While many don’t have a crisp understanding of how to reach an audience consistency, other don’t even know where their audiences are. Recognizing what is going on within your industry rather than approaching your business blindly could be the difference between having a business and giving up. Taking the time to inform yourself and staying connected to your market via basic reading or following your competitors and understanding why they do what they do, rather than follow blindly, could be a of great help.
There you have it, four critical things new business owners or entrepreneurs can get in touch with before some jackass calls them a wannapreneur. On a final note, just because you own a business that turns a profit, doesn’t mean that you are exempt of falling into that category because at the end of the day, the wannapreneur goes home, while the entrepreneur never checks out.