Running a business dictates that you need to be able to juggle many different roles and responsibilities at once in order to be successful. This is because as a person in a leadership position you need to make financial decisions, manage staff and human resources, negotiate deals with suppliers and investors, and oversee your marketing. 

With all this going on, it’s clear that a business owner needs to a have a diverse set of skills to ensure that they’re at least competent in all aspects of their work. Some of these skills can come naturally to an individual, while others might take a little bit more time to work on and perfect. Regardless, here are some of the more vital skills a business owner needs to master to enable them to be good at business. 

Communication Skills 

Communication skills are important for pretty much every role where you work as part of a team, but this is enhanced even further as business owner as you now have to lead that team. This means that you need to be able to effectively instruct and direct others clearly and with confidence. 

You can’t be a good business owner by shying away from meetings or presentations, as they’re the best way to get across your vision to your employees. You’re also likely to be in dialogue with many external people as a business owner, such as investors or suppliers or other important colleagues. You need to be able to effectively communicate your expectations while also being selective with your vocabulary so as to not jeopardize a deal. There is additionally a great deal of paperwork that a business owner needs to organize and interact with, meaning that effective written communication is also important. 

Delegation Skills 

Being able to delegate effectively is a somewhat underappreciated skill in business. No business owner can do everything by themselves, so obtaining staff and delegating tasks to enable the smooth running of the company is an essential skill. Good delegating includes the ability to be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your personnel and then allocate responsibilities and roles accordingly, giving them tasks that should highlight what they’re good at. 

Effective delegation also involves achieving the right balance between total control and allowing your staff to work freely. You need to learn when to trust your staff so that you’re not too overbearing, but on the flipside, you should also know when to interject and guide them to the output you want. 

Negotiation Skills 

Negotiation is extremely prevalent within business, so much so that it’s usually happening on a daily basis without many people knowing about it. Developing the ability to negotiate well and manipulating deals to favor yourself more can be very helpful in making your business more successful, as you’ll be able to save money and costs, therefore helping you become more profitable. 

There are various negotiation tactics out there that can all be used in certain situations, but the hard part is learning when to use these skills and how to operate in a formal negotiation environment. Studying for a Victoria University MBA can help instill some of this knowledge and make you a far more effective negotiator, while also teaching you the fundamentals of all aspects of business. 

A good negotiation tactic when dealing with a supplier that has a high success rate is to offer a lower buying price, while promising a partnership where you trade with this supplier only. This will incentivize the supplier as they may value a guarantee of long-term income over a single, one-off payment. 

Analytical Skills 

Being able to conduct robust analysis, be it on your finances or marketing strategy, will help provide insight and information to a business owner so that they can make more informed key decisions to improve their business performance. Being good at analysis involves learning and understanding the vital metrics and key performance indicators that reveal a lot about a business. 

The metrics you want to be able to analyze and track alter from business to business, as you might have different objectives and values, but there are some important ones you need to keep an eye out for, such as financial metrics including gross margins and overheads, and marketing metrics such as brand awareness and website CTR. 

Marketing Skills

Marketing is essential for a business’s growth, as without a good marketing department or policy, fewer customers will be aware of your brand and therefore less people will be engaging with it. 

Although as a business owner you can delegate the marketing to a more specialized individual or third-party company, it’s important to learn about the main avenues of marketing—such as digital marketing through social media, SEO, and email—and how it’s implemented, so that you can effectively monitor your progress and effectiveness in marketing.