Using Your Strengths As An Entrepreneur
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Numbers come naturally to some people. Coding is also a skill for some individuals.
No matter what industry you’re in, finding your strengths and leveraging them are the keys to success.
As a matter of fact, your strengths (talents, skills, passions, character traits) may have been what inspired you to open your own business in the first place.
Nevertheless, before you start and grow a business of your own, it’s important for you to first distinguish your soft skills from your hard skills since these will combine to make up your entrepreneurial strengths.
Identify Your Soft Skills
The soft skills you possess enable you to effectively interact with others.
This list of skills is the one you possess, which cannot be quantified. Your EQ is much more important than your IQ (Intelligence Quotient).
Soft skills include:
- Possessing a strong sense of self-awareness
- Optimistic attitude
- Having resilience
- The virtue of patience
- Good listening skills
Break Down Your Biggest Wins
It’s never easy to get over the challenges you face at work, but it can also be very rewarding to feel that you did well on a difficult project that you worked on. Often we forget to consider exactly what it was we were doing at the time, and what soft skills we used to help us achieve our end result.
Understanding Your Natural Talents
Taking a step backward and looking back at your past will help you identify your strengths as an entrepreneur.
If you had to choose, what would you choose? Do your parents, coaches, teachers, or even your friends always tell you you’re naturally gifted?
You should not restrict yourself to thinking of this strength as strictly “on the court” or “in the classroom.”
Think about the following questions to get started:
- Have you always been the one to mediate between your friends?
- How easy is it for you to understand complicated physics in class?
- Making travel plans and figuring out the logistics was often your responsibility?
- Is your athletic ability naturally gifted?
- Is it possible for you to make people laugh and smile?
- Make a list of five things you’re naturally gifted at, and then analyze what soft skills you have that have helped you perform well.
Identifying Your Strengths By Asking Others
You can turn to the people you know and trust for an outside opinion after doing some introspection and identifying a few of your assets. Hence, it is best to reach out to three to five people who are knowledgeable about you and can be trusted to give you honest feedback.
I would like to propose to you a very simple question that you should ask from your interviewer: if they can provide examples of when you had demonstrated your greatest strengths, that would be very helpful to you.
Bringing together a group of individuals who know you best and whose consensus is what they think are your strengths, is what you are trying to do in this exercise.
You may be completely surprised at the results, or perhaps you may feel that some of your beliefs about yourself are already true.
Run Through Hypothetical Scenarios
You have a group project that needs to be completed by the end of the week by your boss, coach, or teacher.
Whether you’re in the classroom, at work, or on the court, you’ll be only as good as your performance in this activity.
Imagining an example is a good idea. Think of a hypothetical scenario that is relevant to you currently, where you are working on a project with three team members.
Consider your natural role within your group. You’re an organizer, a leader, a creative, moderator, or do something entirely different?
Do you have a part of the project you’re naturally inclined to take on? What is your preferred method of planning or executing the project? Do you enjoy getting down to business and doing the hard work during the project?
Would you prefer to be given your role within a group, or would you prefer to take the initiative to assign responsibilities? Is it your practice to interfere if someone else begins to take over the role you wish to play within a group?
If you answer all of these questions for yourself, you’ll develop a much better understanding of how you work in teams, as well as your natural strengths. It is then possible to review which soft skills helped you to work well in a group.
Identify Your Hard Skills
Strengths and abilities are hard skills, which can be measured easily. While these are commonly considered “skills,” they don’t make up the core of what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.
A hard skill like being a good leader cannot be acquired by attending an online class on nights and weekends.
To maximize your chances of success, you must recognize, understand, and utilize your hard skills.
Entrepreneurs often possess the following hard skills:
Analysis: Advanced financial modeling abilities in Microsoft Excel, complex statistical analysis, data mining.
Coding: Writing HTML, CSS, Ruby, Javascript, etc.
Design: Proficiency with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.
Writing: Being able to take complex ideas, break them down into digestible bits, and craft them into compelling stories.
Marketing: Search Engine Optimization, SEM, proficiency with social media platforms.
For me, my most prominent hard skills are my writing ability, advanced working knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite, and a deep understanding of SEO.
By combining these three skills, you are able to create high-quality blog content, downloadable guides, and visually appealing content for my online courses. However, if these aren’t your hard skills or you lack in certain areas, you can use tools such as WEBX360.COM, freelance accountants, or whichever you are weaker in to outsource and work to your strengths.
Entrepreneurial Strengths: The Key To Success
In order to launch into a meaningful self-employed career, you must combine your hard and soft skills, in order to come up with profitable business ideas that engage your strengths and interests.
It’s likely that you’ll stand a strong chance of success in creating a food blog, or offering one-on-one cooking classes if you’re passionate about cooking and enjoy mentoring others.
There are a few more skills you’ll have to pick up along the way, including a bit of digital marketing knowledge, but by starting in an area where your interests and strengths will be engaged, you’ll be motivated to advance.
*This article is based on personal suggestions and/or experiences and is for informational purposes only. This should not be used as professional advice. Please consult a professional where applicable.
