General and Specific Skills Your Business Needs

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Businesses need two kinds of skills to survive and prosper: Skills for business in general and skills specific to the particular business. For example, every business needs someone to keep good financial records. On the other hand, the tender touch and manual dexterity needed by glassblowers are not skills needed by the average paving contractor. Next, take a few minutes and list the skills your business needs. Don’t worry about making an exhaustively complete list, just jot down the first things that come to mind. Make sure you have some general business skills as well as some of the more important skills specific to your particular business. If you don’t have all the skills your business needs, your backers will want to know how you will make up for the deficiency. For example, let’s say you want to start a trucking business. You have a good background in maintenance, truck repair, and long distance driving, and you know how to sell and get work. Sounds good so far—but, let’s say you don’t know the first thing about bookkeeping or cash flow management and the thought of using a computer makes you nervous. Because some trucking businesses work on large dollar volumes, small profit margins, and slow-paying customers, your backers will expect you to learn cash flow management or hire someone qualified to handle that part of the business.

Antoinette Gorzak:

General and Specific

Skills My Business Needs

1. How to motivate employees

2. How to keep decent records

3. How to make customers and

employees think the business is special

4. How to know what the customers

want—today and, more important in

the clothing business, to keep a half-a step ahead

5. How to sell

6. How to manage inventory

7. How to judge people

Your Likes and Dislikes

Take a few minutes and make a list of the things you really like doing and those you don’t enjoy. Write this list without thinking

about the business—simply concentrate on what makes you happy or unhappy. If you enjoy talking to new people, keeping books, or working with computers, be sure to include those. Put down all the activities you can think of that gives you pleasure. Antoinette’s list is shown as an example. As a business owner, you will spend most of your waking hours in the business, and if it doesn’t make you happy, you probably won’t be very good at it. If this list creates doubts about whether you’re pursuing the right business, I suggest you let your unconscious mind work on the problem. Most likely, you’ll know the answer after one or two good nights’ sleep.

Antoinette Gorzak:

My Likes and Dislikes

Things I Like to Do

1. Be independent and make my own

decisions

2. Keep things orderly. I am almost

compulsive about this

3. Take skiing trips

4. Work with good, intelligent people

5. Cook with Jack

6. Care about my work.

Things I Don’t Like to Do

1. Work for a dimwit boss

2. Feel like I have a dead-end job

3. Make people unhappy

CAUTiON

if your list contains several things you

really don’t like doing and nothing at all that

you like doing, it may be a sign that you have

a negative attitude at this time in your life. If

so, you may wish to think carefully about your

the decision to enter or expand business at this

time. Chances are your negative attitude will

reduce your chances of business success

How to Write a Business Plan:Your Legal Companion

“Nine to five ain’t takin’ me where I’m bound.” —Neil Diamond, from “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” “You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there.” —Yogi Berra A re you concerned about whether you can put together a first-rate business plan and loan application? Don’t worry. How to Write a Business Plan contains detailed forms and step-by-step instructions designed to help you prepare a well thought-out, well-organized plan. Coupled with your positive energy and will to succeed, you’ll be able to design a business plan and loan package that you will be proud to show to the loan officer at your bank, the Small Business Administration, or your Uncle Harry. After working with hundreds of business owners, I have observed an almost universal truth about business planning: Writing a plan is a journey through the mind of one person. Even in partnerships and corporations, usually, one person has the vision an...

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