8 skills you should have before starting a business

Flickr / Mike Licht

Question: What is one skill you wish you'd cultivated before starting your business?

Mindfulness

"I didn't get into meditation until I was well into being a startup entrepreneur, and it's helped tremendously, but I wish I'd started earlier. Meditation assists in being mindful with not only my customers but my team members. If I had been more patient earlier, I would have been less aggressive with certain sales, and instead given just enough to have the customer ask for more."

— Rob Fulton

Patience

"A results-now attitude can really stunt long-term growth when you make sacrifices for short-term gain. Fortunately, my co-founder and I were quick in identifying areas for improvement and agreed to be in this for the long haul. So instead of turning a quick profit, we've aimed to grow a conglomerate that might even outlast us."

— Firas Kittaneh 

Learning to Say "No"

"When you're an entrepreneur, time is an even more precious commodity. In the early days of my business, I often agreed to engagements or projects that didn't align with my priorities, or help my business, just because I was uncomfortable saying No. I've since learned that every time you say Yes to something, it means saying No to something else. So, I'm much more careful about commitments."

— Brittany Hodack

Proofreading

"I move fast and try to get a lot done in a short period of time, which is necessary for successful entrepreneurs. But this can lead to sloppy mistakes. It's embarrassing to send emails that have spelling mistakes, so this is something I try to work on."

— John Berkowitz

Flickr / Mike Licht

Basic Accounting

"It took a lot of time and energy for me to learn basic accounting "on the job" when I started my business. I wanted to have a rudimentary understanding of it so that when I handed things off to my bookkeeper or accountant, I had an idea of what was going on and could keep a birds eye view on it."

— Darrah Brusten

Public Speaking

"I am great with individuals and small groups, but in front of a large audience it's different. I've gotten more accustomed to it, but I wish I had that skill coming out of the gate. That would have allowed me to speak at conferences and in front of other large groups of industry peers much sooner."

— Brooke Bergman

Flickr / Mike Licht

Programming

"We're all thinking it. I don't want to do it but I wish I knew it! I wish I knew more about programming. In the past two years I've taken three courses and can code up basic applications. It's helped my business grow because now I know how to build and scale our applications 10 times better and I can explain how to go about doing it. I recommend it to every business owner."

— John Rampton

Web Development

"If I could go back, I’d definitely learn the basics of web development, both front- and back-end systems. I wouldn’t be as dependent on others to bring my vision to life."

— Daniel Wesley

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