What entrepreneurial skills do you have?
- Willeke Leensma
- 12 September 2021
- Edited 13 December 2022
- 1 min
- Starting
Being an entrepreneur starts with a good idea. But the success of your business also depends on your entrepreneurial skills and qualities. What do you need to be good at as an entrepreneur? And can you learn entrepreneurial skills? Read about it here.
Entrepreneurial skills and qualities are both important to the success of your business. The good news is that you do not need to have all of these skills and qualities. Some business owners have natural sales talent, and persuasiveness, while others are creative but do not enjoy being in the spotlight. Both can be successful entrepreneurs.
What are entrepreneurial qualities?
Qualities are characteristics that you are born with. They are about who you are as a person. Your entrepreneurial qualities are important for your motivation. They determine how you behave and how you communicate and interact with people.
Perseverance, creativity, passion for your product or service, the courage to take risks, flexibility, commercial insight, and reliability; these are some of the characteristics entrepreneurs most often cite as the qualities needed to be successful.
What are entrepreneurial skills?
Skills are about your abilities. For example, presenting, bookkeeping, or managing a team. Entrepreneurial skills usually have to be learned. You can also develop qualities, but this is more difficult than learning a (new) skill.
Which entrepreneurial skills are important for you depends on the kind of business you have. As a self-employed (zzp) nurse, you have to be caring, but the ability to lead a team may not be as important. But this is an essential skill for a manager.
#1 Research whether entrepreneurship suits you
Take an entrepreneur’s test
The KVK Krachtmeting (in Dutch) is a free test to help you get a better idea of your entrepreneurial skills. It focuses on entrepreneurship, marketing, networking, and finances. You can take this test online. You will receive your results in just a few minutes. And you get useful tips on how to develop your plans further.
Developing entrepreneurial skills
It is impossible to have every entrepreneurial quality. But you can develop your business skills. And get help with the things that you are not good at. Remember that ultimately, you are the business owner and responsible for what you produce or sell. This means you may decide running your own business is not for you. Read here why running your own business is not for everyone.
