So this is a bit of a break from the norm, isn’t it, readers?
But I felt my articles were getting a bit too LinkedIn-centric, so I thought I’d go a little leftfield and talk about something I have experience in…
Running my own business.
Now, this article isn’t just for business owners. You can also take on board the content if you are leading a team, or at the top of your game. These skills will apply to you too!
I launched my strategic marketing consultancy, TwitTwooYou, in January 2022. Bright-eyed and bushy tailed, my positive cup was spilling over with excitement, focus, and dreams of endless opportunities. Fast-forward three years, and that fizz of positivity has dwindled a bit because I have faced many challenges. Challenges I didn’t realise existed in running your own business.
But when you’re hit with challenges, you need to dig deep, and that’s when your skill set comes into the fore. So I will give you a list of key skills to run your business successfully or lead a team to success.
Tenacity and resilience
When I started TwitTwooYou, I thought I’d have all my clients signed up for tasty monthly retainers by the end of the first six months, and we would be operating smoothly. The reality, however, was very different. Many of my clients didn’t want to sign up for retainers and wanted me to deliver a project for a fixed fee and a fixed period. This meant I had to hunt for more business after finishing the job.
Readers, the hustle is real!
I’m now into my fourth year and I’m still hustling! Don’t get me wrong, my pipeline is healthy with lots of interesting, new enquiries every week. But the next challenge is getting those leads over the line and converting them into sales.
That’s a whole different story. I still have work to do on conversions, but I’m perfecting my approach daily!
There’s also the ghosting you encounter with potential clients. The ones who make all the right noises on sales calls are excited to receive your proposal, but when the proposal is sent?
Nothing. Tumbleweed. And chasing them up makes little difference. They just ignore your emails anyway.
If you want to be successful in business, you need to be resilient and tenacious enough to navigate the complex and often frustrating world of sales.
Patience
I don’t know about you, but when I want something done, I like it done now! And if you can’t do it by my desired timeline, I will probably do it myself. I know, I know, that’s an incredibly selfish approach. You need to appreciate the other person’s world!
And that’s where patience comes in. You can also apply this to ghosting. You can’t expect clients or potential clients to respond when you want them to. Equally, you can’t expect them to give you what you need when you want it.
When I work with clients to provide them with social media content, I’m itching to log into their Meta Business Suite to schedule the posts, but I need to be patient and await their feedback.
Positivity and self-belief
When you started, I bet you had self-belief in bucketloads! I’m gonna make this business a huge success! I’m gonna earn loads of money!
And then reality hits.
Securing clients isn’t as easy as you thought it might be. Equally, you might be struggling to get leads. That’s when you need to stay positive and never waver from your initial goals and vision.
While tapping your fingers and waiting for the phone to ring, it can feel like you’re on a losing streak, but your business can change with just one call, email, or DM.
Last year, I had a tough time. The first half of the year, I was flying. And because the sun was shining and I was making hay, I hadn’t given my pipeline the focus it needed. You see, your pipeline is a bit like a flower. It needs nurturing. It needs watering (looking at), feeding (following up with cooler leads), and talking to (keeping conversations going). It might die or shrivel into a husk of nothingness if you forget to look after it. That happened to me. I saw dust… tumbleweed in June! I started to feel anxious and worried.
What if my business fails? What if I fail?
But I still had positivity and self-belief and knew I would make a successful business. So while I had to ride a few scary months, I focused hard on reigniting my pipeline (giving lots of food, love and water) and things started to improve.
Persistence
On the topic of sales and leads, they’re not easy to achieve. No siree. I mentioned the skull-crushing frustration when clients ghost you after you send them a proposal that took you hours or even days to create. And that is when you need persistence. Don’t give up. Keep pushing at the door of new clients. Keep showing up on LinkedIn. Keep sending those emails to your subscribers.
So there you have it, my top six skills you need to have in spades to run a successful business or lead a happy team. I hope this blog has helped you realise that you’ve got this, and with these skills, you will continue to learn and grow.
And hey, you might even make some money too!
