What does business sense mean anyway?

You could be a storekeeper or tech entrepreneur, having a keen business mindset is an essential trait for the success of your business. There’s a lot of talk over having the right ‘business sense’. But what are the individual components that make up this collective term? We’ll discuss these below. Some of these skills can be innate, and others can be developed over time.

Interpersonal skills

As an entrepreneur, you will have to meet a lot of people on a daily basis. They may be your clients, customers, workforce, investors or even your shareholders. How you deal with these individuals can make or break your business. So, it is important that you build a great relationship with everyone. Some people are naturally gifted with good interpersonal skills. But if you are not one of them, don’t fret. These skills can be learned. Having impeccable communication skills is essential if you want to sell your vision to everyone. But it’s not enough to simply talk, you need to make sense. It’s important to hone up your listening skills as well. Being a good listener can provide you with many insights that could help you run your business better.

Organisational skills

You need to be obsessive about keeping things organised. It could be the number and kind of people you are hiring, target setting for your employees, goal setting for the company or even simply ensuring that all your in-house meetings are pre-planned and efficient. Given the dynamic state of the startup ecosystem, there can be change of plans and goals everyday – but you need to bring about a structure and balance which is going to hold the business and all the employees together.

Critical and creative thinking

If you are someone who always has fresh ideas and thinks of creative ways to push your business forward, you are one step ahead of the others already. Many people think that creativity is something you are born with. But, like French artist Henry Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.” If you are looking for inspiration, you can attend online and offline courses and read books and articles on creativity and its impact. Along with creative thinking, you must also be prepared to face the worst. Problem-solving skills are a must-have in a new entrepreneur’s kitty. Always answer the question - ‘what can go wrong?’ before you take any step, This is going to give you a good understanding of what the risks are, and how to prepare for them.

Personal traits

Optimism is one of the most important traits of a good businessman. It will keep you level-headed and positive and can help you get through tough times. Optimistic people are also perceived as approachable. Besides having an optimistic approach, you must also be lit with a burning desire to get things done. Let's be honest, the only way to know whether your business is a success or a failure is by getting things done. This will also help you focus better and motivate people around you. Resilience, or the ability to pick yourself up and get back quickly in the game, is one of the most important traits of a successful individual.

These are the basic ones which all entrepreneurs need to have, depending on the industry and the kind of business one is into, there are going to be additions to this list.

If you think something should be added to this list, please let us know in the comments below.