Doing business is not everyone’s cup of tea. Today governments around the world are encouraging young people to venture into entrepreneurship as a way of discouraging job seeking. In Rwanda, we have seen several initiatives including the iAccelerator programme which is currently running, aimed at nurturing young entrepreneurs, 250Startups and Hanga Pitch festival, among others, all aimed at initiating the youth into businesses. However, even as many young people continue to venture into the business world, there are several soft skills, which in reality are traditional practices enhanced by technology, but must not be forgotten if you must succeed in business. It doesn’t matter your industry or area of interest; these skills must be nurtured for you to succeed in entrepreneurship. Be a leader Leadership is the ability to motivate people towards achieving goals. It doesn’t matter the number of people you work with or their level of experience. Technically, all business roles require a level of leadership, influencing, or motivating the team you work with. To success in business, you need several soft people skills. Net photo. It is common for young people to assume that the entire team has the same understanding of the goals and what needs to be achieved, in the process, leaving a leadership vacuum to grow. As a result, there is a general lack of direction and ownership. As a leader, you must be present all the time to make decisions, sometimes including tough ones. By taking up a leadership role, you motivate others and as a result you all work towards one goal. According to experts, the biggest challenge young entrepreneurs face is growing as an individual especially when their start-ups are picking and they forget about others in the team making it happen. Communicate in writing Most young people in entrepreneurship tend to believe that they have no time to sit down and communicate in a well detailed email or letter. They lead fast-paced lifestyles and will in most cases find themselves giving verbal advice and orders. However, this in the long run can be counterproductive. When you write, you have put something on record. Writing is one way of formalising things. Experts say communication skills, or the ability to translate thoughts and ideas to others, can greatly contribute to your success as a business professional. It is also true that good written communication skills can be key in developing good proposals that can secure partnerships, grants and credibility of your business. Since writing is not everyone’s forte, hiring an individual with writing skills on the team is not a waste of resources. Collaborate more In this day and age where entrepreneurship requires a bit of investment and convergence of skills, collaborations have proved to be the formula to succeed in business. Most young people fall in the trap of thinking that they can go it alone; shutting out possible chances of collaborations because they think someone will steal their idea or partake in the benefits. However, it has been proved that collaboration is the easiest way to arrive at one’s goals because we are better collectively or as a team. Collaboration entails both accepting others’ help and contributing to others’ work. When you collaborate, you join forces and bring different skills to the table. It even goes beyond individuals to communities or even countries. For example, a business that focuses on promoting access to a social service succeeds when you collaborate with the local community or authorities. Business experts contend that you need collaboration to bring out the best in others. If you want to create a great product, collaborate with those who will sell it or even consume it. Mentor others It is true that we all need a mentor at one point and we can all be mentors regardless of where we are or what we are doing. Mentoring involves your capacity to grow others’ abilities and skills by both directly teaching them and offering encouragement. If your business is picking up, it is important to mentor others, your skills won’t depreciate. The person you are mentoring could be the one to make your business succeed. When you inspire others, you inspire yourself even more because you know you have some people looking up to you. Sharing a few business tips with others or the secrets to success will not in any way affect your business. If anything, you will have many people looking up to you. You can grow mentorship skills by offering help and guidance to new staff or people throughout many areas of life, such as friends and younger family members. You never know the difference you are making. Conflict resolution Conflict resolution is the ability to de-escalate and resolve disagreements and arguments between people. However, today, most young people who venture into business don’t pay much attention to conflict resolution. There are high chances that disagreements will occur in business, from not agreeing on dividends, deliveries or not meeting contractual obligations, most young entrepreneurs would rather let it escalate, by focussing on one side. The lack of the ability to resolve business conflicts can be costly and dent the reputation of your business. Every effort must be invested in ensuring that your business keeps a clean image and business integrity. If you fall out with your partner today and part ways, it will hamper the chances of being hired to provide a certain service because your credibility is not in question. Rather than putting everything on the line, learn how to resolve conflicts before they escalate. This also applies to the internal management of the business.
