Building a startup could be a worthy experience, especially for the inexperienced. You get to learn so many things you didn’t know before. Someone even said that being a startup CEO at the very beginning of the struggle means you would have to do the job of many people until you have the funds to hire them.
Just so you don’t have to pay someone to do everything, or something’s that you can do yourself, it is pertinent that you acquire some of these skills before setting out to launch a startup.
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Managing people
To prevent you from the temptation to hire a CEO to manage your business, and team, I’d suggest you by all means, learn how to manage people as it is one of the most important aspects of building a startup.
Your team is what builds your business, so if they are managed well, it further extends that the startup is managed well too.
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Digital marketing
Even though this is not fundamental, it is important that you learn digital marketing skills (though you can pay someone too). There are a lot of digital marketing courses online which you can try out. The advantage you would have over a paid digital marketer is the passion you have for your own startup.
Guess what? I’m currently undergoing an online digital marketing course powered by Google.
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Accounting skills
As a startup entrepreneur, you should know your numbers. You should have an idea of what a revenue, and profit is, how to prepare a budget, cash flow statement, balance sheet and many other needed accounting you can think of.
Let me quickly chip in that hiring an accountant is way costly these days.
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Presentation skills
Many times, you would need to pitch your startup, or startup idea to a potential investor. It is only right for you to acquire the ability to present stuffs like that. While you might not find tutorials explicitly stating how you can acquire these skills, a major thing to look out for is your confidence, and the total know-how of your startup.
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Risk taking skills
Yes.. “Risk taking is not a skill” must have been the thought that crossed your mind just now, but to me, if you can LEARN to take risks, then you have acquired skill (emphasis on “learn”). The skill would come to prove valuable for your startup. And the thing is, you can hire someone to take risks for you.
It is paramount that you have some of these skills, and if possible, have a co-founder that compliments you in these terms. At a point, you won’t be able to do all of the skills, then you can hire others. But for now, I think you should acquire the skills. What do you think?