Growing your business can be a daunting task because you’ll be taking your start-up or small business to the next level. Several changes can happen, including needing more funding or people, but you shouldn’t be overwhelmed. Business owners can navigate and overcome any challenge if they’re equipped with the right skills. 

When it comes to scaling up, businesses can go in many different directions to grow.  While you may notice various areas that need more expertise along the way, there are specific skills you should have from the very beginning. 

Essential skills when growing your business

There are several aspects to growing a business, which would require a lot of different skills and knowledge. However, what’s listed below are the essential skills that you have to be armed with early on. If you have a good foundation in these skills, you can scale your business much more easily. 

Effective communication

Never underestimate the power of communicating effectively. When growing your business, you’ll be talking not only to your team, but also to your partners, investors, and, potentially, new customers. 

One of the first things you should do is create a clear strategic direction, which contains the goals and objectives you and your stakeholders all have to be aligned with. This will make it easier to communicate your plans.

Expect to also have a growing team as your business gets bigger. If you’ve only been working with five people since you began your business and experienced miscommunications, imagine what it would be like with many more. You have to find the best way to cascade your instructions from top to bottom. 

You may also deal with investors who aren’t involved with business operations. How will you make them understand your vision and convince them that it’s the best move to make? Connecting with them with clarity is crucial because they’ll help you achieve your vision for the business.

Financial management

Financial literacy may depend on more technical knowledge, but it’s vital in any business. Moreover, your business’s capacity to grow is highly dependent on your funding, financial performance, and overall strategic growth planning, so you should be able to understand all the ins and outs of your finances. 

When you understand how your money moves and grows, you’ll see things like unnecessary expenses, investment opportunities, and profit projections. These can allow you to make smarter decisions with your money.  After all, money is one of the main resources you need to scale your business. 

Creating detailed reviews and making use of helpful tools like a Finance Diagnostic can give you a deeper understanding of your business’ financial status. Regularly doing this can significantly ease managing your business finances. 

Flexibility and adaptability

As a business owner, one of the biggest challenges you’ll encounter after deciding to scale your business is shifting your mindset. 

After running your business successfully for some time, you may have grown accustomed to the processes and strategies you’ve been using. However, they could all need to change when you want to grow further. 

Even if you’re confident with how things are currently done, you have to be open to switching things up. Growing means going out of your comfort zone and trying other ways to advance your business. Hence, a good business owner should embrace flexibility and adaptability. 

Remember, you’ll encounter several challenges, especially finding new ways to grow. Scaling your business could benefit from Business Scale-up Growth Diagnostic as a way to review your growth strategies and practices so that you can find areas that need to be changed or improved. Being flexible with how you run your business and learning to adapt to new methods can contribute to your success in the future. 

How to cultivate these skills

Continuously learning, whether from experience or past mistakes, is key to mastering these skills. You have to make a conscious effort to be better. This will also create a ripple effect to your team members. If they see you cultivating these skills, they will emulate them and help you develop your business in the right direction.  

There are several resources that can guide you, such as books and websites, but one of the best ways to sharpen these skills is to actually consult experts. If you want to work on these skills with the end goal of growing your business in mind, getting tailor-fit advice from seasoned professionals can go a long way. 

Boardroom Advisors can help you in finding the right experts you need. Their pool of Fractional Directors, who would work part-time for your business, can give valuable strategic insights. At the same time, you’ll also gain lessons and advice that can make you a better business owner in the long run. 

About the Author:

John Courtney is Founder and Chief Executive of BoardroomAdvisors.co which provides part-time Executive Directors (Commercial/Operations/Managing Directors), Non-Executive Directors and paid Mentors to SMEs without either a recruitment fee or a long term contract.

John is a serial entrepreneur, having founded 7 different businesses over a 40 year period, including a digital marketing agency, corporate finance and management consultancy. He has trained and worked as a strategy consultant, raised funding through Angels, VCs and crowd funding, and exited businesses via MBO, MBI and trade sale. He has been ranked #30 in CityAM’s list of UK Entrepreneurs.