Understand the Personal
Qualities and Abilities for
Business
Introduction
• Before stepping into the world of running your own business it is
important to make sure that you have the personality and the business
skills to ensure that you are the right person for the task.
• Sometimes this can be a difficult thing to do as it requires someone to be
honest with themselves and reflect on where they currently are and
where they need to be but this is an important first step when considering
running your own business.
• This unit will explore how understanding enterprise and business skills can
help you to enhance your prospects when you are looking to start your
own business.
What are enterprise skills?
 ‘Enterprising skills are knowledge and abilities
that can be put to good use to create and operate
an enterprise of your own, or be a substantial
contributor to an enterprise as an employee.
 Examples of enterprising skills include
formulating business plans, selling products and
services, identifying and obtaining resources,
creating new services and products for the
marketplace and understanding what the
marketplace needs and wants.’
 wiki.answers.com
 Being ‘enterprising’ is not the same as having an ambition to be self-employed or
running a business.
 Rather, it is someone who is characterised by a particular mix of individuality,
creativity and leadership. These are key skills and increasingly demanded by
employers in both large and small businesses.
 An enterprising person is someone who makes things happen. He or she tends to
be decisive and is not afraid to take risks. An opportunity is identified and the
person does something about it. Showing initiative is about taking decisions and
being bold, however, risk-taking is slightly different.
 In business there is no such thing as a ‘sure thing’. All business decisions carry an
element of risk which is the chance that things will go wrong. At the worst, the risk
within an enterprise might mean the person making a financial investment loses
all of his or her money or becomes personally liable for the debts of a business.
 The trick is to take calculated risks, and to ensure that the likely returns from
taking a risk are enough to make the gamble worthwhile. The risk is the same
whether you own the business or work in someone else’s business.
So what skills are enterprising?
• Those people who are enterprising have a
number of skills, attributes and behaviours in
common.
• Some of the most important are summarised
in the following:
Skills
 Intuitive decision making with limited information
 Coping with uncertainty and complexity
 Building know-how and trust relationships
 Creative approach to problem solving
 Negotiating capacity
 Selling/persuasive capacity
Attributes
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•
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Sense of belief in self
Strong sense of independence
Goal/achievement orientated
Build own know-how and trust relationships
Commitment to see things through
Sense of ownership over problems/actions
Behaviours
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Seeks and takes opportunities
Takes initiative
Builds and develops networks
Assesses and takes risks
Holistic management of situations
Thinks strategically
Based on Gibb, A. (2005) Towards the
Entrepreneurial University
What skills do you need to set up and
run a business?
 All business owners need to have a range of skills and
abilities. Some are personal characteristics whilst
others are more practical areas of expertise.
 If your new business is similar to a job you’ve had
previously, then you’ll probably already have lots of
the skills necessary to make your business work. If
you’re trying your hand at something new it is likely
that your new business will be based on something
you have been doing already in your spare time – like a
hobby or interest.
 You can probably think of other people who have done this, like
someone who started out making cakes for family and friends, then
set up their own business making birthday celebration and wedding
cakes.
 Or a car enthusiast who began helping out other car owners with
mechanical repairs and now runs their own garage.
 Even if the idea is completely different to anything you have done
before you can soon learn the necessary skills if you are serious
about setting up your own business… and it’s important to
remember that you don’t have to go it alone.
 There is a lot of support out there for new businesses and you
should always seek advice and help where you can. Through your
study membership of the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs
(IOEE) you can find lots of help and support from other business
owners who have been there and done it and are willing to share
their experiences with you.
How do you assess your own skills and
those you need to develop?
 You will have lots of skills and abilities whether you are
aware of them or not.
 Many of the things you do in your everyday life can help
you to run a business. Even something as simple as being
friendly and polite on the phone or being able to keep track
of the money going in and out of your bank account can
benefit you in business.
 If you have hobbies and interests such as sports or crafts,
these will have helped you to develop a range of skills
which will be useful to you as you begin to start and run
your own business.
 BUT very few people have all the abilities necessary to
run a business straight away.
 A business owner doesn’t have to be able to do
absolutely everything, but if you think you want to
start up on your own you’ll need to be aware of:
• What you can do
• What you need to learn to do
• What you should get other people to do
 Learning new skills can help to improve you as a business person
and often keep costs down. IOEE can help you to learn new skills
which will help you to deal with the day to day challenges you will
face as a new business owner. It’s best to work out whether you
have the right skills before you start your business and plan to
develop those you haven’t already got.
 Once you’ve worked out how long it will take to develop new skills
and have worked out the costs, you might find that it is better to
employ someone to help you.
 There’s nothing wrong with employing someone to take care of
your bookkeeping or administration, for example, if this gives you
the time to focus your efforts elsewhere in the business. Or
perhaps you have a family member or friend who could help.
 It’s always a good idea to understand how different
parts of your business works but it’s also important
that you have the right person to do the job and that
person may not be you!
 So decide what skills your business needs and then
decide how you will make sure you have them by:
• Developing your own skills
• Getting friends or family involved
• Buying in the expertise