These 7 skills can both save you millions of dollars (in costs you won’t incur) and make you millions of dollars in sales and profit.
I’m going to make a bold statement that may ruffle some feathers: I can start a business faster than you. Let me clarify: I can start a business — taking something from idea to generating its first dollar of revenue (and ideally profit) — faster than most first-time founders or your average newbie wantrepreneur.
It isn’t because of the cash I’ve stacked from prior exits. It isn’t because of the deep network of valuable connections I’ve built and maintained across multiple industries. It definitely isn’t because of my IQ, supreme entrepreneurial foresight, or any superhuman intangible trait I possess that primes me for outsized or accelerated startup success.
Instead, it’s simply because through creating multiple companies over the past decade — including a range of failures, as well as a handful of “successes” (depending on your definition), I’ve acquired, practiced, and honed a list of crucial skills that take me from point A to B faster (and ideally, more profitably) than a first-time, inexperienced founder. If you’re building a new company and identifying any blindspots or skills lacking as you ramp up your current one, here are 7 skills I deem integral to efficient startup success.
For those of you who’ve set up dozens of businesses in your career thus far, this one may sound simple and obvious. Nonetheless, I can’t tell you how many aspiring (and even current!) entrepreneurs I’ve met — from age 7 to 70+ — who don’t know how, where, or sometimes why to set up a business bank account.
One of the things I’ve prided myself in over the years is that, no matter how my business was doing nor at what stage, I never comingled personal and business funds. Doing so will only elevate your personal liability and increase your tax accountant’s bill (and your financial complexity as you disentangle the comingled expenses and revenues).
