Business First Family Business, Accounting, Finance, Investing, Marketing And Management
Even if you’ve been dreaming about owning a business your whole life, there are many obstacles that may have prevented you from doing so. For example, most people think that in order to invest in a certain business, they will need to know everything there is to know about their products or services to be an effective owner. The thing is, this isn’t necessarily true. You could take more of a managerial position in the company you run and simply hire staff that has the experience and expertise required to handle the actual products or services.
However, this might lead to another possible issue—what if you don’t have a college diploma? Will you still be able to manage your business effectively without one? Yes, actually! This is especially true if you decide to buy a franchise. This is because a good franchise will generally have a thorough training course in order to teach you all the management skills you need to know to run your franchise properly. Of course, some people are more suited to managing a business then others. The following are a number of traits that good managers tend to have:
Organizational skills – As a good manager, you’re going to find yourself very busy at certain times. It’s important that you be able to multi-task, which means that you’ll need to have some kind of organization skills. Being able to delegate various tasks to your employees so that you make sure that they get done by a certain times requires a certain level of organization. So does being able to schedule your employees’ hours so that you’re not overstaffed during slow periods or understaffed during busy periods.
The ability to communicate – Communication is essential to being a manager. Remember that communication is two-way. Not only do you need to be able to clearly articulate what you expect from your employees, you need to be able to listen to their needs and concerns as well. Your ability to communicate will come in handy when dealing with angry customers as well.
People skills – While you don’t have to be best friends with your employees (this can actually be a bad thing, of course), you should have the people skills needed to get along with them. The better they get along with you, the more willing they will be to follow your instructions. They’ll be more willing to put in overtime or do extra work for you as well if a deadline is looming. Additionally, you can expect to deal with customers or even potential business partners as well. You’ll need to have people skills in order to deal with customers who may not be happy with your product or service, or who may simply have questions in general that need answering.
Leadership – The staff at your company will look at you to provide them with guidance and leadership. You’re going to have to manage the goals and tasks of every employee working under you and make sure that they get their job done and done right. If you show good leadership, they will be more likely to do what you ask and to trust you. However, if you lack leadership, you’re going to have issues. Employees won’t know who is responsible for what, tasks will remain undone, employees won’t trust that you know what you’re doing and goals will go unmet—whether they’re clear or not.
Motivational skills – You could argue that the ability to motivate is a trait that’s essential to being able to lead. You need to be able to motivate your employees in order to keep them productive, especially if you have deadlines coming up. People without work motivational skills may end up just yelling at their employees or clamming up. This will just hurt their production even more along with their trust in your ability to manage.
Patience – A certain amount of patience will be needed, especially when it comes to dealing with employees who are still training on the job (as well as your employees in general), not to mention customers who may argue with you about something you disagree about.
If you share any of these traits, then there’s a good chance that you can become a good manager, whether you have a college diploma or not. So if you’re eyeing an American pretzel company, don’t let a lack of a college diploma or a lack of pretzel making knowledge deter you!
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