New Skills

You begin any new skill as a novice. New skills are accompanied with feelings of awkwardness. 

As infants, your parents spent a lot of time teaching you how to talk. Before long, you were able to speak easily. 

After that, they stuck a book in your hands, and you had to learn a new skill. Reading. 

You felt awkward all over again. 

Being an expert at one skill doesn't mean that you are an expert in another. The learning process never stops.

Some new owners have similar experience in businesses. 

They may be mechanically inclined, give attention to detail, and work well with their hands. 

They believed in themselves to the degree that they are willing to lay out a bunch of money to get their new business going. 

All in all they are a really confident bunch.

Some owners think that just because they are strong in operational skills means that they are automatically strong in another unrelated skill such as sales or marketing. 

In reality, they may be weak. I once knew a business owner, which came up with a great new strategy, or so he said. 

Some rep came by selling billboard ads.

 He decided to buy 10 billboards for one month for only $10,000! He went on and on about his great buy. 

He never researched his industry’s results using billboards; therefore, he only made two sales that month. 

He really got burnt. (Your business may do well with billboards, depending upon your industry).

Some owners know where they are weak (for example sales calls), but they think it’s permanent. 

They are weak in that skill because they are just inexperienced. When they resist venturing out, they remain a novice, so they continue to be weak. 

They say, "I'm just not good at that!" The truth is that they are not good at it because it's just a skill in which they need to grow. 

Until they venture out, they will continue to be weak in that skill.

You're not an expert in every skill and neither am I. Let’s say that you’re not a technical expert. 

When a machine breaks down, you need to call an expert. 

If it breaks down 3 times a day, you'll still call him (or her) because you know that you can't keep going without his help. I

t's just as important to hone our skills in marketing and sales as keeping our machines going. 

If customers are not coming into your door, something's just as broke.

With marketing, there's a time delay between the advertisement band the result. 

It's less tangible, so it's less easily seen. Y

ou may be actually calling on prospects and advertising, but if people aren't coming in the door, you're still in trouble. 

You need to call a specialist just like you do for your machinery, and ask for help. 

Stay with them until you’ve honed your abilities and mastered your sales and marketing skills.