A Skill Set for a Successful Sole Proprietorship

A successful sole proprietor must be able to operate a business and stay personally motivated as the primary employee in the firm. While a sole proprietor may eventually take on employees, she will bear all financial risks and rewards herself. If you are thinking about starting your own sole proprietorship, consider the demands that self-employment will place on you and create a viable plan for turning your product or service idea into a success story.

Since a sole proprietor must assume all responsibility for a company, he must devise an effective approach for completing work tasks. You can develop the skills of setting your own goals and creating an implementation plan. This must be done using time management techniques. Customers will depend on your ability to follow through on the deadline you set for delivering each service. Successful entrepreneurs will meet deadlines consistently and provide services at a level of quality that ensures customer satisfaction.

The transition to owning a sole proprietorship is easier if you have industry experience. Insider knowledge is useful for understanding the target market, the work practices of other companies and the preferences of customers. For example, you might work in a competitor's firm and gain experience before going out on your own. If you lack experience, you can hire a consultant to suggest ways to improve your product or service and streamline your operational strategy. You can also get some insights from a mentor in the same industry, even a fellow business owner.

The sole proprietor typically handles the financial management of the small business even if there are other employees. You need skills in obtaining funding for your business, making financial arrangements, such as a business bank account and a building lease, keeping bookkeeping or accounting records, creating a budget and paying all appropriate wages, taxes and fees throughout the business cycle.

Successful sole proprietors must excel in overall business management, including overseeing sales and operations. You should have knowledge of how to write a business plan, set a strategy for selling a product or service, deploy your business strategy and use additional marketing efforts to grow your sales base. You might also need skills in maintaining facilities, developing a supply chain, managing inventory, hiring and training staff and organizing them to efficiently serve customers.

As a sole proprietor, you need an effective pricing strategy that will position your products or services in the target market. Each product price must account for your production costs so that you can maximize the profit margin. If you don't have a good strategy, you can hire a market research firm or an experienced manager to help you better understand your market and improve your pricing strategy.