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3 Critical Information Skills for Entrepreneurs

 

 

By Walter Muzangaza

 

Read a Lot / Consume a lot of Information on related Value Oriented Subject

 

The famous saying that goes "First a Reader then a Leader" carries an often unrealized wealth of truth behind its utterances. If you are intending to become a business owner or an entrepreneur, beyond what is necessary to run your business, you must develop a reading habit that informs you about the latest changes in your industry & in your business. You must have an expanded worldview of ongoing events and lines of thinking that inform the emergence of the best practices in your industry.

 

Reading is an effective way of information gathering because it is slow and intentional enough that as you are involved in it, you are able to reflect on the ways in which you see and operate your business. Reading will help you as a prospective business owner have a comprehensive understanding of the issues that matter to you, how to maximize benefits as well as to minimize risks. You will become aware of certain nuances and subtle drivers of activities that you may not have had previously known or not been conscious of.

 

In developing a reading habit however, we would like to encourage that you take the following 3 tips into consideration.

 

First make sure that you are reading material that gives you usable skills and help you create value.

 

Not all reading is created equal. Most of the written material out there is fluff and gives no value and cannot be translated into value creating skills. A person that reads about how they can improve their leadership capacity as the head of a business operation leading a diverse workforce will gain usable skills that translate into value as opposed to someone who reads a fictional book for recreation or spending time reading social media updates of their friends and social circle. As a prospective entrepreneur or business owner you must read more of value giving material as opposed to fluff pieces.

 

Secondly, you must make sure that the sources where you get your information are secure, trusted, qualified and relevant in relation to what you want to do.

 

There is a lot of information especially on the internet that is tinted with political biases and may not always be accurate. Check the credibility of your sources and always make sure to have several, to double check the factuality of the material they talk about. Good quality information is not just a powerful tool that must be tended to with great care, but it is also a very powerful weapon that if taken without care, can harm and destroy you and your business. However, if you take the time to properly sift and vet your sources, and understand from the point of view they give information in relation to yours you will be able to get more value out of their information than if had just taken them at their word.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic is a very good example of this. When the pandemic started, everyone had an opinion about the virus and yet the majority of the people that talked about it were not either scientists or medical experts qualified to speak on the matter. Because of the inaccurate information that was quickly spreading, many people either underestimated the virus or exaggerated its deadliness. Many conspiracy theories ensued and caused panic. This kind of chaos is one of the consequences that happen when you do not check the credibility of your sources. Ask yourself, "Is your source qualified to give information on the subject they are talking about?", If yes then listen to them. If no, then you take that information with a grain of salt to consult with qualified experts. The same principle applies to sources of information on business activities. Check & verify the credibility of your sources.

 

Lastly, Learn Quickly in Practice & Experimentation

 

While information is a good resource to guide our business activities, it does not guarantee any outcome of any possibility in the real world. However, this doesn’t mean that it should be disregarded. When we have information we should use it to cut down on a lot of mistakes that have already been made and repeat those things that have been done right. As a new/prospective business owner, you must learn quickly from the information and begin to practice and experiment with your knowledge.

 

Sometimes you will achieve the ends you are trying to achieve without issues. Sometimes you will find that there are certain variables, not mentioned in the body of information you read that may cause you not to achieve your ends. In this case you must then experiment and create the information that helps you get to where you need to get. As you practice and experiment, always document the things you changed, subtracted or added that made your process successful. This is so that you do not have to keep on experimenting every time you need to achieve the same outcome.

 

This is the true power of information. It allows us to access the keys that allow for driving change and pass them on to others with ease. As an entrepreneur or business owner, you should never take this power of information for granted. Wrong information can result in wasted time, energy & money. The right information can result in successful achievement of goals in time and with minimal exertion and friction. Always read material that gives you more value, coming from credible & qualified sources, and you must practice & experiment with the information while documenting your own observations.

 

Photo credits

Article picture, Daria Nepriakhina (Unsplash),

In article picture, Adeolu Eletu (Unsplash)