Willow Perkins
Entrepreneurship plays an extremely important role in a country’s economic growth. Entrepreneurs are game-changers that come up with innovative solutions to market demands. In bringing their vision to life, entrepreneurs create jobs, improve the standard of living, and address consumer needs. There is no doubt about the impact that entrepreneurs have on our society. However, there are many roles that an entrepreneur needs to play to run and sustain a successful business.
In all entrepreneurial enterprises or start-ups, it is the entrepreneur who calls the shots and makes all major decisions regarding the business. In addition, as captains of the ship, they are also required to ensure that all facets continue to sail smoothly. Therefore, an entrepreneur must be well-versed in all operational, strategic, and financial matters relating to a business.
Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is the most important of all the skills required in an entrepreneur. While other business functions, such as strategy, are not to be ignored, some leeway can be granted to entrepreneurs as they learn those skills. Finance, however, is something that an entrepreneur must be adept at from day one.
Financial literacy entails budgeting, investment, risk management, saving plans, and financial analysis. Simply, it refers to having the knowledge and skills to understand finance and make sound financial decisions. It is one of the essential skills for entrepreneurs as the initial years of a start-up venture require excellent financial management skills.
While many entrepreneurs are business graduates, many others come from different backgrounds. Naturally, the latter seldom possess financial literacy. An online general MBA program that allows flexible learning is a great idea for such people. By enrolling in this degree, entrepreneurs can learn necessary skills such as corporate financial management and managerial accounting without compromising on the time and attention that their business requires.
The Importance of Financial Literacy for Entrepreneurs
For entrepreneurs, the importance of financial literacy cannot be stressed enough. Entrepreneurs set themselves up for failure without knowing their start-up’s financial matters and understanding accounting. With that said, here are let’s have a look at some of the reasons why financial literacy is important for entrepreneurs.
1. Better Budgeting
Budgeting is one of the most important parts of running a business, especially if it’s a start-up. In the initial days, every cent matters, and even small savings go a long way. Financial literacy allows entrepreneurs to make better budgets and make effective plans to stick to those budgets. The key to surviving the first few years is sticking to your annual expense budget.
You may think budgeting is a basic skill, and that you don’t need proper financial training or knowledge to make your budget. However, there is more to it than making a basic balance sheet. Budgeting entails calculating capital costs, figuring out the best time to buy and the best time to sell, taking into account non-operating expenses, and many other factors. Therefore, advanced financial literacy is important for entrepreneurs for better budgeting.
2. Improved Insight
The quote knowledge is power is one of the most undeniable truths of this world. Those with knowledge will always have the edge over those that don’t. As an entrepreneur running a new business, this can be the factor that makes or breaks your business. Two groups of people are important for an entrepreneur, i.e. investors, and customers. With financial literacy, entrepreneurs can better attract both of them.
For investors, knowing what they will get in return for their funding is the only thing that matters. Knowing how to convince investors in the language they understand is important for entrepreneurs seeking funding. Similarly, when attracting customers, it is important to demonstrate the value of your product. Financial literacy helps on both these fronts by making your business appear as a great investment opportunity.
3. Sound Financial Decisions
The most important reason that having financial literacy is essential for entrepreneurs is that it allows them to make better financial decisions. For a business owner, financial decisions are an everyday task. Figuring out how to remain profitable while incentivizing employees and adhering to the budget is challenging.
All these decisions require a keen understanding of the business’s finances. At the same time, all such decisions have a huge impact on the future of a business. Therefore, for entrepreneurs, having financial literacy is extremely important. By being aware of the financial background of every important task, entrepreneurs can make sound financial decisions backed by data and analysis that are better for the business.
4. Profitability
For any business, the most important factor that goes into measuring success is profitability. No matter how successful a business is in building its brand and spreading its mission, unless or until it can demonstrate and achieve profitability, the chances of it succeeding and sustaining are slim. Financial literacy first allows a business person to build a profitable brand, then maintain that level of success year after year.
We have seen examples of so many promising start-ups achieving great success in the initial years, failing and disappearing before hitting the five-year mark. One of the main contributory factors to such failures is a lack of financial literacy. The business owners and chief executive officers fail to understand advanced money matters because they lack financial understanding and long-term insight. Therefore, financial literacy is essential for entrepreneurs looking to build and sustain a successful business.
Final Words
Financial literacy is important in every walk of life, including managing your personal finances. Unfortunately, most of us lack financial literacy. While this is a problem, most people get by life just fine with a mere rudimentary knowledge of financial matters.
However, when those parts of the business ecosystem, especially entrepreneurs, possess limited financial literacy, this problem becomes most concerning as it prevents them from being effective business people. Therefore, if you are an entrepreneur, take the time and invest in honing your financial knowledge and skills. The payoff is the success and sustainability of your business, which will make your efforts well worth it.
