7 Critical Skills that All Entrepreneurs Must Posses with Josh Melick

We spoke with Josh Melick, the former CEO of Broadly.com, a local small company mobile CRM and messaging platform. They grew from zero to over 10,000 paying SMBs while raising approximately $30 million in venture finance. Before joining Broadly, Josh had product leadership positions at numerous other companies, all of which went on to be acquired.

Josh believes that there are some critical skills that all entrepreneurs must possess in order to have a successful company. We asked Josh what his top 7 were, and this is what he had to say:

1. The ability to find opportunities for your business

“I believe it’s crucial for entrepreneurs to know how they can exploit an existing market or need that isn’t currently being met by the incumbents within their space. As I tell my sales team, “No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want another CRM.’ They wake up saying, ‘I need to make more money’.”

2. The ability to evaluate risk

“Failing isn’t scary. Failing miserably is scary. Risk is everywhere. There are risks in taking on investors, risks in moving your company to a new city, risks in expanding into new markets. Know the difference between worrying about something and evaluating it as a risk.”

3. The ability to manage up

“It’s critical for entrepreneurs to be able to effectively communicate their ideas and vision for growth with their board of directors and investors. As CEO of Broadly, I did this by maintaining weekly 1:1s with all of our investors and board members to make sure they were in the loop on what we were working on and how their money was being spent.”

4. The ability to manage down

“At some point, all entrepreneurs need to let other people do their jobs. This means delegating responsibilities and trusting that your employees will execute. But, on the other hand, if you’re a micro-manager, it can be challenging to scale your company.”

5. The ability to understand the business and its numbers

“It’s important for entrepreneurs to know how their business makes money. At Broadly, we focused on three main revenue streams: advertising, CRM, and pay-per-use. It’s important to understand the drivers of your business so that you can pitch them to investors or potential hires. My team often challenged me on this front – fortunately, I was always able to justify our strategy.”

6. The ability to communicate

“Communication goes beyond knowing how to write a press release or what goes into a deck. It’s important to understand the appropriate medium to use when communicating with your various audiences. At Broadly, we used different channels for our potential customers (e-mail), our users (SMS and push notifications), and investors (a combination of one-on-ones and public speaking). Changing your mode of communication requires more than just changing platforms – it’s about adapting your approach.”

7. The ability to say no

“As a CEO, you have to know when to say yes and when to say no. There will be many great opportunities for your company that you won’t have the resources or bandwidth for. It’s important to know when to walk away. I learned this the hard way with one of my previous companies.”