You have probably heard the saying Jack of all trade, Master of none. Well, it is correct and has been proven so in the lives of many rebels. But what if we have taken it to heart a little too much? At becoming the Master of one, are we really required to ignore every other field?
The truth is, we all can use a little of everything. Okay, maybe not ‘everything’, but we can use a little knowledge of many things, even as we strive for perfection in our chosen field. It is impossible to be effective in your field without imputes from other fields. No discipline is self-sufficient, no matter how isolated it may seem.
In running/ overseeing a business, facing just your passion will only set you up for failure. Perhaps, you love to design. Well, you still need to know the basic principles of business to run a successful clothing line. Of course, it does not mean that you have to know everything in every department. It simply means that you must familiarise yourself with the basics, enough to follow the conversation.
Just imagine you receive an income statement and the cash flow statement from the accounting department. And you have no idea what the two reports containing a lot of numbers mean for your business. Even if something is not right, you probably will not take it to heart. You will have to rely solely on the interpretation by the accounting head, who could also be the head of the team working to ruin the business.
You must familiarise yourself with basic accounting terms and the impact of these concepts on your business. You should understand a little about marketing and be able to make relevant imputes to the marketing plan. You are not just supposed to sit and receive reports from departments with no idea of their implication for the business. You have to know a little about everything!
If you are newly starting, having whole departments is perhaps a far thought for you. You will probably be doing everything until you can hire people to join the team or outsource to firms. Now is a great time to learn about those areas - marketing, branding, accounting, product development and design, pricing, and even market research. The idea is not to do it all on your own. It is to know its implications for the smooth running of your business. Your business could be bleeding, and you would have no idea.
What do I do?
An excellent way to start is to study. You can take a business course. There are business courses that run for as little as three weeks, and thanks to Edu-tech innovations, these courses are self-paced.
Also, make a habit of reading up on different fields. Follow business blogs, business magazines -these e-platforms cover the right amount of everything you need to know. You can ask someone in that field to help you understand its relevance and implications for your business.
If you are not the ‘book type’, you can listen to Podcasts. There are podcasts by Business coaches, Accounting experts, Researchers, CEOs of multinationals, all offering valuable resources on different fields, even real-life applications and experiences.
The possibility of what you can achieve is vast. And there is a lot of information waiting to be absorbed. A little of everything will not make you less skilled. It instead positions you to run a sustainable business. So the saying for you is -Master of one trade, student of everything. Do not limit yourself!
