LinkedIn Knowledge is Power

Entrepreneurship is more than mere business. It is about creating synergy between what you are skilled at doing, with what you like to do and transforming that energy into a product, concept or service that can positively impact the lives of others. Therefore, there is no singular school of thought that encapsulates entrepreneurship, more so what is required of someone aspiring to be an entrepreneur, or a more dynamic one.

There is the world of accounting, legal compliance, marketing, communications, understanding the basic laws of contract, company formation and real property, to name a few. By extension, there are several prevalent terms that should become elementary knowledge or second nature to all entrepreneurs. Here is a rudimentary breakdown of some of these terms and the categories that they come under.

Accounting: More than working with figures, familiarize yourself with terms that include balance sheet, profit and loss, credit and debt, asset and liability, expenditure, income statement, cash flow statement, projections, accrued expense, equity, inventory, recurring expenses, debt and bankruptcy.

Contracts: Learn what constitutes an offer, acceptance and consideration, how a contract is similar to and also different from an agreement, a contract for service and a contract of service, oral contract, written contract, fixed-term contract, renewable contract, effluxion of time, frustration of the contract, termination of a contract, enforceable and unenforceable, as well as void and voidable, plus illegal contracts.

Real property (Land): Get to appreciate what a licence to occupy means, and well as terms including landlord, tenant, sublet, rent, lease, freehold, leasehold, joint tenants and tenants in common, unexpired term of lease.

Legal compliance: For some businesses, you must have an approved licence in order to legally operate. Such enterprises include: owning and/or operating a bar, a casino or members’ club, and customs brokerage; while for others such as a restaurant, beauty salon, spa or gym, you may have to obtain public health and occupational safety clearance in order to function. A school should be registered with the local Ministry of Education, while food products, as well as hair and skincare products should be approved by the local Food and Drug agency.

Industrial Relations: Learn about occupational safety and health, the definition of a worker, employee and employer, as well as hiring, disciplinary and termination procedures, being unionised, plus, retrenchment, maternity, paternity, vacation, casual, sick and bereavement leave, as well as jury duty.

Daily operations: data management, archiving, tax filing, auditing and documenting Minutes of Meetings.

Finally, in addition to those aforementioned examples of hard skills, there are also the soft skills such as being emotionally intelligent, or ‘reading the room’ and having a greater understanding of what stimulates and sustains human behaviour, for better or worse. Likewise, you can be discreet or assertive, diplomatic or forthright, deliberate or tenacious- just know yourself, your strengths, and how to turn your weaknesses into strengths.

Become the enterprising entrepreneur that many wish they were, but few actually become!

Keywords: LinkedIn Caribbean, accounting, contracts, legal compliance, knowledge