We don’t all have the best memories. Some have a natural talent for remembering a colleagues’ birthday or where you put your keys, but not everyone is blessed with such a gift.
As an entrepreneur it’s part of your duty to be able to recall pieces of information at will, especially when your newly formed business relies on it.
These are the areas where improving your memory really will make a big difference to how you run your company.
Networking
Whether you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur or you’re a seasoned expert with years of experience, we all know well enough that without networking, your business won’t be going anywhere.
Unfortunately for those of us who struggle to put a face to a name, networking can prove difficult even with a small group of people, never mind being introduced to a whole room of expectant business connections.
Being able to remember someone’s name you met at a Christmas party two years ago could be a vital link in a company deal, which is why your memory needs to be in good shape. Not only will this open doors for your company, it will help you retain higher volumes of information in the long term, effectively making you become a more ‘intelligent’ marketer.
Ability to lead
Remembering a face or two won’t just get you ahead in the world of networking either. Forgetting an employees birthday, company milestone or even name (it’s been known to happen!) can be the worst mistake you ever make as an entrepreneur.
All these lead up to the suggestion that you don’t care about your employees, or that you have a vain personality that focuses on getting yourself ahead rather than considering those who have helped your business to grow.
While it can be easy to make the occasional slip up with someone’s name, it can be costly too. Jotting down information you may forget or taking part in brain training exercises to help improve your memory could have a huge effect on your company that you wouldn’t expect, even going as far as to motivate staff to be more productive.
Impressing as a start up
If you’ve caught any episodes of Dragon’s Den you’ll be fully aware that start ups don’t have an easy beginning when building a business.
There’s always at least one ‘entrepreneur’ who has failed to recall a vital figure on which their entire presentation hangs, or even worse, someone who simply hasn’t bothered to look into the figures side of their business because ‘that’s the accountant’s job’.
As a budding entrepreneur you should be able to recount important facts and figures at the drop of a hat. In fact you should know your own company accounts so well that you’d be able to recite them in your sleep.
For start ups who struggle to gain funding for their projects, or rely solely on crowdfunding sources, being able to instantly reel off any number of facts about your business is a vital skill to learn if you want to impress.
How’s your memory? Are you a master of general knowledge, able to recite your whole business structure? Or have you already forgotten the title of this article? Leave us a comment in the section below with your memory triumphs and woes!