I want to open my own business but I'm not sure I have what it takes.

There are a good number of skills that are important. But in any business, nothing happens until a sale is made, so I would say the number one skill is learning to sell - or how to sell better.

Unfortunately, that's an answer a lot of owners don''t like to hear. Why? Because most of them are specialists or "technicians" who like to do the work, but don't really know how to sell it to customers.

If you are a good salesperson already, your job is to become better and train those around you to do what you do. It's also important to transfer your own knowledge to your coworkers so they can know what you already know.

This will help leverage your skills in your own enterprise, and will help turn your company into a real sales machine. If you aren't a great salesperson, you have two options: Learn how to be one, or hire a great sales person to sell for you.

Hiring a salesperson is a great option, but easier said than done.

Learning the sales process for yourself is harder, takes some time and has automatic failure already built into it but will teach you things you will need to know to succeed longterm.

Plus - depending on your business - people will want to deal with the owner in the sales process at some level and the more skill you have in this area, the more success you will have. So, start honing your sales skills.

You can always improve, and if you are sales deficient, the lessons you learn will continue to serve you well.

This article was written by Brad Sugars and published in Entrepreneur magazine.