Do you know what skills you need to succeed in your startup?

One of my habits to make a skills grid for any business that I am getting into. This tends to evolve as I progress further into the project. I use it as a guiding system for what skills I need to acquire, partner with, or have the money to purchase.

So for my current project YoYoBrain.com, my list looks something like this:

• Linux server administration - every website has to live somewhere
• Database administration - MySQL for this project
• Ruby on Rails for server side coding (could be PHP, Python, etc.)
• Javascript / Dojo - for making that Web 2.0 coolness
• Design - what should each screen look like
• Usability - what to include and how to communicate features
• Graphics / Photoshop / Fireworks - every site needs some graphics
• Marketing - how do people know about us

These are just the broad strokes, but you get the picture. Then at every stage of the project I look at how to find these resources. The funny thing is that my decisions change over the lifetime of the project. Maybe at some point I have more time than money and do it myself. Or I have the perfect partner that knows some of the skills and I don't have to worry about it.

However, most first time entrepreneurs don't have the money to hire all of the skills needed. I see people fall into several different traps.

1. Denial that the skill is needed at all. So they program an awful looking site and complain about why people don't get it (I have done this personally.)
2. Spend all their time trying to raise money. Sometimes this is successful but you should spend as much time coming up with other ways to fill the in the gaps.
3. Give up, saying that I just can't program/design/market...

I have actually caught myself doing all of the above. However I have a profound belief that I can acquire any necessary skill if I put in the time. On this particular project I have cut back the amount of money that I am putting into the business due to the economic downturn. This has meant that I have had to acquire more of the skills on the list. Things that I never imagined that I could do, I have gotten better at.

Am I ever going to be a world class UI designer? Probably not, but at least I don't suck at it anymore. Also I am able to have an intelligent discussion with any designer that I hire in the future and get twice my money's worth out of them.

There are tremendous books currently available by some of the top professionals in each of these areas. I read an unbelievably good book on design by Bill Scott called Designing Web Interfaces. He is head of Netflix's design. I couldn't possible hire this guy in real life, but he wrote down hours worth of advice.

So between books, blogs and videos, the information on how to get better at any piece of the puzzle is available. It is a matter of breaking it down into chunks and putting a plan in place that moves you toward getting better at doing this thing we call a "startup."