Still going for me, so I'm sure this isn't a complete list.
First... 👇
2/7 Common Sense
Learning business basics. This is about all an MBA does for you. There are far faster and cheaper ways to acquire.
A few books, a few frameworks, a few conversations with owners and you are there.
Still, people pass common sense and end up in trouble
3/7 Psychology
As time passes you realize business basics aren't enough. You work with people, you sell to people, you buy from people. You need to understand people.
Once you get people, why they act, and learn to read them - you're performance will improve in all areas.
4/7 Critical Thinking
Business is a series of decisions that should be based on proper thinking.
Learn to think.
Learn strategy,
learn game theory,
learn the importance of path dependence, probability, problem-solving, and risk.
Learn how people use (or dont use) these.
5/7 Systems Thinking
Things start to get complex.
Understand the importance of systems, processes, and workflows.
Build-in checks and redundancies.
Understand complex systems and their unintended side effects.
Tweak areas for improvement.
Prevention over prescription.
6/7 Augment
As you better understand the operations.
Use the feedback from your systems to create analyses.
Use that analysis to augment decisions.
Reduce risk, reduce error, increase impact, and output.
Stop doing things twice, reduce fires, and create a fine-tuned machine.
7/7 Automation
Begin automating the machine you are building.
Look for parts of the workflows that you can automate.
Create entire digital processes that create audit trails.
Build a digital OS based on automation and streamlining.
There is no shortcut on any of these, but I can help you get started:
Common Sense -> Personal MBA, Good Strategy / Bad Strategy
Psychology -> Drive, Influence, Thinking Fast and Slow, Turn this ship around
Critical Thinking -> The Great Mental Models, Problem Solving 101, Fooled By Randomness
Systems -> Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Systems Bible, Scaling Up, Traction
Listing agencies can help, but most likely won't. Your best strategy there is to set filters for industry and location for daily emails for all the major buy/sell business listing sites. If something is added in your realm, you'll see it and can email/call.