An entrepreneurship journey could be prompted by different circumstances. Perhaps we have a ‘one-in-the-world’ business idea, or we have graduated from the university and no job offers are forthcoming; or maybe there is some government intervention programmes in agriculture that excites us; or yet still, we are about to retire and need to start some business to augment on our retirement benefits.
Regardless of what is getting us into business, we must think seriously about it; what to expect of it and what to prepare for. So, what are some of the things we should be aware of?
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There is no opening or closing time, and there are no ‘weekends’: There are always pleasant and not-so-pleasant surprises in the entrepreneurship journey. Opportunities and threats would often knock at any time without regard to your ‘convenience’, prior plans or schedule. The entrepreneurs that succeed are those that handle ‘surprises’ as they arise by ensuring that that the pleasant ones are converted into realisable opportunities while the not-so-pleasant are controlled and any likely damage therefrom mitigated.
You can make money, and you can lose money, too! Entrepreneurship is a great and fascinating way to make money. But making money and losing money are two ‘rigged’ sides of the same coin. ‘Rigged’ because there are statistically more ways to lose than make money in most transactions and businesses. Consequently, the successful entrepreneur must think smart and work extra hard to overcome the losing odds and convert the winning chances.
There will be sleepless nights: An entrepreneur will always face some sorts of challenges. Challenges could come externally from customers, competition, government regulators, financiers, etc. Challenges could also be internal from your staff, product quality, etc. Whatever the challenges, successful entrepreneurs are always ready to address them before or as they come up.
There are no limits: Entrepreneurship is thrilling, even compulsive, to those who can face and take up challenges. You can explore your legitimate ideas without anyone stopping you. You can help solve problems that bother you or others and make money out of it. Over and beyond the fun you can have and the money you can make, entrepreneurship offers you boundless opportunities to change people’s lives for the better. In entrepreneurship, the sky is not a limit!
Every outcome is a success: Successful entrepreneurs have some contrarian thinking. For instance, an entrepreneur may consider as a success what most of humanity would consider a failure. When Elon Musk launched an experiment, their Starship prototype rocket ended up exploding into smithereens when it was expected to land back on earth intact and safely. Most people would consider the $100 million experiment a costly failure but not Mr. Musk. As far as he was concerned, the massive data they got from the experiment will make future attempts a success. He even made a joke of the ‘failure’, “at least the crater is in the right place!”. That is an entrepreneurial mind for you.
It is now clear that there will be both opportunities and challenges in the journey. So how do you prepare yourself to make the best and most of each for the greatest financial and non-financial benefits at minimum emotional stresses?
In this column of 31/5/2021, Entrepreneurship Development – Purpose and Mindset, we discussed how the right mindset from the onset of the journey is critical to success. Beyond purpose and mindset though, two other things are also necessary:
Planning: Whenever you are travelling, it goes without saying that you will pack your bag with the stuff that you need for the period you will be on the journey. Where there will be weather issues, you ensure that you have the right clothes and shoes for the city you will be visiting. You would plan for the funds you need to pay for your passage, accommodation, local travels, feeding, gifts, etc. Similarly, before embarking on an entrepreneurship journey, you must plan ahead and in detail what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve them. This is called planning and it may be a stretch, but it must be implementable.
Identifying Required Resources: A critical component of planning that needs separate mention is identifying resources that will be required for your business. Resources might include personnel, funds, equipment, approvals and licenses, etc. For each resource, you will need to know what quantum of it is required, when it is required where and by whom. You have to also know specifically how each will be acquired. Our country is littered with many business ventures that have been abandoned at some stage not because the business itself is not viable but because the promoters, for whatever reason, have not been able to provide some required resources to take it to success. At the end, they may end up forgoing a billion Naira sunk investment because they could not raise one hundred million Naira more! ‘Abandoned’ businesses and projects are a wasteful capital tie-up that do not make any returns and are at risk of depreciating into worthlessness.
The small, medium and large local companies that you see and admire are the on-going results of continuous anticipation, planning and execution by relentless entrepreneurs. You too can start from wherever you are now.
We are still on the soft issues of going entrepreneurial. Next week, on this Column, we will go a step further and take up how to identify business opportunities in ‘Entrepreneurship: Mapping the Environment for Opportunities’.
