It’s the year 2018 – it sounds like the opening line from a great sci-fi movie right? Any way, it’s the year 2018 and you’re still thinking about making ends meet. You have made several New Year resolutions in the past that never saw the light of day – perhaps due to procrastination and distractions, or a lack of the necessary follow-through required to make your resolutions a success story. The god of wishful thinking has still not supplied you with that jackpot contract. You still haven’t met that ‘ready-made’ guy/girl or wealthy politician with a signed blank cheque for you, and the government – as always has not delivered. So you finally decide to conquer laziness, procrastination, and wishful thinking and you’re thinking of what to do about your future.
It’s the year 2018, start that business you have always thought of and talked about. Perhaps you already have a business, but things are slow, or maybe you are already employed but your salary is barely enough to pay the bills and keep Mr. Landlord from harassing you, and you’re thinking of how to augment your income without resorting to stealing from the job, or worse, sleeping with the boss. Are you a house wife? – Sorry let me put it nicely, “stay at home mum”, and you’re thinking of how to make some extra income without relying on your husband’s handouts and the small money you save from purchasing household items? Are you a young graduate who has completed the National Youth Service Corps programme and your last Alawi was the last credit alert your bank account has received? Are you tired of typing, printing, submitting, or emailing your curriculum vitae to every office, uncle and aunty you know? Have you tried your hands at a business or businesses and failed? Are you frustrated at failure and stagnation to the point of physically pulling out your hair, or weave? If you answered in the affirmative then you should invest the 6 minutes it takes to read this article.
My advice to you is to use that frustration as a fuel to propel yourself out of the financial hole you are in. I know, I know, it’s easier said than done right? But sometimes all you need is knowledge, inspiration, and motivation. If you happen to be one of those people who lack the inspiration and motivation to get out of bed in the morning, and you’re reading this article on your phone while lying snuggly in the warmth and comfort of your bed on a week day – then let the following questions kick you out of that bed.
1.Are you satisfied with where you are in life financially?
2.Where do you see yourself in the next five years – doing what you’re
currently doing?
3.Can you afford to fend for yourself doing what you’re currently doing – pay
the rent, bills, buy food, clothes and so on without hand outs?
4.Are you the sole heir to a ‘Gajillion’ dollar inheritance or do you have any
kind of sizable inheritance to look forward to?
If your answers to the above questions are in the negative, then consider yourself literally kicked in the behind. Do something, start a business, not just any business, but the right business that is suited to the unique gifts, talents and skills that you have. Even if your answer to question 4 above is ‘Yes’, and you will in fact someday inherit great wealth, you should know that to maintain and grow wealth is just as difficult as gathering or building it. You don’t want to end up a pauper haven tasted the good life; just ask the prodigal son, or watch the movie ‘Trading places’. There are some places you don’t want to be literally or financially. It’s like falling off a horse on a journey and having to walk the rest of the way, or when you can’t afford to fuel your car and you have to walk around telling people lies like “Am just trying to lose weight”, Yeah, right.
If you’re already employed or running your own business then you need to ‘diversify your investment portfolio’ – as the economic experts say, I bet some people don’t even know what is or how to spell ‘investment’ and ‘portfolio’ let alone ‘diversify’ it. Simply put it means to have multiple/alternative streams or sources of income. These alternative streams of income will help you to augment any shortfalls and deal with your personal day to day expenses, like transportation, fuel, food, recharge card/data for you and your girlfriend, personal grooming and so on; while you use your main income for long-term savings and settling of bigger issues, like how to pay that throat cutting dowry your future in-laws are demanding for the hand of their daughter in marriage.
We all want to be successful in business, but this success means different things to different people. You need to define what success means to you and understand how and what you need to do in-order to achieve it. Minda Zetlin in the article posted on Inc.com, titled Here’s How Steve Jobs Defined Success. How about You? – outlined different factors by which people define success:
1.Influence: Wide spread consumer acceptance. This when a company named after a
fruit pioneers cutting edge electronic devices and soft ware, thus becoming a
global financial phenomenon, churning billions of dollars in annual revenue.
2.Reach: How many people buy your products/visit your website/read or watch your
blog or vlog?
3.Metrics: Customer base, Key Performance Indexes (KPIs).
4.Approval: People approval of you, your products or business. This translates
into demand and sales for your business.
5.Happiness: The usual measure of success that indicates your level of
satisfaction. This doesn’t mean you should be satisfied with low performance
standards just so you can pretend you’re happy.
6.Money: Some measure success in money, others see it (money) as a byproduct of
success. As an entrepreneur the measure of your company’s success is in how
much money you’re making. So if money is your measure of success, how much
does it take to be successful?
Zig Ziglar defines success in terms of financial security to meet obligations and provide for your family after you are gone. I bet the thought of your wife and kids – God forbid, being stranded financially after your demise is a kick in the rare. I personally believe that success in life or business involves the following:
1.Opportunities: Recognizing when they come – and trust me they will come.
Sometimes the opportunity comes when you least expect, like that Federal
Safety Corps checkpoint that suddenly appears around the corner when you are
not wearing your seat belt. If you’re lucky the opportunity will announce
itself long before hand and give you time to prepare, like the examinations
time table that comes out months or weeks ahead.
2.Preparation: Success is being prepared when opportunities come. You are so
prepared you can’t wait for it to show up, and when it does, you seize it by
the horns like the proverbial bull and scream “mine, mine, all mine!”
Success in business requires persevering through challenges. Don B. Owens said “Nothing great is created suddenly, be patient give it time”. John Mason in the book Let go of whatever holds you back writes, you may and will likely fail and suffer some setbacks at the beginning, don’t give up just yet. According to Zig Ziglar failure is only an event, you should expect the best and prepare for the worst, but capitalize on what comes. My advice to you is to understand why and how you failed, and what you can do to improve and avoid similar mistakes in the future.
When dealing with the challenges and failure in business keep two things in mind, first there things within your sphere of influence which you can exercise control over – in order to improve your business; such as business hours, how you relate to your customers and so on. Say for example you have a lazy and rude employee, who also happens to be family member or relative, you can exercise control over the negative situation they create at work like Al Pacino in The god father I, and get rid of that employee to save your business. So if your wife asks why you fired her sister or brother, just go Michael Corleone-mode on her and say “It’s not personal honey, it’s strictly business”. Now I cannot guarantee the outcome of that conversation and the peace (or lack thereof) to follow in your matrimonial home, but am just saying.
Secondly there are things beyond your sphere of influence that can negatively impact on the success of your business, like economic depression, inflation, high interest rates, insecurity, the laws of demand and supply, and lest I forget my personal favorite – the weather. Like that august rain that comes with no warning and pours non-stop on the construction site just after the cement has been mixed, and you still have to pay the workers for work not done at the end of the day, leaving you at a loss of time/schedule and money (Story for another day). Anyway, generally these are things that make you wish you could get on a rocket ship and fly away to outer space and never ever…ever come back. The point am trying to make is that you shouldn’t worry about these things – they will come to pass, hopefully sooner than later.
I guess by now the big question on your mind is “what kind of business should I engage in?” There are numerous businesses that can be broadly categorized under manufacturing/industry, retail trade, food services, construction, information technology services and so on. I believe there are two ways to figure this out:
- Think of a solution to a problem: Simon Sinek an author and motivational
speaker said “Successful businesses are ones that find solutions to
problems.” So you need to first identify a problem in your locality, school,
or neighborhood, then see an opportunity, and proffer a solution for which
you can charge money. Back when I was in school doing my masters in
Architecture, the greatest problem we had as students was meeting deadlines
for design presentations – the problem; I saw a business opportunity, which I
exploited by providing students with a way to meet the deadlines –the
solution. The solution I provided came at a cost – my profit (story for
another article). Trevor Noah in the book Born a Crime, wrote about his
business exploits in school. He saw the problems – there was no cafeteria in
the school so students had to run to a tuck shop and queue to buy the limited
food available, you could miss lunch and play time if you were late. The
opportunity – Trevor was fast on his feet, which uniquely qualified him to
exploit the business opportunity he saw. The solution – he charged students
money to get their lunch for them in time. His best customers were the fat
kids.
- What are you good at? : Perhaps you have a hobby, passion, skill or talent,
think thus, “How can I turn this into money?” Your gifts and talents are
usually pointers into your area of calling, and you ultimately prosper in
your calling. A few things in life are as fulfilling as being paid for what
you enjoy doing. So what you do is acquire relevant materials to develop
yourself in that talent/skill, study what others have done, acquire necessary
equipment and tools, and basically invest your time, resources, and energy
into capacity building – skill development.
For example you have an eye for fashion, or you like gossiping, or applying copious amounts of make up on your face to look pretty or hide some natural features, or perhaps you like attending weddings uninvited, may be even all of the above. Then this is how you can turn your leisure ventures into profitable business ventures:
– Gossiping: Start a blog
-Fashion trendy: Clothing line, tailoring business, retail.
– Makeup: Beauty shop
– Crashing weddings: Photography, blog and so on.
If you put all of the above together you get a business venture that caters to wedding couples (the clients), providing them with fashionable wedding attires, makeup, and photo coverage. Of course you will need other things like startup capital, a team, networking, and so on, (Story for another article). So whatever your interest is you can turn it into a successful business.
In subsequent articles, if ever get around to it- I’ll be discussing about some keys, guidelines and strategies for a starting and running a successful business. These will include (but not be limited) to the following:
1.Knowing the kind of person you are, and how that relates to the kind of
business suited for you.
2.How to write a business plan and map out the developmental strategies for
your business. Where to start from, your target market and so on.
3.Knowing your business competition.
4.How to study and adopt and improve upon the success strategies of other
businesses and avoid their mistakes.
5.How to raise start-up capital for your business, and so on.
I hope these words have inspired and motivated you to do something. It’s 2018 for crying out loud!
ArchitectSly 