1. How Do I know which Business to Start up? Ask yourself these questions: Where is your are passion; what are you currently strugging with that you cant seem to find the right service providers/suppliers in and around your community: Years ago I used to drive about 5kms to get a laundry service just for ironing. there was none available in my area over the weekends and during the week they worked odd hours which were totally inconvenient for my busy work schedule. The 5km closest laundry was the best available option at the time though they were not providing me with perfect and best service, they could not provide same-day service, did not do sorting of clothes,their ironing was not perfect especially on cotton,shirts and they were very terrible on children's clothes,often burning the imprints on them provided more headaches for me than relief. So whilst looking around and searching for a better service provider I came accross the news that the local laundry which I could not use was up for sale. I made the call and in less than a week, I was the proud and excited owner of The Queen's Laundry,which grew up to be very popular for service and setting the trends. I bought the Business for R15000 & that was 2001, turning R1000 on a quiet day.
2. When/What is the right time to start a Business?There is never a right time infact in my experience when I feel pressured I have been very productive,creative and I get results, as opposed to when Im in the comfort zone. There are things I have planned to do in life for a very long time but still have not done to this day because there is nothing that's pressuring me. A book I started scribbling as early as 2003/4 is still just that,a scribble to this day,I even doubt it will ever be properly arranged and finished, yet between 2017-2018 I have penned Four books and have also had time to arrange a page and turn it into a book. I wrote and completed my first book -This Is MyStory in two days non-stop and it took me another two weeks or so to re-arrange the chapters and edit. I was hurting and I had to leave a chapter of my life behind to embrace the new creation I have become,so cutting that umbilical cord was not easy but it had to happen, that was the needed pressure. So the academic theory of Planning and Strategic Planning does not always work even in a corporate environment,deals and opportunities are lost through the cumbersome processes & consultation & research & feasibility study , you know all those big english terms dont necessarily work in the same order not in entrepreneurship /Hussling ... the reverse order becomes the best
3. How do I know when it is time? In life "timing is everything" adage is mostly rhetoric. I have never seen a perfect moment in the Business and Corporate world,yet I have seen MORE lost opportunities because of reliance to this rhetoric, difference is that with corporates lost opportunities are not talked about but their impact show years after the incident/occurrence.
In entrepreneurship/hussler environment there is no luxury of waiting for perfect timing,you snooze you lose. So if you have an idea/urge to create or improve whats already existing do it immediately,do not delay,implement right away using whatever you have at your disposal and perfect it as you go along ,the rest will follow. This means dont waste for the "Business Plan, Feasibility Study or Market Research" etc, knowing that its not your specialty, get on with the implementation process, and let these other academic concepts be part of implementation or improvement process.
4. How Do I start?Unless you are copying/imitating somebody'vision,how you start implementing your own idea/vision should not be following a certain documented formula, rather it should be a template on its own.
Start with what you have ,and when looking at what you have do NOT under-estimate the biggest Asset you have viz. THE VISION itself, its very important and its central to everything that you do from this point. List everything that you are going to need to produce your final product WITHOUT mentioning money cause if you start with money chances are you will not start at all. lets make a simple example. if you are going to make fat cakes, make a list of the ingredients = Flour, Yeast,Salt, Milk , Oil, Heat; Next What do you have already amongst the 6, start ticking, if you have ingredients that do not have a tick, this is when you consider buying (hiring if its a service)them, and only at this point the money, but just enough money to get the ingredient you need,comes in on the list
5. When is the right time to grow/expand/diversify my business? WILL DEAL WITH THIS POINT LATER WHEN WE HAVE DEALT WITH THE BASICS
6. I have an idea, and a vision but I do not have Start-up Capital what do I do? Go to point 4, and if what you have money-wise is not enough for you to be able to afford paying for the ingredient you need consider a range of options: depending on what product or service you need the following could work out better:(a) Consider partnering with the service provider whose specialty service you require to come to your final product, partnering does not necessarily have to be a 50/50, you could offer partnering share equivalent to the contribution of the service/product to your final product/service. Invite other friends/colleagues/acquintances/community members or even your prospective customers to partner with,investing in your business for a percentage share or pre-orders at discounted prices,just for you to be able to break-even> make enough money to buy ingredients for this and the next batch
(b) Stokvel borrowing, if you are a member of Stokvel or knows some1 who is a member of one and that person is willing to vuch for you to get a loan from the Stokvel(c) Community funding= Crowd Funding, crowd fund for your concept,but do not give out all the details about your vision lest some people steal it cause there still are sharks out there, if you do not know how to crowd fund rather talk to a person that is experienced in this field/a Fundraiser that would be willing to do the service for you on a contigency basis, if the latter is the case be willing to accept the rate/percentage that the Fundraiser would charge, do not come with your own dictated rate/percentage, remember beggars cant be choosers and inthis instance you are a beggar so you do not get to dictate terms.7. I have applied for Funding but keep getting regrets from Funding institutions,where do I get Funding?
8. Go it alone or Partnering??
(a) Is partnering good/bad for the growth and success of my Business?
(b) How Do I choose partners?
(c) How Do I know which partners to choose that I can trust to push & pursue for the realisation of the Business vision even in my abscence?
(d) what should I expect from my Business partners?
9. Where do I get customers for my business?
10. I have a business idea,I have identified a market for it but,I dont have the skills to operate it, what do I do?
These are the first 10 Questions we will be dropping PRACTICAL Tips/Advices on in our first SMME-Business Column in eMthonjeni this week.
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Re-Invent Yourself...Invest In Your Ideas...Grow Your Business...Make It Work