Happy New Year!
(Smiles!), As a part-time seer (smiles again), I can see you wondering why I am wishing you a “Happy New Year” in November…
I will tell you later, let’s go into our convo for today.
Speed.
Thriving in business means you are providing your solution or product in an easier way, cheaper or faster!
Of the three if you focus on creating a “Fast Solution” you will eventually find out that the elements of the other two have been built in.
At a time when everything has become “Instant”, even the things we don’t want in an “Instant” are now presented close to that, an example worthy of mention is our “a-la-carte” meals in Nigerian (emphasis on “Nigerian”, in other climes a-la-carte means something different) restaurants where you chill, sip a drink and read a book while you wait for that your favourite soup to be cooked fresh, this is no longer the case as these restaurants now pre-cook the different components of the soup as the culture of getting things fast has slipped into every aspect of our lives.
The need for speed when building a business now in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized, getting your solution faster to the customers can be a vital advantage, in fact, “Faster Speed of Execution” is a currency.
I learned this from a mentor some years back and adopted it and in three years we built a company with three services worth some double-digit millions of dollars in valuation, let me tell you some of the things we did.
Last week, we discussed on partnerships, if you missed that please read here, partnerships give the advantage of extending the man-hours that get into your business and drive faster results as tasks get checked out in less time, a partnership is a delegation process, and it is a key strategic move.
Next is the “Do-it-now” principle, once ideas hit you as an entrepreneur, quickly review them with your “think tank” (every business lead should have one), itemize and proffer mitigation to the risks, tailor to the target market, and execute! Execute!!, Just do it! Make your mistakes, learn, pivot, or make better but by all means, Execute!, Nigeria is a 200-million-people country, trust me someone else is thinking of that idea, it is the first person who gets to the market that has the advantage.
Entrepreneurs leave money on the table by not creating multiple products across a value chain, Integrating backward or forward, or both. Let me explain, a fashion designer backward-integrates by selling fabrics and forward-integrates by selling shoes and accessories, this tactic ensures cash flow and cash flow is critical to business expansion and growth plans.
If you want to grow fast, you need other people’s money. Period. Drop this “I will do it all by myself so I can retain control mentality”, as the time ideas come to you, you may not have the funds to power it and if you don’t imbibe the culture and skill of fundraising and you are waiting until you have the funds, time will pass, and another person who is ready to do the needful will float that idea. If you don’t want to lose any control by giving equity, then raise funds as debt. A mentee whom I have been telling this for months but was resisting the idea for “fear of the unknown” recently reached out to me to say she now understands why “Other People’s Money” is important and sort for me to coach her on how to raise funds, If you are in this category and you want to learn the techniques and opportunities of fundraising in Nigeria for that your start-up or SME, send an email to info@edugist.org and we will organize a two-day one-on-one session for you (it’s not free o, but it will be subsidized for the first 10 Entrepreneurs to make contact)
Nigerian Entrepreneurs have a habit of spending all their profit since they believe they have earned it! some even spend profit from the capital before it is even earned! this is disastrous and is a prevalent cause of stunted growth, at a minimum 30% of your profit must be set aside for re-investment into the business, develop the discipline to do this.
It is one thing to earn income as a business, it’s another thing for that income to be drained by frivolous expenses, do you want to grow? adopt a lean approach to your business. Put simply, the more your business can retain income, the more opportunities for growth you can explore!
At Fate Foundation’s School of Entrepreneurship, which I attended some years back, a colleague took an iconic picture in one of the halls in front of a wall picture frame that read “Innovate or Die”! I am only going to share an iteration of this popular business saying; “Innovate to Grow”, a business that innovates continually across its processes is a business that grows!
Once again, Happy New Year! (Smiles!), let me tell you why I said this earlier, the best of us entrepreneurs by now (November) have at least the 1st and 2nd Quarter of 2024 planned out, they have had their strategy meetings for 2024, done their financial projections and budgeting, have their growth plans set. In order words they are already in 2024, it is to them I say, “Happy New Year”.
I see you scratching your head now wondering why you have not done this; well, it is somewhat late! But you can still do something, just do it! Yesterday you said tomorrow that tomorrow is today. Take this week and set your goals now, next week I will share a “litmus test” for those goals.
Your favourite seer,
Ugo.
