You have to be prepared both mentally and physically for business before you venture into business. Your mission must be absolutely clear if you have to achieve it. Do not rely on other people for your success because they do not have a responsibility to make you succeed in life. You should know that you are 100% responsible for your success. It is not advisable to venture into business if you do not have time to supervise your business. Starting a business is quite challenging and there are so many issues to consider including the following;
Your mission
The mission for your existence must be very clear to yourself and those you will deal with. Develop a plan to achieve your mission. It is not every business that can make you achieve your mission. Select a business in which you have both a blessing and at the same time you are interested in.
Committed to the business
Do not waste your time and resources to venture into business if you are not committed. Business has a lot of challenges and you have to be prepared to face them. You have to be prepared to fail many times in order to get the exposure you require in business. You must believe in your capacity to succeed in life.
Appropriate business form
You have to decide which business form to go for. You are free to operate as sole proprietor, partnership or company limited by shares. Each form has its own unique advantages and disadvantages which you have to carefully study. My personal advice is for you to start off with a company limited by shares as it gives you a lot of advantages. Do not get scared starting off as a sole proprietor if you cannot register a limited company in time. The good news so many successful entrepreneurs started as a sole proprietor.
Get proper profession advice
Do not assume that you know everything about what you are doing hence you do not see a need to engage professional advisors. You need an accountant to help you in feasibility study and business plan in order to confirm the viability of the project, a lawyer to help with the legal framework under which your business will operate. The number of professionals you need to engage will depend on the nature of your business and how you plan to implement it. You will need an architect if you plan to put up some structures.
The market you serving
If you produce goods or services for sale to potential customers, you have to be very sure of the market and the needs of potential customers you want to serve. You need to understand and appreciate the market very well in order to produce goods and services which meet the needs of the customers.
Pay attention to the business elements
To operate a success business the elements of process technology and people must be put in place and aligned. You have to make sure the processes for producing goods or services and transporting the same to the customers are in place. Technology will enable you to produce fast and at the same time ensure quality is adhered to. The people are the ambassadors of the company and you have to make sure that they understand their role. You have to recruit the right people at the very beginning.
Be prepared to be a student
Whatever you want to do some other people in the world have either done it successfully or totally failed in doing it. There are therefore free lessons to learn from those who have succeeded and those who failed. You will get reasons why people have either succeeded or failed in the similar business. Your situation may not be exactly the same but still there are plenty of lessons to learn. Do not fear to ask your colleagues in business to give advice where you find yourself stuck.
Do not be scared of making mistakes
In the process of being creative and innovative, you will try out so many things with aim of coming up with unique product or service. A number of trials will work to your satisfactions and others will totally fail. Do not get scared of failing as it through failing that we learn new ways of doing things. Remember you are a student in business and you are not expected to get right answers to all questions. You will fail those you do not know the answer and someone will finally tell you the rights answer.
Author
John Muhaise Bikalemesa
Director: Big Drum Advisory Services Limited
john.muhaise@bigdrumassociates.com
