₦airaland Forum

DO YOU WANT TO START A BUSINESS?
Starting a business could be so frightening! Sometimes, this is not because we lack a sound business idea. Sorry, you would have not just been sure of how to go about starting. You are not alone in this mist; nearly all great entrepreneurs once wondered how to start. They brood over their idea again, and again, night after night. Then, eventually, they got started.
You too can turn this idea in your head into a massive successful business!
Here is what you have to do:
1) PLAN: Starting a business indeed starts with having an idea of the value you want to add to your circle (or community). Most times, people feel a business starts with money, NO! A business (a company) starts in your head. That idea in your head is already good for the start. When you have an idea, take some time to put it on paper. Putting your idea on paper helps you to give it a structure or an order. It is like someone who wants to build a house. Luke 14:28 say: 'Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it?' This is beautiful! You see, you don't need to necessary have an MBA to plan out your idea. Go ahead and make a simple note of all the things you feel the business would needs. Where would you find buyers for the product or service. Which place is best for locating the business, and why? How can you get capital to power this idea? Your idea does not start with getting funds or working capital. Like labour, location, development of the product or service (branding), working capital is only a part of the business. Don't allow the absence of capital to tie down this beautiful idea in your head. Go ahead and plan, then money will come. Planning, therefore, helps you see all you need to power the idea and where to find them.
2) CREATE A STRUCTURE & MANAGE IT: After you have planned, the next phase would be to begin to gather all you need. Do you need to build a team to achieve this start? or can you start alone and then have others join you later? It is important that you have a timeline (or Milestone). Have you ever heard about Lead Time? Delays may emerge, yes… But you must not allow them to stop you! Business comes with challenges, it is normal. So don't run like a headless chicken because a challenge has emerged. What makes you a manager is your ability to sort out things. Go ahead and nail this thing.
You see, you must stop thinking that a business has to start with a big office, a big company car, or a registered company. All those things will come.
Kator Hule (WeClean) writes from Makurdi
He is nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year. Voting is ongoing here:
http://benueyouthchoiceawards.gistpartner.com/vote-now/
Email: huleak@gmail.com

The Biggest Challenges I have come across as a Young Entrepreneur


Entrepreneurship is relatively new in Nigeria, unlike in places like the United States where in the far back 1860s and 70s great minds such as John D. Rockefeller, a very young man indeed, back then (barely 26 years old) rose to become America's richest man at 33. Andrew Carnegies came to the US from Scotland to become another entrepreneurial giant, leading the steel industry when he was less than 30 years old. Then, there were the Henry Folds, the Thomas Edisons, and the Vanderbilts. Those where people that stood up in the days when the world was in complete darkness; when there was no electricity, no GSM, no computers, no smart cars, no supersonic aircrafts. It took months for communication to be established between people in neighbouring towns. Those young men saw light in their minds, saw solutions that laid the foundation to what we now call a modern world! They dared to come out of the dark! And, that is what entrepreneurship is all about; driving key changing solutions that end up making our world a better place to be. These solutions could be in building rockets that help humans to land on the moon, at the precision of seconds. Or it could be in making simple things such as food better for people to enjoy. It could be in coming up with better ways to make people enjoy health. In fact, entrepreneurship is about picking the day-to-day challenges we faces as humans (of course, including animals and the environment), creating solutions, making things easier, more comfortable, better, better, and better. So, yes, entrepreneurs could be inventors, initiators, and possibly fund converters to solutions. I don't think an entrepreneur has to drop from space, wearing a golden face, or having wings. We have challenges everywhere around us, from education, to housing, to health, to the air we inhale, to the clothes we wear, to more. As much as human beings continue to have basic and fundamental needs, there will be need for solutions. And those who think through enough, who dare to come up with solutions, who seek and harness resources, who create values, who make others enjoy their lives, those who stay awake night after night to make sure we all enjoy the things we enjoy, those, to me, are entrepreneurs. If for example, you have a university somewhere, like most local universities in Nigeria, where students are not able to enjoy good accommodation facilities, and you decide to say ok, let's see how we can make this guys enjoy better rests after hectic classes. You may decide to come up with an idea about mobile hostels. Whatsoever this may mean, you could be so obsessed with it that it would give you sleepless nights. You could decide to start a mobile vehicle servicing and maintenance shop to check and fix people's vehicles while they are in the offices so they don't get to have problems when driving home from work. Maybe, it could be electricity you want to provide; to make sure every home in Nigeria enjoys 24 hours light across the weeks by year 2020. And, interestingly, you would so believe in this crazy-head thing so much that you would not even want to wait for the government to help before you start. For me, this is where entrepreneurship starts; the confidence that no solution is too big for you to create, no value too large to deliver. (You don't necessarily have to be an Albert Einstein to become an entrepreneur, I mean).
But entrepreneurship comes with great challenges, especially in startup countries like ours. If you want to count the cost, you will never want to start a building. Donald Trump once recognized that an entrepreneur has to be smart, has to have a vision, has to have several of those different things. But, he said, the most successful people in life are the people that have the right idea but never, ever, quite or give up! I agree with Trump. The list of challenges seem endless, fearful, and insurmountable. But whatsoever it is you want to start, someone once overcame such before. Remember, there was a time when people thought it was completely impossible to have a writing pen. They had to dip feathers in inks to write! Someone decided to end that with the rolling ball pen. Someone else decided to put people on a board and fly them kilometres high in the skies, from distant countries, in shortest possible times. Of course, there are solutions to your fears; one of them could be that you could become an entrepreneur by leveraging on an existing platform- what is called franchising.
Here are five challenges you could face, when just venturing into entrepreneurship.
1. FEAR
The fear of starting is one of the greatest killers of our dreams. Nearly everybody has an idea in his or her head. In fact, every sane person does have an idea. What most people lack is the courage to START. They are afraid of starting and failing. This is a killer. It was one of my greatest limitations, years ago. Even though I had won the YouWiN and had millions of naira in my bank account, I was afraid of starting something and failing, then giving people something to talk about. But really, people will always have something to talk about (even if you are doing so well). You could hear stuff like 'Na juju'. Terrible talk flies around, especially among idle people. Get up, get doing. Forget people. Focus on your dreams, your results, and the joy of succeeding. In my coming book, Breaking the Financial Codes of Poverty, I offered a solution to how you can start stuff easily. Here is it: START. The 'S', I feel should be Strategy. When an idea enters your head, don't jump and begin. No! Find people who are doing a similar or same thing, talk to them. See where they have challenges. See how you could make things better than what is obtainable currently. Can you make things cheaper? Can your consumers or customers have more comfort? Can you get it to them faster? Could there be a way that someone else can pay for it making it almost free for end users? A strategy will help you position your product or services with better advantages when you enter the market. So, at this phase, you have to do your research properly and come up with a sustainable plan on how you can run and win. 'T' is Time. Timing is almost everything. After you have developed a strategy around your idea, draw a timeline (what is sometimes called a Milestone). When is it the best time to enter the market with your product? What should you start with? How can you sustain the business in, say, three, five or ten years? How can the business continue even when you are gone? Timing will help you to create a structure that must work for your idea. 'A' is 'Attract.' Attract resources. How much finances do you need? Where can you get it? How can you get it? What labour or raw materials do you need? Where are they? How can you get the best team to assist you build this idea into reality. How can they believe in your idea and make it theirs or want to put in their best to make it succeed? Know this; any idea in the world can win, if you attract the right resources to run it. The best idea in the world can fail, if the wrong resources run it. Believe me. It is true. 'R' standards for 'Re-evaluate' or 'Review'. After you must have had everything you thought is needed, hold on a bit and check through again! Do you really need all the raw materials and people you have assemble for a team? Is there a way you can reduce cost, by running with a little less but even so getting far better results? Do you remember what it says too many cooks spoilt the soup? So do you need all the cooks now that you are just starting or would you want to step some down just for a while then have them join later? If you are sure everything is alright, then, 'Take off'! Don't wait any more! START!
One of the mistakes we all love making is to try to start something that will sake the whole world down. We want to start at the level of the Bill Gates and the Dangotes. We want to start something that everyone should marvel at. Sadly, sometimes we do this experiment with loaned money! For a business you have not ventured in before, have no idea if it will ever succeed? I made this mistake myself. In 2012, I started a crayfish processing and packaging company (at that place where we have WeClean today). I went spending millions on renovating a building, building a fence, fixing all manner of tiles, planting flowers, making a catchy office, fixing powerful ACs, creating an ambient impression around the office. What did a catchy office have to do with packaged crayfish? Wasn't important. It was a waste! I did not need POPs, and screed walls to package crayfish. I did not need some of the machines I got. I was moving blindly. In the end, I had difficulties.
So, to become an entrepreneur, you must not start with an AC office, a posh car, a swivel chair, a TV on the wall, and a bottle of Champaign in the fridge. If these add to the value you want to create, then it's ok. If not, start under the tree in front of your landlords house. And, don't mind what your neighbours will say, please…
2. Lack of Examples and Mentors
mentors are like angels! We need them. You see, if you are a young person just starting out in business, you could have had so much energy, drive, passion, (maybe money too) and even focus. But you do not have experience. Experience comes with time. There is a way to gain experience fast; by walking with people that went that way before you. If you are a Christian, for example, you will be familiar with the story of the transfiguration where Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus to encourage him at a point. They came to mentor him, really; assuring him of God's faithfulness; because they had passed through earthen life and God did not fail them. You see? Even Jesus needed mentors! He needed the right encouragement to succeed. In fact, there was no time when angels where not bringing him encouragement, the Holy Book claims. Don't start off as a one man winner. Helloooo! No try am! Don't travel that road alone.
Do you know that your mentors must not necessarily be white bearded men speaking with cracking voices? It could be someone at your age, or even less- who has gone a way ahead, seen more, and is willing to share the experience with you.
3. Managing Resources
Managing people and money are some of the toughest assignments on earth. It's like keeping yams with goats, and expecting no harm. People love money, and money loves disappearing. But as an effective manager of resources, you have to make sure that both stay together and all grow. Sometimes, you become your own money thief. You take from money that is supposed to grow. You eat from a planted money!
There is this important thing we sometimes take for granted; handling people. People have emotions. They have hearts, not stones. We love been the CEOs! The bosses. But must great businesses are built by great teams, not great bosses. Your team of staff are what is called your internal customers. They are the first to buy your idea before outsiders can. Do you understand?
4. Market Forces
You have to know how your customers behave. Kenyans have fully embraced Mobile Money. They are doing well in that line. In Nigeria, we are slow to accept such high-tech advancement. Please, let us be. We will catch up over time. Until then, keep giving us simplified solution that we already understand or can afford to relate with.
What I am say is this; Nigerians are though people to bend. (Well, it's not just a Nigerian thing). Don't sink in money into an idea simple because you feel over excited about it. You may not know that in the whole wide world, it is only you who wants to buy that! Know your market.
5. Money; Accessing Business Funds
Have you ever heard someone say, money is not the most important thing needed to run a business? It could be true. But not entirely. Money is the life blood of a business. Money, cash, is very important. In Nigeria, people are reluctant to fund idea. They prefer to fund success story. Banks are so guilty of this. Until you begin to do well, no one wants to believe in you. It is not nice. But you have to face it. Somehow, you must not let this super idea in your head follow you to your grave. You have to get it out, and let it run. If you must succeed as an entrepreneur, much depends on your push. Benjamin Franklin once said: "All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." Find yourself somewhere in the three.
One last thing; I have been nominated for 2017 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR by BENUE YOUTHS CHOICE AWARDS. Could you spare just a minute to vote for me here: http://benueyouthchoiceawards.gistpartner.com/vote-now/. Check for Kator Hule under Entrepreneurs of the Year.

Kator Hule.
Makurdi, Nigeria.
Phone: +2347066386425
Email: huleak@gmail.com
January, 2017