For Successful Business People

Successful people's pick

 
As I interact and brainstorm with business owners and entrepreneurs, I have come to discover that it is an all time more difficult venture being an entrepreneur in Kenya. They have always listed a number of challenges affecting their ventures and sought advice on the possible solutions in vain.
Overcoming business challenges

During the last workshop where we were taking SMEs through website management, many SMEs wanted to know whether they had hit the bottom, showing any progress and identifying the possible reasons for their inability to overcome their business challenges.
Looking at some of their challenges, making predictions on the solutions to their problems is an uphill undependable task. Although the Kuzabiashara portal is here to assist the SME fraternity, there are some challenges that we might not have addressed here in.

I met this entrepreneur that claims that he does his work according to an order he made before establishing the business. Now, considering the technological evolution and economic changes, this strategy in my opinion is a flop. This will call for analysis on the financial state and income of the business, sales, profits and customer base but with relation to the existing economic and technological status.

These are dynamic factors that are most likely a hindrance on the business performance in the near future. It is a challenge to the business owner since they may end up focusing on the business returns instead of focusing on growth and investments.

Business environment

On the other hand, entrepreneurs and small business owners have been talking of a change in the business environment. However, further probe indicates that few of them know what this means to their business. This is closely tied to the future business plans since upcoming business owners tend to make business arrangements in line to the prevailing techno-economic environment. In such a case, they end up disappointed as they find it difficult to bear with the changes in the business environment.

To come up with a solution to the possible problems in the business environment, as an entrepreneur, one needs to have various plans and alternative options. You need to have the ‘what if” mentality since this will be acting as a shield whenever business goes wrong. The “What if’ mentality is important since having it in your organizational structure gives you an alternative option.

As we went through the Kuzabiashara website with an entrepreneur during the workshop, he would look at a business I considered average and commented on the profitability of the said business. He on the other hand did not know that I considered his business bigger that the one he considered big.

Appearance and marketing.

As a business owner, you need to know that appearance and reality are two different things. You however need to concentrate on your core business and seek to discover better ways of doing that which you already know, observe your competitors and do something different, look for ways through which you can change or improve your business since someone out there is looking at your business and envying you. 

You need to know that different companies ride on different managerial paths and that it is difficult to successfully follow in the actions of another company hoping that it will as well work for yours. Consider your own strengths, client base and financial might as this is a better path as through this, you will be able to understand revenue, and reduce steps that are most likely going to lead you to losses.  

Entrepreneurial Learning:

As an entrepreneur, you need to identify managerial issues within the organization, find challenges affecting your business performance and seek solutions to them. You have to understand that issues within your business are similar to those bigger firms face. You therefore need to have a second plan on standby always so that this can cushion you whenever things go awry.