DOES BIZ SUCCESS END WITH PREPARATION OF BIZ PLAN?
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- Category: SME toolkit
- Written by with Bridget Olotu
- Hits: 643
This is one important question I’ve been asked by many people at different times. Many people are interested in what makes for business success whether in the university or industry.
A lot of research is going on in this regard too. There is this journalist in Lagos who always seeks to find out from me what small businesses should do to succeed. Whenever she is to write on small business issues in the area of challenges and possibilities facing them, she calls me up to provide her with some hint and industry information. As a matter of fact, as I write, I have a client in the food and beverages industry who after we had prepared his business plan wanted us to implement/manage the project for him.Even though, we offer some level of oversight functions and corporate interventions for businesses, we were curious to know why he wanted us to do this for him. And his reply was as quick as it was short. He said he wanted us to manage the business for him because he didn’t want to make mistakes in the business. A week ago I was privileged to be one of the speakers at the Nigeria Entrepreneurship Workshop (NEW) an initiative between Oxford Brooks University (UK), Burgundy Business School (France) and selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It was hosted by the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. The tone of discourse also rallied around making small businesses a success in Nigeria and redefining the face of entrepreneurship education, while giving young people the training, mentoring and exposure necessary for them to build successful business ideas.
Why have I given these examples? I have given them to show you the reader the concern of most people in business and even those that write on business about what a business should do and/or know to succeed. I also intend deconstructing some fallacies held in some quarters about business success. These fallacies are that:
• Writing a business plan automatically positions a business for success;
• You just need enough funds to start, run and manage a business to make it a success;
• Planning may not be important to succeed, all you need are a business idea, funds and massive action and you’ll succeed;
• All you need is a location for your business where people can see what you’re selling and pronto, you’ll be smiling to the bank;
• A belief that in business three things are important: one, the entrepreneur; two, the entrepreneur; and three, the entrepreneur.
• A spend-as-you-like mentality that makes you spend as much as you earn from the business;
• The market doesn’t care about the quality, genuineness and usefulness of your product/service as long as the price is right;
• Profit is the A – Z of business success; and many others.
The truth is, all the points listed above are perceptions, preconceptions or perspectives held in some quarters. But they are mere fallacies. My reasons are as follows:
• A business plan is only a document. Without the commitment of the promoter, those working with and for him and other important factors, the business plan, on its own, cannot transform the business.
• Having the funds to start a business is not the be-all and end-all of business success. It is one of the essential requirements.
• The business idea, funds and massive action are not enough to achieve business success without adequate planning and management of resources.
• The location of a business is one of the important factors in marketing, but that is not the only thing. There are things an enterprise should do and be doing in the area of marketing and sales to take the business to the next level.
• Aside the entrepreneur, there are important stakeholders in the business and achieving stakeholder satisfaction should be the target of any forward-looking business.
• You can’t be richer than your business and be a wealthy man. Your business must be richer than you to take care of you and your needs for a long time to come. This is the difference between businesses in the third world and businesses in the first world.
• Your business can never succeed if it does not RESPECT and ADDRESS the desires, needs and satisfaction of your target market.
• SMEs must begin to develop the triple bottom-line of planet, people and profit, like its multinational counterparts do now, to earn and justify their license to operate in their communities.
Therefore, my concern is to take us through an eleven-article expose that would treat these issues. These will include marketing, planning and resource management, management and people skills, visionary leadership development, talent hiring and management, the need to become a learning organisation, training and manpower development, negotiation skills, effective customer service delivery system and CSR development for SMEs. Let’s make it a date then.
DOES BIZ SUCCESS END WITH PREPARATION OF BIZ PLAN?
Category: SME toolkit Written by with Bridget Olotu Hits: 643
This is one important question I’ve been asked by many people at different times. Many people are interested in what makes for business success whether in the university or industry.
A lot of research is going on in this regard too. There is this journalist in Lagos who always seeks to find out from me what small businesses should do to succeed. Whenever she is to write on small business issues in the area of challenges and possibilities facing them, she calls me up to provide her with some hint and industry information. As a matter of fact, as I write, I have a client in the food and beverages industry who after we had prepared his business plan wanted us to implement/manage the project for him.Even though, we offer some level of oversight functions and corporate interventions for businesses, we were curious to know why he wanted us to do this for him. And his reply was as quick as it was short. He said he wanted us to manage the business for him because he didn’t want to make mistakes in the business. A week ago I was privileged to be one of the speakers at the Nigeria Entrepreneurship Workshop (NEW) an initiative between Oxford Brooks University (UK), Burgundy Business School (France) and selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It was hosted by the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. The tone of discourse also rallied around making small businesses a success in Nigeria and redefining the face of entrepreneurship education, while giving young people the training, mentoring and exposure necessary for them to build successful business ideas.
Why have I given these examples? I have given them to show you the reader the concern of most people in business and even those that write on business about what a business should do and/or know to succeed. I also intend deconstructing some fallacies held in some quarters about business success. These fallacies are that:
• Writing a business plan automatically positions a business for success;
• You just need enough funds to start, run and manage a business to make it a success;
• Planning may not be important to succeed, all you need are a business idea, funds and massive action and you’ll succeed;
• All you need is a location for your business where people can see what you’re selling and pronto, you’ll be smiling to the bank;
• A belief that in business three things are important: one, the entrepreneur; two, the entrepreneur; and three, the entrepreneur.
• A spend-as-you-like mentality that makes you spend as much as you earn from the business;
• The market doesn’t care about the quality, genuineness and usefulness of your product/service as long as the price is right;
• Profit is the A – Z of business success; and many others.
The truth is, all the points listed above are perceptions, preconceptions or perspectives held in some quarters. But they are mere fallacies. My reasons are as follows:
• A business plan is only a document. Without the commitment of the promoter, those working with and for him and other important factors, the business plan, on its own, cannot transform the business.
• Having the funds to start a business is not the be-all and end-all of business success. It is one of the essential requirements.
• The business idea, funds and massive action are not enough to achieve business success without adequate planning and management of resources.
• The location of a business is one of the important factors in marketing, but that is not the only thing. There are things an enterprise should do and be doing in the area of marketing and sales to take the business to the next level.
• Aside the entrepreneur, there are important stakeholders in the business and achieving stakeholder satisfaction should be the target of any forward-looking business.
• You can’t be richer than your business and be a wealthy man. Your business must be richer than you to take care of you and your needs for a long time to come. This is the difference between businesses in the third world and businesses in the first world.
• Your business can never succeed if it does not RESPECT and ADDRESS the desires, needs and satisfaction of your target market.
• SMEs must begin to develop the triple bottom-line of planet, people and profit, like its multinational counterparts do now, to earn and justify their license to operate in their communities.
Therefore, my concern is to take us through an eleven-article expose that would treat these issues. These will include marketing, planning and resource management, management and people skills, visionary leadership development, talent hiring and management, the need to become a learning organisation, training and manpower development, negotiation skills, effective customer service delivery system and CSR development for SMEs. Let’s make it a date then.