Sunday 12 May 2013

What business can I do?


I said last week that we would continue with how you can become an entrepreneur. Some people might expect me to first of all lay the background of business principles needed for successful entrepreneurship; but because some of the principles are as varied as the businesses each one of us might be interested in, we will visit them later.

From my interactions with entrepreneurs as well as hours of interviewing some successful ones, I wish to state from the onset that you should perish the thought that money is the first or most important thing needed to set up a business. I once asked a friend what  business he would float if I gave him N200,000.00 he replied that he didn’t know. I upped the money to N500,000.00 and he still wasn’t sure. He only gave me a ‘maybe’ answer after I increased it to N1,000,000.00. This simply shows the indecisiveness of the capital-seeking would-be entrepreneur. We need to first settle on the business we want to do before we start to gather the resources (money is only one of them) needed to set it up.

Also, I suggest that you don’t choose a business because it is a cash cow, a money-spinner or whatever you choose to call it. Neither should you choose a business because it’s in line with what you studied at school (sounds like blasphemy, right?)

‘So how do I choose the right business for me?’

One way I personally suggest is choosing based on your strong passion or a strong aversion. This is because any other motivation that does not come from deep inside you, like the fantasy of potential profits, is likely to wane in the heat of adversity and men there is plenty of adversity in entrepreneurship!

It could either be a strong passion or aversion for a person or persons, a thing or even a place. Let’s examine a few so you can see how I mean.


Strong Passion
Type
Item
Different Entrepreneurial Expressions
Person
Kids       
write or sell children books, organize camps for kids, open a crèche, sell children clothes
Thing
Food
open a catering school, sell foodstuff, collect recipes and publish them on your blog, a food critique with columns in well circulated magazines.

Place
Picturesque scenes
professional photography; landscaping; grow, sell and export flowers; events décor.




This list is by no means designed to be exhaustive; rather it is only instructive on how to choose your business based on what you have a strong passion for. (It also does not discuss how to make money from your expression). The focus today is to find what you are passionate about and the means to share that passion with others. The entrepreneurial expression is where you differ from those who love what you love and you must settle on what your own expression is. Like a respected blogger, Lance Wallnau writes, ‘Never stop to find your own authentic voice, others have similar talent but they don’t have your story’.

Let’s go to the aversion side

Strong Aversion
Type
Item
Different Entrepreneurial Expressions
Person
Frumpy folks
clothes designer and seller, makeup artist, cosmetologist, modeling, manicurist, hairstylist, fashion competition organizer
Thing
Traffic jams
online real time road traffic directory, set up chopper ferry business, home/office delivery business etc

Place
Filthy environs
host a website directory where apartment scouters can get decent houses, excrement or waste disposal business, plastic recycling plant etc

                                                                               

Again, the key is to find what you hate enough to pray that God will not visit it on your enemies. And then find how to help others avoid it.

Assignment: Find one thing you love so much and one that you have a strong dislike for. Find three entrepreneurial expressions for them.

4 comments:

  1. Excellent. Where's the follow icon?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for pointing that out. My Bad! I have activated the 'follow by email' icon. Will do same for facebook and twitter.

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  2. Nice, really nice.

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