Starting and Growing a Business.

Hello friends I hope you enjoyed the last post "Lessons from my son". I must confess that he keeps opening my mind to deep things to learn from, which means you should expect more "Lessons from my son".

I was invited to speaking at a beauty training that was organized by Swan Beauty- http://swanbeautyplace.blogspot.com (One of the best make over outfits in Nigeria today) in March, 2013. I was asked to talk on "starting and growing a business". I guess I was recommended because of the numerous counsels and push(s) I have offered the founder in the past, coupled with an MBA and numerous marks gotten from experience being in business.

I have shared briefly below some of the contents of my presentation at the event. I hope you find it helpful.

What is a business? A business is a venture you commit to with the purpose of having a reward. A reward could vary from money to self worth (feeling of satisfaction), customer satisfaction (seeing a customer or client happy), busy-ness (being busy) etc
 It is good to have a good approach towards monetary rewards before starting any business. This is because the monetary reward is usually a cause of success or failure.
Below are two approaches to have about Money for business success.
 1. "Monetary Reward as Profits should not be the sole purpose of starting a business but it should be a yard stick for measuring progress". Money should not be the main reason why a business is started or operating because it never helps the investor have the right outlook for the business. It also limits one's objectivity in terms of decision making. However, it is a very important aspect of the business that should not be neglected because it is a good measure of progress for the business. Money helps to determine your profit and growth. It could also be a measure of the quality of your service or product. If you adopt this approach, the following will be observed:
 - you will know you are making progress as your profit increases.
- you will know your value with clients when they are willing to pay so much for your service/ product. - you will make decisions objectively which will positively expand and strenghten the business.

 2. You are in business to "make money"(it is not a Non Government Organisation) but "making money" doesn't drive you to do business. This may sound contradicting to the point above but it isn't. This nugget should keep you from being lackadiasical about money. You will actually have a healthy balance for money and keep your relationship with people over money in its right perspective. Making money shouldn't drive your business but making money is what you should always try to do. Whatever job you are doing, you should try to make some profit from it even if it is family/friend. You may want to give a discount or special service but do make some money(profit) for every job you do. There are a few other things that should also drive you, which include- customer satisfaction, quality delivery, brand integrity (a good name) even on time quality delivery. If making money alone drives you through business, the following will likely happen:

 - you will lose more than you think you are gaining (most times the brand leaves a wrong impression in people's mind)
- you will lose friends, families, network opportunities (turning down jobs because of a reduction in your net profit or even over billing could close a future network) -
- you will lose money (deals that can bring some immediate or future income) and experience (opportunity to do more jobs).

 An important tip to consider when you want to start and grow a business.

 "Start Small, be professional and Grow Big". It is usual consideration to start big and probably compete with long standing and experienced competitors but it is never the best decision. There is nothing wrong with starting at a pace that can accomodate your immediate resources while you aspire to be bigger and work towards it. This is not to accommodate incompetetence or a lackadaisical approach but to make sure you are moderate and realistic in your objective. You should be consistently professional from the start and make sure you keep at it. It will mean paying attention to details and following your proffesion's ethics. With passion, commitment, hardwork, professionalism, strategising and consistensy, you will definitely grow big. It should be understood that "SMALL" is relative depending on availability of capital, influence, nature of business, environment, policies etc. It is better to start small and grow big than to go all out big and reduce to small or nothing (close up).
Starting small will expose you to the following:
- it will help you learn some unique basic rudiments of your business.
 - it will help you set standards and focus on your strenghts and opportunities.
- it will save you from opportunist who will likely take advantage of loop holes in starting big - will save you some money that should be spent on running cost, overhead and set up.

 This is a good place to stop and hope to continue from here some other time. Bidding you God speed in your endeavours and hope my little thoughts help inspire you to acheivements.