What’s stopping your business from growing?

Business
Clive (not his real name), is an ambitious young man with a qualification in Information Communication Technology from a local college. He asked to see me a few months ago after reading my book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business in Zimbabwe. 

During a discussion with him then, he convinced me of his passion for computers. However, he wanted some advice on how to get capital to start a small computer services business. After he told me the amount he needed, I asked him to make a list of the intended uses for the money.

The majority of the items that Clive listed were really luxuries for a start-up firm: an office, office furniture, a computer, a printer and a laptop. The only essential items were a set of screw-drivers, a multimetre, business cards and letterheads, costing less than US$30 in total. “So, how do I get customers without an office?,” he asked me. We brainstormed and came up with a number of solutions. One of them was that Clive would go out to certain potential customers and propose some solutions.A few weeks ago Clive came again, this time to show me his first business order, and confirmation of payment for half the amount as deposit. Clive hopes to complete the job in another week and collect the balance of his payment. He also managed to get referred to this client’s friend, who also needs a similar solution. Hopefully, if he manages his finances and markets his solutions well, he will steadily grow the business.

Unemployment among young Zimbabweans is a real problem that needs an urgent solution. However, the solution does not lie in handouts, whether of land, inputs or shares in other companies. The solution lies in properly harnessing the greatest asset they have, their minds. The mind is what creates a vision. It’s the vision that determines whether the young man selling bananas from  a cart would still be on the same street corner in two years time or if he would be manufacturing fruit smoothes and supplying them to restaurants. Or whether the cotton farmer in Magunje would still be growing cotton and crying again over low market prices or if she would have attended a short-course on Value Added Agriculture and now producing crops that she would have frozen, canned, pickled and dried before selling them at high margins to niche food markets.

Innovative ideas that you can turn into profitable businesses are limitless. You just need to think like an entrepreneur and be competitive. Avoid “me too” kind of businesses, do something different, solve some real problems, create convenience, save people money, or help them make money. A famous selling guru once said:“You can get anything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” (Zig Ziglar, in Secrets of Closing the Sale.)

So, what is stopping your growth? Is it lack of money, or lack of guts? First work on your vision. See the future you desire as if you have already achieved it. Write it down and read it as often as you can. And please don’t dream small, dream big, or you will only achieve mediocrity. As the vision becomes imprinted in your mind, you will start seeing ways of accomplishing it. Then take the necessary action that will help you accomplish that vision. Noone said it’s easy, you need to work hard and make sacrifices in order to realise your dream.

Do you have a success story that you would like to share with other entrepreneurs? Please email them to me. Participants at the last SME BusinessLink Seminar expressed a desire to meet regularly for the purposes of networking and sharing ideas and opportunities. You too can benefit from such interaction between successful and new and growing entrepreneurs. Please send me an email request to get the events programme for the rest of the year. Upcoming events include networking evenings (Bulawayo June 10, Harare June  23) and a workshop on Essential Finance for Non-Financial Managers and Entrepreneurs on June 24.n Phillip Chichoni is the co-ordinator of SME BusinessLink, an insights, opportunities and resources sharing network for SMEs and entrepreneurs. His email address is [email protected].