The Small Guys in Business Deserve Our Admiration
We ought to shed more light on the bravery and heroism small-medium scale business owners put on display every day
Dear small business owner, not a lot of people knew David before his epic battle against Goliath until they had to. I have thought long and hard about what I want to say to you. You see, I am stuck in a state of indecision about what my message would really be; adulation on your contributions to society or sympathy for all the bruises you must earn in your desire to grow your business or both. I will just let the words flow, I guess.
Hi! The first time I got around to finally call myself a business owner and an entrepreneur felt strange but great! Don’t get me wrong, of course, I knew from the moment I put pen to paper to begin drafting what would eventually become my business plan, that I was in fact venturing into entrepreneurship. Still, there was a heavy sense of responsibility that came with those words (entrepreneur, business owner) that made me hesitate to identify as one. With the benefit of hindsight, I know now it had nothing to do with modesty. Just fear.
Was I scared that by identifying with those words, I could somehow experience all the hardship that comes with the venture? Perhaps it was the fear that most small businesses in Nigeria have an estimated lifetime of all of 3 years before or after which they almost always fold up. Maybe it was the fear that I overestimated my capabilities and just maybe I didn’t possess the stuff of the greats — the Jobs of Apple, the Gates of Microsoft, the Shagaya of Jumia, etc. Frankly, it could have been all of those but, I am certain I was never as terrified of anything else.
Well, that is all history now. I am a business owner!!! If like me, you have arrived at this point of acceptance, then I wholeheartedly congratulate you. It is true that people who venture into the business of any kind do so for a plethora of reasons ranging from necessity, ambition, opportunity, or even for the fun of it. Whatever the reasons are, I feel like not enough is being said and done to acknowledge the immense responsibility inherited in the decision to move forward with such a venture no matter what. Yes, we hear so much about the big names in the entrepreneurial world that through one way or the other, have surmounted humongous challenges and beat the odds to become household names and regular guests at government houses around the world. However, most often than folks care to talk about, small business owners are being left in the background to languish in the dark and toil until they get noticed or die.
In this continuous uphill battle, a small business owner must engage in every day for the very soul of his/her company, lies a fundamental truth; the Calvary isn’t coming, one must make a habit of innovating or face the grim statistics indicating a certain death in 3 years of opening shop. For me, I have found the strength to persevere through a few lessons learned along the way and also from the experiences of others.
CONSISTENCY
A story was told to me once about a young black kid who had a gift. This gift of his changed the world of hip-hop, as we knew it. He was so gifted; he got the unusual opportunity of becoming a legend during his lifetime. So great was his talent that mighty stadia were filled to capacity at all his shows. Once, he was asked what his secret truly was, to have become so successful, perhaps more successful than any performer before him. It has been attributed to him that his words were, “every day, I lock myself up in a room and practice my dancing for 8 hours”. His name was Michael Joseph Jackson.
Many have said he was a powerhouse of talent and gifts. While I don’t dispute that, I like to think his biggest gift, in fact, was the discipline to be consistent. In their song, “gonna find you” Operation IVY says, “… success is a structured way of life”. I have found that consistency in a company’s message to its customers, its employees, and the culture it builds around its operations, oftentimes either grant a small business a fighting chance or takes it. Moreover, customers have no obligation to remember anything about your business once their needs or wants are met at the moment. The only way to get them to remember you is to repeatedly do that great thing that had them choose you in the first place.
SELF MOTIVATION
One early lesson I learned from business school is the painful truth that business in its practice can best be defined as a lot of good days and an equal number of bad days. Jim Collins identified a common denominator of companies that were “built to last”, as BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). The mettle of an entrepreneur that will succeed is seen in how relentless he/she is in attempting Big ideas. Now, overreaching could prove fatal but, it could also make all the difference.
When one is faced with good and bad days, he is confronted with the decision to retreat or counter. The latter can only be inspired by self. There isn’t a manual or how-to-guide that could give an out in a boxed-in situation. I am inclined to believe that a business owner must want it bad in order to make many of those bad days, part of the good ones.
Finally, I have learned through the hard way, to make everyday decisions regarding my small business, as though I were the CEO of a mega multinational company. The reason is simple really; each decision matters in the long run.
I aspire to reach the 3-year death sentence of my company and then go on to have multiples of that. Who doesn’t? At the end of my epistle, I can only hope that fellow small business owners can identify themselves in my journey and that these few lessons of mine, could reassure them on this chosen path. We need to be given accolades or something because, without funding, without the luxury of knowing just how long we can really last, we somehow manage to keep loads of clients happy and customers satisfied. We make magic every business day!
