Does Your Hustle Pay? And Other Questions for Small Business Owners
“Why are you in business?” I asked a couple of small business owners and they had interesting answers that pass for mission statements. One said, “to help people make more healthy food choices.” Another was even more specific, “to employ at least a thousand people in Africa.”
If you are a business owner reading this, we are sure you have amazing ideas and goals for your business. The big question remains “what are you doing to achieve them?”.
Research on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises as a Survival Strategy for Employment Generation in Nigeria by Aremu Mukaila Ayanda and Adeyemi Sidikat Laraba reveals that Small and medium enterprises have been considered as the engine of economic growth and for promoting equitable development. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost.
The labour intensity of the SME sector is much higher than that of the large enterprises. The role of small and medium enterprises in the economic and social development of the country is well established. The sector is a nursery of entrepreneurship, often driven by individual creativity and innovation. In Nigeria however, most small businesses die before they are even five years old.
This post is not about failure, it is about making plans to smash those business goals. It is about the questions every small business owner should answer to make sure they are here long enough to create legacy businesses out of their daring vision for their spheres and the continent at large.
What Makes You Tick?
Every business starts with an idea but not every idea should become a new business or product. The real question is, what problem does your idea or product solve? Also, will your ideas or product be relevant in 10 years or 50?
We discovered that small businesses in Nigeria struggle to grow because they have little or no funding and structure; even the best of them are bootstrapping their way to success. Last year, Triift Africa did her best to understand this problem and one day at a time, we are doing the difficult work of laying structures to solve it systematically for Africa. What is your story? Can we be a part of it? Tell us!
What Is Different about your Yé?
Ideas are easy, they fall on everyone just like rain. The bad news is, someone else has noticed the same problem and is taking advantage of the gap to create their own entrepreneurial journey. The good news is, like the popular Yoruba saying, there are many paths leading to the market.
Don’t just know the game, know the players too. Who is already doing what you do (or plan to do)? Then see how you can do it better. You can easily achieve this by carrying out basic research which we enjoy helping small businesses do.
People pay for value. Sometimes, it is better to team up with someone who has the same idea and build a bigger brand than either of you could pull off alone. At Triift Africa, we are suckers for building together and leveraging successes to build the next level of growth. More value will be built with consolidated experiences rather than trickle effects spluttered everywhere, call it the Babel Effect.
What do you have in your hand?
In 1996, Nike Ogunlesi founder of Ruff ’N’ Tumble would park her car in a busy street or bazaar and display the clothes she had designed and made from the boot. Today, Ruff ’N’ Tumble has at least 15 stores in Malls across Nigeria.
Many small business owners start out looking for big stuff like angel investors or a big, nice place for their businesses. Even worse, some businesses are optimising their businesses to raise funds rather than serve the customers they built a business plan for. Well, we say, Why not start with what you have? Your skills, your network and small money you can borrow from family and friends. Use your available resources to test your idea and see if it works. People invest for results (profit). Focus on building something that works and investors will come to you.
Start with what you have. Use your available resources to test your idea and see if it works, learn as you go, implement, repeat!
Who is in your circle?
Walking together in a pack is how foxes survive. Wandering off alone and losing your way is easy when you have no lights to point you in the right direction. A congolese proverbs says “A single waist bead does not jiggle”. You can only go as far as the people who surround you, who give their ears to listen to your struggles, who puts comforting words in your heart. It is important to never neglect the place of community in anything you are building.
It is the same for business. You need the right people around you to make your business excel. A business coach or mentor, a finance expert, a lawyer, a strategist, a marketing guru, a product/business developer. Your business circle needs them all.
Does your hustle pay?
One major reason why many businesses fail is that they have many ideas and dreams but no plan, no strategic direction. Before you start a business, you should at least have a business plan which includes a marketing plan and a financial plan. And then, build a structure around these plans.
If you already have plans and have started your business, you want to do a review to find out if your plans are working. Is your business making profit? If not, why? If yes, is it sustainable? An unprofitable business cannot grow.
We want to see you record incremental growth and shatter the glass ceilings. If this post has helped you, hit the clap button, you get 50 per post, you can’t convert them to money (yet). So, exhaust them on us. Share this post with your friends, leave a comment and keep in touch. Follow Triift Africa on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
