Andrew
Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
It is a noble aspiration to become a business person but you must be prepared to pay the price. Unlike employment where you can only think to a certain level and leave the rest to the owners of the company, once you cross over to this side of the story you will learn hard and difficult lessons as you will have a live encounter with reality.
After registering your company you will only become a holder of company documents and not a businessperson.
That doesn’t qualify you to become a businessperson or even an entrepreneur. Starting and running a business calls for personal consciousness and an appreciation of the environment and its dictates.
You have to register it first
It is important to register your company for you will secure your company’s identity and start to build a brand that will be truly yours.
Having conceptualised the idea of starting my own freezits making business in Nyanga in 2003, I came up with a name, Paradigm Enterprises and started operating using the same name.
I had bank accounts opened, receipt books, letter heads and even packaging materials branded.
Fast forward to 2005 when I then wanted to formalise my company by having it registered with the Registrar of companies, the consultant told me the name was already taken and I had to look for another one.
I was baffled for in my little town I thought no one could have thought of coming up with the same name for their company.
The company name experience taught me a lesson that, it’s never yours until you legally own it. People argue back and forth on where to start from on this business issue with some saying the most important thing is to start.
In as much as there is every room for improvement and putting things in place, how you start whatever enterprise you think of has an impact on your performance.
Had I registered my company the time I commenced trading, I could have secured by beloved name.
It’s a name that we had so much fallen in love with and our clients had well established it in their minds aligning it with the quality of the product that we produced then.
It was a very big blow on our part. We though managed to push through another name which we were sure no one had, that is KUDFORT and ultimately Kudfort was registered in 2005.
Refine and redefine it as you go
If you wait for perfection, you will obviously be perfect in waiting. Once you conceive your business idea, that is after having identified the problems that you want to solve don’t waste time, start.
You’ll refine your processes and systems as you go but you need to make sure that all the basics that gets your business on wheels are in place.
A business is made up of various systems and sub systems that speaks to each other as you seek to achieve your overall objective as an organisation.
We started manufacturing our freezits from our number 800 Nyamhuka two residence. We could have given lack of a place to work from as an excuse and yet we had vacant rooms and plenty of tap water at our residence.
It’s always advisable to work with what you have. Use the resources that are within your reach and grow from there. You cannot start from where you are not. Start from where you are and improve from there.
Continue to seek for opportunities
We started off doing freezits but we’re now into business advisory, logistics and retail. After the freezits we added on peanut butter and other lines along the way.
We discovered that a number of people were operating unregistered businesses and yet they wanted to enjoy the benefits of registration.
The same players were also deficient in the knowledge as to how the businesses must be run though they had the passion.
On this note, you don’t need to confine your thinking to the geographical boundaries you find yourselves operating in.
It doesn’t call for any additional resource other than your activated mind to think outside of your town, province or country and explore the challenges they face and come up with a solution in the form of a business.
Econet started its operations in Zimbabwe and it has spread its wings over Africa and some parts of the world. The only limitation that we find is in our minds otherwise opportunities are limitless. What you need to do is to position yourself ready to tackle these opportunities.
Learn the art of selling
Businesses all over the world makes money through selling products or services. The selling process converts products or services into cash. Selling is a must have skill for anyone who want to succeed in business.
Develop a selling culture within your employees. Everyone within the workplace have their connections, friends and even relatives who can easily be converted obviously through some effort into customers.
Conclusion
To succeed in your business, you need to get the fundamentals right so that you don’t miss opportunities as they arise. Register it and have the minimum requirements sorted. Continue to improve yourself by learning how to sell for selling is the conduit that channels revenue to our business when done skilfully, professionally and efficiently.
Determined to engage, inspire and transform generations in the areas of entrepreneurship and personal development.
The writer, Dr. Kudzanai Vere is an entrepreneur, author of four books, business and personal development, multiple award winning entrepreneurship and business coach. Dr. Vere has coached more than 5000 entrepreneurs globally and continues to impact people in the areas of entrepreneurship, business and personal development. He is the founder & CEO of Kudfort, Transformational Mindset Institute and the Institute of Entrepreneurs Zimbabwe./Contact Dr Kudzanai Vere for transformational entrepreneurship and business coaching and training on [email protected] or +263 719 592232
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