Sundaymail Editor
Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
Value creation is central to entrepreneurship and economic emancipation right from family level up to national level. This important concept has only remained in the minds of people and in most instances reduced to talk shows rather than a serious action point among African people except for the outstanding handful.
The importation mentality emanates right from our homes where we do not have anything that comes from within our four walls that we exchange for money with even our neighbours.
We import simple basics such as vegetables and tomatoes, yet we are sitting on some acres of land that stand ready for use.
Entrepreneurship skills should be visible from the micro to the macro level. Don’t expect miracles to happen in your community, country and continent when you haven’t seen them on a personal level.
What we see outside is a direct reflection of what is inside. So when the inside is dull and dump in terms of business and entrepreneurial innovation, what more do you expect from the vicinity? Risking your current resources in a business venture is one characteristic of an entrepreneurship mind.
This is easier said than done. A number of people are gripped by some form of fear, even when they get the money to invest. Lack of or poor strategic planning also leads to some false start while corruption stands tall, even at personal level. I will have to explain corruption at a personal level further. Short-term perspectives, instant gratification and misplaced priorities are the other evils that bewitch entrepreneurship and business effort and success.
Fear
There is always discomfort and uncertainty in leaving the comfort zone. Fear challenges progress and puts you in a quagmire. Those who succeed in their entrepreneurship endeavour would have managed to resist the setbacks of fear. Some fear to invest, thinking they will lose their hard-earned or borrowed money which they will lose anyway, even if they don’t invest it. If you have money, be assured of these three things: it’s either you save, spend or invest.
The first two options are easier to do and do not require any form of critical thinking than the last one.
Strategic planning deficiency
A defective plan will never make a good structure. That is why there is every need for plan approvals before they are handed to builders for actual work to take place.
The same goes for strategic planning. What people don’t know is strategic planning can be reduced to a mere talk show if no serious follow through is done on intended deliverables.
Resources are always scarce and one cannot afford to just commit them without some form of structure, style and sense. Entrepreneurship is a domain that calls for a modicum of order, planning and execution efficiency. Failure to follow through your plan is as good as not having planned at all.
Both of them have the same cost. Excuses are always there but they cannot make good the failures. We just stomach them as humans but carry no economic benefit.
Corruption
Successful entrepreneurship is premised on honest engagements from unpolluted minds. We know corruption as dishonest or fraudulent contact by those in power.
The definition is true in its sense. Allow me to use it this way, even at a personal level, a corrupt mind can never stand up in support of ideas that are even meant to extricate the bearer from bondage.
Once your mind is corroded by corruption, people should not expect any meaningful contribution from you. Business, and entrepreneurship in particular, calls for mental sanity and corruption is a form of absurdity that is intolerable and anti-development.
Corruption is a mental scheme that suppresses common sense and logic for personal benefits at whatever cost. We have seen companies and nations stunting their growth due to this kind of cancerous motive.
Well-intended entrepreneurship drives are not spared. Corruption has infected and affected institutional capillaries up to the aortas. There is a need to chlorinate our minds and redefine our values with the future in mind otherwise we will remain victims of our own actions.
Long-term perspective
Entrepreneurship has a long-term perspective and as such it doesn’t accommodate short- sightedness. You just need to understand that you don’t reap the day you sow your seed. It needs time to grow under your care and supervision. Growth doesn’t just happen, you need to water your crop, fertilise them and spray them when necessary to get a good harvest. The same applies to your business.
Instant gratification
Business and pleasure are north pole and south pole. You can’t have them both at the same time. I have often preached the gospel of patience in business. You need to invest and reinvest in order for you to grow and sustain your business. The practice of eating it now doesn’t work and has resulted in many failed entrepreneurship and business endeavours. Acquire the ability to separate profit from revenue.
Misplaced priorities
In business, you just have to get your priorities right. Logically, you don’t buy a luxury car before you build your own house to park the car.
Even in business you cannot be paying rent for more than four years without applying for your own land and building your own shop. Just calculate the total that you have given out in rent and see how many shopping malls you have built for the landlord.
To succeed in your business and entrepreneurship drive, you need to make sure that you master and monitor these enemies to entrepreneurship growth and sustainability.
The writer, Dr Kudzanai Vere, is the founder and CEO of Kudfort Zimbabwe.
, a fast-growing accounting and business advisory firm that has assisted individuals and organisations start, support, sustain and succeed in their businesses through company registration, establishment of standard operating procedures (SOPS), basic bookkeeping, accounting, auditing, forensic accounting, PRAZ registration, business health check-ups and business advisory services. Dr Vere authored a number of business and personal development books that have transformed minds. You can contact Dr Vere on +263 719 592232 or [email protected]
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