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Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
The entrepreneurship terrain is and has never been an easy walk. You just have to be up to the game in order to remain in the field and maintain your relevance.
In that regard, to succeed in such an area you need to have your act right otherwise you will miss the whole point. Entrepreneurs are always seeking innovative and unique ways of solving socio-economic problems in the market. Hence the need to have parameters in place to measure performance and progress towards that bigger mandate.
The statement stands true that, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. The year is almost gone. What is it that you can point as your achievement for the year? You can only measure what you had planned for and budgeted. What were your resolutions as a business for 2021? How many of those did you managed to achieve if you had set any?
It is important to take stock of your entrepreneurial milestones as we all wrap up 2021 and look forward to a prosperous 2022. Entrepreneurs and business persons alike must have their Key Result Areas (KRAs) with specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in place as they go about providing solutions to the communities they find themselves operating in. You’re also aware that the issue of globalisation has removed trade restrictions that you can transact with anyone anywhere in the world.
In personal development, we talk of the wheel of life as a tool that can be used to plan for one’s life for it covers all the areas that one must plan around and seek growth in. Likewise in entrepreneurship and business there are specific and important areas which commands growth and improvement whose growth must be planned for, such that as we wind up the year, you can take stock of your achievements and note the variances or deviations from the expected and see how best you can work around these into 2022.
Important KRAs for entrepreneurs
We derive these KRAs from the definition of entrepreneurship. This is where entrepreneurs get their mandate from. Those who follow my articles now know my definition of entrepreneurship, but for the purposes of these KRAs, I will restate it.
Entrepreneurship entails the unique, innovative and effective configuration of resources material and otherwise in response to market opportunities (socio economic challenges) in the form of a business venture bearing all the risks inherent in such a venture in anticipation of a profit.
From the above definition, we can draw Key Result Areas (KRAs) that we can measure progress on. We have the issue of effective utilisation of resources, followed by the spine of entrepreneurship which is innovation, entrepreneurs also have to see that socio economic challenges are solved through the various solutions they provide within their businesses and lastly the issue of making a profit.
Effective configuration of resources
For us to talk about business, there must be some internal operations that feed into the outside world proffering solutions to humanity. Such internal processes demands that resources be utilised. Within these resources we do have capital, human resources, time, property planting equipment (PPE) in the language of accountants and in some instances land. To what extend did you utilised the financial resources that were at your disposal for the past twelve months?
What was your targeted Return on Investment (ROI)? These are critical questions that an entrepreneur need to answer. This is an area that calls for honest responses otherwise as we get into 2022, it might just be another fruitless year.
As organisations grow, there is also every need to increase the number of employees to make work easier. As you increase manpower, what is your Return on Labour (ROL)? How much has each employee contributed to your annual turnover and profit. Was that the expected value? If not, what are you doing about it 2022?
On this most important resource labour, how much did you invest in them in terms of continuous improvement. There is every need to continuously improve your workers through relevant and effective training in order for you to get the best results.
Solution provision
Entrepreneurship is such a broad domain bordering almost every economic sector. An economic system is made up of various sectors within which there are numerous entrepreneurship activities taking place. People are most worried about the type and quality of the solutions that all these players provide and of more importance is the levels of satisfaction that the consumers of the products and service derive from such solutions.
Customer satisfaction in this case becomes an important key result area and the satisfaction levels determines the performance indicator. Once customers are satisfied or at best delighted, they become loyal to your organisation and act as ambassadors for your brand. The biggest question is, how did your organisation performed in this space?
Innovation
Unlike the copy and paste type of business person, entrepreneurs are innovative beings famed for providing unique and relevant solutions to humanity. Among various key result areas, innovation is one of them. You can only be outstanding if you offer differentiated products and services to the market. The entire solution provision process, which in any case forms the business, must be executed in a way that shows originality. Your business must not be an ordinary business. Therefore, making your business stand out of the crowd through your deliverables becomes a key result area that you must look into. The million dollar question remains — how was your 2021 performance on the innovation front? If you decide to copy some existing idea, product or service in the market, you would rather copy edit and paste. Add your uniqueness. Do some value addition on it.
Profit
Unlike non-profit making organisations, entrepreneurship entails risking resources in order to make a profit in the end. One other key result area is growth, which of course is a result doing everything right within the organisation. The same applies to profits, this is what remains after taking care of your cost of sales, operating expenses and any other related costs. Without profit, the growth motive will remain a talk show as growth is initiated by the availability of profits to plough back into the organisation. If you’re in business and you keep making losses, then you have to pause and inspect the way you’re doing things.
There might be a need to hire some consultants for a business health check or some business re-engineering. We though understand that, maybe in the first two or three months, losses can be expected, but there must be some positive signs of closing the gap as you continue in operation.
Conclusion
In business, there is every need to plan and set targets that you will review as entrepreneurial milestones and take corrective action whenever there are deviations. Come up with Key Result Areas (KRAs) and your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) must be handy to speak to you on your performance on each and every Key Result Area (KRA) set.
Determined to engage, inspire and transform generations in the entrepreneurship and business arena.
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 5 000 entrepreneurs globally and continues to impact people in the areas of entrepreneurship, business and personal development. He is the founder & CEO of Kudfort, Premium Business Network International, Transformational Mindset Institute, Tengesa Online 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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