THE KEYS TO STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS -PART 2

THE KEYS TO STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

-PART 2

Transcripts from Radio Business School-16^th July 2012

Hello, you are welcome to yet another exciting edition of Radio Business School; a weekly business coaching and enterprise development session designed to enable you start and manage your business successfully. My name is BASOLA VICTOR and I am your host on this programme

Last week, I began a series titled “THE KEYS TO STARTING A SUCEESFUL BUSINESS” these keys are secrets which you must know before you start your entrepreneurial journey. The first key I talked about last week was “CHOOSING A BUSINESS THAT ALLOWS YOU TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE” and I made you to understand that where your heart is, that is where your treasure will be. This is because if you choose a business that allows you to do what you love, you will not only be enjoying yourself, you will also be paid for enjoying yourself.

Today, I will like to give you the second key that is; “CREATE A BUSINESS AROUND PEOPLE’S NEEDS AND PROBLEMS”

When customers want what you are selling, making money becomes incredibly easy. Starting a business that allows you to do what you love; that you are passionate about is not enough to make you rich. Simply believing that you can become a millionaire by following your passion is naïve. The world is filled with passionately hungry artists, writers, teachers, singers and many others who spend their entire lives doing what they love. To succeed, you have to choose a business that allows you to do what you love and that also has profit potential. Your business has to provide products and services that customers want and are willing to pay for, it has to generate a net income over and above your living expenses that you can save and re-invest to make you financially independent.

Passion and talents are great raw material but you will only become rich by applying them to produce something that people will handsomely pay for. Real business success comes from providing what customers wants. Money flows in the direction of value that is why it is called CURRENCY. Creating values is the key to controlling the flow to your direction and that simply means solving problems. People do not buy goods and services, they buy solutions to problems. Customers exchange money for what they believe will solve their problems and satisfy them more than the money they have to pay for it.

Look around you for problems. Making money becomes very easy when you have the answer to this question “what do my customers want and how can I provide it? Every successful entrepreneur will tell you that the key to making money is to satisfy unmet wants in the market place. But as simple as this principle is most new entrepreneurs do not think that way. Instead they start the business hoping that people buy it. Value is determined by customer perception and not by hard work alone. Do not assume that they need your product or service; confirm that first before you begin, your priority is to find out what customers want most; then you focus on using your passions to satisfy those wants.

The biggest question at this stage is “HOW DO YOU FIND THE NEED” It is simple; ask your proposed customers and they will gladly tell you, study them, observe them closely and you will discover what they want. Once you locate the problem, your job is to come up with a product or service that solves the problem for a profitable price that your customers will happily pay for. Remember; YOUR CUSTOMER’S UNSOLVED PROBLEMS ARE YOUR MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITIES.

The biggest pay off comes up when you are the first to spot an unmet need and fill it. Before others discover and flood the market, you have made your profit. The future belongs to the man who can spot opportunities before they become obvious. A professional hockey player was once asked why he was so successful, he gave it a thought and answered; “most players skate to where the puck is, I try to skate to where the puck is going”. Similarly, most business go to where the customers are, while this is not bad at all, but the most successful one’s anticipate what customer’s want and needs are likely going to be and are the first to satisfy them.

Technology is shrinking time and space and the world is becoming a global village. However despite the technology anyway, there are still some businesses, products and services that are happening elsewhere in the world that has not gotten to Nigeria. You can conduct your research, read foreign magazines, watch foreign stations and make productive use of the internet. Some of the best selling home videos today are constructive replays of foreign films. Copycat you may call it, but listen, Ideas can be generated, borrowed or even stolen.

There is absolutely no entirely new idea, it is just a progressive repackaging of an old one. What we call fast food or quick service Restaurants and even the ATM machine had been in existence for ages in Europe before it was brought to Nigeria. If you have the privilege of travelling outside the shores of Nigeria, do not just go for shopping alone; study the environment and try to see how what seems to be a problem in Nigeria is been solved over there. If we say they are ahead of us, then let us go there and copy some things, I call it COPY, EDIT, and PASTE.

People are getting busier by the day and more so when both couples are working class and worse still; bankers in the ever busy Lagos, they virtually do not have time for any other thing. Time is their scarce resource and any product or service that can help them save time and enable them achieve more has a great money making potential. People’s wants and needs are rising by the day and to meet their needs, customization is the key.

I sold an idea to a young man some time ago, he enjoys washing cars but he had no money to establish a “big car wash”, a dream he had nurtured for a long time. He felt money was his problem but I saw it differently. Residents in his residential area were mostly bankers and government workers who might not have the opportunity to visit a carwash and even prefer the carwash to visit them at home.  So I told him to start with Home Service. He would be visiting them and wash the cars at their apartment. All he has to do is target estates with a sizeable number of car owners, introduce some level of branding, and packaging, and replicate himself in some boys so as to handle demand from many customers. If he continues diligently and prudently, he would have money enough to open his own mega carwash centre.There are different categories and class of customers and to meet their specific needs, the home services approach above can be applied.

Let me quickly say this, the reason most entrepreneurs do not start is because they are waiting for all the resources in the world at their disposal. Despise not the days of little beginnings, though your beginning be small, your latter end would greatly increase.

START WITH WHAT YOU HAVE FROM WHERE YOU ARE. Stop giving excuses, if you cannot rent an office for now, use your home as an office, if you cannot rent an apartment for your crèche or day care centre, use your big sitting room; after all, what is the sitting room doing for you anyway. Convert your dwelling place into a profitable asset. One thing I know strongly is, if you take action now with the little  resources  you have, greater doors of opportunities and help will show up for you.  If you have a dream of starting your own JAMB and WAEC lesson and you do not have money to start big, start with home services, teach the children at home and who knows if you do your job well, one of your home services clients might have a piece of property he or she can assist you with for a token.

Dear friend if your passion is strong enough to consume you and set you on your feet, it will consume those around you and its fragrance will attract help your way.

Do not forget what I said at the beginning of this broadcast “CHOOSE A BUISINESS AROUND PEOPLE’S WANTS AND PROBLEMS”. There are problems everywhere to be solved, find a need and fill it, find a hurt and heal it, find a problem and solve it, find an itch and  scratch it, find a want and satisfy it and you are on your way to wealth.

There is no limit to how much better your life can be, it is totally up to you. Do not wait for everything to be right before you start. Amazingly what we see as obstacles actually become stepping stones when we decide to step out. If you are bold enough to step out you will be amazed at how opportunities will show up to launch you forward.

Thank you for listening; till we meet again next week I wish you a fruitful and productive week and I pray that your eyes be opened to see opportunities and business problems in Jesus mighty name, amen!

Basola Victor is the Principal Consultant/CEO of Business Skills Africa Limited, an Enterprise consulting firm based in Benin, Nigeria. He is the Author of “The Keys to Starting a Successful Business” and The HOST of RADIO BUSINESS SCHOOL on Radio Nigeria Bronze 101.5FM.