This is the kind of question I get asked frequently on my YouTube channel. As an entrepreneur who runs a successful online business, Vinneltech store and Youtube channel. I want to share and give you a step-by-step guide on what one needs to consider when starting to run a business. Business is all about understanding what the consumers are looking for and how you can supply this product at low cost, very quickly and high quality.
There so many factors that determine the strategy to follow in any given business.
Location
You need to determine where you want to have this business, is it something you want to do online or business you need to have a physical store or even both. Having physical store, you can only sell to local people but with online store, there is possibility for you to sell to wider audience and people from abroad. So, considering where the location of the business would be is one of the things to consider.
Business idea or the niche
Idea of a business matters, you need to know your unfair advantages in that business field. What is your fundamental leg-up? having more advantage or selling point in any given business venture you start is very good. You need to decide the niche of your business, to see if there is a market for it and check who are your competitors and to how you can up the game. I like to call business as game which you need to know how to play, business requires you to be skilful, smart, and taking calculated risks in other to win.
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Logistics and management team
You also need to decide the logistics, like the transportation where the business would be located. I remember one of African richest man when he was building a refinery in Lagos Nigeria, he had to arrange with Lagos transport system to distribute the goods and services so it can reach to the targeted consumers easily. Likewise, he hired people from various countries to come on board of the business.
Here in the UK Gymshark owner Ben Francis whose business worth of $1.45 Billion dollars had to step back and employed a CEO to manage his company for several years allowing himself to work in different roles in various departments of his company to gain more knowledge before taking up the position running the company again as the CEO. Retraining and upgrading your skills is good strategy to take in business, people that would manage your business is part of the thing to consider for it to be a success. If your business is in Tech industry for example, you can’t employ a musician or doctor to run your business expecting it to do well, you already put yourself up to fail because employing a doctor or a musician to run your business which they have no clue is waste of resources as it is not within their respective expertise. Having an incapable hand lead your organisation is an automatic failure. On the other hand, employing a doctor to run your hospital or medical supply business would be more profitable as it is within their expertise.
Funding
Business is about funding and capital, when you have huge amount of money it would give you the option to hire the best brain to work with you to scale the business up. So funding is a very important factor which determines the strategy to follow in business. I read on the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill where Mr Carnegie had to employ over 50 staff to work with him. At the same time Henry Ford work in his business for 10yrs without making progress but when he connected himself with Edison and formed acquaintances of other people with great brain capacity, he became one of the successful businessmen in America during his time. As a shareholder in major companies in abroad and start-up companies in the UK, I do receive business statements from the management team of various companies I invested into asking for fund or telling the shareholders the plan to reinvesting profits made from the business back into another area of the business to improve and scale the profit up for benefit of the company and the shareholders in general.
Demand and supply
I learnt from a book The Almanac of Naval Ravikant where he mentions that in business one needs to know what the world wants and are looking for a solution for it and if you know how to do this thing the chance are you would make fortune from it. So business is about solving a problem, creating service that would help and improve human productivity, human capability, or connectivity if you like. Just like Facebook was developed to connect people from all over the world, the organisation understands that there are demands to have improved communication methods which they developed the app to solve this problem.
My online business Vinneltech store was started when my followers started asking me about compatible ink cartridges for printer due to high cost of the one from the company that manufacture the printers. So, I had to make the necessary research about sourcing and arranging for supplier who would manufacture this product for us in a large scale and with a high quality and at fair price. Also, I check the price of shipping to UK via cargo and shipping through the sea in other to check if it is a profitable business or not. These are the things you need to think about in your business strategy. If the price is high, there is no need to carry on with it as you cannot build wealth embarking on business that is not profitable.
This is also applicable for investors in business, Warren buffet is one of the best richest men and made his money through investing in business that have good moat and business with growth potential. So, if you want to start business you need to make sure that it is a business that would last for a long time, and you have the inside knowledge about the industries you are going into.
Patience and flexible
They say patience is a virtue, entrepreneurs need to exercise patience and give their business time to grow and mature. Starting a business you have passion for helps immensely, at the early stage, if you are not getting sales or income from it you would still have the mind to keep going because it is something you enjoy doing. I started a YouTube channel as a hobby, reviewing products and teaching people how to use various technology products for more than two years before the channel got approved for monetization. When the channel started, I had to change from doing various videos to focusing on what is working and what my followers wants to see. According to Anthony Robbin, it is better to do things that are working 5000 times over and over, also it is better to learn strategies that works for others in business and apply this in your business to see if it works than waiting for years to figure things out. So been flexible is important. You need to give yourself room to manoeuvre in your business.
So friends I wish you success in your business endeavours, applying these strategies and asking yourself critical questions before starting your business is what you need to consider. I like to hear your thoughts and comments.
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