The Employee Cum Entrepreneur
Autonomy is only a piece of the pie. Several of us crave the full banquet. Some dream of running a business of their own, others aspiration of acquiring retail outlets, and some others want to check out their craving for artwork and craft.
From time to time we want to ditch the worker tag and occasionally we only want a facet hustle. Either way, or no matter what the industry, there are some essential factors that must under no circumstances get for granted. These tiny bits of knowledge make the variance concerning achievements and failure in your entrepreneurial adventure no issue how superb you are as an employee.
The very first issue typically is: ‘Should I dare to do this in the 1st location?’ If you did not have a position numerous folks would stimulate you to give it a attempt, but the music changes when you are used. A company undertaking could effortlessly be witnessed as a squander of dollars when there are university service fees to pay out. So what is the clever matter to do especially in this financial local weather?
Koku Konu is an architect who builds higher increase properties across West Africa: banks, and skyscrapers. Then his father passed on leaving his accounting firm behind. Konu opted to get that up as properly. This intended restructuring and building Island Nominees Ltd and for an architect that meant very a bit of discovering from the scratch.
This built him the excellent man or woman to inquire: Need to you really hassle?
Konu’s response is: “If anyone has a want to pursue self-work invariably that drive won’t go absent till you exam it. So if anyone feels like heading into self -employment, irrespective of what is going on with the financial state, go ahead. But of class that is just the commencing you will also accessibility your pitfalls, determine your publicity and your probability of accomplishment, but it is really your entrepreneurial spirit the spirit that is in these individuals that will make the big difference and they are the types that would struggle in opposition to the odds. They are the kinds men and women glimpse up to the kinds who appear up with one thing.”
On the lookout at the variety of unsuccessful businesses all over us can be incredibly discouraging for someone considering of using the plunge. Konu suggests: “Stats are a bizarre point, I do not know where these ones appear from but if you tell me that some people fail, I would say indeed. And yes failure does discourage people today. But all over again the lure of achievement is generally there. Failure simply cannot be discounted, it does set individuals off. But the legitimate business owners do have a knack to prevail over seemingly extremely hard huddles. That is the hallmark of an entrepreneur.” Then he adds: “We all know business people fall short but it’s the kinds that be successful that we are inclined to glimpse in the direction of. So if you have the entrepreneurial push and want to go into self work, irrespective of the economic system you come across on your own in, you really should go forward and acquire your hazards.”
Now we all know that getting an personnel involves you to utilize on your own to your personal obligations, but getting an entrepreneur is a distinctive kettle of fish. The troubles of management and administration come to the fore. Management in essence signifies climbing up the tallest Iroko tree with your binoculars and guiding the troop: possessing the bird’s eye look at and making sure you are all in the appropriate jungle going through the proper horizon. Leadership is a lot more about the vision and the all round plans. Administration on the other hand delivers it down to the working day to day setting up and functions. Konu, talking from his possess encounter claims: “In my position as the initial son of my father, I ‘administer’ the enterprise. It’s a smaller title but a broad role because it commences from the moment eye of the processes and units you place in spot (administration) to the larger photo and how you develop the firm (leadership) and how you get to the concentrate on viewers, and so forth.
So you commence from smaller items like: ‘Do we have sufficient pens?’ to the larger picture like: ‘Where are we in the plan of issues?’ which is what I do effectively. I really don’t have any element in the specialized dispensation or any engagements, nothing at all like that, but I do programme, I do plan, I do carry out, I strategise, and I am in touch with the best stage of our purchasers on administrative foundation.”
If you have listened to a number of administration specialists then you will have to have listened to at the very least a single of them converse about the way of thinking of a businessman vis a vis the frame of mind of a ‘professional’/staff.
Konu states this “It is down to stereotypes. When you are an staff, your emphasis is executing your duties and the economic general performance of the company is at greatest a secondary problem. But when you start out your organization and you are a organization the financial functionality of the organization is your main problem.”
Now, Konu was generating it all seem too effortless sitting down at the conference table of open up office with an quick smile. We had to inquire about his own hurdles.
“Well, I wasn’t significantly outfitted to deal with the worries of management and administration. I didn’t have any official education for it. I failed to do an MBA, I hadn’t analyzed business formally, I had never taken any enterprise courses, but I experienced normally had an acute fascination on how items do the job. I suppose that has to do with my architectural history. As an architect you are taught to design points. The way you structure a thing decides how it is likely to perform. The principles of design implement not only to products, properties, hairstyles, and style, they utilize to procedures how to accomplish a process. You have to structure a method to make confident that you get the end end result. My challenge was not remaining formally organized simply because of my track record, but I was served alongside.”
Likely by that is it safe to deduce that the way a banker would operate a boutique would be different from the way an automobile mechanic would operate it? We would permit you attract your possess conclusions on that but in experiencing the obstacle of restructuring and making Island Nominees Ltd, Konu did say: “Mainly because of my history in structure, I observed it as a ‘design’ issue and not actually a ‘management or leadership’ issue.
Out of each 5 entrepreneurs you satisfy 3 would announce to you that their most significant challenge is the country’s infrastructure or deficiency of it. Clara Okoro, CEO of Brandworld and Publisher of Ice journal did not bat an eyelid when she declared that her most significant challenge was “NEPA”. Bringing this up with Konu, he of course took it all in his stride. But it was the way these infrastructural ‘failings’ affected employees welfare and efficiency that was more prominent on his intellect. “The main infrastructure problem that impacts firms is sparse electricity and then the roads and site visitors. It influences the social wellbeing of your employees if they get harassed each individual day coming in. If they won’t be able to get to perform effortlessly due to the fact there are problems every working day it could be hard for them.”
Speaking of staff, how do you establish the excellent workforce? Donald Trump states he ordinarily hires men and women he now knows like men and women on the other side of a offer who had impressed him. In a modern interview Femi Aderibigbe (aka Kwame) CEO of Nigezie and a judge in the ‘Project Fame’ actuality and expertise hunt Television set clearly show, pointed out the “attitude” of the people you have to operate with is the most important challenge for him as an entrepreneur.
Konu for his have portion experienced this to say: “Acquiring the proper workers is an ongoing point. I cope with the challenge all the time. You may possibly have the right people in 2010 but your needs, developments, and programme may well change by 2012 so you will require to modify your group. The way I cope with it the way I would information any one to cope with it is to craft the job description first and then discover the persons that healthy into the career description and not the other way spherical. Some people generate a place since they know this man or woman has some ability: ‘Oh! Let’s use him for that.’
That is not the way to structure your business. You need to have your construction in spot initial. Do you need a finance director, or do you need to have a bookkeeper? These are two unique expertise. So have your structure in location. Know particularly what it is you want?
Have an plan of your task description, and then seek people today to fill that place. Try not to do it the other way spherical like most people does since normally the person has talent ‘A’, which you are choosing up on but won’t have the commensurate techniques. That is what I would say for team selection.”
Consider it or not ‘number’ is a weighty aspect. It can make the distinction among achievements and failure. Konu agrees with this: “Also I would say no subject how you start off, get started little. You never want to make a company with more than a million personnel overnight. If you verify all the flourishing businesses out, you would uncover that they all started little. Each corporation starts off with an plan, and individuals acquiring jointly. When it grows to over 10million workers right away, it did not get started that way. These are the most crucial points. Outline your job descriptions and start modest.”
In every populated metropolis the persons get to spend several hours in website traffic. We get the job done extensive several hours and we get home late. Time administration is currently a major problem with us, so how can we oversee a budding company ‘on the side’?
Very well below are Konu’s strategies: “Time administration challenges? Of training course I experience it. I experience it all the time. Now for individuals who have a work and are commencing up a business enterprise on the side and are going through time management problems, I would convey to you how I deal with my time administration troubles.
I use Outlook (MS Word Outlook).I come in and I agenda all the work I have to do when I am desk sure in the office. Then I get on with it. Outlook allows me get my day. It is the modern day day filer-fax. I also have a very innovative approach of recording my time use. I log in the variety of hours I commit on each individual endeavor and I ascribe expenditures to them. At the finish of the month I see how significantly time I have put in and how substantially it has value me. And if the customer is not really worth it and I have expended as well a great deal time, then I have a crimson warn: I am paying out way too much time on this, and it is not spending.
That applies to every person in the company. We collate that annually and create a report which shows the squandered time and the monetary influence of that squandered time. Also there is idle time. Coming to the business and doing nothing is idle time. The reality that you are listed here does not indicate that you are effective. I have a complex system which I developed in excess of time. But I you should not anticipate novice to start out off like that but I do be expecting you to order your day. I constantly instruct my employees that the very first issue you do in the morning immediately after you have communicated with your maker, if that is your wish, is to draw up your to-do record. You won’t be able to defeat it. You can do it manually scribble it down or you can do it electronically.
If you are an personnel and looking to get started a little something on the side, you do have the reward of social media, and online and cellular telephones. Twelve several years ago you had to go everywhere and depend on land strains.”
And for the world’s ‘oldest problem’: The problem of funds administration. Biodun Caston Dada is the CEO of Maverick and publisher of Acada journal a publication credited as being just one of the longest working gentle-sells as perfectly as the widest distributed one – also reaching the most qualified age group: 14yrs-30yrs. He has had very a little bit of money administration encounter and he has introduced that his watch phrase is “Reduce your coat according to your cloth, not your sizing.”
Konu says: “What we suggest individuals who are starting their individual small business is: Will not devote a penny right until you know how considerably you are heading to spend at the finish of the day. It wouldn’t charge you a kobo if you took a day to believe about it. It is incredibly crucial. Entrepreneurs naturally do not stick to that instruction since the spirit of entrepreneurship by itself will take you to the level exactly where you will not pay attention to assistance. Refusing to pay attention to information has led men and women to obtain feats that they were once advised were being impossible. They defied the odds. Now you have to have that doggedness in you as an entrepreneur. But the important is to know which tips not to listen to. Choosing which suggestions to choose and which suggestions to discard could be incredibly sophisticated but it could direct to your results.
But there are some primary factors everybody would notify you. One particular of which is that economical administration is essential: You must basically history what you commit and what you earn. That is the most basic way. You will not have to have any extravagant accounting method. You established up on your laptop every day what you invest and what you make log in your income and costs. It would give you an concept of how functional your enterprise is.
If you expended N400, 000 and only received N50, 000, which usually means you have a shortfall of N350, 000 and you know it. Your thoughts is already keyed into that fact. You you should not have to do anything extravagant like income flows or funds forecast or earnings & loss. It is a simple report of what I devote and what I get in. At the stop of the thirty day period, I appear at my textbooks and say: I you should not have enough cash. That instils economical self-discipline from the get started.”
Fact be advised that is a lot easier reported than finished. This is Lagos: we are constantly shopping for gasoline. Our ‘miscellaneous expenses’ are bigger than the set charges. In fact the ‘fixed’ expenditures stopped staying fixed a prolonged time back. Aside from, beginning a company is like environment sail in the open up sea. Konu agrees possessing been there himself and admits this: “Business people by their very nature are adventurous and so it is a superior plan to get anyone far more pedantic to cope with your accounts. In significant organisations they are referred to as the account office accountants but for a small business you would have to discover any person to do it for you. You must have another person to ginger you up, and demand from customers for all your receipts potentially a good friend, an affiliate or an assistant. You would have to instil money management from the very starting. Document what you shell out and what you get paid.”
Ongoing learning is offering great emphasis when we are on the position. Ought to that identical emphasis arrive to enjoy when we are on the PP (private exercise) conquer? Konu suggests sure: “When you are starting up up, the first thing is the first testing and investigate of the thought. Know your topic prior to you get into it. But you have to continue. You simply cannot say you know it all and even if you did know it all in 2010, by 2012 issues have transformed. It is the same explanation health professionals get re-accredited. It is without doubt extremely essential.”
So the truth that you did a 3-thirty day period study course in catering while you awaited your JAMB consequence 25 yrs in the past does not imply you are prepared to start a PP on compact chops. A different a few week brush-up training course this month would not hurt and it would not absolve you of the want to do a a few-working day program before the Xmas rush.
An additional query occurs when we just take a glance at the competitors generally folks who are previously doing the issues we are considering of executing. Is it being extremely shrewd to snoop out the opposition? We say ‘no’. You can not know far too a great deal about the other players. You study from their accolades as properly as their errors. You understand about their strengths and issues and their strategies for the in close proximity to and distant potential. The additional you know, the much better equipped you are to make informed conclusions. Nevertheless, we do not advocate that you ship a spy to steal their non-public documents if you check out that, you are on your very own.
Konu for his have component has this to say: “Why would you obtain a automobile with out testing it? The more information you have about the industry and its gamers, the superior your decision producing would be. You should just take cognisance of the competitiveness. I generally convey to persons 1 issue ‘respect but not fear’. Respect the people that had been there before you, but do not fear them.”
In summary let us get a little ‘dreamy’. We requested Konu that if needs have been horses what is the one issue (other than ‘NEPA’) that if the govt designed available would help budding entrepreneurs and he mentioned: “Studies.”
You would in all probability have your very own answer to that issue, but Konu points out further indicating: “If statistics had been out there, it would assist in the final decision generating. Every single time, a individual has a enterprise proposal he or she would have to carry out his or her very own survey. I think the era of statistics would aid business owners a large amount. The research for statistics is usually defeatist. Individuals usually do not have the sources to carry out their have figures. It is the federal government that would conduct surveys on how much electrical power or gas the nation consumes in a day. That informs my selection on regardless of whether I want to open a petrol station or a grocery store. Data is what I have found to be a important challenge from my personalized expertise.”
