Entrepreneurship is an adventure. The narrow path to success is filled with plenty of turns, stopovers, crossroads, fire ants & glory. These experiences expose an entrepreneur to points of learning like no other that polish the tools required to succeed in a very volatile activity.
On a personal level, an entrepreneur gets to discover their strengths & weaknesses, limits & possibilities, emotional barriers, limitations of the ego & working with people.
Shelving the Business Plan
In 2016, I started off with a business plan I wrote anticipating all expenditure, revenues, operating models & profit. This was geared to help me overcome the uncertainty & give me a sense of direction as I navigated a new complex terrain. I was mistaken!
The plan developed just gave me the most basic of foundations with all my assumptions proving irrelevant with each passing day.
With my initial product being office & school supplies, I quickly discovered the low profit margin, the seasonality in sales, differences in quality offered by suppliers, the price sensitivity of the market, difficulty in marketing the product, a saturated market & the essence of a proper business location. These and many more discoveries paved the way for a continuous iteration of my originally compiled business plan that has taken multiple overhauls over its lifetime.
Lessons Learnt
Overtime, this continuous process of discovery has given me an informal type of education of the business world & how it operates. With little to no commercial experience in my family line, I have quickly discovered the following key lessons;
Time is an entrepreneur’s best asset.
Time offers the perfect platform for an entrepreneur to discover & learn about their craft & trade. Its essential that every minute of the journey is fully utilised to continuously get better.
The biggest hurdle is yourself
School only teaches outside phenomena & barely ever teaches us about our personal selves. Over the journey of entrepreneurship, plenty of scenarios bring to light our strengths & most importantly our weaknesses. From a personal point of view, I discovered early the limitations of the ego & its ability to overrun a good business.
There is no fixed approach
Entrepreneurship does not involve a fixed approach or method of operation. An entrepreneur should continuously discover new ways to approach their craft. Avoid the career or bureaucrat model where fixed tasks are required on a consistent basis for success to be achieved.
The ultimate goal is Efficiency
Efficiency should be prioritised even through the discovery process. An entrepreneur should seek to avoid waste with their monetary resources & time. An entrepreneur should seek to discover the most efficient approach to conducting their business, dealing with people, handling resources & managing their time.
Thank You for Reading.
Ideation256 