By Godfrey Wasara
Zimbabwe is currently searching for a new breed of heroes. The heroes come in form of people out there who are daring enough to leave their comfort zones, venture into entrepreneurship and employ.
It is not an easy job but nevertheless very possible.

Many black Zimbabweans have done it so why can’t you? I am sure you are no different from the man/woman who currently employs you the only difference is she/he decided to take the risk while you are enjoying the comfort zone.

There are countless reasons why businesses collapse or even fail to kick start.

I shall not go into those because they are too many.

What I will focus on are the two important things you need to focus on to avoid going down the drain.

1. Passion
I have told most of my friends and colleagues that for you to succeed as a business person two qualities are needed. Passion and discipline both combined.

Without any one of the two you better not venture into business

The C Collins Dictionary defines passion as “A very strong feeling about something or a strong belief in something; having strong interest in and liking for something.”

Thus your first move when you decide to venture into business is to identify your passion or what you are passionate about.
That becomes your core business.

If you have passion for athletics then you can try any venture that has something to do with athletics or promotes athletics.

The reason why I advocate for passion is that there are so many downs along the way but if the line of business is your passion you have at list got something to console you.

Do not go into business to make money, go into there to provide goods and services that consumers will find hard to forget.

2. Discipline
Once you decide to venture into business, you attract attention of different groups.

The customer is interested in the value your product or service is adding to him, the employee is interested in his wage at the end of the day, the government wants to collect its taxes, suppliers want payments when they become due and bankers want loans serviced.

All these parties will be watching your moves. The best way to manage them is by maintaining self discipline especially financial discipline.

By financial disciple I am talking about the consideration of best options of managing all the resources in your business.

The C Collins Dictionary defines discipline as “The quality of being able to work or behave in a controlled manner which involves obeying particular rules or standards.”

You need lots and lots of discipline and I shall not go into why.

It is very dangerous to enter into a business venture on the pretext that so and so has succeeded so let me do it as well.

The chances are you may get disappointment. Identify your passion, nurture it and maintain the necessary discipline, only then can you go places.

When you venture into entrepreneurship, it becomes important to appreciate the four pillars or wheels upon which a business survives and ensure you develop the necessary skills revolving around these four pillars.

As of now I am going to give you a brief outline of each pillar but I will go into details of each in later articles.

The four pillars of any business enterprises are Marketing, Sales, Finance and Administration. I will now go on to give a brief outline of each:

Marketing
Marketing is the process of creating and retaining a customer. You create a customer by coming up with a good or service that satisfies a potential customers need or want.

You will retain such customer by insuring that your good or service is of superior quality.

By quality I mean the creation of a lasting impression in the customer’s mind by providing a good or service that is durable and adds value beyond what the customer expected in the first instance.

Sales
A sale is the process of generating the much needed cash by exchanging your goods and services for cash. For your business to progress further, you need cash to restock, pay wages and salaries, pay rents and all other expenses.

The cash can only be made available through sales generations.

If you cannot sale you will progress no further. Thus the negative impact of no sales is felt early, long before the negative impact of neglecting the other three is felt.

Finance
Finance is the money side of your business. You need to develop a reasonable level of financial literacy if you are to succeed in business.

You need to appreciate the importance of record keeping, bookkeeping, financial accounting, costing, budgeting and taxation so as to understand the implication, legal or otherwise, of every transaction that takes place in your business

Administration
Administration can be described as the general housekeeping. It defines your relationship with different stakeholders; that is, the employees, the suppliers, the bankers and the government.

Your image as an entrepreneur in the sum total of your interaction with the environment surrounding you comprising of the stakeholders stated above.

Now follow your dream with passion taking into consideration the facts stated above, I am positive you will get there.

  • Godfrey Wasara is a registered public accountant whose aim is to equip people with financial literacy so as to improve their living standards by enhancing their appreciation of the best ways of conducting business and financial activities. 
  • contact him on : [email protected]

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