Give yourself a medium term

One of the purposes of education is affirming and bringing out the best in you – talents and skills. But we have often compromised because of our pressing needs. We always gravitate towards a short term gratification when it is time to work. We may like to work for ourselves but our desire to enjoy quickly makes us compromise. This situation makes us inwardly dissatisfied. Can we postpone our enjoyment a bit and build a solid foundation of prosperity?

Give yourself one to two years to do very well when you start your own business. You could be working somewhere part time or full time but you can still do something. In one to two years you could be better than those who rushed for jobs (just over broke as somebody said).

Working for you can be very rewarding. Aside being your own boss, your job is assured. These and many more happen (am not saying working for somebody is bad but these are some of the challenges);

·         These days’ people are employed on contract basis. Some get one or two years of work contract and it is only renewable if they decide. You are back to square one, looking for a job again.  

·         Sometimes you can be unemployed when they find somebody better than you, especially when the company wants to make a strategic upward move.  

·         When the owner retires and the son or daughter takes over.  

·         If it is a new business, most managers sack their friends when it grows, won’t say more, don’t want to step on some toes.

·         After working for a company for so long people get fired at the least mistake.

·         Companies are been sold every day; and this leads to a change in employees as it happen with Ghana Telecom, (now Vodafone). In Oct 18, 2012 Vodafone laid off 950 employees (source; ghanaweb.com).

·         Salary not going up even after so many years of working, even if it does the increase is minimal. It means you standard of living starts going down.

Don’t downplay the idea of working for yourself.  In the beginning it’s very hard and stressful but not when you have reached the top, people work for you and etc.

Your business could be any of these, selling cosmetics, shoes, remedial classes, a barbering shop, music and so on. While doing your own business take not of these things;  

 Learn quickly through books and do some research (observation and counseling)

You would soon find what you learnt at school is not enough when you work for you. You have to learn about sales, sponsorship, financing your business and etc. Don’t be shy to ask people for advice. Also be observant and do your own research as well. Read articles from the internet and build yourself.

 Don’t quit when you are developing your competence

In my book How to Command Success, I wrote extensively about competence. When you start a business (with the exception of those who have had prior experience) even when you have a masters degree and you are new to it, you are a baby in that area.  So you would make mistakes. The first level in developing your competence is unconscious incompetence. You think you know until you fail. Then you enter into the next level if you continue; unconscious competence. Here you are good but you don’t know or believe that you are good. Most people quit at this level. You reach this second face after your failure; this is not the time to quit! You are becoming better. Read my book to learn more in this area. Always have the courage to start again.

Brace yourself for finances

Money is very important. It is better when you start your own business earlier before you get engaged in family issues. Running a business and having a family makes it difficult for it to grow (when you are a beginner). The money that is supposed to be ploughed back into the business is spent on the family.

Register your business, open a current account and prepare yourself to receive help from the banks. Also learn to save because if you can’t save then your business would suffer.

 Work in a team

Another dangerous thing is working without a team. When you start your own business, you do it alone. Sometimes it becomes a habit. However, if you really want your business to grow involve people.

Not everything can be said here; but goal setting, keeping your drive, marketing among other things is some of the things you have to learn.

I can help you if your business is only an idea in your head or on paper; or if it is already up and running. Just give me a call or text or email; 054 873 5505 or clausotoo@yahoo.com

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Thanks for reading