Starting a business isn’t about having everything in place before you get started. I usually tell people start with what you have and grow into what you want.
When I started Young Treps five years ago, I didn’t start with the staff, space or furniture we have today. It was pretty much a one man show. All I had was a laptop, a desk in a shared office and the knowledge I carried in my head.
I also had connections to people who would do the things I wouldn’t do or didn’t have time to do because I was busy building the brand and looking for work/clients which was pretty much the hard part.
So all the jobs I got, I had to sacrifice a lot of the money on them to outsource someone to do. I mean some one good and they didn’t come cheap. This came with its own challenges like failure to meet deadlines because you weren’t supervising the work but I had to do it.
I wouldn’t look for work and at the same time do all of it because that would mean losing time I’d have been using to find more work or push the brand.
Today we have an office with all the resources we need to do what we do. We no longer outsource anything because everything we need, we have in house. Now someone may look at us and say I want to start like that.
Maybe you can but in most cases reality is you can’t we also didn’t start like this. Does this mean you don’t get started until you can start big? No, and that’s why most people fail to get started.
If you want to start a restaurant, you don’t have to wait until you can set up a Javas of some kind. You can actually start without a plate, sauce pan or even chair/table then build slowly. The most important part of a 21st century business is the brand/image.
Can you build that? If you can then you are good to go, you’ve started your business. Get a name, get a logo that people can identify your business with.
For example if you want to start a restaurant in town. Get a name, a logo and create flyers of the food you offer. The food doesn’t have to be yours,use it in marketing and pushing your brand. If you can get a uniform too and cards.
Find people who cook and buy food from them and resell it. Go around those arcades supplying the food. If you get a plate of beans at Shs 5,000 sell it at Shs 6,000 or Shs 7,000 depending. If you buy a plate meat at Shs 6,000 sell it at Shs 8,000.
You kinda become the sales man/woman of this restaurant but sell the food under your brand. Insist on delivery and you’ll have started a food business without owning a single plate, saucepan,chair or table then build from there.
The problem is most people want to wait till they have enough money to rent a place, furnish it and hire staff that’s important but not a must in this era of internet and social media just start a page and start selling.
The reality is most never get to have the resources to do this and in the end never get to do what they wanted to do because they failed to start with what they had and grow it slowly.
Jaluum Herberts Luwizza is a Speaker, Writer also a Business Consultant at YOUNG TREP East Africa’s No.1 Business Management and Consultancy firm that helps people start and grow profitable businesses.
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