The heart of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship today is being proffered as a solution to unemployment and as a vehicle for poverty alleviation. Most business schools world over have introduced Entrepreneurship undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Some run these programs as certificate courses. I have gone through the prospectus of some of these schools and I wondered how many students who graduated from these programs are actually running businesses. What most of these schools miss is this, entrepreneurship is not just about the technicality and principles. Yes, you need these to succeed. However, there is more to being an entrepreneur.  This ‘more’ is the heart of entrepreneurship. That “thing” that keeps you optimistic even when your business reality is urging you to declare bankruptcy! This is a topic after my heart because I have been a female entrepreneur in Nigeria since I turned 16.

This journey started for me in secondary school when I realized that those who stayed in the boarding houses always had a thirst for home cooked meals. My mother had no idea that the enormous plate I presented to be used to pack my lunch was actually not for me to eat, but was for my budding business venture. I started selling my breakfast from SS1 to my classmates who were boarders at 50 kobo for a forkful of porridge. Needless to say, I insisted we had yam porridge every school morning! The success of this venture led to the expansion of my business in school to incorporate providing lifestyle solutions that boarding students might need from the world beyond the four walls of the school. This early experiment in running my own business launched the development of my entrepreneurial mindset and the founding of my communication and branding business at 24years.

An entrepreneur is the vision bearer, the custodian of the flame that drives the essence of a brand. An entrepreneur assumes the entire risks of a business while also earning the profit when the business does well. This risk can be shared if there is a partnership in place. Often times, entrepreneurs have been known to ask this question, “am I crazy?” Entrepreneurship is one of the scariest and hardest job descriptions anyone can have especially in Nigeria where the environment for growth is very hostile. Most entrepreneurs grow up knowing that they want to run their own businesses while others stumbled into entrepreneurship by chance. However, those who stumbled into owning and running their own businesses find it very difficult to sustain the process. While those who have had a calling that led them down the entrepreneurial path most often end up successful. Entrepreneurs all agree on one thing, which is that entrepreneurs are not born.  Sheer grit, moving strategically in developing their genius ability, applying the X factor to processes and a dogged spirit are the things that make them.

Entrepreneurs develop a core of steel that enables them have the mindset to get up and try repeatedly and in different ways to run their businesses each time a new idea fails to yield result. This dogged resolve and will to overcome serial disappointments, mistakes and failures is known as the Entrepreneurial spirit – the heart of every entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial spirit is a major differentiator between the employee and the vision bearer. It is also a major influence between the success and failure of a business.  There are other factors that also influence the timing between the start of a business to how successful an entrepreneur can make the business become. These factors are: 1) capital 2) business environment 3) articulation of business niche, vision, mission and value 4) an intelligent support team 5) creativity and innovation and 6) Spirituality

Capital

Nigeria is not only blessed with natural resources, she is also wealthy with talented and innovative citizens.  The average Nigerian can write a little book of business ideas especially the Igbos who see business opportunities at every corner. Sadly though, most of these innovative ideas die a natural death due to the lack of funding to turn them into thriving businesses. The Bank of Industry is doing a lot to support the manufacturing and agricultural sector. However, MSME and SME’s that operate within the service sector still find it very difficult to grow past two to five years before shutting down due to lack of funding. That has changed with the recent launch of the MSME N220b grant/loan.

Business environment

Every environment has either a positive or negative influence on businesses operating within it. Taking a look at the current travails of Africans in South Africa where businesses are being destroyed due to Xenophobia. We can surmise then that environment has a big role to play in the success of every business.

Government policies can also either accelerate the entrepreneurial train or stifle it. The financial environment and foreign exchange rates also affect how successful entrepreneurs can be. The recent spike in the dollar rate and the deflation of the Naira during the uncertain election period in Nigeria bears testimony to this fact. These impediments affect entrepreneurs the world over. However, the peculiar nature of the Nigerian environment makes it doubly hard for businesses to survive. The basic amenities such as water, power, food, health and safety, which are necessary to survive, rank highest on the expense list of organizations, spiking overheads and making growth nearly impossible.

Articulation of business niche, vision, mission and value

One thing I can say about businesses in Nigeria is the love of business people for the bandwagon effect! Once a new idea comes into the market and becomes successful, the next thing you know, everybody wants to do that same business, copy-catting their way to failure. Entrepreneurs must pay attention to their business processes, operations, customer segmentation and age cycle. This can be achieved by articulating who the company is, what they are bringing to the market and what makes their business idea or product unique and different from similar products in the market.

Therefore, the pertinent questions to ask prior to launching out as an entrepreneur are these: What are the organization’s Unique Selling Point (USP), value proposition, mission and vision? How much capital is available? Is there a simple business plan that can guide initial start up process of the business? Articulating these factors will help every business venture move towards a unified goal regardless of whatever growth stage the organization might be at.

An intelligent support team

Nothing kills an idea or a business faster than when an entrepreneur surrounds himself with pedestrian thinkers and a mediocre workforce. Smart entrepreneurs make up for their weaknesses by surrounding themselves with those who are smarter than them and have niched professional experience. An eclectic workforce made up of mathematical thinkers, dreamers, builders, supporters, carpenters, creators, team players and the vision bearer is an organization poised for strategic growth.

Creativity and innovation

“Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things if you tried hard enough. What is most important are ideas. If you have ideas, you have found the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.” — Harvey Firestone.

In today’s fast paced and globalized society, it is only sane to state that if businesses do not innovate, they will surely die. Creativity and Innovation keep us at the head of the game while developing an entrepreneurial spirit provides business leaders with the ability to innovate and manage change.

Spirituality

One might ask what spirituality has got to do with business? My answer would be everything! The Bible and the Quran have spiritual laws and principles that govern how businesses are operated. Oren Klaff the founder of Pitch Anything sums it up like this, “You have a great product and your service is better than the competition. Yet you wonder why people buy from those guys over there and not from you!”

Oren states that there might be four major reasons why your competition is doing well and you are not.

“1) They might have a better sales presentation than you.

2) There is a buyer for everything

3) The competition does a bait-and-switch on their customers

4) THEY MADE A DEAL WITH SATAN OR GOD OR ALLAH!!! In those cases, where there is NO OTHER POSSIBLE EXPLANATION, it is clear the competition has sold their soul to a higher spiritual being in exchange for a SUPERNATURAL UNFAIR ADVANTAGE!”

So, I put it to you that most seasoned and successful entrepreneurs will tell you that entrepreneurship is not just about attending business school, accumulating entrepreneurship certificates or starting a business. They will tell you that their most successful business ventures were revealed to them in a dream or trance! Its roots are buried within the core of our spiritual belief.  Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that you can fail and fail and fail, but it is the doggedness of the mind that makes you get up and start over again doing it better until you WIN! What an Enigma! That is the true heart of entrepreneurship!

MUNA ONUZO