By Dr Kudzanai Vere
In the first three series, part 1-3, I have mainly shared the thinking process of an entrepreneur and the mindset challenge. In this article, I am going to share about the first entrepreneurship leap and precisely looking at Decision Making, Abandoning your career and Financing (DAF).
What are you waiting for? No one is coming to wake you up to the realities of the world that no millionaire is made out of a monthly handout (salary).
Your current pathetic situation is good enough to awaken you into action. “The path to success is to take massive, determined actions.”
Tony Robbins
I know not all can become entrepreneurs, but becoming one is the only better option for you, your family, society and the economy at large. The greatest challenge is on taking the first leap.
Decision Making
Once you have put on the right mental perspective, act on your idea. Make a decision. Maybe you didn’t know that indecision is a decision. At this point, I strongly encourage people to decide.
We make decisions because life inevitably puts before us competing for choices that we have to decisively act upon. As for entrepreneurship, it is in the decision making where meaningful change begins.
Peter Ferdinand Drucker, an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author once said, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Without a worthwhile decision, nothing of worth comes out.
Abandoning Your Career
There are those who are currently employed but would want to venture into entrepreneurship.
I know it’s not easy but it has to be done. I am one person who spent more than 18 years in employment and I know how difficult it is to quit that which you had fallen in love with.
Employment comes with its own emotional attachments that are difficult to let go of.
Regardless of everything that comes with employment, if you reckon that you’re aiding the achievement of someone else’s vision, you will act in your own favor.
“Don’t entrust your future on other’s hands. Rather make decisions by yourself with the help of God’s guidance. Hold your beliefs so tight and never let go of them!”
Hark Herald Sarmiento.
Act out of bondage, start that which is of your own origin.
Employment only gives you enough to come back and report for duty tomorrow. It goes no further. In employment, you can only get a fixed amount of money at the end of 30 days called a salary, but in entrepreneurship, you enjoy your profits in proportion to your toil.
“An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.”
Arnold Glasow.
Once you’ve decided to get out of employment and all the preliminaries are set, move out. Don’t confine your idea within the brain walls, it will never grow beyond that size.
Quitting is not an idea that is welcome even within your inner circle. At times you need not care about what people think about you otherwise you will end up being their slave. Reject and pull your own rope as advised by Auliq Ice.
It is well understood and common in human beings that they will doubt what you say but ultimately believe in what you do. So if you finally decide on leaving, stop talking about it and do the honourable thing. Well done is better than well said
Financing
“God provide the wind, but men must rise the sails
St. Augustine.
The most important driver of entrepreneurship has never been finance but will power and the right mindset, which is what I have spoken about in great depth. It is upon this will power, sharper idea and polished strategy that money comes.
I might sound like I have oversimplified an area that most see as the major hindrance to entrepreneurship. You do need money to finance whatever entrepreneurship endeavor, but it should not tie you down.
Develop The Ability To Attract funds.
A sharp business idea that is well articulated will inevitably attract money. Mind you, entrepreneurship thrives in challenges. The better your solutions to the challenges of the day, the more you expose yourself, even to financiers. The attractiveness of your solutions guarantees any investor a good return on investment.
- Saving as an option
You can finance your startup business from savings. They may seem inadequate but at times you have to start from there. Any assistance that can come will meet you along the way.
Even in Exodus 4:2 when God chose to use Moses, he had to ask him a question, “What is that in your hand? At least have something in your hand to show seriousness.
In this VUCA environment, you don’t save by leaving your RTGS balance in the bank, you would rather convert it to hard currency or in non-perishable stocks.
- Order financing
Order financing is yet another option that the enlightened can make use of. You get your confirmed order from your customer and approach a bank with the order and a quotation from the supplier of the same products. The bank can pay for the order and deduct their money from your payment, which should go through that bank.
Personally, I do not recommend an outright loan from the bank for the purpose of starting a business. At a later stage maybe after having accessed your profit levels.
As for now, take that first leap of faith.
